The Rivoli Theater opened on September 10, 1921 in Pendleton, Oregon. However, the building at 351 South Main Street was not always a movie theater. The actual building was built between 1897 and 1900 by the Matlock family for stores opening in the area. Soon, one of these stores was turned into a small theater called “The Pastime,” labeled as a nickelodeon theater. This theater was owned by the Matlock family. A little later on, the entire building became just a theater with the name “The Arcade Theatre.” Two businessmen from the area, Greulich and Matlock, now owned the entire building and re-named the theater “Rivoli” in 1921, ahead of its grand opening.
The theater officially opened on September 10, 1921 after a $110,000 reconstruction of the existing building and premiered with the film “The Old Nest” (4). For perspective on just how grand the theater was, the actual stage was 50 feet by 22 feet, held roughly 810 people in the main seating and balcony seating, had five dressing rooms and a jaw-dropping 26-piece orchestra (7). The theater was heavily praised for its architectural style (5), boasted as the best theater west of Omaha (6) and congratulated for giving the people of Pendelton a theater they deserved (8).
While Rivoli was most well known for showing movies, the theater also hosted a plethora of theater acts. There were many non-movie related shows but a few stand out amongst the many. On October 18 1921, the Ralph Dunbar Opera was hosted at Rivoli (1). On February 24, 1922, Arthur Middelton performed songs for the audience (2). On November 13, 1922, Brooker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels was hosted by Rivoli (3).
The Rivoli Theater was good at a lot of things but placing advertisements in the local newspaper to attract new audience members might have been something they were amazing at. They advertised mainly big movies including “The Green Temptation” (10), “My Old Kentucky Home” (11) and “The Bachelor Daddy” (12). The theater also put ads in the newspaper for the candy shop that was located inside called “Nifty Nook” (9).
While Rivoli was deemed incredibly successful, there were some questionable things taking place at the theater. As previously mentioned, the theater hosted the Brooker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels show in 1922 (3). This show was one of the first and most popular African American blackface minstrel troupes. By today’s standards, this show is obviously very problematic and shines a negative light on the theater for hosting such a show.
It was not until 1958 that the Matlock family, who were the owners for Rivoli’s entirety, sold the theater. While Rivoli was no more, the building did continue to be a movie theater, named “Centre Theatre,” until the 1980s when it was attempted to be turned into a restaurant diner but later abandoned. Rivoli sat abandoned until 2010 when The Rivoli Coalition, a coalition striving to bring Rivoli back to its former glory, bought the theater. Since then, the theater has been under construction but many delays and pauses have taken place. The new and improved theater was supposed to open in September of 2021 to no avail.
