Rialto Theatre

kenster on October 27, 2011 at 10:39 am

…cont) [2]

“Things started shaping up, however, but we sadly needed a curtain. Eddie Dowling played inaa sketch entitled (sic) "The Spy; he died at the finish and they put out all the lights for him to get up and run off, but the audience yelled with laughter, they could see him. The management found out if would have to get a regular theatre license in order to hang a curtain, which meant $500.00 a year more. So on a trip to New York, Mr. Homan visited Hippodrome and saw that famous curtain come up through the floor. In less than a week we had a miniature Hippodrome Curtain, of green velvet, at the Scenic.”

“The little company started selling ‘standing room only’ after the third week, each member was starting to become a favorite. The money made from the owners, built the Merrimack Square Theatre in Lowell, Mass. the first year.”

“Mr. Homan married Nance Shannon, one of the prima donnas, that is, one week you were a prima donna and the next you had to do blackface.”

“We changed programs weekly, with new costumes, props and the good old Mike would cover the furniture in different material, and every Monday we were spick and span.”

“I recall quite a laugh I had over Mrs. Martin Toohey going to the Providence Opera House one night to see a big musical show. After the show she came to the Scenic and when she saw me she said, [‘Bob they had one number in the show that was step for step for the one you put on two weeks ago.’] You see, I had taken a weeks vacation and gone to New York for ‘new things’. I witnessed that same show Mrs. Toohey saw, they took quite a few encores on the song hit, and I must confess, I memorized the dance routine – result was, the Scenic had it first!”

“I could relate quite a few things that occured in the Stock Co., but all in all, we were hard workers. Had at least three songs each to learn each week, besides studing (sic) the sketches and rehearsed every day except Tuesday.”

“When news spread around that we were about to finish at the Scenic, Mr. Homan was swamped with offers for the Stock Company. We eventually went to Haverhill, Mass. and the owner of the theatre, we played in there was Lewis Mayer – now Metro-Golden-Mayer. We stayed sixteen weeks, and had a glorious time, as we were up in so many programs, we just had to put them in order. We afterward played ten weeks in Salem, New Bedford and many New England towns. In due time the original members began leaving and replaced by others, until the little Homan Stock Company that first saw the light of day at the old Scenic disbanded.”

“Mr. Homan became manger of a theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., where he died four years ago. Eddie Dowling, we all know, hit the top in the theatrical, and might I say, political profession. Our own Eddie Healey is right here with us, settling down in his home town after seeing his name in lights as a vaudeville headliner. Also in Rhode Island remains Martin Toohey, who did alright, after a short tour with Walter LaFoy as a partner. Martin is now Manager of the Le Roy Theatre in Pawtucket. Jack Kammerer you’ll find in a night club in Boston. Edna Howland is married and lives in Providence. Betty Farrington lives in Summerville, Mass. and was remembered in a will of a relative which made her quite well off. Nance Shannon lives in Longmeadow, Mass. in a cute little cottage with her daughter Mary Homan.”

(cont….)

Joe Vogel on February 3, 2012 at 5:57 am

An earlier comment mentioned William R. Walker & Sons as architects for the conversion of the church into the Scenic Theatre. The same firm designed an expansion and alterations for the theater in 1919, according to an item in one issue of The American Architect that year. The Google Books scan is missing the page with the issue date on it, but the page with the item is marked as Vol. CXV, No. 2250, which should have been published in February.

Joe Vogel on October 2, 2023 at 12:17 am

The founder of the firm William R. Walker & Son died in 1905, and would not have been involved in drawing the plans for converting the church into a theater in late 1906, so the principal architect on the project, and probably the 1919 alterations and expansion for the Rialto as well, would have been his son, William Howard Walker.

rivest266 on June 5, 2024 at 1:26 pm

Reopened October 13th, 1909 as the Rialto theatre. Grand opening ad posted.

Gerald A. DeLuca on October 20, 2026 at 12:55 pm

An October 20, 2026 article with 13 photos in The Providence Jounal announces the upcoming demolition of the remains of the rear of the theatre.