Riviera Theatre

Theatre was built by Harry Gilbert and opened in 1929 and was located on South Salina Street.The auditorium resembled an italian garden complete with stars and clouds and even had a 2/7 Wurlitzer organ.

The Riviera Theatre was torn down in 1975, the reason given was the lack of $40,000 needed for repairs to the roof. In the Film Daily Yearbook,1941 it was listed as having a seating capacity of 950.

I found the following on the Empire State Theatre & Musical Instrument Museum website about the Riviera Theater:

"One of the most interesting "nabe" houses was the Riviera, far down South Salina Street. When owner Harry Gilbert sold the Regent in 1928 he used the money to realize his "dream theatre," this to be built in a nice neighborhood for family entertainment. It was a relatively small theatre, probably about 500 seats. It was an "atmospheric" house, built to resemble an Italian garden with a twilight-blue sky overhead, complete with a cloud projector and twinkling "stars." For such a tiny theatre, the organ chambers were huge, far larger than required by the 2/7 divided Wurlitzer. Organist Bart Wright told me that a deal Gilbert had made for a much larger organ of another make had fallen through, so he settled for the small Wurlitzer. And why not? Why spend money on an organ at all? The Riviera had opened as a "talkie'' house with only a few silent films booked for the kids on weekend afternoons. Actually he didn't need an organ in the Riviera at all (he had a non-sync' in the projection room). Yet the showman in Harry Gilbert told him that his customers had so long connected "organ" with "theatre," that they would expect organ music. Gilbert wanted everything about his new Riviera to be first class, and in 1928-29 organ music was still in demand. SO the Riviera got a 2/7 Wurlitzer and one of Syracuse's best musicians, Bart Wright, to play song slide novelties, overtures, film preludes and intermissions. Those were happy days for organ music enthusiasts when their favorite music could be heard even in a 500-seat neighborhood movie. The Riviera is gone now and I heard its console was rebuilt to serve as a writing desk".

Would love to see photos of this theatre! If it was atmospheric, might the architect be John Eberson?

This 7/4/67 article from the Syracuse Post-Standard mentions the Riviera:

TREND SHOWS INCREASE IN MOVIE HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

New "hardtop" motion picture theaters are rising even quicker than old ones are being torn down — but most of them are in the suburbs.
However, the trend will be reversed when the Kallets build the first Twin Theaters downtown opening in 1968, across from the War Memorial.
A third downtown theater is expected to be built by Slotnick Enterprises Inc. in the 400 block of S. Salina Street, as part of the Downtown One Urban Renewal Project.

The new Westhill Theater, at Velasko Road and Onondaga Street, will open in August as a third new suburban theater built by Slotnick Enterprises, Inc. This will have about 900 seats. In the 1965-66 season, the Slotnicks opened two theaters — Cinema North and Cinema
East. Last December, the Slotnicks acquired the Riviera Cinema, the art theater on S. Salina Street.

With the completion of the new Westhill Cinema, they will have "hardtop" theaters in all four sections of the city, in addition to the three drive-ins they operate — DeWitt, Lakeshore and North Drive-Ins.

The first new theater before that was the Kallet Shoppingtown Theater, which opened in 1957. The theater was especially built for the Todd-AO process and became the premiere showcase for long-run,
"hard-ticket" productions. This showcase, with its unusual multi-colored velvet curtain, was the first new theater since Loew's State was built at the end of the twenties. This was another "first" for
Kallet Theaters. They had built the first drive-in — the Kallet Drive-In — which made way for Camillus Plaza.

Shoppingtown Theater had the longest run of any motion picture — 18 months for "The Sound of Music," since unequalled. It has also played
"Around the World in 80 Days," "Ben-Hur," "South Pacific," "The Bible" and "Cleopatra" and is showing "The Sand Pebbles". Manager Sam Mitchell already has plans to bring back the granddaddy of long runs, "Gone With the Wind," in Todd-AO process, wide-screen and stereophonic sound. The Kallets also operate the Genesee Theater on the West Side, where "Doctor Zhivago" played 36 weeks. "Thoroughly
Modern Millie" will open soon.

The new Twin Theaters are planned for art films, road shows and regular films and will be two separate theaters built side by side with a mutual lobby. These "theaters of the future" are planned to have many innovations. The two remaining theaters downtown are the elaborate Loew's theater — largest of all with its 2,896 seats — and
the Eckel, a former Schine theater and home of Cinerama.

The score of major theaters is currently two downtown, five suburban; another suburban opening this summer; and three downtown theaters to open in the next year or two. The neighborhood theaters
of Syracuse now number four— The Wescot, the Franklin, the Hollywood and the Palace. Even these have gone first-run occasionally. The Palace in Eastwood, in a neighborhood downtown section, has since the closing of the Paramount and RKO Keith's theaters been obtaining
first-run films.

The Wescot, in the University section, has also booked first-run art and foreign films, striking a bonanza with "A Man and a Woman" which is in its 40th week.

The Eckel is long gone and I don't think that Twin Screen theatre next to the War Memorial ever opened. At least it wasn't there as of 1983. The drive-ins are also long gone I believe.

Like in so many other cities, this neighborhood where the Riviera was located became primarily African-American as the white people ran away to the suburbs. Unfortunately, this meant the area became poverty stricken and the theatre couldn't make a go of it.

As a small Child I lived 3308 S. Salina st. only 1 1/2 blocks from the Riviera Theater from 1963 to 1970. I remember my older siblings being allowed to walk to the Riviera theater to see the Movie "The Planet of the Apes" I was to young and Not allowed. A year or so later I was allowed to walk with a friend to the Riviera Theater and Saw the Movie by Walt Disneys "Fantasia" I remember being embarressed that the program started out with Orcistration Music. Not very appeiling to a Child. Thus began My infatuation with Dinosours and Classical Music. Thank You Riviera" Mr.Clifford M Brown.

You should rent "Fantasia", if you haven't already. Plenty of dinosaurs and classical music.

Here is a 1948 ad from the Syracuse Post-Standard:
http://tinyurl.com/yukme7

I'll never forget the cool decor of that theater. My parents took us there to see a few movies back in the late 1940's-early 1950's. There really was nothing elsae like it.