Rialto Theatre
239 Illinois Avenue,
St. Joseph,
MO
64504
239 Illinois Avenue,
St. Joseph,
MO
64504
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The Rialto Theatre opened in 1926. The building is currently home to Holt’s Place Bar & Grill.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
This listing should have an AKA Dex Theatre and the duplicate combined into this listing.
Opened as the Dex Theatre on 12/31/65 with “Don’t Give Up The Ship, "Rock-A-Bye-Baby” and “Donovan’s Reef”.
The Cameo Theatre currently linked in the “Nearby Theaters” field is actually a duplicate listing for the Rialto.
The web page lostmemory linked to says that this house showed its last movie as the Rialto on April 26, 1958; operated as the Dex Theatre from December 31, 1965 until May 10, 1970; was the Cameo from September 28, 1970, until July 1, 1971; and was last operated as the Astro, from July 2, 1971, until January 20, 1972. As the Astro, it was an adult house from opening until December 17, 1971.
This theater’s building appears to be quite old. It could date from the 1920s or earlier, and its current simple facade is probably the result of a remodeling at some point. The south side neighborhood in which it is located is itself quite old, with many buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th century. The St. Joseph stockyards, once the largest west of Chicago, were opened in this outlying area of the city in the late 19th century, and for several decades this was a thriving working class district, though not without its posher streets inhabited in part by the managers of the meat packing plants and other industrial enterprises located nearby.
The May 17, 1947, issue of The Billboard mentioned the Rialto Theatre, saying that a half-hour live broadcast of Bud Bailey’s Radio Jamboree, a country music show, was originating at the theater every Monday night. I’ve been unable to find any earlier mentions of the Rialto in any of the entertainment trade publications.
TP ON December11,2011 12.52pm
This Theater is located at the NorthEast corner of Illinois + Gordon. I have found another Theater called the Savoy Theater that was located at the Southwest corner of Illinois + Gordon. Address 302 Illinois if you move the camera around you will see it says Southside Hall. I got the Info from the 1921 St Joseph Phone directory. The 1927 St Joseph phone directory has both the listing of the Rialto and Savoy. The 1928 phone directory was last year of listing for the Savoy Theater. I have 2 theories about the Rialto and Savoy. 1.Rialto put the Savoy out of bussiness and the 2nd possible theory is both places could have been owned by the same person and when the Rialto opened was lot bigger then the Savoy and be came more successful with the owner closing the Savoy. During the 80’s + 90’s the Rialto and Savoy buildings were both owned by the same person as a Tavern. During the 80’s + 90’s the Savoy Building was used as Bingo parlor on Thursday nights and could only seat about 150 people. On other days +nights they would have wedding receptions and class reunions.
The Rialto opened in 1926. The October 30 issue of The Reel World said that the house had opened the previous Thursday.
An item in an earlier issue of the same publication mentioned the project, and said that the architect of the Rialto was Edwin G. Kratz of Kansas City.
I also found the Savoy Theatre mentioned in a 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World. The operator’s name was William Leucht.
Aside from competition from the new Rialto, the demise of the Savoy Theatre might have been hastened by the advent of talking pictures. Equipping a theater for sound was costly, and beyond the means of many small operators. As a result, small, older theaters such as the Savoy closed by the thousands during the late 1920s.
The Rivoli is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, unless it is listed under another name but missing the AKA Rivoli. I’ve found brief mentions of several other theaters in St. Joseph that are not yet listed, or perhaps are listed but missing their AKAs. A Star Theatre was mentioned in 1913, A Penn Theatre, a Royal Theatre, an Olive Theatre, a Park Theatre, and a Tootle Theatre were mentioned in the 1920s.
I’ve also found a couple of mentions of a house called the Tivoli, but I think these might have been typos for Rivoli.
I forgot to also mention the 70,s in June1976 the Rialto was already a Tavern the owner had a room in the back at NorthWest side where the exit for the Theater use to be on Gordon street. In June1976 the owner rented that part of the building out and my mother and another woman named Judy opened up a Flower shop called Judy’s Flower Barrel it stayed opened for 3 yrs until they moved to another location.The Flower shop is no longer opened. But i remember going down the ramp of the back room to where the Theater part was the screen was still there and the seats. The light was very limited as i couldnt find where the light switch was located the front part of the Theater is where the tavern was located it took up about a 1/3rd of the size of the Theater. The back room was so small you could only get about 8 people in there. I wish i had taken some pictures of it when i went down there. I dont know if the seats and screen are still there. The Tootle Theater opened on 9December1872 according to article in the 8December1972 St Joseph newspress called Centennial for the Tootle Opera House. This building is still there at 504 Francis called the Pioneer Building. It is currently the oldest Theater Building past or present in St Joseph Mo. The last date for movie Theater was17December1931 during parts of the 1920,s it was closed. Served as a Temporary postoffice in 1939. The Penn Theater was located at 26+Penn SOUTHEAST CORNER ran from about 1921-1926, 1927 became the Revere Theater currently it is a Senior Apartment called Danford Hall.Info came from the 1920,s St Joseph Mo phone Directory The Park Theater was located at 10th +Mitchell st info from the 1920,s phone directory The Olive Theater opened sometime about 1921 then became years later the Plaza Theater on 19th+Olive i am stil, researching as to when it opened and changed the name. The Rivoli Theater i believe was also called the Uptown Theater there is a picture of it the web site Memory Lane St Joseph Mo
During the time this was the Cameo Theater it opened as Adult movie Theater and was still showing adult movies untill its last day. Was still showing adult movies when it opened as the Astro.
The Rialto Theatre Grand Opening Add in The St Joseph Newspress was Thursday 21October1926 The Add says The Sun Amusement and Realty Takes great plesure In Announcing the opening of New, Beautiful Rialto Theatre (A Purely St Joseph Organizational) The Movie shown was Douglas Fairbanks In The Black Pirate. There were no adds in the paper for several days after the opening i had to go to Monday 25October1926 to find this info. I did find a picture of the Rialto Theatre. If people want to find it and look at it. Go to the Missouri Theater in Cinema Treasure scroll down to Revest266 to view link click on- then click on Browse all newspapers-click on the Letter S SCROLL DOWN TO St Joseph Gazette go to 1920 then to 1926 then to month October 22,1926 picture is on page7 with a article upper middle of the page.
If you look at the picture dated 23October1926 st Joseph Gazette you can see how the building has changed over the years.
An article about theater entrances, written by Helen Kent, appeared in Boxoffice of November 16, 1935, and it was illustrated by a pair of small before-and-after photos of the recently remodeled Rialto Theatre in St. Joseph.