Rialto Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on August 15, 2025 at 7:02 pm

Bullock & Davis had operated over at the New London Opera House with movies. They changed the name there to the Nickel Theatre. They decided to move to more modern and larger digs here as the New Orpheum opening on May 16, 1909. Moran Bros. decided it would operate in the former opera house location retaining the “Nickel” moniker leading to a contentious lawsuit. It was settled out of court with Bullock & Davis retaining the Nickel name and the Moran Bros. changing the Opera House / Nickel to a new name that was the Empire Theatre. On October 9, 1916, the Orpheum had a brief run as the Play House with legit stage plays for the Turner-Hammond troupe.

After several seasons, the Play House returned to its Orpheum name effective January 18, 1917. That lasted about 18 months. Under new operators, this venue was rebooted from the Orpheum to the Rialto Theatre on May 30, 1918. It was equipped with a Hope-Jones Orchestra Pipe Organ with William Desmond in “Honest Man.” Operated by A. Schwartz (later Schwartz & O'Connell, Inc.) through showtimes of April 5, 1925 with Marie Provost as “The Dark Swan.”

Hours later the building was gutted by a large fire ending its run. The organ was destroyed and the only thing apparently salvaged was “The Dark Swan” film print. Rialto Wurlitzer Organist Anna Graham lost her personal sheet music in that April 6th blaze that ended the building. That same night where organist Graham was housed - the Crocker House - she lost all of her personal belongings when it, too, burned down. Anna Graham was only able to save her canary.