Riviera theater's last days

This photo was taken a few weeks prior to the theater's grazing to make way for an atrocious building project. With the Riviera went a whole era of moviegoing in Puerto Rico as one of its most architecturally interesting movie theaters was gone. This was the theater in which so many members of my family (grandparents, uncles. parents) spent nights watching the best of Hollywood movies. I was lucky enough to see many movies there, but the theater was a bit deteriorated at the time. Still, one could see all the wonderful art deco architecture and cool interiors.

Background

The Riviera theater was an example of art deco architecture in movie theaters. It was a first run theater catering to the upscale Condado section of San Juan. It was later a second run movie house showing double features.