Riviera Theater

The “sister” theater to this one is the Rogers Theatre in Shelby NC. Owner, Gary Kulas is restoring it. www.rogerstheatershelby.com

Here is a 1987 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yas5knx

Charles Benton the architect of the Riviera, may have also designed the Strand theater in MArietta GA which opened in 1935, in looking at photographs of both theaters there a numerous details that are basically the same in both theaters, The Strand looks to be an earlier and less costly version of the Riviera.
The Strand has been reopened but it was not a restoration back to the original.

This is a 2009 photo.

If you look at the “august 2008” pic, you’ll see a plaque on the left-hand side of the building. It’s about a theater that was on the site earlier, a vaudeville house I believe was called the Academy of Music.

Also, you’ll see a side entrance. That’s where the blacks would enter during the Jim Crow era. I happened to walk by that theater in the early 80s when someone had left the door unlocked. I walked around the empty theater. The Jim Crow box office was still there, along with advertising from the 1950s. The smoking gallery had an intricate pattern rug that appeared to be from the 1930s. I locked up when I left.

The smoking gallery had been closed for years. I used to go there quite often as a child. It was part of a chain called Pastime Amusement Company, which also owned the larger Gloria and the smaller and older Garden. They also had a tiny theater called the Arcade. At one point a church operated out of there, I believe. It was also a rep house in the mid-80s.

A June 2008 photo can be seen here.

This is a 2008 night view.

I am looking for the documentation of the Riviera Theatre being on the National Register. I do not think that it is individually listed, perhaps it is in the Charleston Historic District. Does anyone have any more information of this?

Also, is anyone familiar with a previous member of the “Friends of the Riviera”?

Here is another recent photo of the Riviera Theater building.

This is another recent photo of the Riviera Theater.

Lost Memory: Couldn’t view the photo when clicking on the word HERE.

This is a photo that Ken MC posted back in February. Now that you know that the “head” is there, irs kind of obvious in that photo isn’t it. I don’t know where the closeop photo was taken from. Maybe it was a rooftop across the street. Or the photographer was on the roof of the Riviera Theater.

I was just in Charleston for SPOLETO (last week of May) and stopped by (while riding my bike) to look at/admire the theater for 30 minutes or so. While I have viewed the facade of this theater for decades (since the late 50s when I began regularly patronizing the theater) I have never seen a closeup of the “face”. Amazing how he can look at something for hours, days, decades and not see everything (kind of like a movie). Thanks for sharing!