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The horizontal panels suggest an acoustic wall treatment and the frosted square lights
are c.1934. Shrubbery adorns the stage apron.

The frontage to High Street was The circle was entered from the
wider than the auditorium, to allow for left-hand end of the cross aisle.
two laneways down each side. It was The balcony loges were to be ‘fitted
faced with 100mm tiles to dado height; with radiators and foot warmers for
brown, with a yellow-tinged cold nights and iced water and fans to
background. Three shops, one on the soothe during the heat of summer’.
left of the entrance, and two on the The loge seats were said to be
right had their windows and the poster constructed ‘on the same principle as
cases framed in brass. the seats in the highest priced motor The offset projection room was a
The distinctive external feature was cars’. compromise to get more shop space.
the raised and bowed central section of An ornate barrel ceiling stepped to a The plan submitted to the health
verandah in which the word Rialto was flat, but similarly decorated ceiling authorities on 5 June 1920 put the
set in leadlight. This was not a first above the balcony, with opalescent light projection room in the balcony, but in
however; the verandahs of the Rivoli fittings along the centre line. the revised drawings submitted 21
Camberwell and Empress Prahran January 1921 it was at the rear of the
In other respects the auditorum was
were more showy. stalls.
plain; decorative plaster on the cornices
Two terrazzo steps (with metal and tops of the five buttresses the Initially the Rialto operated under
treads) were the approach to a set-back extent of imagination. the umbrella of F.W. Thring’s
entrance with unusually oversized doors. Associated Theatres Pty. Ltd., a group
The walls were splayed at the
The doors were a 1936 replacement for which leased many of the theatres built
approach to the rectangular
accordian-style gates. They opened on to by small companies. When Associated
proscenium, with some perfunctory
a small and inadequate vestibule, and to merged with Hoyts Pty. Ltd. in 1926 to
plasterwork either side, in lieu of stage
a circular island ticket box. The terrazzo become Hoyts Theatres Ltd., the
boxes. These spaces later became inlets
floor (c.1940) had a contrasting coloured immediate future of the Rialto was
for ‘Typhoon’ ventilation fans.
border. assured.
A former usher at the Rialto, Trevor
The stairs to the dress circle were at Advertising for the Rialto cast a
Fiander remembers how daylight shone
the rear of the foyer on the left side. wide net. In its early years the theatre
into the grilles during matinees and
They led to a small vestibule built over was the biggest purchaser of column
showed up the blades of the fans.
the left-hand lane. inches in the local paper. As well as
Next to the ground floor projection
The director’s promised that this illustrated advertisements, a description
room, which was slightly off-centre to
would be a ‘spacious elongated of the show appeared beneath a
the stage, was a rewind room and the
chamber with an arched ceiling of great drawing of the famous bridge, together
manager’s office. Part of the office was
beauty and delicate ornamentation in with a line from Shakespeare. The
taken over to enlarge the rewind room
ivory and gold. Comfortable divans will implication was clear - this was a high-
when the installation of Western
invite the weary to sink into their minded enterprise.
Electric sound was proposed, in
luxurious depths.’
November 1929.
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