Rialto Theatre
1481 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1481 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 126 comments
Warren… that photo link you provided from back in August no longer works. Any chance you have an updated link?
This is the film I was talking about
View link
In April 1953 when Bwana Devil was playing at Loew’s State something called “Triorama 3 Dimension” released by Panorama films was playing here. The ad had a scantily clad beauty on a trapeze flying out of the screen over the audience. Anyone know what this was?
This should at least be cross referenced as the Warner, which was it’s last name.
The Rialto Theatre/Cineplex Odeon Warner closed its doors for business not long before or during the summer of ‘91.
I remember when this theatre reopened and moved the entrance from “The Deuce” to Broadway. The only film I caught there was “A Fish Called Wanda.” Cineplex Odeon renovated it, but I don’t think it was open for very long after it reopened. Like I said, I only went there once and barely remember it being open.
There is a great example of the exotic programming, and a beautiful shot of the Rialto, in Ken Bloom’s BROADWAY: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA. Next to the theater entrance is Diamond Jim’s bar. The high windows, mentioned earlier, are visible as is the bottom of a large display for Samson and Delilah. The marquee reads:
Technicolor Hit Show
Wild Animal Thriller
SAVAGE SPLENDOR
Actual JUNGLE film
plus MIGHTY MANHATTAN (two reeler according to imdb)
It was programming like this that kept me around the corner on 42nd. BTW all of the films mentioned are from 1949. Jerry
The Merv Griffin Show was taped at the Cort Theatre.
As The Warner, Cineplex Odeon tried to relive the glory days when they brought in “Lawrence of Arabia” to the renamed Rialto.
Was the Rialto West the 600 seat Rialto and the Rialto II the basement 300 seater?
Benjamin, If you’d like information on programs originating from each theatre I mentioned contact me directly.
DougDouglass: Terrific info, thanks!
I’m familiar with some of these theaters (at least the names, since many are mentioned in the Henderson book), but am not sure about some of the others (especially with the way the names of theaters are changed so often).
Elysee: This theater sounds familiar, I even think I remember hearing “Live from the Elysee Theater” — but I can’t place it. I wonder if this was the theater on W. 58th that used to be used for Dick Clark’s “Pyramid” game show (which I never saw)?
Never heard of a few of the CBS theaters: Lincoln Sq., Monroe, Peace, Town.
A particularly exciting excursion into “the city” that I remember from my childhood was being driven by the Colonial when they were doing the “Price is Right” from there. I remember you could see a house trailer (one of the prizes) parked out front. And it seemed so amazing to me that this was the outside of the same place that I could see on my TV in Astoria!
I wonder if there is a particularly good source for this kind of info, if one wanted to look up what shows, in particular, were done from what theaters? Most of the things I’ve seen are written by authors who are not particularly interested in this info.
I think it’s really amazing to think of all the stuff that was happening in (mostly) mid-Manhattan in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc. The regular movie theaters, the first run movie theaters, the movie “palaces” with live shows (including famous singers, comedians and big bands), the Broadway shows, the nightclubs and hotel ballrooms and dance halls, Madison Sq. Garden, the recording studios A N D the nationally broadcast live radio and TV shows emanating from Manhattan theaters and studios (including one of the first big hit shows on radio — with “Roxy” Rothapfel — emanating from the Capitol Theater)! (The radio show with Roxy is described in Hall’s, “Best Remaining Seats.”)
Movie and legit theatres used for radio and television:
ABC: Colonial, Elysee.
CBS: Avon, Biltmore, Gallo, Hammerstein’s, Lincoln Square, Mansfield, Maxine Elliot, Monroe, Peace, RKO 81st Street, Town.
DuMont: Adelphi, Ambassador.
NBC: Center, Century, International, New Amsterdam, Ziegfeld.
I’m thinking that at least some of the TV studios “in” the Rialto, (that were referred to in previous posts), were in the space that looks to me like it was once a ballroom. This ballroom, and other smaller associated office spaces, appeared to me to wrap around the actual lobby and auditorium space of the Railto — in a way similar to the auxilliary spaces that a lot of other Broadway theaters seem to have.
Some other easily seen examples in the theater district of such auxilliary spaces being “part” of a theater are the Belasco, the Shubert and St. James. (On a walking tour of the theaters on 42nd St. that I took in the 1970s, we visited such spaces in, what I believe was, the Lyric Theater.) A less visible — but more amazing example — are the auxilliary spaces associated with Town Hall on 43rd St. I went to a conference in a private club (which I think use to be the NYU’s version of the Harvard Club or Princeton Club) that was built in and around the lobby and auditorium spaces of Town Hall. It was amazing. It was like being in what I imagine a country club to be (with large meeting rooms, a ballroom, etc.)
Looking at the Rialto from diagonally across 42nd St./Seventh Ave., on the ground floor you would see the marquee / entrance to the Rialto on the right, and a row of stores going around the corner. On top of that, you would see a row of “French door” type windows that had been painted in. That’s where, I’m guessing, at least some of the TV studios were.
As far as I can recall, though, the Rialto did not have a “conventional” office building associated with it (the way, for instance, both the New Amsterdam and the Palace had small office buildings built over their lobbies).
In her book, Mary Henderson, mentions a good number of Manhattan theaters that once served as radio or TV playhouses (and movie houses, too). Unfortunately, since her focus is on live theater, her history of what actual radio / TV shows were done (or what movies played) in what theaters is very skimpy. (For instance, I don’t believe she mentions — as has been mentioned elsewhere on this site — that “Gigi” had its premiere NY engagement at the Royale, or that “La Dolce Vita” played the Henry Miller.)
