Saving our theatre

The city I live in, South Pasadena, is home to a historic building, called the Rialto Theatre, which was built in 1924 and is one of the country’s last single-screen cinemas. Sadly the theatre has been closed for more than a year now because of neglect. However, the people of the city, including one clever teenager, are working together to save it.

The Rialto Theatre, on Fair Oaks Avenue, has a theatre with 1,200 seats, ten dressing rooms, a loft and a stage. It was originally a concert venue and later became a cinema. In the 1960s it showed niche films, including silent films, and in 1975, it started showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show every weekend. Although the theatre survived two fires and threats of demolition, it had to close more than a year ago because of water damage.

I went to one of the last showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Rialto, in 2009, and it was such an amazing experience. So I was really happy to hear about a movement to repair the theatre and reopen it as a performing arts centre. One of the people leading the movement is a local teenager called Miranda Gontz, who has made a fantastic documentary about the Rialto called The Rialto: A Fading Treasure.

Watch Miranda’s documentary to learn more about this historical beauty: