Memories of the Riant Theatre

Memories of the Riant Theatre

 By Jack Coll

July 23, 2013

      Trivia Question:  How many Movies Houses have been located in Conshohocken since the borough incorporated back in 1850?  Answer a little later on.

      Donna and I visited the Hiway Theatre located at 212 Old York Road in Jenkintown to view a documentary film called 20 Feet from Stardom.  We were first time visitors to the Hiway Theatre and like many of the old time theatres transformed us back in time to our childhood days when all movie theatres graced Main Street USA, more on the theatre later.

The film 20 Feet from Stardom was a smashing success at the Robert Redford Annual Sundance Film Festival back in January and quickly went main stream released throughout the country.  The film follows a handful of backup singers that have appeared on a number of the greatest songs of all time.  Judith Hill, Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Lisa Fisher, Tata Vega, Jo Lawry and a number of others.  If the names aren’t familiar to you, the songs sure are.  Can you name two or three songs where Darlene Love sang lead or back-up.  Let’s give it a shot, well Darlene sang backing vocals for Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, and Sonny and Cher.

Darlene Love and her first group The Blossoms also sang back up for Shelley Fabares hit single “Johnny Angel”, John Phillips (Mama and Papa’s) solo album.  The Blossoms also delivered back up vocals on a number of Johnny Rivers hits including “Poor Side of Town”, “Baby I Need Your Loving”, and “The Tracks of My Tears”.

Darlene sang back-up for the Crystals “Da Do Ron Ron”, and sang the lead under the Crystals name two mega hits, “He’s A Rebel”, and “He’s Sure The Boy I Love”.  Darlene also sang lead on “Today I met The Boy I’m Gonna Marry”   Darlene also had several other hits with Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans.  You can look for Darlene on the highly acclaimed Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special singing behind Elvis, but her biggest claim to fame came with Phil Spectors album, “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector” where Darlene sang Christmas “Baby Please Come Home”.  For more than a quarter of a century Love has been the guest on David Letterman Show at Christmas time singing that song.

If that wasn’t enough she also sang backup for U2’s cover of “Christmas Baby Please Come Home”.  You might remember Love’s role in the movies Lethal Weapon, where she played Danny Glover’s wife Trish Murtaugh in all four of the movies.

Lisa Fischer is a star that most music lovers never heard of rising to fame with a debut album that produced the Grammy Award winning hit “How Can I Ease the Pain”.  But Lisa’s real claim to fame was singing backup for artist like Melba Moore, BillyOcean, Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan, Teddy Pendergrass and Roberta Flack.  Lisa also toured with Tina Turner and since 1989 has traveled and worked with the Rolling Stones.

Merry Clayton is just an unbelievable individual both personally and in her career.  Merry sang early backup vocals for Bobby Darin, and actually sang the first version of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in her Kiss)”.  Merry was one of the original Raelettes singing behind Ray Charles, Pearl Baily, Phil Ochs, and Burt Bacharach.  She was credited with singing backup with Elvis in a number of his early sessions but was never credited.  Merry sang backup on Neil Young’s debut Album.  One of Merry’s big breaks came when the phone woke her at four O clock in the morning back in 1969, it was a recording studio who needed her to come down to the studio and lay down some tracks with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones song “Gimme Shelter”,  Merry is that ghostly voice you hear.  Other credits include Lynyrd Skynnyrd’s “Sweet HomeAlabama”, you can find her on earlier recordings singing behind Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, and Carol King.

Judith Hill, is extremely talented, she is both Japanese and African American decent, and she can speak and sing in both Japanese and English.  In 2009 she was hand picked by Michael Jackson as a duet partner.

Stevvi Alexander recorded with Incubus, Macy Gray, Colbie Caillat, Mike Posner, Gin Wigmore, and toured with Sheryl Crow, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, The Roots, Gwen Stefani and Diana Ross just to name a few.

Each and everyone of these backup singers has an extensive resume performing with the greatest artist in the world including Patti LaBelle, Madonna, Elton John and Leon Russell.

20 Feet from Stardom is a must see documentary for everyone and anyone who has ever loved music.

Back to the Hiway Theatre, if you’ve never been there it’s worth the drive, the theatre built in 1913 was originally known as the Jenkintown Auditorium and held live shows and silent movies.  The theatre played under different names over the years, including the Embassy Theatre, The York Road Theatre, and in 1940 it was named The Hiway Theatre.  For a brief time in the 1980’s it was the Merlin Theatre, and for real short time it was The Chas 111 Theatre, before being renamed back to the Hiway Theatre in 2003.  At one time the theatre had a seating capacity of 600, but the number of seats has been reduced to about 330, following two million dollars of  renovations in 2006, and I must say that they are 330 luxury seats, wide, padded and comfortable.

There are not many old time movie houses around, of course the Ambler Theatre, and Colonial Theatre, some with single screens, other had to split the screen to maintain maximum attendance.  And of course ask anyone in the Conshohocken area about movie houses generally only one word is all you hear, “Riant”. The Riant Theatre was once located on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Fayette Street.

