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ERNST/PNG
Owner Corinne Lea, left, cheers as
the sign at the Rio Theatre on Broadway
is lit up Thursday. A fundraising
campaign collected $16,320 to fix the sign.
|
THEATRE
Lights on Broadway
shine bright once again
Switch is flipped on
the Rio sign
Rio Theatre staff
flipped the switch on their refurbished sign at Commercial and Broadway
Thursday night.
The theatre spent
$16,320 — money raised through a crowdsourced Indiegogo campaign — to service
the iconic sign's neon components and replace its burned out lights with LED
bulbs.
The 420-seat East
Van theatre turns 77 this year.
Many of the bulbs
on the old sign expired a long time ago.
Vancouver Sun
reporter John Mackie wrote the following about the Rio on May 4, 2006 when it
was being reopened by former owner Mukesh Goyal following a $2-million
renovation:
"For the past
two decades the Rio has mostly been closed,
although it did have stints showing Chinese and Indian movies. It opened on
April 7, 1938 with a double feature, James Cagney in Something to Sing About
and Ann Dvorak in She's No Lady. Ticket prices were 25 cents for adults and 10
cents for children."
Under current owner
Corinne Lea, the Rio has acquired a liquor
licence and is hosting live performances (music, burlesque and comedy) along
with films.
Paul Anthony's
Talent Time, a strange and wonderful variety show, was the main event Thursday
night.
SCOTT BROWN
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