Rialto was Little Falls’ movie palace

By Mat Rapacz

Until the 1890s, only live performers entertained Mohawk Valley residents. The motion picture changed that in a big way. Every night – if a person wanted to and had the money – he or she could travel to the local theater and be entertained by images on a screen. Just about every village had someplace that showed the magical movies and, as the popularity of movies grew, the building they were shown in became larger and more elaborate. During the Roaring Twenties, when many great movie theaters were built, Little Falls came to have one of the finest movie theaters in the valley.

The Gateway Theatre, later to be renamed Rialto, first opened its doors to the public on October 22, 1923.  The Evening Times said the opening marked “the turning of a new page in the theatrical history of Little Falls,” and that the theatre was “a real metropolitan entertainment center.” Indeed, The Gateway had the best of everything: walls of golden-veined Tennessee marble, a sound-proof carpet in the lobby, an $18,000 symphony organ, a loge section with plush wicker seats, a men’s smoking room on the mezzanine, green and purple slate for the roof, a ten-mile-range searchlight for flooding the stage area with light, a 14 by 18-foot screen. Six murals were painted on the walls by artist David Lithgow of Albany: the General Herkimer Homestead, the Barge Canal lift-lock, the old aqueduct on South Ann Street, Profile Rock, Moss Island, and the Mohawk River.

The Gateway was built in less than seven months by a local contractor, James Hallinan with the bare construction price quoted as $241,000. The building was 59 feet on the Ann Street side, 65 feet wide in the rear, with a depth of 133 feet and a height of 50 feet. The Gateway name evidently came from a sign at the limits of Little Falls which called the city “the gateway to the west.”

At first, only films were shown, as the stage had not yet been built. The Gateway opened with The Green Goddess, a silent starring George Arliss and Alice Joyce. Zaza with Gloria Swanson and H. B. Warner followed two days later. Opening day prices were 33¢ for adults and 22¢ for children. Personnel for the opening included organist James F. Gilmore, head usher Alice Ehle, and doorman Grant Weller, with Mildred Ingraham running the box office.

One of the more interesting and briefly controversial promotions at the Gateway took place on December 31, 1924 when it was advertised that a real live baby would be given away at the last performance. Little baby Geraldine, a three-month-old baby girl of good parentage recently orphaned by a tragedy was to go to some lucky ticket-holder. “Absolutely legal as guaranteed by our attorneys,” the ad read. The management received quite a few calls of protest from the general public. Clark Vedder of 12 Burch St. tuned out to be the lucky winner — of a baby pig  — all dolled up for the occasion with a nice ribbon. Assistant Manager Foley pushed Geraldine down the aisle in a baby carriage before the award was made. The Evening Times reported “there was a hearty laugh when the little pig was shown.”

At first operated by a group of local businessmen headed by Irving Stacey under the name “Gateway Theatre Corp.,” the theatre lost money and was sold to the Schine Theatre Corp. of Gloversville in 1925. After alterations, including the raising of the roof to make it possible to present the biggest road attractions, the theatre re-opened as the Rialto on August 12, 1925.  A large “electric sign” for the outside was ordered.

The Schine brothers owned and operated many theaters throughout the northeast. Along with the Gateway, they also bought the two other movie houses in the city, The Gem, which they soon closed, and The Hippodrome, better known as “The Hip,” which continued in operation until the early 1940s. For a brief time in the late 1920s, the Rialto was leased to Fox Theatres. Vaudeville acts were a big part of the entertainment in those early years. Singers, dancers, comics, and animal acts all performed on stage.

Nick Kauffman, who later became manager at the Rialto, was then the theatre’s troubleshooter. In a 1976 interview, Kauffman recalled a humorous incident when a monkey got loose into the audience. Someone in the theatre had popcorn, and the animal remained there eating popcorn until the trainer caught up with him. Patrons thought it was all part of the show.

