Riviera Theatre

Riviera theater new Playhouse open Wednesday: Beautiful new playhouse realization of a nine year ideal and work

The beautiful Riviera Theater which opens to the public next Wednesday represents the realization of an ideal in the mind of a young man who began in a quiet way the conduct of an amusement enterprise in this city nine years ago.

In 1916 Luther Warner was a printer in the shop of the Commercial. He was intrigued greatly by the "movie game", which at that time was an enterprise with a more or less hazardous future in this city. Until that time the financial results of the theater business had not been particularly remunerative. Since that time a new epoch has been written.

Mr. Warner began with the old Vaudette. The present Smith building, in 1916. Within a short time he took over the management and control of the Rex theater after that show had run a course up and down with the latter relatively greater than the former. From that time the Rex theater has been prosperous, and in 1918 the Fitzpatrick-McElroy company bought the two houses and Mr. Warner threw his interests in with them.

By a system of giving the best productions and at the same time continuing prices reasonably low, the business has been uniformly successful and prosperous. It is a perfectly safe and true statement that nowhere, in a city even approximating the size of Three Rivers, are better shows offered the public at even an approach at the same prices.

However, throughout all these nine years of work in this city Mr. Warner has had an ideal. He has been constantly working for and seeking a new playhouse in keeping with the prosperity of the city and dignity and worth of the productions he is showing. The Riviera answers this desire. Here Three Rivers people have a most desirable theater building, a model of convenience, beauty and comfort as well as a monument to the enterprise of manager Warner and the Fitzpatrick-McElroy Company.
The Theater Itself

The theater itself is more than merely a "movie house". The building under the skillful work of Architect J. C. Brompton has been developed into a work of art, both as to the interior and the exterior, at the same time losing nothing, but rather gaining in efficiency of operation and the comfort and convenience of its patrons.

Built throughout, thoroughly fireproof it impresses the spectator with an air of luxury and relaxation from the moment of entry into the long but wide spacious lobby, over carpets of velvety softness and into the theater itself with its harmonious decorations, rich hangings and curtains, soft restful lights, and comfortable seats caring for a thousand patrons as against less than five hundred at the old playhouse.

The unseen Work

Back of all this which the playgoer sees is the real power, the work, the construction, the effort which makes all a pleasing amusement palace.

Behind these scenes are found the latest equipment in stage effects, drops, curtains and screens, while the lighting effects are controlled at a switchboard which means little more than a mass of wires, switches and steel to the uninitiated. Below the stage are fine dressing rooms with every convenience, and at one side the heating plant separated and hermetically sealed into a room as nearly fireproof as modern construction can make it.

The operating room contains machines, which are almost human in their automatic devices speaking safety, speed and clear pictures. Inspection by the state fire marshal's department brought the statement from the inspector that no theater in the state was better built, or more thoroughly protected than the Riviera.
Other Features

Manager Warner's office is on the second floor near the operating room but placed so that he may see the stage or screen from his desk. There are suites of rooms on the second floor all of which is occupied by the Three Rivers College of Music and Fine Arts, an institution which although but a few weeks of age, has a register of students greater than even the promoters anticipated.

On the first floor is the Paradise of Sweets owned by the Sperou Brothers. This is beautifully equipped in a style in keeping with the entire construction and finish of the building.

Although the realization of the ideal or dream of Manager Warner when he began the theatrical operations in this city nine years ago is such as should make him rub his eyes and wonder if the marvels of Aladdin's lamp had been handed down to modern times and wrought its changes in Three Rivers.

(Three Rivers Commercial News)