Riviera Theatre

Joe Vogel on April 20, 2009 at 5:25 am

The Riviera and Brainerd Theatres were both originally operated by Independent Theatres. At the time the Brainerd was under construction, the December 20, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an item which said that the chain’s Riviera Theatre had been built “…several years ago.”

I can’t find an exact opening year for the Riviera. It might have been built pre-war, but the earliest reference to it I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the October 19, 1946, issue, when a series of seven foreign films were booked for the house.

In 1955, the Riviera was remodeled and reopened with an art film policy, according to the April 23 issue of Boxoffice that year.

WillardWood on November 8, 2006 at 7:06 pm

i believe the Riviera Theater in North Chattanooga, screened in parallel with the Brainerd Theater. I remember one Sunday my dad and I (I was a kid) took a reel of “Halls of Montezuma” or “Red Skies of Montana” from the Brainerd to the Rivera and swapped a reel as each theater had two of the same reels and was missing one. That was like 55 years ago. (showing my age).