The Rialto Music House

Fabled Chicago music stores, the first of which was opened by Rudolph Fractman in June 1922. Eventually, Fractman would open three more stores in Chicago and one in Gary, IN. Rialto Music stores had a huge inventory of Mexican and foreign records and claimed to carry the most complete stock of Race Records in the world. They also carried sheet music, piano rolls and other musical items. Fractman created innovative schemes to boost record sales, which included blasting music through a megaphone attached to a phonograph to attract people as they exited nearby theaters. He also established a label, Rialto (7), which mainly issued ethnic material. That label also released an early solo recording by Jelly Roll Morton.