This undated photo from the L.A. Library depicts Pacific Avenue northward from Zoe toward Gage. That appears to be the Park Theatre at center. This house dated back to the 1920s at least. An article in the L.A. Times of March 17, 1929, says that the lease on the Park Theatre had changed hands. Judging from the style of the building in the photograph, it looks as though it might even have dated from the 1910s.
Ed: Yes, that’s the Paris, formerly Carmel, on Santa Monica Boulevard. Compare the marquee in this 1970s night shot from the UCLA/L.A. Times archives (this is the same photo brett421 linked to on May 16. UCLA has changed the URLs of its photos and his link no longer works.)
According to the June 8, 1923 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor, the Egyptian Theatre was remodeled from an existing building which had been a garage. The conversion was designed by Long Beach architects Hugh R. Davies and Edward S. Baume, associated.
In 1936, S. Charles Lee prepared this concept rendering for a facade remodeling of the theatre, which appears not to have been carried out.
The design probably relied mostly on the brightly colored frescoes on walls and ceiling.
Still, the Casino must have seemed surprisingly old fashioned to audiences within a short time of the theatre’s opening. It was only two years later that the 2700 seat Temple Auditorium opened, with its large balcony cantilevered 27 feet from the back wall. The Casino’s whole auditorium was only 60 by 72 feet.
Lost Memory: I don’t think that the 1924 Casino Theatre on Central Avenue has been added to Cinema Treasures yet. It was the second of two Central Avenue Theatres which were renamed for dancer Bill Robinson, the first having been the former Tivoli Theatre, one block north of the Casino. Apparently, the Bill Robinson name was moved from the former Tivoli at Central and 42nd to the former Casino at Central and 43rd sometime in the 1940s. Both the 1921 Tivoli and the 1924 Casino were designed by architect L.A. Smith.
The place definitely showed films as the Empress, and it was almost certainly only one theatre under different names (unless perhaps there were also small nickelodeons in two of the storefronts at various times- but that would be difficult to confirm at this late date.) I’d say there’s enough information now to justify adding the Hotchkiss, though probably under one of its later names, since as the Casino and the Hotchkiss it appears to have been entirely or primarily a live theatre.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of November 5, 1937, named Clifford Balch as the architect of the La Mar.
Though I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, my dad was born in Manhattan Beach in 1909, and we often visited his friends who still lived there in later years. I never saw a movie at the La Mar, but I passed by it many times in the 1950s-60s. I remember that it seemed pretty plushy for a neighborhood theatre.
D'OH! The long conversation about the Hotchkiss is above, on this very page!
Seeing vokoban’s map, which shows the way the Hotchkiss was configured, it seems possible that when it opened (in 1903, as the Casino Theatre at 334 S. Spring) the entrance could have been at the north end of the building, and then before it became the Hotchkiss it was remodeled (that huge property room along the side of the auditorium looks as though it could have been part of an an addition to the building) and a new and larger lobby opened up at the south end of the building.
No, there is no page for the Casino/Hotchkiss. There was a conversation about it on the page of another theatre but I can’t remember which one.
The Hotchkiss was also the second Los Angeles Theatre, taking the name after the first Los Angeles Theatre became the Orpheum Theatre. I recall a reference somewhere saying that it was also called the Empress Theatre for a while, but I can’t find that now either.
Several mentions of the Torrance Theater appear in the L.A. library’s California Index. The earliest cites Southwest Builder & Contractor of February 20, 1920, with an announcement that architect Allan E. Sedgwick was preparing working drawings for the theatre. The project included two stores and would cost an estimated $40,000. The theatre was to have 800 seats, was designed for both motion pictures and stage productions. The owner was the Torrance Auditorium Company, Inc.
The magazine’s issue of March 12 announced that Huram E. Reeve of Torrance had secured the contract to build the project. The L.A. Times mentioned the project, and named Sedgwick’s firm as Sedgwick & Alpagh, in its issue of May 2, 1920.
Motion Picture Herald of February 27, 1932 mentioned that a J.F. Higgins had purchased the Torrance Theater from “Pacific National” (perhaps Pacific National Bank?)
Then the theatre must have undergone either a major remodeling or closure in 1937, when the Better Theatres section of Motion Picture Herald’s April 3rd issue announced that the Torrance Theater’s furnishings and equipment had been purchased by Harry Milstein and Albert Mellinkoff.
