Rialto 4 Cinemas

The building that housed the rialto now houses several retail outlets.

The Rialto was a unique theatergoing experience. It was located on a stretch of Gilman street that came fairly close to Emeryville and was located on the edge of a slum. If a north wind was blowing, you'd step out of the theater and smell the Emeryville food processing factories. That was pretty bad. Parking was iffy and my car was stolen from the area at one time. Nonetheless, the theatre itself was funky and amusing. The lobby was fairly small for a 4-plex. The concession stand was dinky, as I recall. Three of the auditoriums were uncomfortable to sit in. The largest auditorium was better in all respects, although in terms of comfort it was only a bit better than the others. Those seats were HARD to sit in for more than ten minutes. The large auditorium played 3-D movies and the booth was equipped with Stereovision 3-D, which used the polarized glasses instead of those red-blue things. I saw ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN there and the picture was excellent. This auditorium, though, was very peculiar -- a section of seats was positioned off to one side, facing a wall. People seated all the way over to one side could not see the screen! The Rialto was, during the mid-70s, the only place to see cult movies...literally. The UC Theatre was a better experience but the Rialto would keep titles for a whole week. The Rialto would sometimes play the same stuff you would find at the Telegraph Repertory, but the viewing experience was better (which isn't saying much).

Uh Jeff, Gilman is practically on the opposite end of Berkeley from Emeryville; Gilman is actually very close to Albany (and UC Village).

Where you could hear three movies for the price of one...but I loved it.