Rialto Theater

Kenedy should only have the one 'N'.

Chain was the Hall Brothers Theaters. This was one of seven Rialtos in South TX.

The address for the Rialto Theatre is 320 West Main Street, Kenedy, Tx. It seems strange that the theatre is all boarded up tight and a Video Rental store is doing a great business right next door.

Charles, I hope you didn't actually have to go to Kenedy. A very depressing little town. On another note, it would be very nice if we could list theaters as 'vacant' under function, rather than just other. Vacant is sadly one of the major categories.

I lived in Kenedy in the early fifties, and the Rialto was our sanctuary. It was air conditioned, rare for anyplace then. I'm not sure when it closed, but the last movie I remember seeing there was The Great Escape in the summer of 1963, when on a visit to relatives. Its current state is heartbreaking. The town itself is a ghost town, so I guess there is not much hope of a revival.

For sale on ebay ..........CHEAP

sold................2,000.00...........two thousand dollars..

I don't know. A ruined theatre in a ghost town? I think $2,000 might be a rip-off.

Listed in the Film Daily Yearbook: 1941 & 1943 editions as having a seating capacity of 900. In the 1950 edition of F.D.Y. seating is given as 712.

love to see what they do with this....................

$2,000? The winning bid was $8,500. Here is the Ebay link with photos.

longislandmovies....Here are few other theaters for sale:

1.Ritz theater-Big Spring TX-$120,000.00
2.Carlile theater -dimmit TX-$45,000.0000
3.oaks theater-columbus tx-$135,000.00
4.Plaza theater-atlanta Ga-$100,000.
5.Tower theater-Post TX-$40.000.00

Those theaters came from this website.

How do you go from selling Bon Jovi gear at ten dollars a pop on E-Bay to selling a theatre? Very strange. This is also the second auction for the theatre. The first time around someone acused the seller of not owning the property. There is a steady stream of small item sales in the two months preceding, almost as if to establish reputation. Why would the seller abandon the project and "buy a bigger theatre" when the city wants to help restore the theatre so badly?

All very strange.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&item=130014192827&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

it sold for $2,ooo.oo............thats the old link were it sold for $8.000.00 but they did not pay..............

lost memory those are my post on the other site ...lol....thanks anyway//

longislandmovies....Ain't that a "slap in the face"! You don't even look alike. LMAO

Something smells fishy here. Even at the lower price of $2,000.00 that is very low for a movie theatre building. The website says the taxes are $136.00. That is also very low. Perhaps the building is falling apart. It costs more to have a garage added to your house today then to buy this theatre. Buyer beware.

I am not an expert when it comes to reading the various reports available on E-Bay. But it looks to me like there have been problems with the transaction each time the theatre was listed.

I was interested in this theater simply for what was left inside, and contacted the seller numerous times. For the vintage cinema memorabilia collector such as myself, there are still three large projectors inside, probably Simplex's, and an old horn behind the screen. If they are in even decent shape, a person could possibly make a profit by selling them and demolish the building. If someone lived near San Antonio, there are some nice building materials to be had too (hardwood floors, inlay designs, old brick, etc.). You have to understand that Kenedy is a ghost town, and this building is being held together with dust. And yes, this is the 3rd time it has been listed on eBay. The seller knows close to nothing about this theater.

We just found this forum...We are the new owners. You are correct that the place needs alot of work. Everything has been torn out and basicaly left in the middle of the floor. All of the seats are gone. When we went to look at the theater after purchasing it I almost killed my husband. The projectors were indeed still there. They are cast iron and weigh a ton. they are in storage in San Antonio TX. The original A/C compressor is in the basement and the size of a car, we believe we will need a crane to remove it. We haven't had any monitary offers to help in the restoration so it will be a family project we expect to last a couple of years. The building can not be demolished due to the fact that the walls of this building support the buildings on either side with steel beams that run the width of the building. The seller decided to sell this theater because he is in the process of restoring other theaters in more populated areas.
The only floor remaining is the one under the projectors. If you have any questions we will be happy to answer them. You are welcome to contact us.

IS kennedy as dead as everyone says?

it is pretty slow there and there are a lot of empty buildings but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a ghost town. close but not quite. They are, however, getting a super Wal-Mart there soon and a lot of people think that will help the town grow.

