The theater closed in the 1980s, but employees there claimed to see shadowy apparitions in the halls and described an eerie feeling of being watched by a presence in the upper levels.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 319 East Main Street,
Alice, TX
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 27.75032480116993, -98.07355955240382
- County:
- Jim Wells County, Texas
- Nearest Towns:
- Alice, TX (0.3 mi.)
Rancho Alegre, TX (1.4 mi.)
Alice Acres, TX (2.9 mi.)
Coyote Acres Colonia, TX (3.6 mi.)
Coyote Acres, TX (4.5 mi.)
Loma Linda East Colonia, TX (7.7 mi.)
Amargosa Colonia, TX (9.6 mi.)
San Diego, TX (10.2 mi.)
Agua Dulce, TX (10.3 mi.)
Alfred, TX (10.5 mi.)
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That theatre was very creepy when I was a kid. We would go in there to watch movies. And it was so dark almost pitch black in there you couldn’t even see your own hand in front of your face
lol, probably because you weren’t supposed to be looking at your hand genius.
My father was manager or the Rialto and Sage theaters from 1969 to 1980. My brother worked as projectionist a few years, and I worked box office and concessions 1972–1978. I was working a saturday matinee kiddy movie marathon in 1974, and the place was full of kids of all ages. A small boy wearing out dated, antique looking clothes came up to the concessions counter, and pointed at the popcorn. when I told him the price, he looked utterly shocked. I asked him how much he had, and he shrugged and pulled some coins out of his pockets. the coins looked like collectors items, old silver dimes and a few old style pennies. He declined to buy anything,and he made a point of staring at my pink shirt and laughed. He annoyed me, so I made sure to watch the crowd leave after the show, to get another look at him. I never saw him again. I always wondered if he was a ghost, because of the out of date clothes and haircut, the old money and all.
Wow …neat story. I am originally from Alice.
Trey Hoel. Do you have a brother named John Wayne Hoel ?
My brother was named Edd Wayne Hoel.
I am a paranormal investigator my crew and I were thinking about investigating that place we just need to find out where we need to go to ask permission to enter The theater we are called R.D.A.A Paranormal Investigators Unleashed. If we catch anything or any kind of footage I would definitely write back on here to let all of y’all know about our investigation.
This would be a great place to check out I can tell you the hall to the bathroom area is where they are at, when I was little if we had to go to the bathroom, you knew something was in the hallway you could feel it you would run from the stairs to the bathroom cause that was the scary spot it had good lighting but their was just a presence you could feel
My ex boyfriend took me on one of their tours with the expectation of a seance because I’m very into the paranormal. However, when we got there, they said that there would be no seance because they had the building cleansed so there are no spirits there anymore. This was back in 2011.
I worked at the Rialto theater my senior year in high school when Mr. Hoel was managing the Rialto and Sage. I quit in 1980 to go to college in Dallas. I worked concession and was the relief projectionist working Mondays and Saturdays in the projection booth located behind the balcony. At that time the Sage get all the new releases and the Rialto would get the B movies and re-runs. Because of that, the attendance was low and the balcony was no longer used (closed). So I would sit at the top row right outside the projection booth during reel changes and watch the movie. Sometimes I would get bored and sit at the very bottom row (first row in the balcony) to watch the movies. If someone were to look up towards the balcony, they might have seen a dark silhouette (me) standing or sitting there. It was always dark and spooky up there, especially when we were playing horror movies but I never encountered any strange phenomenon. I actually enjoyed working there. During the time I was there, there was only one movie that brought in so many people that we were forced to open the balcony. That movie was ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.
If there were ghosts they were probably messing with the projectionist, that balcony and projection room area was Alice’s “Studio 54”, it had that vibe of something bigger city wise and yea lots went on up there. You would feel compelled sometimes to go over the balcony when you went down the steps to leave.
This weekend it is being torn down the structure has caved in and the building will be gone sad to say