Hotel Congress celebrates centennial with Rialto, TSO, AZ Public Media

Hotel Congress will celebrate its 100th birthday later this month in a party that also celebrates three other Tucson institutions.

The Nov. 24 “Century of Tucson” celebration pays tribute to:

• Hotel Congress, which opened in 1919 and whose history as a downtown hotel and concert venue includes the capture in January 1934 of notorious outlaw John Dillinger and his gang, who were guests at the hotel when a fire broke out forcing the gan to evacuate. Dillinger and his crew was captured days later still in Tucson.
• Arizona Public Media, which launched when KUAT went on the air in 1967.
• Rialto Theatre, which opened in 1920, one of Tucson’s first movie theaters.
• And Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which is in its 91st season.

The TSO brass quintet will be part of the Nov. 24 event that runs from noon to 4 p.m. and includes a pop-up history museum presented by Hotel Congress and Arizona History Museum, guided historical tours of downtown, a sit-down with Hotel Congress owners Richard and Shana Oseran on the Congress plaza and a kid-centric roadshow and vendor fair in front of Hotel Congress’s sister business Maynards Market & Kitchen on North Toole Avenue.

Other events include mariachi performances, a jam session by Rich Hopkins and the Luminarios on Maynards back patio, Tucson’s largest birthday cake and the highly anticipated sealing of Hotel Congress’s time capsule.

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Hotel Congress also will pass the 100-year torch to the Rialto, which launches its centennial with the return of El Cine Plaza, a one-day celebration of the time in the early 1970s when the Rialto was a Spanish-language movie house.

Spanish-language films were shown at the Rialto under the moniker El Cine Plaza from 1971 to 1973 — when it was briefly converted to an adult film house — and from 1978 until 1984, when the theater was closed permanently after a boiler explosion in the basement.

“It’s really the kickoff to our 100th anniversary celebration,” said Rialto GM Curtis McCrary. “I’m really excited and it’s a cool thing we’re coming together.”

The Nov. 24 El Cine Plaza features a performance by Sergio Mendoza and screenings of several shorts and full-length films including the 1950s musical “Al Son Del Mambo” starring Resortes, Amalia Aguilar and Perez Prado. Former Arizona Daily Star reporter/columnist Ernesto Portillo Jr., a KXCI personality, will host the free event.