Like everything else in the USC digital archives, the URL for the photo of the Laughlin to which I linked in October, 2006 has been moved. It’s currently here. USC dates it as “ca1930” but it’s undoubtedly much earlier- maybe near the time of opening in 1915.
Somehow I overlooked John C’s comment of Dec 3, 2005, with the question about the painter of the murals in the theatre. I can no longer find my original source naming Wendt as the artist, but I found a card referencing an article in the Long Beach Daily Telegram of November 4, 1915, which names Hanson Duvall Puthuff as the artist. The article by Gerdts also naming Puthuff as the artist is almost certainly correct, and the reference to Wendt should be removed from this theatre’s introduction.
LM: is there an address given for the El Sereno Theatre that got the organ in 1924? I’ve always had the impression that this building on Eastern Avenue dates from the 1930s or 1940s. The theatre listed at CT as El Cameo was built nearby on Huntington Drive in 1924. It may have been named the El Sereno on opening.
This 1917 photo shows a glimpse of Tally’s Broadway Theatre, 833 S. Broadway, at far left. The Mission, at 840 S. Broadway, would have been across the street and down a bit. It probably occupied the oblong brick building adjacent to the primitive parking lot at lower left. I’m still unable to find a photo of the fronts of the buildings on the east side of that block of Broadway during the pre-Orpheum period.
This web page mentions in passing (in the caption to a photo of the city’s former Pantages Theater) that the Liberty Theatre in Great Falls was converted to office and retail space in 1978.
Another website has more information about Great Falls' Pantages Theater, which is currently unlisted at Cinema Treasures.
The proper name of this house is now the Mansfield Theater. Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts is the name of the larger complex of which the Mansfield Theater is only one part. The correct seating capacity of the Mansfield Theater is 1785, with 922 on the main floor, 282 in the mezzanine loge section, and 581 in the balcony.
Ken: I think “Vennicoft” might be a misspelling of the name “Vinnicof”. The Vinnicof Theatre Circuit was around for a long time. They owned a half interest in the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra in the 1950s, the other half being silently owned by the Edwards Theatre Circuit. Vinnicof also operated the Grove Theatre in Garden Grove at that time. At least as far back as the 1930s they operated some theatres in the Eagle Rock-Highland Park area. In 1941, Harry Vinnicof bought the Congress Theatre a couple of miles down Vermont from the Temple.
There are some Vinnicofs who are still associated with the movie theatre business, one of them showing up on this page I found in Google search results. Maybe Cecil is one of Harry’s sons, or perhaps a grandson. There are also a Paul Vinnicof and a Robert Vinnicof who share the San Vincente address. They all appear to be lawyers who specialize in movie theatres.
The historic building which the Regal Theater occupied was dedicated in April of 1894, and was either the third or the fourth home of the Los Angeles branch of the German Turn Verein, or gymnastics movement, which exercised (no pun intended) wide influence during the 19th century not only in Germany but in other nations, and especially the United States. The L.A. Turners organization was established in 1871, and occupied at least two earlier buildings before erecting this Turn Halle on Main Street.
As the Turne Hall, the spacious, second floor (American) room with wrap-around balcony was used as a gymnasium, as a venue for athletic exhibitions, for balls and gatherings of various kinds, and for musical and theatrical performances. The Turners not only practiced and promoted gymnastics, but had a dramatic society, a men’s chorus, an orchestra, and maintained a library.
The Los Angeles Public Library’s photo collection includes this depiction of the Main Street Turn Halle, probably about the time of its opening (though the library mis-dates the photo as being from 1888, six years before the building was completed.) The three-floor structure was in the Richardsonian Romanesque style which was popular during the last two decades of the 19th century. The central arch opened to a broad staircase which lead up to the Turn Halle itself.
The only photo I can find of the space that became the Regal Theater’s auditorium is the one posted by ken mc above, showing the Main Street Gym as it appeared following the fire which led to the building’s demolition. By that time the space had probably been extensively remodeled, and the camera is looking away from the stage which once occuped one end of the hall, but the photo at least gives an idea of the size and shape of the room.
