Rialto Theatre

That information from the National Register of Historic Places interesting. I was not aware that Alexander Curlett had ever designed a theater. It must have been a solo work, too, as his father William Curlett, his former partner, had died in 1914.

The Rialto must have been his last, or nearly the last, project he designed before he formed his partnership with Claud Beelman, as everything else I’ve seen of his from 1920 to 1928 is attributed to Curlett & Beelman. The impression I’ve gotten from various sources has been that Aleck Curlett was the less talented member of that firm, but the Rialto is a pretty impressive building. Maybe he had more to do with the designs of the great Curlett & Beelman projects of the 1920s than I’ve been led to believe.

Now I’m wondering if some of the still-unattributed theaters around the southwest from the late 1910s might have been of his design.

This is a 2009 shot of the Rialto at night.

I think that Lost Memory’s photo link is more recent than the previous ones. I was there in 2001 and the theatre had the plain, flat marquee. The photos in LM’s links from 2/6/09 and 11/14/07 are more recent than that, the theatre has had some restoration work done in the last couple years.

Another photo is here.

Here is a recent close-up view of the Rialto Theater marquee at night.

Here’s a photo I took of the Rialto in 2001: View link

Added to the National Register of Historical Places in 2003

Rialto Theatre (added 2003 – Building – #03000909)
318 E. Congress St., Tucson
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event
Architect, builder, or engineer: Curlett, Alexander, William Curlett & Son
Area of Significance: Community Planning And Development, Architecture
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater

The link for the Rialto listed above is a nice Net site but its facts reference the Rialto having an organ are off by miles. The Rialto as best I have been able to determine never had an organ. At best it might have had a Photoplayer unit for a while. The Kilgen organ referred to on their website arrived at the Yuma theatre in the mid 1980s. It came from a theatre in southern California and was installed in a mortuary in Yuma in the 40s or 50s. It was moved from the mortuary to the Yuma theatre in the l980s when the local chapter of ATOS wanted to install it. They ultimately failed and the organ never got installed. It was parted out.
If you look closely at the enlarged photo of the Rialto interior from the balcony apparently taken when the theatre was new, there is no organ console in the pit area and the “organ grilles” on the sidewalls are painted on. Don Story

I was just watching the documentary “Inside Deep Throat” and in the special features it was shown at the Rialto. They showed the outside as well as the inside – facing the doors from the lobby, stairs, projection booth and auditorium. The screen isn’t there anymore but there was a stage and regular folding chairs. In the lobby there were works of art from maybe an art show on the wall.

Exterior photo of the Rialto Theatre.
http://www.pbase.com/bearpaw/image/23184566

The above link no longer works but here is a link to the history and some photos of the Rialto.
http://www.rialtotheatre.com/history.php