Rialto Theater

Dear Curtis,

It’s nice to hear from you. The Rialto had three of these wooden candy machines. It appears that yours has since been modified to handle larger items. In my day, they had nickel and dime coin slots and, if I remember correctly, each machine could dispense eight items. Of course, the bigger selling items would occupy two columns. The best sellers were Milk Duds, Dots and Good and Plenty.
These machines were in use before the Rialto had a concession stand. Even after the concession stand was put in, the candy machines did a brisk business because they sold all the boxed candy. The concession stand sold only bagged candy. The Rialto bought bulk candy from Huser-Paul, a local distributor and the “concession girls” would count candy pieces and bag candy between “rushes” at the counter. (No plastic gloves either in those days, just bag candy, sell popcorn, make change and bag candy!)
Unfortuantely, Curtis, I don’t have any pictures showing the machines. There were two machines on the main floor, one on either side of the drinking fountain. If yours has water stains on one side, it was one of those two. The third machine was in the balcony. It had much less use since the balcony was only open when the main floor was nearly filled on weekends. If your machine has no water stains, it was probably the one from the balcony.
I’d be interested in knowing where you’re located and how you came to possess the machine. I probably filled it many times. They were extremely reliable vendors, probably because everything was in uniformly sized boxes.

Kindest regards and best wishes.

Thanks for the trivia on my Great Uncle Nick and Great Aunt Laura. Laura was a wonderful letter writer who died Nick’s undershirts red long before men wore colored underwear. She was a woman of great verve and imagination, and he was equally inventive. I think you mean “Bessie,” not Little Lulu, though. There’s an framed, autographed copy in my parents' den.

According to the Reclamation Project website (link in the description at top), the first phaser of their restoration has been completed.

Records kept by Alvin Strauss’s successor firm, Strauss Associates, indicate that Strauss prepared plans for alterations and additions to the Rialto in 1936 (commission #694,) but the project might not have been carried out until 1938 (commission # 726.) Two rolls of blueprints dated 11/6/36 were found bundled with plans for the 1938 project.

1940s and 1950s actress and singer Marilyn Maxwell ushered there in the 1930s.