Rio Theatre

Address: 412 Macdonald Avenue, Richmond California

Date Opened: June 26, 1943

Date Closed: Late 1960's ?

Circuit/Owner: General Theatrical, Robert L. Lippert, Independent (Harry Lazzarini), others (?)

Number of Seats: 436

Current Status: Demolished in 1994

"Peck's Bad Boy" from 1934 with Jackie Cooper and "The Carson City Kid" from 1940 with Roy Rogers was the double feature combination at the Rio on November 4, 1944. Photo from the Jack Tillmany Collection, used with permission.

The Rio Theatre was converted from a public auto garage originally constructed in 1922.. It was outfitted with used equipment inside and opened at 412 Macdonald Avenue on June 26, 1943 by General Theatrical Company. a partnership that included the family of  the noted movie theatre historian Steve Levin. The Rio was intended to serve Richmond's greatly expanding population including the tens of thousands of shift workers from the Kaiser Shipyards. It joined Robert L. Lippert's Studio and Fox West Coast's State, both the Rio's Macdonald Avenue neighbors,  in a "grindhouse" policy, operating almost 24 hours a day with a new change of program every day starting at midnight. According to Steve Levin the Rio achieved great success during the war, quickly becoming  General Theatrical Company's top grossing theatre. 

Opening day ad from the Richmond Independent, June 26, 1943 and posters for the Rio's opening double feature attraction from Warner Brothers: "San Quentin" and "Ladies Must Live". 

Examples of the Rio's wartime "grindhouse" programming. A new double (occasionally triple) feature starts every night at midnight and runs through the following day with a several hour break for cleaning at approximately 5:00 AM. With an appetite for over 700 features a year theatres like this booked anything they could get as long it was for a cheap flat rental. Lots of material from "Poverty Row" (bottom of the barrel distributors like Monogram and PRC) as well as reissues and major studio features at the the very end of their theatrical run were the staple of grind houses like the Rio. Grindhouse audiences obviously favored lots of action, westerns and comedy.

More ads from the Richmond Independent showing the type of low budget/new show daily programming featured at the Rio during the war years. 

Robert L. Lippert who also operated the Studio and Times in downtown Richmond bought the Rio from General Theatrical in June of 1946. The June 1946 ads above show typical programming during Lippert's operation of the Rio. By this time the open all night /daily change of programming policy had been changed to multiple program changes per week, evening showings weekdays with additional matinees on weekends and holidays. Friday and Saturday programs consisted mainly of triple feature B westerns. The movie theater business was obviously on a decline after the war's end and Lippert's ads for all three of his downtown houses emphasized the newly reduced admission prices. 

Like most of the other Richmond movie theaters of this era the Rio would occasionally supplement it's mainstream programming with a an exploitation film and restrict it's viewing to adults only. This is just the kind of forbidden fruit us 1950's kids and teens would have loved to sneak in and see way back then. Little did we know how disappointed we would have been if we actually did that. Most of these films were and still are truly dreadful with very little bare skin or adult only activities to be seen. By today's standards most would be rated G and insufferable to sit through. I do like those old one sheet movie posters like the one at right above though! "Sinful Souls" and played the Rio in July 1948.

More exploitation schlock played the Rio in July 1947. "Marihuana Weed with Roots in Hell" is a  now ludicrous looking anti-drug classic directed by exploitation pioneer Dwain Esper. Internet Movie Database describes the very strange "The Lash of the Penitentes" as "actual footage of Penitentes, a sect of Catholic religious fanatics who engage in self-flagellation combined with new footage of a murder". Both of these films were made in 1936, already over ten years old when they played the Rio, and continued to play adult and mainstream theaters well into the 1960's, their main attribute being ample female nudity, that especially being the case with "Marihuana".

It's sort of interesting that the Rio threw in a Alan "Rocky" Lane "B" western as the second feature with their exploitation gem "Marihuana". It would seem that these two features were aimed at entirely different audiences but those old cowboy flicks were obviously incredibly popular with all audiences and all ages at the time. The second feature with "Lash" was the more appropriate "White Zombie", a  strange low budget independent horror film from 1932 with Bela Lugosi. Note that "Lash" played simultaneously at both Lippert's Rio and Times theaters even though they were only three blocks apart on Macdonald Avenue. Such was the drawing power of exploitation in those days! Newspaper advertising budgets usually got a boost to promote this type of material.

