Liberty Theater

Joe Vogel on September 22, 2013 at 3:18 am

Here’s something rather odd. The April 24, 1920, issue of The American Contractor had a notice about a theater to be built in Sharon, and all the particulars- architects, builder, owner- were the same as the Liberty as described in the Billboard item Ken cited, but the location was given as State Street and Porter Street, which is roughly the location of the Columbia Theatre:

“Theater (M. P.): $225,000. 107x 145. State & Porter sts., Sharon, Pa. Archt. Simons, Brittain & English, 335 4th av., Pittsburgh. Owner Strand Amusement Co., Mr. Gable, pres., Sharon. Gen. contr. let to Wishart Sons Co., Sharon. Htg. & plmg. to Sempell Co., Sharon. Elec. wiring to Morganstern Elec. o., 325 2d av., Pittsburgh. Excav.”

I don’t know if the magazine made a mistake about the location, or if Mr. Gable lost the location to the rival company that later built the Columbia, and had to find another location for the Liberty project.

Charles Gable, incidentally, was the uncle of actor Clark Gable, and also owned a house in Sharon called the Family Theatre in the 1910s. I don’t know if the Family is the same house that later was called the Gable Theatre or not, but it was called Gable’s Family Theatre for awhile.

Joe Vogel on September 22, 2013 at 10:59 pm

The 1919 Sharon directory has the Gable Theatre listed in the alphabetical section (at 58 S. Railroad Avenue), but not in the list of theaters. It also has the Thomas Theatre listed only in the alphabetical section. The only houses on the theater list are the Alpha, Family, Luna, Morgan Grand, and Orpheum, and the Orpheum’s address covers the street number given for the Thomas.

I’ve found another odd thing, this in the May 13, 1921, issue of Variety:

“SHARON QUICK CLOSING

“The Strand, Sharon, Pa. which opened with vaudeville April 20 closed May 7.

“The house plays five sets twice weekly, hooked by Billy Delaney, of the Keith office. Business has been light since the newest change of policy with the early closing following.”

Note that the proposed theater in the April, 1920, magazine article I quoted in a comment yesterday says that the new theater was to be built for the Strand Amusement Company, the same company that owned the Liberty, as noted in the Billboard item cited in the very first comment in this thread. One company building two large theaters in the same small city at the same time doesn’t make sense, so the Strand and the Liberty had to have been the same house. Variety must have confused the name of the operating company for the name of the theater itself, while The Billboard got it right.