This is long, and not Hippodrome-related, but it relates to recent comments above about a theatre across Main Street from the Hip:
I don’t think Cinema Treasures has a page for the theatre at 323 S. Main yet. The Turn Halle (aka Turnverein Germania) at that location was L.A.’s third. All three of them appear to have served multiple purposes as the Turners' gymnasiums, as theatres and as ballrooms and meeting rooms. The first Turnverein was dedicated in 1872, the year after the L.A. chapter of the club was founded. It was demolished in 1887. I haven’t been able to track down it’s exact location, but one reference places it on Spring Street between 2nd and 3rd, so it might have been either at the location of the second Turnverein or the lot north of that where the first Los Angeles Theatre was built.
The second Turnverein was at 227 S. Spring Street, next door to the first Los Angeles Theatre (which was later the second L.A. Orpheum and then the Lyceum.) The two buildings can be seen in this photo from the L.A. library. Both of them date to 1887.
The cornerstone of the third Turnverein, across Main Street from the Hippodrome’s site, was laid in October of 1893, and the building was opened in April of 1894. This photo from the L.A. library depicts the Main Street Turnverein (though the library dates the photo as being from 1888, six years before it actually opened.)
Another Turnverein hall was built in 1925 at Washington and Toberman, but the various articles referenced in comments above indicate that the Turners must have sold or leased out this location on Main Street well before then. I don’t know what year it was converted into the Main Street Gym.
I don’t know if the Los Angeles Turners Club still exists as an organization today, but it was around to celebrate its centennial in 1971 with a banquet at the old Turner Inn Hofbrau restaurant which I beleieve was on 15th Street. Also, the Washington Boulevard Turner Hall was later renamed Rodger Young Auditorium and was demolished in 1978.
Justin: “Rialto” has been a common name for theatres for quite a while, and South Pasadena’s Rialto was not the first of that name. The name is of Italian origin, and dates back more than 900 years when the Rialto Market was established in the city of Venice. It also became the name of the city’s most important bridge across the Grand Canal.
In the 17th century, the area around the bridge and the market became the center of the city’s theatre district, and the home of the most important opera companies in Europe. The fame of the district was so great that, in the English speaking word at least, “The Rialto” became a generic term to describe the theatre district of any city. Eventually, impresarios began giving the name to individual theatres, especially in the United States.
Something similar happened with the name “Strand”, which was the name of the street along which London’s theatre district formed in the 19th century. After it became famous, owners of theatres in many places began naming their houses The Strand in order to associate them with the glamour of London’s theatre district.
The Hippodrome itself was a vaudeville and movie theatre, but the upstairs of the building in front of the auditorium appears to have been a dance hall before it became the location of the Main Street Gym in the early 1950s. Here is the 1928 photo of the block of Main Street south of Third (this is the same photo that’s linked twice above) which shows a small vertical sign that reads “Dancing” on the near end of the Hippodrome’s building. The same sign can be made out beyond the theatre’s marquee in the June, 1943 photo to which ken mc linked a few comments back, on August 23.
So there’s evidence that there was a dance hall in the building from at least 1928 until at least 1943. I’d say there’s a good chance that this is indeed the Hippodrome Dance Palace. As the Main Street Gym, it’s address was 318 ½ S. Main, so that should be the address of the dance hall as well.
The balcony of the Rialto was locked for decades. The story I heard was that, in the 1970s, the South Pasadena City Fire Department threatened to close the place down because the big, leather loges occupying the last several rows of the main floor were not fire resistant. The management moved the loges to the balcony and brought the balcony seats down to replace them on the main floor. The loges were never rebuilt to meet fire codes, and thus the balcony remained closed.
It may be true that with better maintenance, and with air conditioning, the Rialto could have attracted bigger audiences in recent years, but I doubt that, adding the cost of those things, it could have been profitable. I won’t blame Landmark for shutting the Rialto down, or for not spending the fortune the theatre needs to be made even minimally presentable. The place could have gone under soon after Mann Theatres abandoned it, but Landmark kept it going for about three decades beyond when it might have been expected to be closed and demolished to make way for a parking lot. For that I’m grateful.
This undated photo from the L.A. Library depicts Pacific Avenue northward from Zoe toward Gage. That appears to be the Park Theatre at center. This house dated back to the 1920s at least. An article in the L.A. Times of March 17, 1929, says that the lease on the Park Theatre had changed hands. Judging from the style of the building in the photograph, it looks as though it might even have dated from the 1910s.