Boxoffice Magazine reported in January 1948 that "Harry Lazzarini, manager of the State and Porter Theatres, both in Woodland California had purchased the Rio in Richmond from the Robert L. Lippert circuit." Other independent exhibitors and/or small circuits succeeded Mr. Lazzarini in it's remaining years as a movie theater. 

Ads for the Rio from the Richmond Independent from April and August of 1951, during the time the Rio was being operated by Harry Lazzarini. The "Big Event" or "Special Event" was most likely a cash or prize drawing. Their seemed to be a prohibition at the time in specifying that in advertising, probably because it could be construed as gambling. 

More ads from the Richmond Independent showing triple feature weekend programs from (left to right) July 1952, July 1953, April 1954 and October 1955. Note that in the far right add from October 1955 the Rio promotes CinemaScope which apparently had been recently installed at the Rio, about 21 months after it first appeared at the nearby Fox. Spanish language films often supplemented the American films mid-week. 

The Rio continued with this type of programming throughout most of the 1950's. For several months in 1958 both the Fox and UA temporarily closed, making the Rio the only still operating movie theater left in downtown Richmond. The Fox and UA would soon reopen but the Rio would eventually regain that distinction once again. The Rio didn't regularly advertise in the Richmond Independent in it's latter years so I'm not sure exactly when it shut down for the first time. It's missing from from the 1960 Richmond city directory for the first time, also from the 1961 and 1962 editions. Based on that information it appears that the Rio was dark until the reopening described below which would have meant a period of roughly five years, from 1959 to 1964.

In September 1964 some brave (or crazy) movie theater  entrepreneur decided it that would be a good idea to reopen the Rio and make a play for mainstream rather than grind house audiences, even if it was with a couple of two year old comedies. The newspaper ad displayed center above was 2 columns wide by about 8 inches deep, much larger than the text only short one column ads you see further above from the Rio's post war days. This ad ran for five full days before as well on the opening day. That is some very expensive advertising for a small theater! The Rio's great grand re-opening day was on September 1, 1964.

The Rio's grand re-opening week continued on Friday and Saturday with another Columbia Pictures double feature, this one consisting of 1963 (Gidget) and 1961 product. On Sunday and Monday a couple of Spanish language documentaries were featured. The Rio had featured Spanish language films part time (usually mid week) ever since it first opened in 1943 so this was obviously an appeal to that same Hispanic audience. The two ads above were again two columns wide by several inches deep, again very expensive for a small theater. So were all of these advertising dollars well spent? I don't think so since I've found no further advertising for the "new" Rio at all in the Richmond Independent. Did the films continue at the Rio without newspaper advertising? Quite possibly since that had been done at the Rio and at many other small urban theaters operating on a tight budget before. 

In March 1965 the Fox, Richmond's only other downtown movie theater, closed it's doors again, this time permanently, giving the Rio once again the distinction of being the last show in town. It's somewhat ironic but what was regarded by most Richmond residents as a place to be avoided outlasted every other downtown movie theater! 

With no newspaper advertising or city directories published after 1965 to assist me I'm not sure when the Rio finally did close it's doors for good as a movie theater.  That area of lower Macdonald Avenue while always on the rough side was getting increasingly rougher by the mid 1960's so I doubt that the Rio lasted much beyond that period. There was a major civil rights inspired riot in Richmond in 1968 which did heavy damage and permanently affected what was left of downtown business. If the Rio was still open by that time (which I doubt) that event would most likely have led to it's immediate demise. A predominately African American church eventually took over the Rio and used it for it's services for a period of about 20 years.The Rio was reportedly demolished in 1994.

2016 image from Google Maps shows the approximate location of the demolished Rio Theatre. The address of the small building on the left in 420 Macdonald so the Rio would have been to the right of that, somewhere in the vicinity of the red arrow but probably extending into the space of the larger apartment building on the right. 

I was never in the Rio and now I regret that. The Rio had that reputation as a flea pit but also frequently offered some appealing (and cheap!) programming. In retrospect I wish I'd ventured in at least once just to see what it was like, even though judging from the outside I didn't miss very much!