A theater in business long enough to celebrate its 100th anniversary evokes many memories.

“I saw the opening of ‘Gone with the Wind’ here,” said Marty Terlep of Joliet, who is 97 himself. “That was 1939.”

He remembers wanting to stay for a second showing of the four-hour film, but his mother said it was time to come home.

Terlep was among more than 400 visitors who came to the Rialto Square Theatre on Sunday for a 100th anniversary celebration that included tours of the theater, which opened May 24, 1926.

Many, if not most, had their own special memories of the Rialto.

Andy Honiotes was one of four members of the Joliet Region Model A Restorers Club who brought the classic Ford cars to the Rialto to add a touch of the 1920s to the celebration.

“The first movie I saw here was ”The Absent-Minded Professor," Honiotes said. “That’s when I got interested in old cars.”

The 1961 film featured Fred MacMurray and a Model T Ford. Honiotes would buy his first Model A Ford five years after seeing the movie.

Lorin Lynch, whose great-uncle Hiram Lynch was the first stage manager at the theater when it opened, started working as a stagehand in 1974.

Lynch, still working as a stagehand, describes working at the Rialto as “a real family tradition” that included his brothers, father and grandfather.

The Rialto was mostly showing movies when Lynch became a stagehand. But he remembers working a weekly series of country music shows at that time that featured star performers Dolly Parton, Mel Tillis, Tom T. Hall and Jerry Reed.

Grace Juracka of Frankfort was at the celebration with her fiance and family in large part because they were considering having her wedding there.

“Gorgeous,” Juracka said of the Rialto. “The interior is so stunning. I always thought it was beautiful.”

She has her own memories of the theater.

“The first time I was here was for ”Weird Al" Yankovic as a child," she said, adding her brother was a big fan of the comic musician.

Juracka also worked at the Rialto as a production assistant when Fox TV used the theater to film parts of “The Big Leap,” a show that ran for one year in 2021-22.

All those memories were part of what made the Rialto 100th anniversary celebration special, said Steve Randich, president of the Rialto Square Theatre Foundation.

“It’s amazing, just hearing all the stories that people are reminded of when they are here,” Randich said. “It’s so heartwarming to hear people talk about what they did as young people. This theater means so much to so many people.”

The theater has been holding a series of anniversary events.

The free event Sunday included tours that provided access to the Rialto green room, where stars including Taylor Swift have put their signatures on the walls.

Stars, show business and movies were not the only memories for visitors.

“My grandparents were here for their first date,” said Kathryn Kinnett of Coal City. “They would say how beautiful it was. They were not well-to-do people, but they liked to come here because of the elegance and the music.”

Kinnett brought her three granddaughters, ages 4 to 8, who were looking up and around at the lobby, designed to resemble the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France, and the chandelier named “The Duchess.”

“They are pretty amazed,” Kinnett said. “They are just looking around at all the beauty.”