Rialto Theater (Los Angeles)
former movie theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States
Rialto Theater, formerly Quinn's Rialto Theater and Grauman’s Rialto, is a historic former movie theater located at 812 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles.
History
Downtown Los Angeles's Rialto Theater was designed and built in 1917 by Oliver Perry Dennis, the architect also known for Janes House and the Magic Castle. Since opening, the building has undergone many alterations, including a significant remodel by William Lee Woollett in 1923, the addition of neon Art Deco marquee around 1930, a conversion to retail sometime after 1988, and a seismic retrofit in the 1990s.
Exhibitor J.A. Quinn opened the theater in 1917 with an exclusive screening of Garden of Allah. Sid Grauman took over in 1919, and in 1921, the theater entered into an exclusive agreement with Paramount Pictures, whom Grauman sold the theater to in 1924.
In 1979, Los Angeles's Broadway Theater and Commercial District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, with Rialto Theater listed as a contributing property in the district. In 1989, the building was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 472.
Rialto Theater closed as a movie theater in 1988. In 2013, Urban Outfitters moved into the building.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rialto Theater (Los Angeles)” as former movie theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as former movie theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q44960260. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1923, 1930 and 1988.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Rialto Theater (Los Angeles)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Rialto Theater (Los Angeles) primary sources, Rialto Theater (Los Angeles) archive and Rialto research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rialto Theater (Los Angeles)”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Rialto Theater (Los Angeles)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.