Rialto Theatre (Tucson, Arizona)

In 1963, while downtown Tucson suffered a recession, The Paramount was closed as a motion-picture house, citing lack of sales, first-rate films, and a general demographic move away from downtown Tucson. From 1963 to 1971, the vacant theater served as storage for a furniture store.

In 1971, the Rialto suffered another name change, this time being re-christened El Cine Plaza. For a while, the theater was transformed into a strictly Spanish movie house, until 1973.

In 1973 it was resold again and re-opened as an adult theater, initially showing Deep Throat. Though the city of Tucson attempted to block The Rialto in its capacity as a venue showing adult films, they were initially unsuccessful, and it remained in this capacity for five years.

During its run as an adult theater, there were several incidents of attempted arson, purportedly stemming from one offended local woman; she succeeded at one point in burning the balcony stairs in 1978, and was never caught.

In 1978, the theater was transformed once again into a Spanish-language cinema, still under the name El Cine Plaza, and continued showing Latino films until 1984, when a boiler explosion devastated the theater, collapsing the stage and resulting in the theater's condemnation.

The theatre remained closed until 1995, when it was purchased by Paul Bear and Jeb Schoonover. The enterprising duo re-opened the theatre as a concert venue under the original name.

Quickly the Rialto garnered a reputation as Tucson's preeminent music venue, as Bear and Schoonover hosted over 700 shows featuring a diverse range of acts such as The Black Crowes, Linkin Park, The White Stripes, Maroon 5, Dave Chappelle, Morrissey, Fugazi, Government Mule, Sam Butera, The Afro-Cuban Allstars, King Sunny Ade, Cesaria Evora, Arturo Sandoval, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, The Vagina Monologues, Quest for Fire and even the Jim Rose Side Show.

In September 2004, Bear and Schoonover sold the theatre to the City of Tucson, as part of Rio Nuevo, a downtown revitalization project. The Rialto Theatre Foundation was founded in April 2004 by Tucson Weekly co-founder Douglas Biggers, who spearheaded the acquisition by the city and was the executive director of the project from mid-2004 until December 2011. During his tenure, the Rialto Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, more than $2 million in renovation and equipment improvements were made, and the theater was completely re-branded and re-launched in April 2005. The Rialto Theatre is now owned and operated by the Rialto Theatre Foundation. Curtis McCrary, who was the first employee hired by Biggers, became executive director when Biggers left at the end of 2011. McCrary resigned in August 2020.

The Rialto Theatre is one of several historic theater and concert venues built along Congress Street, the others being Club Congress (directly across the street) and the newly renovated Fox Theatre several blocks to the west.

Both structures were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.