Rialto Theatre
E. Broadway Street,
Monett,
MO
65708
E. Broadway Street,
Monett,
MO
65708
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Previous Names: Bijou Theatre
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A silent-era theatre located on E. Broadway Street in Monett, MO originally opened as the Bijou Theatre (the second to have this name in the town). It opened on August 14, 1920 as the Rialto Theatre, showing movies only, with music from the “Rialto Orchestra. This historical information from an advertisement in The Monett Times of August 13, 1920. The 450-seat Rialto Theatre was still open in 1929. It was listed as (Closed) in 1941 and 1943 when the seating capacity was given as 725. It had gone from listing be 1950.
Contributed by
John Story
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
The February 12, 1915 issue of The Monett Times reported that the Bijou Theatre was moving to a new location on Broadway. In its issue of April 2, 1920, the Times said that the recently closed Bijou Theatre on Broadway, which had opened at that location in 1915, would be remodeled, expanded, and reopened. Plans for the project were being drawn by local architect Bert Robbins. Although the article didn’t give the rebuilt theater’s name, I’m fairly certain that it was the Rialto.
This article from the November 27, 2013, issue of the Times is rather muddled, and erroneously says that the second Bijou was on the site later occupied by the Strand, but we know that the Strand was on Fourth Street. The article also says that “…the Bijou was replaced by the Rialto….” I think this line must have been the accurate part of the article. The writer just got the long-gone and probably forgotten Rialto conflated with the Strand somehow.