The Riant Theatre opened on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, simultaneously with the dedication of the new MatsonfordBridge.  Harry Schwalbe built the theatre and in an effort to involve the community residents Schwalbe held a contest to name the new movie theatre.  The late George Chell who resided at 114 West Fifth Avenue named the “Riant”, a French word meaning Laughing, smiling, pleasing and cheerful, Riant Theatre it was so named.  Chell’s winning submission earned him a one year free pass to all movies and events at the theatre, of course Chell was treated to silent movies.

George Chell was present at the very first movie shown on the evening of November 11, 1921 when “The Sign on the Door” starring Norma Taimadge, was shown.  The theatre opened with great fanfare, and  just seven years later in 1928, “Talkies” came to the Riant, the theatre was forced to remodel to include a better sound system.  By 1937, air conditioning was installed along with other remodeling and painted murals throughout the theatre.

To a Conshohocken youngster growing up in the borough throughout the 1920’s thru the 1960’s. well Conshohocken was a little slice of heaven.  Going to the movies was a major part of their lives.  Movies like “Going My Way”, “The Bells of St. Mary”, “The Best Years of Our Lives”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Miracle on 34^th Street”, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”, “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”, “All The King’s Men”, “Twelve O’clock High”, “The African Queen”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “The Quiet Man”, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, “Shane”, “Peter Pan”, “From Here to Eternity”, ( I know this gets a little long but maybe just a few more).

Maybe you’ll remember seeing at the Riant Theatre, “On the Waterfront”, “Dial M for Murder”, “White Christmas”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Rebel Without a Cause”, “Lady and the Tramp”, “East of Eden”, “The Seven Year Itch”, “ The Ten Commandments”, “ An Affair to Remember”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “Gigi”, “The Fly”, “Ben Hur”, “Some Like It Hot”, “Rio Brovo”, “The Time Machine”, “The Little Shop of Horrors”,

I wonder how many residents can recall seeing a few of these 1960’s classics at the Riant.  “West Side Story”, “The Parent Trap”, “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “The Music Man”, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World”, “The Pink Panther”, “Goldfinger”, “My Fair Lady”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “The Sound of Music”, “Batman”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, “The Graduate”, “Cool Hand Luke”, “In the Heat of the Night”, “Easy Rider”, and finally “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.  Of course thousands of movies played at the Riant over the years.

When the Riant Theatre opened in 1921, it seated 960 people, and some of the best events in later years were the Saturday afternoon matinees.  The Riant held a number of novelty giveaways over the years.  Most residents recall collecting dish ware, if you attended a Wednesday night movie you would get a dish on the way into the theatre.  If you went every Wednesday you could collect an entire set.

By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s main street movie houses were struggling, new, more modern theatre’s were popping up as quick as the strip shopping centers.  Easy parking and “A” list movies were the main attraction.  Main street theatres were struggling to afford “A” list movies, and parking in most small towns became a problem.

After a period in the early 1970’s when the Riant held a grand Re-Opening, they turned to double X movies, and by 1973, after 50 years of providing Conshohocken with entertainment, the marquee on Fayette   Street went blank.  In the mid 1970’s Conshohocken was in the midst of redevelopment, and in March of 1976, the Riant was demolished.

Funny thing is when Donna and I were sitting in the beautiful Hiway Theatre, I got to thinking, just across the street, and about 30 feet from where the Riant was located was Light Parker Furniture.  As we sat waiting to see “20 Feet from Stardom”, I thought perhaps the Riant Theatre sat 30 feet from the wrecking ball. Perhaps if Harry Schwalbe had built the Riant just across the street, the Riant Theatre really would have been 30 feet from the wrecking ball.  And maybe, just Maybe Conshohocken would still have a theatre, a beautiful theatre, just like the Hiway Theatre in Jenkintown.

About that trivia question, how many movie houses have been in Conshohocken over the past 163 years?  Well I’m sure most of the old hands know about the Riant, and then we had the Forrest Theatre once located on the corner of Hector and Forrest   Street.  We also had Little’s Opera House that mainly hosted old time vaudeville show, but in later years showed movies.  And now a couple of theatres none of us would remember, the Bijou Theatre opened in 1906, and was located on the corner of Fayette and Elm Street.  The Gem Theatre opened a year later in 1907 and was located at 26 Fayette   Street, the theatre could seat 400-500 residents and would often sell out, if the address sounds familiar well Benny and Reds Barber Shop opened in the old theatre after it closed. One of the more popular theatres of the day was the Palace Theatre located at 69 Fayette Street with a seating capacity of 200 people. Jacobson’s Men Store occupied 69 Fayette Street in later years during the 1940’s, 50’s and early 1960’s.  Some of us might remember Domenic’s Shoes at 69 Fayette Street in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  Then came the wrecking ball

If you were keeping count Conshohocken had six theatres over the years, once again the Bijou, Gem, Palace, Little’s, Forrest, and Riant.  You can find the entire history of Movie Houses in Conshohocken in the “Tales of Conshohocken and Beyond” book sold at Coll’s Custom Framing. You can also read about the time when world famous Charlie Chaplin and his wife Mildred Harris appeared in Conshohocken and what theatre they appeared at in the Tales book.

Check out other Conshohocken items on ConshyStuff.com

Stay tuned for Coll’s Custom Framing’s new book, “Photographs and Short Stories due for release in late 2014