The movie and film production industry were expanding and growing in the larger metropolitan cities in the late 1800's, and by the early 1900's small rural towns across northeast Colorado were beginning to catch the movie fever as well. They yearned for entertainment when they came to town for the supply shopping on Saturday nights. Many of those early motion pictures had no sound, only the hum of the projector....but your imagination pulled you through the storyline. The picture quality was far from perfect, but the friendships of the local townspeople is what made the experience worth traveling the many miles to town to take in a show!
Rialto Theatre, Haxtun Colorado, started in 1920, providing that experience for the community! (Neighboring towns of Holyoke and Julesburg started their theaters about this same time. Peerless Theater in Holyoke and the Hippodrome Art Centre in Julesburg are still in operation today as very successful businesses). Historians in Haxtun Co. are not certain when the Rialto closed but it is believed it was in the early to mid 1970's.
As popular as this establishment was, there is only one photo (or possibly two) of it in circulation within the community. Much of the information comes from local past and present community members. "It is believed that the above photo was "tin can day" where townsfolk would bring their tin cans on a designated day and would get into the theatre free. In those early years admission to the showings were 15 cents for children and 25 cents for adults. During Christmas children would look forward to receiving paper bags of peanuts and hard candy. In the 1950's and 1960's a gentleman from Denver owned the business and would travel to Haxtun every weekend to run the theatre. He may or may not of owned it in the early 1970's. Haddie Swisher operated it in the 1950's and her son did the projection. Rialto had single showings on Wednesday nights as well. Edna Koellner operated the theatre in c.1966 to 1968 and many times picked up large film rolls at the Haxtun Post Office. Some of the movies people remember seeing were: Tarzan, The Black Birds; Heckel and Jeckel, Hop-along Cassidy, Duel At Diablo, Jack the Giant Killer, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
The following is taken from Homesteading Haxtun and the High Plains by Jean Gray.
"Dr. J.D. Cochran opened the Rialto Theater on February 20, 1920, playing to a "packed house" that filled the theater to its capacity of 480. "The opening was something unusual to Haxtun and made one think for a moment of the big city amusement places," reported the Harvest. "The Rialto is as classy a theater as anyone could wish for."
Calmar C. Mc Cune recalled growing up in Haxtun with fond nostalgia despite the financial disasters of the late 1920's and early 1930's. Admission to the Rialto Theater was ten cents and Haxtun roared with activity on Saturday nights, he wrote in Those Were the Days. "Pretty girls were everywhere and Doc McKnight would treat everyone in the drug store to an ice cream soda."
So although the movie picture was "far" from perfect in those days, it was more the friendships, the conversations with new friends and the anticipation of what the coming attractions would be at the famous and popular Rialto Theatre of Haxtun Colorado! It was indeed.....picture perfect!
Credit: Homesteading Haxtun and the High Plains by Jean Gray, Wilbur Kipp collection, comments from various community members.
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