While we were there working on the marquee we had a lot of interested people come up and ask us about what we were doing. When we told them we planned on re-opening the theatre all of them seemed to support the idea very much.

I just noticed the address is wrong here, it's 312 W. Main st. not 320.

Boy, you should really do a market analysis. It's hard enough to make a theater remodel profitable in a large city, I can't even imagine it in Kenedy (it's cheaper to build new). Of all the great theaters available for sale, may I ask why you chose this one to tackle?

Of course the people of Kenedy would support the idea- it's not their money! :) Just be aware that you will get a lot of support and people telling you they are happy about it, but whether they actually purchase tickets is a whole different story.

Seriously man.

Wishing you good luck while walking down the street is one thing. Getting off the couch, driving to the theatre, parking the car and paying admission is another.

Not to mention the fact that the Rialto is devastated.

Good luck.

What have you done to the marquee?

we're not planning on restoring the building to original, about the only thing that's going to be the same is the four outside walls, not even the roof is going to be the same, we have to replace it. we're going to compleatly redesign the inside. also the building came with two small connected buildings, one on each side. We plan on turning one of them into an arcade and connecting it with the lobby of the theatre. the other we plan on opening up a video game store in where people can buy, sell or trade console video games. between the three we're hoping it will make enough to simply pay the bills and feed us, if so we'll be happy.

we won't have to worry about a place to live since we can live on the top floor of the building and if this doesn't work out we at least end out with an interesting place to live if nothing else.

we're thinking of selling the old projectors if we can.

we chose this theatre because it was cheap to start with and we can put the money into it as we get it (we arn't rich people)

all we did to the marquee was board up the bottom of it, the city wanted it a little more presentable before we left. it was wide open to where you could see all the rotted lumber in it and a bunch of wires were hanging down.

we have a lot of work ahead of us but at least we can do it at oour own pace.

Please post more details about the projectors. Mainly make, model, serial number, and condition. There will be a few people here that may be very interested in them. If you could get pictures and provide a link to them somehow, that would help tremendously as well.

I'm not near them right now but I'll see what I can do.

with the way things are going it will probably be about 6 months until we have the money to go back to Texas and get all the info and pictures needed on the projectors.

I threw a website together over night for the theatre. it will eventully become a site to see what movies are playing and such but right now it's pretty much just to show and tell what we're doing to the place.

it was thrown together rather quick, and I'm by far not a proffesional web designer but please tell me what you think.


www.oldrialto.com

So far, so good.

good job...........thats one big project

I bought the rialto theatre for 3500.00 about a year ago to remodel it however i changed my plans when i bought the elegant Texas theatre in San Angelo Texas in june of this year. I decided i no longer wanted the rialto theatre the first time it sold the buyer sent a bad check the second time it sold for 8500.00 the buyer changed there mind so i left negative feedback he retorted by leaving neg. feedback. The third time it sold for 2000.00 to a couple from California. They paid and we transferred deed. the ebay log in is my girlfriendS name i sold it thru her name thats where the ownership confusion came from. Yes it sold for 2000.00 it had no roof/seats/walls it was gutted by the old owner before me for a church group who realized it would cost a lot more to fix it then they thought. I would have done a nice job on this one but when the Texas Theatre in San Angelo was offered to me i couldnt afford both so i cut my losses and ran. Feel free to look up the texas theatre its a great theatre and in great shape work is 30-35% complete ac being put in as i type this. ope that puts all this to rest and good
good luck to the new owners of the rialto in Kenedy texas.

cal texastheatre.net

GOOD LUCK TO BOTH OF YOU!

I just moved (In Oct.) to Kenedy to help care for my mother-in-law. Being a former theater manager I was happy to see that something was going to be done with this old shell. I must say that this is by far no ghost town with a population over 3,000 it is more like a suburb than a town. The person that works in personal in the towns Wal-Mart informed us that a Supercenter is slated for August. There is enough going on here to support a Dairy Queen, Churches, Pizza Hut, and a Sonic all within 300 yards of each other. This small town has 5 gas stations. Next door to the theater is a Movie Gallery (movie rental) that only rents DVD. with all this I see the town supporting a movie theater very easily. The only other theater is The Rio 6 in Beeville about an hour away. If current owners see there way of matching the cost of the Rio experience. Then this theater could do very well. While registering with this site so I could post I could post I checked www.oldrialto.com The theater was robbed of its tools. The set back is terrible and not supporting to the new owners. I hope that the owners can still see it threw.

