Rio Theatre

According to the history page on this theater’s official website, this theater was specifically built to house a “Cycloramic” screen and opened as the Rio Cycloramic Theatre. The screen was supposed to create the illusion of depth. It sounds a great deal like Cinerama. Does anyone know anything about these Cycloramic screens?

If one looks closely at the first of the two photos linked to Lost Memory’s April 27 post, a hand painted poster in the display case can be seen, inviting Mothers to make use of the Rio’s Cry Room. I remember this poster, which was hand painted. I have no idea how old it was. Usually it was displayed in a freestanding poster case in the lobby, just inside the entrance doors to the left as you walked in.

February 2009 photo

Here is a 2008 photo of the Rio.

The above link no longer works so try this one instead.

This is a recent night view of the Rio marquee.

Does anyone know if they still hold the Buring Man Film Festival at the Rio?

Though it has been converted for live performance use, the Rio is still capable of showing movies, and does so on occasion. The exterior still remains exactly as in the 1984 photograph by Jack Tillmany above, with one improvement—that being that the yellow neon on the spine of the vertical sign fin which was missing in 1984 has been replaced. Indeed, all of the neon is in good working order. While there isn’t much to see decoratively inside the Rio, the lobby, with its undulating curved walls and tiered ceiling lit indirectly with pink neon cove lighting is a feature I’ve always enjoyed, as this is one of my childhood theatres.
In 1983, my cousin and I planned to catch “Return of the Jedi” there on opening day. He was in Junior High, and I was in Junior College. We both cut out of our classes early, and took the city bus from Aptos to Santa Cruz and the Rio. We weren’t able to get tickets to that day’s very first showing, so we settled for the second showing, and took our places in line, only to be eventually met by my Mom coming out of the first showing, wearing an “I beat you guys to it!” grin. Unbeknownst to us, she had gone down there early in the day to get into the first show! We were quite astonished. I also remember that while we were waiting in line someone had brought colored chalk and was drawing swirling abstract art all over the sidewalk to pass the time and amuse bystanders while we were all in line.
During the last few years of UA ownership, someone got the bright idea of removing the lovely tiered lotus-shaped Moderne wall fixtures in the auditorium and replacing them with new fixtures. Fortunately, the original fixtures weren’t thrown away, but put in storage in the Del Mar Theatre downtown. With the recent ongoing restoration of the Del Mar, they have now taken their place in that theatre’s auditorium and lobby, where they replace long-missing fixtures which were similar.

Just a side note on United Artists…

The chain filed for bankruptcy protection. As of January 14th,2001 they had successfully restructured and paid off their debtors.