Rialto Theater
102 South Ocean Avenue,
Patchogue,
NY
11772
102 South Ocean Avenue,
Patchogue,
NY
11772
1 person
favorited this theater
The Rialto Theater, once located on South Ocean Avenue, began it’s life as the New Unique Theater in April 1920, and was the second location for the Unique Theater. By 1925, it had been re-named Rialto Theater, when it was destroyed by a fire in December 1925. The Rialto Theater was soon rebuilt and was a very popular theater in it’s day for moviegoers. It became part of the Prudential chain.
Unfortunately, in the winter of 1978, the Rialto Theater caught fire and it took almost eight hours to fight the fire as the building was completely engulfed in flames. It burned to the ground, and the remains had to be razed afterwards.
Contributed by
Chris
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
My mother,Dorothy Fuchs Francis worked at the Rialto in 1943-1944 as an usherette. It was there that she met my father, Bob Hurd who was in the U.S. Army & home on leave. His father was the projectionist there at the time (Alfred Hurd). My father was sitting in the auditorium watching the show & had his feet up on the back of the seat in front of him, & my mother whacked him on the feet with her flashlight (ushers & usherettes always carried them back then)& told him to get his feet down. The rest is history!!
In newspaper advertising from December, 1939, the Rialto seems to have been the least important of the three Prudential theatres then operating in Patchogue. In a group ad, the Patchogue Theatre, with “Destry Rides Again” as its sole feature, takes up about 65% of the space. The Granada, with a double bill of “The Secret of Dr. Kildare” & “Private Detective,” gets about 30%, and the Rialto receives only a small box in the bottom right corner for its double bill of “Too Hot to Handle” & “Southward Ho.”
I have got to get a photo of the old Rialto site. I passed by the other day, and WOW, there are luxury condos or something going up on the site, it looks fabulous, especially because South Ocean Ave was desolate right there for so long.
April 2, 1920
LM: You, too, embedding images in violation of the comment policy? Shocking! ;–)
Well, at least it looks like they’ve updated the site’s code to prevent wide images from stretching the page horizontally. But even with big hunks of image files cut off, it would still be a pain for users on dial-up connections to wait for long pages full of images to load, if embedding were allowed.
Joe….I didn’t know that it was against the law. I did know that large graphics slowed down the loading of the page for dial-up modems. Should I call an attorney? LOL
They have recently built very nice condos on the site of this theater, and the adjoining lots.
Wow is right….I seen my 1st horror flick “Dracula” there, ben, Blacula, Even the famous……“Mark Of The Devil” where passe4d out vomit bags…. Needless to say I was only 10….But i was addicted to horror….The Exorcist nearly killed me….It was the most frightening movie I had ever seen….I slept with the light on for “6” months….I wasn’t supposed to be seeing a movie like that…I was after all Going To “St. Francis De Sales” Catholic school….Thanx for remembering something positive…..In this day and age It’s nice to talk about the way it used to be……
Lenore “Canaan Lake”
Just posting to renew the email notifications.
I saw all of the “biker” flicks (Peter Fonda/Nancy Sinatra) there in the mid-60’s; also some oddities like “The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus”…it sure ran the gamut from A – Z! I remember the owner or manager turning off the movie one Saturday afternoon and telling the kids (us!)we’d have to go home if we didn’t shut up! I don’t remember what film it was. In the winter of ‘78 I was driving through Patchogue and it wasn’t there anymore; someone said it burned down. Made me feel sad. I believe “Sat. Night Fever” was screening there at the time.