Monday, March 19, 2012

Hanging in the Balance

Expert structural engineer Michael Krakower will offer the city of South Pasadena a report today regarding the safety of the historic Rialto sign. (LA Times blog got a few facts wrong -- Landmark Theaters leases but does not own the Rialto, for example -- but you can read more about the latest in the saga in the Times story here.) I say, let's make sure we do whatever it takes to keep the Rialto sign safely in place. Then, let's use this as a starting point to finally bring this grand movie palace back to life.

My regular readers have seen most of the following links already, but for newbies:

Read my history of the Rialto Theater, including my historical photo slideshow at Patch here.

Read my analysis of other historic theaters that have been successfully revitalized at Patch here, and make sure to watch the included portion of my longer film project: The Rialto: Remembered and Imagined.

Read my plea to leaseholder Landmark Theaters to help us save our beloved movie palace here, and my follow up here.

Join others who want to make sure the Rialto is saved, restored and reopened by signing up with Friends of the Rialto at the website here or on the Facebook page here.

Let Landmark Theaters know that since they have the power -- and the keys to the place -- we really, really, really need their help to save the Rialto. You can write them online here or send mail to:

Customer Service
Landmark Theatres
2222 South Barrington Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90064.

We don't have to go all Network on them. I really believe once Landmark knows how important the Rialto is to South Pasadena as well as greater Los Angeles, we'll have something more along the lines of this...

Stay tuned for more as this develops.

UPDATE 5:40PM: Pasadena Star News reports that Rialto sign can be saved if Landmark Theaters fund repairs. Officials from Landmark have not returned repeated calls for comment.

I'll say it again: write and let Landmark know how much the Rialto means to us. After all, there's power (and persuasion) in numbers. Just take a look at this.

8 comments:

Shanna said...

Hanging in here... That is so gteat that there is a link to email Landmark! I am trying to think of what I will say.

Shanna said...

I meant ...great...

Mister Earl said...

What is Mark Cuban's phone number? I'm sure you have it by now.

Anonymous said...

Laurie, you are exactly what the Rialto needs.

I really wish you would host an event where the city could speak to a Landmark representitive directly, or at least gather ideas from the public to present to them.

Great idea to finally post links to contact them. Obviously whatever if anything has been going on behind the scenes to try and save the place for the last few years has failed.

Jason

Laurie Allee said...

Thanks, guys.

I'm very interested in learning what the structural engineer has to say.

Stay tuned.

Escott O. Norton said...

Another great rallying cry for the Rialto. Thank you Laurie!
I already posted a comment to the LATimes site with corrections, but apparently it got deleted! @Jason, an event is being planned by Friends of the Rialto where the community will be able to share their concerns and ideas. Whether a Landmark rep will accept our invite has not been determined, but we will certainly pass on the results! Stay tuned to the Friends of the Rialto website and facebook page for news of that event and more.
www.FriendsoftheRialto.org www.facebook.com/FriendsoftheRialto

Sally said...

Thank you Laurie! Keep up the great work on this. When can we see the rest of your remembrances of the Rialto film? You should do a screening at the Rialto!!!

Sally said...

And thank you Escott, for keeping up the Friends of the Rialto!!!