I remember the Olympia & Rialto as strictly second-run theaters. I remember people referring to them as “scratch houses.” I don’t know how accurate that epithet was, but I do remember that my parents wouldn’t allow us to go in those theaters. This was during the days of the polio scare (late 40s/early 50s), and my folks (probably mistakenly) thought they weren’t safe. The only theaters I was allowed to enter were the Park and the Stadium, on the other side of the downtown area. The latter were the only first-run theaters in Woonsocket, while the Olympia & Rialto showed second-run movies. The Bijou did both, but more 2nd than 1st. This, of course, being all based on personal memory. I think the O & R theaters went out of business around 1950/51. That’s a calculated guess, but I think I’m close. The conventional wisdom was that they couldn’t compete with TV, which was beginning to get very big. I wanted to go to the Rialto so bad that I was practically sick over it; they often showed re-releases of the old Warner Bros. gangster & Universal horror flicks and older Tarzans & cowboy pics. But my folks wouldn’t budge. Now I can rent ‘em from Netflix, lol!
I remember the Olympia & Rialto as strictly second-run theaters. I remember people referring to them as “scratch houses.” I don’t know how accurate that epithet was, but I do remember that my parents wouldn’t allow us to go in those theaters. This was during the days of the polio scare (late 40s/early 50s), and my folks (probably mistakenly) thought they weren’t safe. The only theaters I was allowed to enter were the Park and the Stadium, on the other side of the downtown area. The latter were the only first-run theaters in Woonsocket, while the Olympia & Rialto showed second-run movies. The Bijou did both, but more 2nd than 1st. This, of course, being all based on personal memory. I think the O & R theaters went out of business around 1950/51. That’s a calculated guess, but I think I’m close. The conventional wisdom was that they couldn’t compete with TV, which was beginning to get very big. I wanted to go to the Rialto so bad that I was practically sick over it; they often showed re-releases of the old Warner Bros. gangster & Universal horror flicks and older Tarzans & cowboy pics. But my folks wouldn’t budge. Now I can rent ‘em from Netflix, lol!