Dear Editor,

After reading “The little cinema that could,” I believe Rialto Cinemas was inaccurately and wrongfully portrayed in the article. I will endeavor to briefly set the record straight.

“Rialto showed conventional films, or typically blockbusters and large name pictures for the time the company owned the property.” This is patently untrue. We never owned the property. We leased the building from Lakeside Leasing Inc. We owned the business of operating Rialto Cinemas. Rialto Cinemas operates three unique theatres.

It’s a collection and not a chain. We established the location as an art-house in January 2000, and through hard work, dedication and good bookings, we built an art-house in a market where conventional wisdom said it wouldn’t work.

Again, this is all readily available information reported in The Press Democrat, The Sonoma County Independent (now the Bohemian) and other sources. Cinema West’s David Corkill is quoted in an article as saying that Rialto Cinemas is one of the country’s top-50 art houses.

“It wasn’t until November 2010 that Tocchini was sold the property by its owner’s mother in a rather dilapidated state.” As I understand it, the Duggan Family Trust still owns that property. The property was leased by the Duggan Family Trust to Lakeside Cinema Partners as of Sept. 1, 2010.

The Summerfield Cinemas opened in late November 2010, but control of the property began on Sept. 1, 2010. The article implies Rialto Cinemas left the property in a dilapidated stated, which is not true.

There was seismic work that needed to be done, but that wasn’t the responsibility of Rialto Cinemas under the terms of its lease with Lakeside Leasing Inc.

I would like to point out that a newspaper article should be researched, and an interview should be presented as one. This article, from a factual standpoint, reads like an interview. I strongly feel Rialto Cinemas is owed a published apology from both the writer and publication.

Ky J. Boyd is the proprietor of Rialto Cinemas.