Was able to stop by and see the Rialto this past sunday. the owners are still going strong having repaired the roof and begining to start on the inside. They also fixed the marquee though no electric yet to light it up.

Here's some pics I took May of 2005.

Front of building:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/siliconsam/Miscellaneous/IMG_2211.jpg

Peeking over front door:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/siliconsam/Miscellaneous/IMG_2205.jpg

Poking my camera through broken back door. I never wandered inside...
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/siliconsam/Miscellaneous/IMG_2218.jpg

If you have any more pictures we would love to get copies from you.

We plan on doing some kind of a "before and After" page and the more pictures we have the better.

Will get some together. Don't have a great variety though. If I had gone inside I'd have lots more!

Here's something you never want to see inside an indoor theatre. Sunshine!

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/siliconsam/Miscellaneous/IMG_2215.jpg

Click on my name below, and get my e-mail address, yours does not show up.

Times are tough and finances tight. We are going to try to sell.

How much?

$10,000 is what we have invested.

hmmm...what kind of improvements, if any, have been made to it?

any updated pics of it?

Last time I drove by, I did not see much other than a new boarded up front. Did look like a new roof from peeking through the front. Last picture I have is from March 2009

Went through a month ago, but was busy taking pictures of a few other abandoned buildings, namely the old high school. Interesting old town...

It is listed on bid4assets. you can see pics there.

SiliconSam, do you have a link to provide for your architecture pictures? I'm very interested in seeing them.

Good luck, Rialto Theater. Hopefully things work out in the best interest of the location.

This is a photo from 2008.

Puzzling information datelined Kenedy from Boxoffice, June 5, 1937:

"Remodeling of the old Rialto Theatre was completed this week by Hall Industries and the opening set for June 10, it was announced by Boyd Atkinson, local Hall manager. The house name, however, will be changed to 'The Rex.' New upholstered chairs and projection equipment are to be installed."

The Rex is mentioned again in the April 5, 1941, issue of Boxoffice, which says:

"BOXOFFICE has been informed that the building formerly occupied by the Rialto, Kenedy, is being remodeled to serve as a cafe, according to its owner, August Loos of that city. The only other theatre in Kenedy is the Rex."

But by 1958, Boxoffice is once again publishing items about the Rialto Theatre, and I find no mentions of the Rex after 1941. Possibly the Rex resumed its former name. But the Rialto was probably the nameless theater mentioned in a May 2, 1936, Boxoffice article about Henry Hall, which said:

"In Kenedy, a small town of about 2,500 population, he built a magnificent 1000-seat theatre, a credit to a key city."

Motion Picture Times of March 11, 1930, listed the Rialto as one of the Texas theaters which had recently installed RCA sound equipment. As near as I can figure from these various items, there have been two Rialto Theatres in Kenedy, but the lack of follow-up items to so many Boxoffice articles about the town leaves their history somewhat ambiguous.

I've also found these bits about other theaters in Kenedy: The April 20, 1940, issue of Boxoffice said: "Jack Farr has just opened the new Bear in Kenedy, Texas." That's the only mention of the Bear I've found.

Motion Picture Times of May 13, 1930 said: "B.F. Mumm, who lost the Grand at Kenedy by fire, starts this week to rebuild the theatre...." The fire had taken place in March, according to an earlier issue of the magazine. A 1948 "From the Boxoffice Files" feature cited a 1928 item saying that B.F. Mumm had purchased the Grand Theatre in Kenedy. Aside from that retrospective item, I've found no mention of the Grand after 1930.

There were also two mentions of what was probably a Spanish language theater in Kenedy. The December 1, 1945, issue of Boxoffice mentions Juan Monsivais of the Carpa Theatre in Kenedy, and the October 3, 1953, issue mentions Juan Monsivais of the Monsivias Theatre in Kenedy.