Rialto Theatre

223 E. Main Street,
Ottumwa, IA 52501

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 30, 2018 at 5:52 pm

The Sounds of Early Cinema, edited by Richard Abel and Rick R. Altman, mentions the Nickelodeon Theatre and its competitor, The Electric Theatre, saying the two opened almost simultaneously in June, 1907.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 29, 2018 at 5:49 pm

There are some puzzles around this theater. One of them stems from this item from the February 22, 1919 issue of The Moving Picture World:

“OTTUMWA WILL HAVE A FINE NEW HOUSE

“Morris and J. B. Lince Will Be the Promoters of Proposed Forty Thousand Dollar Structure

“By J. L. Shipley.

“A NEW motion picture theatre that will involve the expenditure of $40,000 has been projected at Ottumwa, Iowa. Morris Lince, owner of the present Empire in Ottumwa, in conjunction with J. B. Lince of Des Moines, is the promoter. A corner location with exits on two streets is planned, taking up the building that now houses the Empire. It is thought work will be begun early in the spring and that the house will be ready for dedication by fall. Mr. Lince has made a great success of the Empire and believes that he will do equally well with the more pretentious theatre planned.”

A major problem arises from the fact that the Empire’s address of 223 E. Main Street is nowhere near a corner. I don’t see how an exapnded theater at a corner location could be “taking up the Empire Building” if the Empire was at 223, nearly mid-block.

Another puzzle is the photo on this page of Arcadia Publishing’s picture book about Ottumwa, which shows a view of the 200 block of Main Street around 1927. The Capitol and Square Theatre are clearly visible, but 223 would be in between the vertical sign saying “Pianos” and the one saying “Cafe” but that building shows no sign of having a theater in it. Literally, there is no visible sign for a theater, no marquee, no vertical, no readable flat sign. The 1926 FDY has the 456-seat EMPIRE Theatre listed in all capitals, indicating a first-run house. Would one of Ottumwa’s two first run houses have no signage?

While the Nickelodeon Theatre was listed at 223 E. Main in issues of The Billboard in 1908, but with only 150 seats, and the Empire is listed at that address in both a 1914 Polk directory and the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory (no seating capacity given, alas) the question I have to ask, despite the claims of the 1931 Courier article, is did the Empire move to a different location sometime between 1914 and 1919, when the planned expansion was announced?

And I certainly can’t see how the 680-seat Rialto could have been shoehorned into this narrow building that doesn’t even reach all the way to the alley behind it. Perhaps the back part of the conjoined building at 221 could have been incorporated to provide a larger footprint, but it would have been expensive.