Rialto Theatre - Beeville, TX - Art Deco - Art Nouveau on Waymarking.com

The exterior of the theater is an excellent example of Art Moderne design, featuring the streamlined elements popular in the 1930s. The outstanding feature is a bold rectangular marquee jutting out over the sidewalk.

The front panel accommodates moveable lettering to advertise movies. The sides are paneled with red porcelain enamel. Neon light tubes form a scroll border around the top and bottom of all three sides; neon slashes decorate the rounded corners, and a neon H (for Hall) in a black enameled inverted triangle surrounded by a speeding cloud motif (in neon tubing) is on either side. In front, on a red and yellow enameled dais, RIALTO is spelled out in freestanding stylized block letters, outlined in neon. On either side of the center marquee is a shorter, set-back section of marquee. These sections are covered with yellow porcelain enamel panels held in silver-colored metal frames and decorated with linear neon tubing. The soffit of the marquee and the entry is white porcelain enamel, divided by horizontal and diagonal colored bands and neon tubing, designed to attract and draw the public in.

The entry beneath marquee is paved with polychrome tile reminiscent in color and style of the Craftsman Period. Between the tile and the public sidewalk is a strip of gray and black terrazzo. The ticket booth, centered in the entry, is banded in black and white horizontal stripes. A center black band scattered with asymmetrical five-pointed stars is inlaid on three sides with round, clear-glass windows, each with a metal speaker in the center to allow for communication between patron and ticket seller and a pass-through shelf below for distributing tickets.

The sides of the entry are veneered with square, red Vitrolite structural glass panels. A horizontal single-light window, set in a metal frame, permits viewing into the two commercial areas, a barbershop to the south and the concession area to the north. A metal-framed display board on a narrow pilaster on each inside comer of the entry holds several movie playbills. At the rear are three sets of red double doors; each door has a square single-light window, a vertical glass decorative panel, and a metal push plate and kick plate.

The upper portion of the facade is divided into three vertical planes (Photos 1-2). The center plane is tallest and most prominent, while the two side planes step down and back. All are stuccoed and painted white. Each plane is topped with a simplified cornice of horizontal banding in yellow and black porcelain enamel over steel. The strong geometric design is complimented by three narrow vertical casement windows on each side of the marquee (each two lights wide and seven lights tall). A vertical band matching the comices is beneath each window and a vertical band over the center window rises to form a "T" with the top resting on the top of the cornice.

In the center plane are two large rectangular metal casement windows, eight lights wide and four lights high. Three horizontal bands of yellow and black, two above and one below the windows, formerly gave dramatic balance to the area above the marquee. The original horizontal bands disappeared sometime after the theater closed in the 1980s and were inadvertently left off when the facade was restored. However, further restoration plans call for replacement of the bands so that the theater will appear as it did when it reopened in the 1930s.