Other attractions in the 1920s included the team of Bennie Fields and Blossom Seeley and Roy Allen of the Honey Boy Evans Minstrels. Also performing on stage was Little Falls native Casper Reardon, hailed as the greatest harpist who ever lived. He amazed his audiences by playing jazz music on his harp. The pit orchestra in the 1930s was under the direction of Salvi Ferraro.

Organist Stacy Simpson, whose father was president of Little Falls Felt Shoe, is fondly recalled by local residents as an excellent musician, adding life to whatever act or film he accompanied. Kauffman recalled that each day, while en route from the factory, Simpson would stop at the theater to play the organ. “He liked organ music and mastered the splendid toned instrument that was a focal point on the left side of the stage, (as you face it).” Kauffman said. In the early years, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights featured the top movies available, with a five-act vaudeville program comprising the rest of the week.

Talking pictures arrived in late February of 1929. The Vaudeville acts began to fade away in the 30s at least partly because the films were longer. There wasn’t enough time for two shows together with Vaudeville acts each night. Also in the 30s, refreshments made their debut as a combination candy and popcorn machine was installed. Mrs. Dan McGraw operated a candy stand inside the building.

Howard McCumber, (now deceased) recalled in 1997 his days as an usher at the Rialto at age 14 or 15. He remembered the theatre, which seated about 1,300, as being mostly full for weekend matinees. Prices for most of the 30s were 35¢ for the balcony, 50¢ for downstairs, and 10¢ for children. Seats in the loge section, where there were wicker chairs, were higher priced.

Most films played only one or two days. A major exception was Gone With the Wind, which played from March 10-16, 1940 and was advertised for several weeks prior to that. For night and Sunday shows, all seats were reserved at $1.10. Matinees were 75¢ and began with continuous showings at 10 a.m.

Promotions were also part of the Rialto from its opening to well into the 50s. Dish matinees were a common feature in the 40s. Each week a different individual piece of a set of dinnerware was given away, insuring constant attendance. If one week’s showing was skipped, the tableware set ended up a piece short.

Sometimes the stars themselves made personal appearances. McCumber recalled that cowboys Hoot Gibson, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Tom Mix, and Lash LaRue made personal appearances in the theatre while their horses grazed out back. In 1955, a Sherman tank paraded down Main Street to promote a recruiting drive and the Audie Murphy film To Hell and Back.

Other promotions included appliance giveaways and lucky number contests. In 1940, the Rialto cooking school with widely-known food expert Julia P. Rugo was held and a Magic Chef range given away. Another way to get people into the theatre was serials, where the hero was left in a perilous situation, encouraging the moviegoer to return the following week to see how the hero managed to escape.

In the days before television news, some went for the newsreels to see moving images of the days important events. McCumber recalls that these were popular with adults, but the kids hollered and whistled at them.

The Rialto was not just for Little Falls folks, either. In 1937, Kauffman made a check on a Sunday and found there were about 400 customers from St. Johnsville and 275 from Dolgeville. As with similar theaters up and down the valley and across the country, attendance at the Rialto began to decline in the 1950s. More people had televisions, and drive-ins provided competition for the movie dollar. Plus, the buildings themselves began to show signs of wear and tear and were ever more expensive to maintain.

The last stage show at the Rialto was held 1953, McCumber said, with performers from a local dance studio. By the 1960s, the Schine brothers had passed away and their widows were not interested in running movie houses. The Rialto passed from owner to owner, the last movie operator being Countrywide Theatres. The chandeliers were removed in the early 60s and the magnificent pipe organ in the late 60s. Its parts were taken to Syracuse.

The Rialto hung on until Memorial Day, 1972, the last of the five former Schine Theatres in Herkimer County to close. The Hospital with George C. Scott was the last picture shown.

Since its closing, the structure deteriorated to the point that it could not be renovated. Eventually, Herkimer County acquired title to the Rialto for unpaid property taxes. In November, 1996, Herkimer County and the city of Little Falls finally agreed to share the cost of razing the Rialto, $126,000. Despite some 11th hour sentiment for saving it, the Rialto was demolished in 1997 and paved over for a parking lot. A few years later, a plaque was erected by the city to mark the spot where the theater had stood.