Ed: Yes, that’s the Paris, formerly Carmel, on Santa Monica Boulevard. Compare the marquee in this 1970s night shot from the UCLA/L.A. Times archives (this is the same photo brett421 linked to on May 16. UCLA has changed the URLs of its photos and his link no longer works.)
According to the June 8, 1923 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor, the Egyptian Theatre was remodeled from an existing building which had been a garage. The conversion was designed by Long Beach architects Hugh R. Davies and Edward S. Baume, associated.
In 1936, S. Charles Lee prepared this concept rendering for a facade remodeling of the theatre, which appears not to have been carried out.
The design probably relied mostly on the brightly colored frescoes on walls and ceiling.
Still, the Casino must have seemed surprisingly old fashioned to audiences within a short time of the theatre’s opening. It was only two years later that the 2700 seat Temple Auditorium opened, with its large balcony cantilevered 27 feet from the back wall. The Casino’s whole auditorium was only 60 by 72 feet.
Even more devastating to the Casino’s prestige must have been the opening in 1903 of the Mason Opera House: This auditorium photo is from the 1950s, but the balcony structure was unchanged from the 1903 design. And here’s an artist’s conception of the view from the Mason’s dress circle on its opening in 1903.
The Casino was decidedly outclassed from the beginning.
Of course we mustn’t forget this undated photo of the audience at the Casino Theatre from the L.A. library collection.
Lost Memory: I don’t think that the 1924 Casino Theatre on Central Avenue has been added to Cinema Treasures yet. It was the second of two Central Avenue Theatres which were renamed for dancer Bill Robinson, the first having been the former Tivoli Theatre, one block north of the Casino. Apparently, the Bill Robinson name was moved from the former Tivoli at Central and 42nd to the former Casino at Central and 43rd sometime in the 1940s. Both the 1921 Tivoli and the 1924 Casino were designed by architect L.A. Smith.
The place definitely showed films as the Empress, and it was almost certainly only one theatre under different names (unless perhaps there were also small nickelodeons in two of the storefronts at various times- but that would be difficult to confirm at this late date.) I’d say there’s enough information now to justify adding the Hotchkiss, though probably under one of its later names, since as the Casino and the Hotchkiss it appears to have been entirely or primarily a live theatre.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of November 5, 1937, named Clifford Balch as the architect of the La Mar.
Though I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, my dad was born in Manhattan Beach in 1909, and we often visited his friends who still lived there in later years. I never saw a movie at the La Mar, but I passed by it many times in the 1950s-60s. I remember that it seemed pretty plushy for a neighborhood theatre.
D'OH! The long conversation about the Hotchkiss is above, on this very page!
Seeing vokoban’s map, which shows the way the Hotchkiss was configured, it seems possible that when it opened (in 1903, as the Casino Theatre at 334 S. Spring) the entrance could have been at the north end of the building, and then before it became the Hotchkiss it was remodeled (that huge property room along the side of the auditorium looks as though it could have been part of an an addition to the building) and a new and larger lobby opened up at the south end of the building.
No, there is no page for the Casino/Hotchkiss. There was a conversation about it on the page of another theatre but I can’t remember which one.
The Hotchkiss was also the second Los Angeles Theatre, taking the name after the first Los Angeles Theatre became the Orpheum Theatre. I recall a reference somewhere saying that it was also called the Empress Theatre for a while, but I can’t find that now either.
Several mentions of the Torrance Theater appear in the L.A. library’s California Index. The earliest cites Southwest Builder & Contractor of February 20, 1920, with an announcement that architect Allan E. Sedgwick was preparing working drawings for the theatre. The project included two stores and would cost an estimated $40,000. The theatre was to have 800 seats, was designed for both motion pictures and stage productions. The owner was the Torrance Auditorium Company, Inc.
The magazine’s issue of March 12 announced that Huram E. Reeve of Torrance had secured the contract to build the project. The L.A. Times mentioned the project, and named Sedgwick’s firm as Sedgwick & Alpagh, in its issue of May 2, 1920.
Motion Picture Herald of February 27, 1932 mentioned that a J.F. Higgins had purchased the Torrance Theater from “Pacific National” (perhaps Pacific National Bank?)
Then the theatre must have undergone either a major remodeling or closure in 1937, when the Better Theatres section of Motion Picture Herald’s April 3rd issue announced that the Torrance Theater’s furnishings and equipment had been purchased by Harry Milstein and Albert Mellinkoff.
