Rialto Theatre
318 East Congress Street,
Tucson,
AZ
85701
318 East Congress Street,
Tucson,
AZ
85701
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The Phoenix-based Rickard and Nace chain were the first operators of Tucson’s Rialto Theatre on its opening in 1920. The theater had been built by Emanuel Drachman, owner of the Tucson Opera House, whose family maintained a connection to the Rialto for many years, Drachman’s son Roy acting as manager on behalf of Rickard and Nace as late as 1933.
The explosion that closed the theater in January, 1984 was not gas but steam. The theater’s ancient boiler ruptured violently after being fitted with the wrong type of safety valve, allowing excessive pressure to build up.
August 22nd, 1948 grand opening ad as Paramount also in the photo section.
Opened as Rialto on August 29th, 1920. Grand opening ad in the photo section
…also the seating has been removed, and the smooth sloping floor has removable folding chairs.
From their website gallery, much of the original decoration in the lobby and auditorium is gone, replaced by modern décor.
Curtis McCrary of the Rialto Theatre held a a special vigil in honor of Gabrielle Giffords, John Roll and the other victims of the recent shooting in Tucson AZ tonight at 7:30. The marquee gave a message of hope to their Gabby.
That information from the National Register of Historic Places interesting. I was not aware that Alexander Curlett had ever designed a theater. It must have been a solo work, too, as his father William Curlett, his former partner, had died in 1914.
The Rialto must have been his last, or nearly the last, project he designed before he formed his partnership with Claud Beelman, as everything else I’ve seen of his from 1920 to 1928 is attributed to Curlett & Beelman. The impression I’ve gotten from various sources has been that Aleck Curlett was the less talented member of that firm, but the Rialto is a pretty impressive building. Maybe he had more to do with the designs of the great Curlett & Beelman projects of the 1920s than I’ve been led to believe.
Now I’m wondering if some of the still-unattributed theaters around the southwest from the late 1910s might have been of his design.
I think that Lost Memory’s photo link is more recent than the previous ones. I was there in 2001 and the theatre had the plain, flat marquee. The photos in LM’s links from 2/6/09 and 11/14/07 are more recent than that, the theatre has had some restoration work done in the last couple years.
Here are the photos I tried to post in May:
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Here’s a photo I took of the Rialto in 2001: View link
There are 12 photos on this page from the CA State Library:
http://tinyurl.com/2s9966
The link for the Rialto listed above is a nice Net site but its facts reference the Rialto having an organ are off by miles. The Rialto as best I have been able to determine never had an organ. At best it might have had a Photoplayer unit for a while. The Kilgen organ referred to on their website arrived at the Yuma theatre in the mid 1980s. It came from a theatre in southern California and was installed in a mortuary in Yuma in the 40s or 50s. It was moved from the mortuary to the Yuma theatre in the l980s when the local chapter of ATOS wanted to install it. They ultimately failed and the organ never got installed. It was parted out.
If you look closely at the enlarged photo of the Rialto interior from the balcony apparently taken when the theatre was new, there is no organ console in the pit area and the “organ grilles” on the sidewalls are painted on. Don Story
Here is a 1995 article about the history of the Rialto. Unfortunately, the accompanying photos no longer appear, at least on my computer:
http://tinyurl.com/jykc2
I was just watching the documentary “Inside Deep Throat” and in the special features it was shown at the Rialto. They showed the outside as well as the inside – facing the doors from the lobby, stairs, projection booth and auditorium. The screen isn’t there anymore but there was a stage and regular folding chairs. In the lobby there were works of art from maybe an art show on the wall.