Rialto Square Theatre

The Rialto Square Theatre is vibrant and management firm VenuWorks continues to draw popular attractions on a regular basis which fill the seats and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. Financial data indicates that the Rialto Square’s events in March and April cost the Rialto about $235,500 and generated nearly $565,000 in revenue, constituting a profit margin of nearly $330,000. The Joliet City Council provides a $500,000 annual subsidy to the Rialto, and corporate sponsors also contribute. Earlier this year, comedian Bill Engvall drew well, as did the KAR Dance Competition ($35,605) on March 15 and singer Aaron Lewis ($36,539) on March 27. On April 12, the Rainbow National Dance Competition cost the Rialto $13,216 and generated $54,494 in revenue, or a profit of $41,279. Three weddings at the Rialto during March and April generated profits of between $6,000 and $8,000. With big events, the Rialto aims to draw a profit of at least $10,000. The least successful this Spring was The Church Basement Ladies on April 9, which cost the Rialto about $7,000 but generated about $10,800 in actual revenue for a profit of $3,800. Last year the Rialto began a new monthly movie series with $5 general admission seating for weekday screenings. On March 14, the Rialto played Bohemian Rhapsody to a packed house, an incredible success which cost the Rialto about $4,510 but earned actual revenue over $16,560 and a profit of $12,050. On March 21, Billy Idol played to a sellout crowd at the Rialto in a two-man performance with guitarist Steve Stevens. That cost the Rialto $29,180 and generated $56,232 in revenue. The Rialto turned a profit of $27,052. The May 10 “I Left My Heart Tour” performance by Tony Bennett did well. May and June are both busy months for the Rialto.

This “Jewel of Joliet” has one of the best original Barton Theatre Pipe Organs in the world.The Joliet Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts maintain it in excellent condition.You can read more about it here:http://www.jatoe.org/organ.htm

This one opened on May 24, 1926. Ad uploaded.

Obituary of Dorothy L. Mavrich. Copy & paste to view.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/375926/dorothy-l-mavrich-saved-rialto-theatre-joliets-rialto-square-theatre

I saw many movies in the Rialto. The sheer size and the magnificant decor made every visit an event. Portions of the film Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon were filmed inside the Rialto.

Here is an undated photo from a plumbing company that did some work on the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/6pblfs

The Rialto closed briefly or was planning to close in 1951:

JOLIET â€"(AP)â€"The closing of Joliet’s Rialto theater, one of the most costly movie houses in downstate Illinois, was announced today. Roy Rogan, manager, told theater employees that the closing date will be June 9. The theater cost about $1,500,000 when it was built 25 years ago. Rogan did not state why the theater is closing.

Wow, I was at the Rialto a few months ago to watch “Dora the Explorer” with my 4-year-old, and thought the theater was beautiful then! After looking at the old photographs, I wish I had been around to see the theater before it was restored. (We only moved to Joliet 5 years ago.) Thank you all for the pictures!

[url=http://snuffy.lib.umn.edu/image/srch/bin/Dispatcher?mode=600&id=atc3615c]Here[/ur;] is another exterior from UMinn

It should be noted that the photos that ‘lostmemory’ referrs to are Post-restoration, and therefore the lobby textiles (draperies, tapestries, gonfalons, etc.) were not replaced. The auditorium photo is also post-restoration and shows the new House Curtain and the Grande Drape designed and built by the now-defunct Mid-West Scenic and Stage Equipment Co. in Milwaukee. Those golden festoons upon the top of the Grand Drape are not the embroidered or padded passementerie (trapunto) that the originals would have been, but are actually hollow, vacuum formed plastic, gilded to resemble the originals and to avoid today’s high cost of hand fabrication. The ersatz gloss of plastic can still be discerned, however, from the balcony rail. Still, at least they made an attempt here to return some of the glory of the originals, and the theatre is still with us.

Jim – I agree with your opinion of the Warner in Milwaukee. I had forgotten about that one. And the same could be said for the Paramount in Aurora, IL and the Warner in Erie, PA, both from 1931. They did get creative with their use of art deco. Though Rapp & Rapp were trailblazers in the teens and early 1920s, they became a little predictable in the late 20’s when they were still using traditional styles, usually French in origin. But what they did they did well. They definitely became more creative in the early 1930s until the depression took hold.

Jim, in my view R&R deserve more acclaim for their Rialto Square effort. I’d have to look at the exact timeline, but I believe the Rialto Square predated the Belmont in Chicago (barely) and certainly the legendary Roxy in NY. Based on that assumption, the lobby rotunda of the Rialto Square appears to have been the basis for Aschlager’s Belmont and Roxy designs. There is certainly a strong similarity between the floorplans of the Rialto Square and Roxy. Regardless, the Rialto Square, particularly the rotunda, is a spectacular space. The rest of the building, while certainly grand, is for the most part boiler-plate R&R, and not overly imaginative. By the late 1920s, R&R weren’t doing a whole lot of innovating.