Rialto Theater

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put on the marker for the Rialto Theater in Bee County — so hold on, because this one's got more lives than a stray cat in a small town. Now, picture south Texas in the spring of 1922. Two brothers — Henry and Sydney Hall — look around Beeville and decide what this town needs is a proper motion picture palace.

Not a converted storefront, not a repurposed feed hall. A real one. In March of that year, they announce plans for a twenty-five-thousand-dollar, two-story brick theater, and they mean business.

They buy the site, they bring in a foreman named Homer Boots — and that right there is a name built for the marquee — and five months later, they've got themselves a building. The architect was W.C. Stephenson, the same man who had already given Bee County its 1912 courthouse, so he knew how to make a structure that meant something.

And this one meant something. The stage was built large enough to host vaudeville — full vaudeville, mind you — not just a screen bolted to the wall. The Rialto Theater opened on Saturday, August 19, 1922.

The first film shown was The Three Musketeers, starring Douglas Fairbanks. Admission was twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children. Now, the Hall brothers had ordered a ten-thousand-dollar pipe organ for the occasion, but it hadn't arrived yet — and here's where the story gets good — so rather than open in silence, management hired a live orchestra to accompany a silent movie on opening night.

More than thirteen hundred tickets were sold that first night alone, across two showings. Beeville showed up. But the Hall brothers weren't finished.

They were building something bigger than a theater — they were building an empire. Twenty-two theaters, eventually, stretched across south Texas, and this one in Beeville was the flagship. In December 1924, they started an early area radio station right here — KFRB — with the transmitter sitting on the roof of the very same building.

The Rialto was broadcasting to the region before most people even had a radio to listen on. Then came talkies. In October 1929, the theater installed a sound system and stepped into the modern age.

Air conditioning, too, which in south Texas is not a luxury — it is a spiritual experience. And then came fire. In 1935, a blaze started in the basement and gutted the interior of the building.

Most stories end there. This one doesn't. The Hall brothers hired John Eberson, an atmospheric theater designer, to rebuild what had been lost.

And Eberson did not rebuild it the same. He redesigned it — exuberant Art Deco interior, Art Moderne exterior, bold colors and geometric patterns in the materials, the finishes, the fabrics. The Rialto came back showier than it had ever been.

During World War II, movie stars came to Beeville, right here to the Rialto, to promote war bond drives. And in 1967, Hurricane Beulah sent floodwaters through the building, and the Rialto absorbed that too and kept going. It finally closed in 1986.

Sixty-four years of movies, radio, vaudeville, orchestras, war bonds, and one very late pipe organ. The Hall Rialto Preservation Association formed in the years that followed, committed to restoring and reusing the historic theater. Some buildings just refuse to be finished.

The Rialto Theater in Beeville is one of them.

What the marker says

This distinctive building served as the flagship of a chain of 22 theaters in south Texas. In March 1922, brothers Henry and Sydney Hall announced plans to build a $25,000 two-story brick motion picture theater in Beeville. They bought this site, and Homer Boots was foreman during the construction, which took five months. The theater design included a stage large enough to host vaudeville performances and other attractions. W.C. Stephenson, who also designed the 1912 Bee County Courthouse, was the architect. The Rialto Theater opened on Saturday, August 19, 1922. The first film shown was The Three Musketeers starring Douglas Fairbanks; admission was twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children. On opening night, the management hired an orchestra to accompany the silent movie, since the $10,000 pipe organ had not yet arrived. More than 1,300 tickets were sold the first night for two showings. Here in December 1924, the Halls also started and early area radio station, KFRB, with a transmitter on the roof. Air conditioning was also a noted attraction, and the theater installed a sound system for "talkies" in October 1929. In 1935, a fire that started in the basement gutted the building's interior. The Hall brothers hired atmospheric theater designer John Eberson to redesign the structure, and his exuberant Art Deco interior and Art Moderne exterior featured bold colors and geometric patterns in materials, finishes and fabrics. During World War II, movie stars came here to promote war bond drives. The theater survived flooding damage caused by Hurricane Beulah in 1967 but eventually closed in 1986. The Hall Rialto Preservation Association formed several years later to restore and reuse the historic theater. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2007