Rio Theatre

Info Updates:

1/26/2011 - Frank Rowan

I lived at 2764 Inglis Street in Detroit from 1936 to 1940. All the kids in my neighborhood went to the Rio on Saturday afternoon. The had two pictures, news, a cartoon and on saturdays an exciting adventure serial of heroes like, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Superman etc. It cost 10 cents to get into the theater, for a nickel we could get a large milky way candy bar and for 10 cents a bag of popcorn. On they way home we would stop at the Eagle Dairy on Vernor Highway and buy a triple decker ice cream cone for 10cents. My weekly allowance was 30cents. The Saturday matinee took care of it each week.

12/29/2007 - Sean Doerr

Theater decor still exists somewhat. Floor is leveled, but the general form of the theater i there, and if I can recall projection holes are there but covered up. Not too much decoration originally in the theater... columns with a little bit of decoration. Owners of the establishment were nice and let me check it out and told the little bit of information they knew.

12/1/2007 - matthew zagar

My Rio theater memories include the time Captain Jolly and Poopdeck Paul came to the Rio. The crowd was pretty wild that day. Someone in the row I was sitting sailed a flattened popcorn box towards the stage and it got stuck in the screen. I believe the show was stopped due to the general mayhem.

I remember newsreels about violence in Africa involving Patrice Lumumbo (?)
The last feature I can recall seeing at the Rio was ''Wake Me When It''s Over'' starring Ernie Kovacs.

1/15/2004 - Cinema Treasures

The Rio opened in 1935, built in an unusual mix of Art Deco and Spanish Colonial styles. It sat around 1400, and was designed by Cyril Edward Schlay, a protegee of C. Howard Crane, whose best known Detroit work is the former Telenews (most recently turned into a nightclub). The Rio served as a first-run movie house until it closed in 1960. It currently houses a furniture store.

12/18/2003 - Box Office Magazine

July 1960 Issue - Ellsworth Miller formerly of the Regent, is now operator of the Rio, succeeding Stanley Kulawik. Manager George Wise had Guy Gibby, known as superman, as a stage attraction Saturday.

HomeMovie TheatersRio Theatre