While I know that not ALL of the theaters that were TV studios were in the Times Sq. area, I can only think of a handful that weren’t. For instance, I think there was a movie theater on upper Broadway (in the 80s?) that was used as a TV studio (Sesame St.?). Then there was that “Dick Cavett” theater all the way over on 10th(?) Ave. And the Colonial (Broadway in the 60s), of course, is another. But all the others, I’m aware of are “more or less” in the theater district (e.g., 58th St. or lower).
Are there any others, in particular, that I can add to my list?
(I’m guessing that most of these movie / radio / TV theaters would be in the Times Sq. area, because by the time radio / TV came along, most other “surplus” theaters outside the area had already been demolished. Plus, with such a surplus of theaters available for radio / TV in the highly accessible Times Sq. area, why settle for a theater somewhere else?)
P.S. — By the way, I believe Joe Franklin did his “Memory Lane” TV show from studios in this building sometime during the 1980s.
For those of you unfamiliar with this show, it was a classic, cult, wonderful/awful TV show, that was shown in NYC beginning in the 1950s(?). Joe Franklin, whom I thought of as kind of like a Dick Clark of sorts (doing the same thing forever and never aging) for New Yorkers of my parents' and grandparents' generation, did a kind of daytime talk show (a la the Tonight Show) that very often had obscure vaudevillians, silent movie stars, etc. as guests. If I remember correctly, Woody Allen incorporated the show into the plot of Broadway Danny Rose.
It appears that the second Rialto originally had some kind of nightlub or dance hall on its second floor (which was probably transformed into the TV studios). If you looked at the building closely, it had these wonderful large french door type windows, which give off this impression anyway. The general “look” of these windows have been incorporated, at a much larger scale, into the facade of one of the new buildings further west along 42nd St.
Also the second Rialto appears to have originally had a partially blue mirrored glass exterior which had been painted over in its later years. In addition, there was some sort of art deco pylon that had a billboard wrapped around it.
I’d love to see a picture of the second Rialto as a new structure. It must have been SOME building!
tvhistory: I’m interested in finding out more about the TV/radio history of some of the movie/“legit” theaters in New York (especially during the “golden ages” of radio/TV, like the Roxy Center Theatre being used for, I believe, the Milton Berle show), so I found your info about the Rialto fascinating. Do you have any recommendations about how I could find out more (any books, etc.)? Thanks in advance for any further info you have! (I know some day I will have to make my way over to the Museum of Broadcasting and the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.)
Some interesting info along these lines that I’ve already gotten from the Cinema Treasures site:
Roxy Center — Milton Berle
Ziegfeld — Perry Como
From elsewhere and general knowledge:
Colonial — The Price is Right
Hudson — The (Steve Allen) Tonight Show
And non-movie theaters used for TV:
(forgot original name) — Ed Sullivan Show
(Gallo Opera House) — What’s My Line?; To Tell the Truth
The Rialto was bought by the Brandts after Arthur Mayer got out of the theater business. By the late 1950’s, it was becoming a “sex house”, showing soft sex pictures. In the mid-1960’s, the Brandts decided to turn it into a “class” house, but the fare was still sex films(largely Radley Metzger/Audibon Films fare), which would pave the way for XXX porn. The book The Ghastly Ones has a good description on how the Brandts wanted payoffs from the sexploitation producers in order to play this theater. (Reportably, playing these films here was quite lucrative.)
DAVE -BRONX / The RIALTO is also the warner theater as cineplex changed its name and thats how it ended its movie run…..its main claim to fame as the WARNER is playing HELLRAISER and ROBOCOP…..NAMED AFTER THE WARNER TWIN OR STANLEY FROM 1500 BRoadway…….. there was a second theater in the basement that was never used………
From 1980-82 the Rialto was home to five Broadway musicals.
When it was a porno house in the early 1970’s, I believe the 42nd Street entrance led to a second screen located in the basement. But you could also access the main theatre, entering at the rear behind the screen. I think.
Wasn’t there a second screen here that Cineplex didn’t use, with the entrance on 42nd Street?
During the Telestudios days, facilities were used by WNTA-Channel 13 (Newark, NJ) as their New York production center.
In 1959 Telestudios started operations on the 4th floor producing the 1st videotape commercials for major advertising agencies.
It became MGM Telestudios in 1962, many tv engineering first.
Closed in 1965
In 1966 NBC produced daily soap “The Doctors"
1968 Channel 9 WOR-TV moved all studios, videotape & master control to the 4th floor.
In 1980 Times Square Studios began daily operations.
EdSolero you are right about the theatre being used as a visitors center. When the theatre first closed they used the lobby for some sort of virtual reality ride. Cineplex did a nice job on the renovations but even though they opened the theatre with the Broadway entrance, it waas still too close to 42nd Street for many movie goers.
The Rialto Theatre was located at 1481 Broadway.
During the very early stages of the redevelopment of 42nd street and Times Square maybe 10 or 12 years ago, I believe the outer lobby of the Rialto was used as a crude and temporary Visitors Information center or perhaps a volunteer center with information available about the plans to clean up and reclaim the area. Today, the shell of the old Newsreel Theater (later known as the Embassy 1) serves as the official Times Square Visitors Information Center. Anyway, I remember my Grandfather telling me that this is the theater where many of those classic Universal horror films (Dracula, Frankenstein) of the 30’s and 40’s would premier.
Around 1979 Cineplex Odeon remodeled the theatre very nicely, even renaming it the Warner for a short time after their big Warner on 47th St. closed.