Prior to this, fires were a predominant hazard in Old Town Cottonwood, especially during the early part of the 20th century.  With a building boom that started in the 1910's and the quick emergence of a town made of lumber, came the danger.  One of the more notorious fires was the conflagration of December 1917, a fire that destroyed five buildings that housed seven businesses.  Even without insurance, business owners pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and rebuilt, starting all over again.

During the rebuilding, an Italian Gentlemen by the name of Josph Becchetti discovered Old Town Cottonwood.  After being rejected for work in Clarkdale as a painter working on new company houses, due to his ethnicity as an Italian, Becchetti decided to try his hand at something new.  Realizing the need for a theatre in Cottonwood, he built the towns first.  But fires continued to have the predominant hand in Old Town as many businesses were fronted with wooden boardwalks and flammable debris.  With one flick of a cigar, everything went up in flames, including Becchetti's business.  Learning his lesson, Becchetti decided to rebuild a few doors north of his current location, this time using cast concrete.

By 1923, Becchetti's Rialto Theatre opened it's doors again.  This time, when a second fire in 1925 claimed many buildings in Old Town Cottonwood, his building escaped, leaving it only scorched.  The Rialto, which later became the Old Town Palace Theatre, was known as the longest running single-screen theatre in the United States.  Generations enjoyed movies of all genres within its confines for many years.

Then again, the inveterate inferno that plagued Cottonwood from the past, reared its ugly head one last time on December 8th, 1998, completely gutting the Old Town Palace Theatre.