American postcard by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, no. 18088. Caption: "Jones, Linick & Schaefer's Rialto Theatre, State St., between Jackson and Van Buren. Finest Vaudeville Theatre in Chicago."
The Rialto Theatre in Chicago, Il., USA, was opened in 1917 as a venue for vaudeville and films, near the corner of State and Van Buren Streets in Chicago. The Rialto could seat over 1500. The theatre was designed by the architectural duo of Marshall & Fox, who also designed the earlier legitimate Blackstone Theatre (now the Merle Reskin), the Blackstone Hotel, and, later, Chicago's famed Drake Hotel. This mid-sized venue was located directly across the street from the neo-classical department store building that began its life as Rothschild's, then the Davis Store, then Goldblatt's and is today the Loop campus of DePaul University.
Later the Rialto Theatre was called the Loop End and still later, the Downtown, the Rialto was a burlesque house by the 1930s. In fact, it was the big burlesque center of Chicago for many years, save 1944-1950. Among the ladies who appeared onstage here were Gypsy Rose Lee, Margie Hart, Tempest Storm, Ada Leonard, and Ann Corio. Abbott and Costello reportedly first met there, and Phil Silvers also performed. A 1954 Chicago Tribune article stated that the Rialto closed on 31 December 1953 and was demolished shortly thereafter to make way for a one-story 'taxpayer' shops complex. The final sign on the marquee? "Speedway Wrecking Company - The Greatest Stripper of Them All"!
Source: Cinema Treasures.
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Looks like 1930s. See also below for the present state of the building: www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/4921372022/.
Tags: vintage postcard pantages warner warren cinema theatre theater cinemas architecture cityscape streetview building Downtown Los Angeles Hill Street California color colour 1930s 7th Street
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Longshaw Card Co., Los Angeles. Hollywood Boulevard around 1950.
This card was mailed in 1950. Left Grauman's Chinese Theatre. To the right the El Capitan cinema with the sign on the roof. In the middle, the high tower of the First National Bank (1928) by architects Meyer and Holler, still existing. The front right might be the entrance to the Roosevelt Hotel.
Tags: vintage postcard California USA Los Angeles Hollywood cityscape street boulevard Chinese Theatre color colour streetscene bank hotel First National Bank Roosevelt Hotel cars 1950 El Capitan cinema cinemas
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Down left the marquee of the Astor Theatre indicates they showed Chaplin's The Great Dictator, which had its New York premiere on October 1940. The Astor opened in 1905 as a legitimate theatre but became mostly a cinema from 1925 on. See also cinematreasures.org/theater/518/. Top left publicity for the play Life with Father which opened on Broadway, New York, in 1939; it was turned into a movie in 1947. Down right Loew's State Theatre, where Gary Cooper can be seen in The Westerner (1940). Loew's State Theatre opened in 1921 and showed both vaudeville and cinema. For Loew's State Theatre, see cinematreasures.org/theater/557/ In the back the sign on he roof of the Capitol is visible. For Capitol. see cinematreasures.org/theater/522/
German postcard by Krüger, no. 921/10.
We once visited Zoo Palast, when it used to be one of the locations for the Berlin Film Festival. In 2011, the legendary cinema at the Hardenbergstraße in West-Berlin was closed. It was quite a shock to read this at Wikipedia. The Zoo Palast was built in 1956, but at the site, there had been a Palasttheater am Zoo since 1915. In 1925 the Ufa overtook and rebuilt the cinema. Many classics of the German film had their premiere here, including Metropolis in 1927. The cinema had its own orchestra, a ballet, and a cinema organ.
Source: Wikipedia (German).
This was the first in a series of our postcards of international cinemas.
Tags: Zoo Palast Cinema Kino Cine Bioscoop Berlin Hardenstraase Germany Deutschland Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Postkarte Postkaart Anzichtkaart
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