Rialto Square Theatre

Joliet, Illinois

The theater opened on May 24, 1926 as a vaudeville movie palace. The palatial European styled architecture is the work of Eugene Romeo, a Sicilian immigrant. The inner lobby was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles in France. The arch between the esplanade and rotunda was designed to mimic the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. There are more than one hundred Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers and light fixtures throughout the theater. The chandelier in the center of the Rotunda is called "The Duchess". It is one of the largest crystal chandeliers in the United States. It weighs over two and one half tons and is nearly twenty-two feet long.