12. Rialto Theatre

This plush 1400-seat movie palace opened in 1929 as a flagship, state-of-the-art film and drama playhouse attracting well-wishing telegrams from such movie stars as Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo.  Part of the Vaudeville circuit, it cost $250,000 to build (a fortune) and was owned and operated by the local Clark and McWilliams families’ theater company to replace a former Rialto Theatre previously on this site.  The Rialto closed in 1980, changed owners to Richard and Vertis Mason, was restored and re-opened in 1987.  It is the oldest operating movie theater in Arkansas.