"The Rialto" was the 14th Street theatre district. The theatre district has long since moved uptown, and "the Rialto" is no longer used. The term was extremely popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. "The Rialto" was later used for the uptown theatre districts, but it lost currency in the 1930s.

Irving Lewis Allen's City in Slang (1993) describes it:

"Until the 1880s, the south side of Union Square on 14th Street was called The Rialto, after the name of the busy commercial district in Venice. In the 1860s, actors lounged around the base of the great equestrian statue of George Washington, and there they had what they and passersby called the slave market for those seeing employment through the theatrical offices in the area.

"Among show people, 14th Street was 'the street' in the sense of an informal network of news and gossip. Hence, the famous New York phrase 'What's new on the Rialto?' - an inquiry about what was going on in show biz and later by extension in any world of endeavor. The question echoes the line in The Merchant of Venice, 'What news on the Rialto?'"

27 June 1886, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, pg. 6:
He had a clear, dark, laughing eye and a dark mustache, that would have been better than a fortune to a Rialto stroller.

28 April 1889, New York Times, "How to See New-York City," pg. 17:
On the south side of the square, between Broadway and Fourth-avenue, are the Morton House and the Union-Square Theatre. The sidewalk in front of these establishments is known as the "Rialto," because it has been for years the favorite lounging place of actors when they gather for gossip.

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