Like everything else in the USC digital archives, the URL for the photo of the Laughlin to which I linked in October, 2006 has been moved. It’s currently here. USC dates it as “ca1930” but it’s undoubtedly much earlier- maybe near the time of opening in 1915.
Somehow I overlooked John C’s comment of Dec 3, 2005, with the question about the painter of the murals in the theatre. I can no longer find my original source naming Wendt as the artist, but I found a card referencing an article in the Long Beach Daily Telegram of November 4, 1915, which names Hanson Duvall Puthuff as the artist. The article by Gerdts also naming Puthuff as the artist is almost certainly correct, and the reference to Wendt should be removed from this theatre’s introduction.
LM: is there an address given for the El Sereno Theatre that got the organ in 1924? I’ve always had the impression that this building on Eastern Avenue dates from the 1930s or 1940s. The theatre listed at CT as El Cameo was built nearby on Huntington Drive in 1924. It may have been named the El Sereno on opening.
This 1917 photo shows a glimpse of Tally’s Broadway Theatre, 833 S. Broadway, at far left. The Mission, at 840 S. Broadway, would have been across the street and down a bit. It probably occupied the oblong brick building adjacent to the primitive parking lot at lower left. I’m still unable to find a photo of the fronts of the buildings on the east side of that block of Broadway during the pre-Orpheum period.
The ornate facade of the Liberty Theatre can be seen in the ninth and tenth photos down on this page of Brent Dickerson’s “A Visit to Old Los Angeles” website.
The page needs updating. The Rialto has two screens.
This web page mentions in passing (in the caption to a photo of the city’s former Pantages Theater) that the Liberty Theatre in Great Falls was converted to office and retail space in 1978.
Another website has more information about Great Falls' Pantages Theater, which is currently unlisted at Cinema Treasures.
The proper name of this house is now the Mansfield Theater. Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts is the name of the larger complex of which the Mansfield Theater is only one part. The correct seating capacity of the Mansfield Theater is 1785, with 922 on the main floor, 282 in the mezzanine loge section, and 581 in the balcony.
Here is the official web page of the Mansfield Theater.
I don’t know if JustOldBob is still around, but if he is he might like to know that the name of one of the owners of the Congress was Harry Vinnicof.
Ken: I think “Vennicoft” might be a misspelling of the name “Vinnicof”. The Vinnicof Theatre Circuit was around for a long time. They owned a half interest in the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra in the 1950s, the other half being silently owned by the Edwards Theatre Circuit. Vinnicof also operated the Grove Theatre in Garden Grove at that time. At least as far back as the 1930s they operated some theatres in the Eagle Rock-Highland Park area. In 1941, Harry Vinnicof bought the Congress Theatre a couple of miles down Vermont from the Temple.
There are some Vinnicofs who are still associated with the movie theatre business, one of them showing up on this page I found in Google search results. Maybe Cecil is one of Harry’s sons, or perhaps a grandson. There are also a Paul Vinnicof and a Robert Vinnicof who share the San Vincente address. They all appear to be lawyers who specialize in movie theatres.
The historic building which the Regal Theater occupied was dedicated in April of 1894, and was either the third or the fourth home of the Los Angeles branch of the German Turn Verein, or gymnastics movement, which exercised (no pun intended) wide influence during the 19th century not only in Germany but in other nations, and especially the United States. The L.A. Turners organization was established in 1871, and occupied at least two earlier buildings before erecting this Turn Halle on Main Street.
As the Turne Hall, the spacious, second floor (American) room with wrap-around balcony was used as a gymnasium, as a venue for athletic exhibitions, for balls and gatherings of various kinds, and for musical and theatrical performances. The Turners not only practiced and promoted gymnastics, but had a dramatic society, a men’s chorus, an orchestra, and maintained a library.
The Los Angeles Public Library’s photo collection includes this depiction of the Main Street Turn Halle, probably about the time of its opening (though the library mis-dates the photo as being from 1888, six years before the building was completed.) The three-floor structure was in the Richardsonian Romanesque style which was popular during the last two decades of the 19th century. The central arch opened to a broad staircase which lead up to the Turn Halle itself.
