Valley Girl Views: When Sunbury Had A Movie Theater

Located at 445 Market St, Sunbury PA, The Rialto theater could seat 475. The theater struggled, being closed down at least 3 times between 1950 and 1977. In 1978, a disgruntled janitor lit a broom on fire and threw it in a closet. The resulting fire gutted the building. Three months later, the building not having been repaired, a second fire was started, this time in the rear of the building. Again, it was ruled arson, although the second culprit was never apprehended. The adjoining Lutheran church, which had been damaged in the second fire, purchased the property and razed the burned out theater.

In the 1950s, Sunbury boasted not one, but two theaters. The Strand, and the Rialto.

This advertisement has a number of errors, including the date of the name change. The Rialto was listed as such as early as 1933, years before the flood.

The Victoria Theater opened on November 9th 1911, showing silent films. The theater had a very small lobby, a sloped floor, and could seat 475 people.

In March of 1912, William Lyon, who owned the building, advertised that office rooms were available to rent in the theater building.

A 1918 article in the daily item, reporting on the new theater being built in Shamokin, stated: "The Chamberlin Amusement Enterprises Inc, owners of the Victoria And Peoples theaters here..." So we know that in 1918, Sunbury had two theaters, both owned by Chamberlain Enterprises. The Victoria would later be renamed the Rialto, and Peoples would later become The Strand.

On September 8th 1919, two new No 6-B motion picture projecting machines were installed in the Victoria Theater.

he last mention I found of the Victoria theater in Sunbury was in June of 1931. The first mention I found of the Rialto was in June 1933.

A new screen was installed in the Rialto, owned by the Comerford Company, in September 0f 1934. The front of the theater was to be painted that fall, and the ushers and doormen were to have new uniforms.

An article in May 1936 states that William F. Lyons completely remodeled the Rialto after the flood, before turning it over to Comerfort Amusement Company.

In July of 1952, The Daily Item, Millers Furniture Store, and the Rialto teamed up with a Spy adventure contest, to promoted the sensational movie Walk East On Beacon, based on an artible by J. Edgar Hoover. Sometime that week a spy would walk beween Market and 3rd streets. To "arrest" the spy, you had to tap him on the shoulder with that days Daily Item, and say, exactly, "You are a Miller Furniture Store SPy - Walk East On Beacon." The first to arrest the spy was to win a Westinghouse Rancho Electric Range.

The range was won by Irvin R. Knouse, an invalid who had lost the use of his legs and one arm, due to a nerve condition. A neighbor helped him move his wheelchair to the street, where Knouse went spy hunting. He tapped two men, who denied being the spy, before correctly tapping Neal Furman, winning the electric range.

December 3rd 1958, the manager of the two Sunbury Theaters ordered them both closed, following more than a year of efforts to eliminate the city amusement tax, to ease a "critical deficit situation." The amusement tax went into effect in 1952 in Sunbury. It was projected to be a ten per cent levy, but the Sunbury Baseball Association [defunct in 1958] had insisted it be lowered to 5 cents on all tickets over 24 cents. The theaters at the time were charging 50 cents, so in their case, it actually was a 10 percent rate. At the outset, the amusement tax yielded he city $20,00 year. The decline from the movie houses rapidly declined, with the take being just $8,000. The total amusement tax collected in Sunbury in 1957 was $12,000, with $530 coming from professional basketball, and $67 from high school events.

It was pointed out that Danville, Jersey Shore, and Carlisle had abolished their amusement tax in 1957, Milton & Lewisburg had cut their levy in half.

The theater was extensively remodeled again in 1957.

"One of the first changed was to move the ticket booth from the rear of the lobby, which still remains as it was originally built, to the front. Front doors were added.

Charles Lytle, in his Tales Of Sunbury website, shares his recollections of the Rialto here: https://talesofsunbury.com/the-rialto-the-nu-way-and-tv-knob/

In 1973, Cinecom Co, the owners of the Rialto, went bankrupt. The Rialto was closed until 1974. [above photo is from 1973]

The Rialto re-opened in April 1974, only to close again 3 years later.

In September of 1977, the Rialto theater closed again, when Sportservice found it to be unprofitable. t remained closed until April 1 1978,, when it was leased by American Amusement Co and Re-opened. "The lease for the theater has been obtained by Sportservice of Buffalo, N.Y., by American Amusement Co. , the owner of the Strand Theater on 311 Market Street." Plans were being made to remodel the theater, add a new marquee, andpossibly change the name.

On December 27th 1978, a disgruntled janitor lit a broom on fire and threw it into the stairway. The old building soon caught fire.

The movie being shown at the time of fire, at the Rialto was “Midnight Express”

The office, projection room, and front interior were demolished in the fire. The building was two stories tall in front, and one story tall in the rear. The back of the building was not seriously damaged.

Firefighters sprayed a curtain of water between the theater and the nearby buildings to keep the fire from spreading. Andrews furniture, two buildings down, sustained smoke damage, and the church next door, and some water reached the kitchen area.

The fire was unknown, until the arsonist confessed the following year.

On March 15th 1979 at 1:50 am, the fire alarm was sounded at the Rialto once again. This time the blaze was confined to the garage in the read of the building, and firefighters had it under control in about an hours time. The fire was officially declared out at 10:45 am.

Intense heat from the fire shattered 18 panes of glass at the education building of Zion Lutheran Church on 5th and Market streets. No stained glass was damaged. A car owned by Terry Coleman, parked in the garage behind the building, sustained $500 in damage.

In addition, the fire caused extensive smoke damage to the Andrews furniture store next door.

This second fire was also ruled arson, but no arrest for this second fire was ever made.

In April of 1979, the Daily Item ran a full page on the abandoned and dangerous buildings in the shopping district of Sunbury. The headline read "Absentee owner blight plagues city's downtown." The buildings they named were:

the former Neff Hotel [later the Fort Augusta House], listed as falling apart and a potential safety hazard. It had been abandoned by it's owner 2 or 3 years prior.

"The roach infested and debris-littered former YMCA building", at 235 Market Street.

Weeds on an empty lot beside the Strand Theater were left to grow to 4-5 feet in height, according to the article. That been the former sie of a furniture store.

The Abandoned Penn Railroad Station, a landmark building had deteriorated to the point that demolition seemed inevitable. [Thankfully that did not occur, and today it is a beautiful antique mall, showcasing much of Sunbury's history https://www.facebook.com/ValleyVintagePA]

The burnt out Rialto building was added to this list. The Rialto building was sold to the adjacent Zion Lutheran church, which razed the building and had plans to landscape the lot in the summer of 1980.

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