I worked at the Rialto Theatre from 1969 until it was leased to Kerasotes in 1978… The Rialto never regularly showed foreign films.It was in fact always first run main stream product … the theatre was owned and operated independently by the Russell family in Champaign. First by Eugene Russell until his death in the 1950’s then his son John Russell owned it until 1978. The Russell’s owned the building well into the 1980’s when the Robeson family purchased the building and converted some of it to storage and office space for their adjacent department store.
I worked at the Rialto Theatre from 1969 until it was leased to Kerasotes in 1978… The Rialto never regularly showed foreign films.It was in fact always first run main stream product … the theatre was owned and operated independently by the Russell family in Champaign. First by Eugene Russell until his death in the 1950’s then his son John Russell owned it until 1978. The Russell’s owned the building well into the 1980’s when the Robeson family purchased the building and converted some of it to storage and office space for their adjacent department store.