The only photo I can find of the space that became the Regal Theater’s auditorium is the one posted by ken mc above, showing the Main Street Gym as it appeared following the fire which led to the building’s demolition. By that time the space had probably been extensively remodeled, and the camera is looking away from the stage which once occuped one end of the hall, but the photo at least gives an idea of the size and shape of the room.
This is long, and not Hippodrome-related, but it relates to recent comments above about a theatre across Main Street from the Hip:
I don’t think Cinema Treasures has a page for the theatre at 323 S. Main yet. The Turn Halle (aka Turnverein Germania) at that location was L.A.’s third. All three of them appear to have served multiple purposes as the Turners' gymnasiums, as theatres and as ballrooms and meeting rooms. The first Turnverein was dedicated in 1872, the year after the L.A. chapter of the club was founded. It was demolished in 1887. I haven’t been able to track down it’s exact location, but one reference places it on Spring Street between 2nd and 3rd, so it might have been either at the location of the second Turnverein or the lot north of that where the first Los Angeles Theatre was built.
The second Turnverein was at 227 S. Spring Street, next door to the first Los Angeles Theatre (which was later the second L.A. Orpheum and then the Lyceum.) The two buildings can be seen in this photo from the L.A. library. Both of them date to 1887.
The cornerstone of the third Turnverein, across Main Street from the Hippodrome’s site, was laid in October of 1893, and the building was opened in April of 1894. This photo from the L.A. library depicts the Main Street Turnverein (though the library dates the photo as being from 1888, six years before it actually opened.)
Another Turnverein hall was built in 1925 at Washington and Toberman, but the various articles referenced in comments above indicate that the Turners must have sold or leased out this location on Main Street well before then. I don’t know what year it was converted into the Main Street Gym.
I don’t know if the Los Angeles Turners Club still exists as an organization today, but it was around to celebrate its centennial in 1971 with a banquet at the old Turner Inn Hofbrau restaurant which I beleieve was on 15th Street. Also, the Washington Boulevard Turner Hall was later renamed Rodger Young Auditorium and was demolished in 1978.
Justin: “Rialto” has been a common name for theatres for quite a while, and South Pasadena’s Rialto was not the first of that name. The name is of Italian origin, and dates back more than 900 years when the Rialto Market was established in the city of Venice. It also became the name of the city’s most important bridge across the Grand Canal.
In the 17th century, the area around the bridge and the market became the center of the city’s theatre district, and the home of the most important opera companies in Europe. The fame of the district was so great that, in the English speaking word at least, “The Rialto” became a generic term to describe the theatre district of any city. Eventually, impresarios began giving the name to individual theatres, especially in the United States.
Something similar happened with the name “Strand”, which was the name of the street along which London’s theatre district formed in the 19th century. After it became famous, owners of theatres in many places began naming their houses The Strand in order to associate them with the glamour of London’s theatre district.
The Hippodrome itself was a vaudeville and movie theatre, but the upstairs of the building in front of the auditorium appears to have been a dance hall before it became the location of the Main Street Gym in the early 1950s. Here is the 1928 photo of the block of Main Street south of Third (this is the same photo that’s linked twice above) which shows a small vertical sign that reads “Dancing” on the near end of the Hippodrome’s building. The same sign can be made out beyond the theatre’s marquee in the June, 1943 photo to which ken mc linked a few comments back, on August 23.
So there’s evidence that there was a dance hall in the building from at least 1928 until at least 1943. I’d say there’s a good chance that this is indeed the Hippodrome Dance Palace. As the Main Street Gym, it’s address was 318 ½ S. Main, so that should be the address of the dance hall as well.
The balcony of the Rialto was locked for decades. The story I heard was that, in the 1970s, the South Pasadena City Fire Department threatened to close the place down because the big, leather loges occupying the last several rows of the main floor were not fire resistant. The management moved the loges to the balcony and brought the balcony seats down to replace them on the main floor. The loges were never rebuilt to meet fire codes, and thus the balcony remained closed.
It may be true that with better maintenance, and with air conditioning, the Rialto could have attracted bigger audiences in recent years, but I doubt that, adding the cost of those things, it could have been profitable. I won’t blame Landmark for shutting the Rialto down, or for not spending the fortune the theatre needs to be made even minimally presentable. The place could have gone under soon after Mann Theatres abandoned it, but Landmark kept it going for about three decades beyond when it might have been expected to be closed and demolished to make way for a parking lot. For that I’m grateful.