Liberty Theatre
120 W. Duke Street,
Hugo,
OK
74743
120 W. Duke Street,
Hugo,
OK
74743
2 people
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Correction: fire in pic 23 December 1927.
See photo of a theatre gutted by fire 27 December 1927. The photo lists location as 100 block of N Broadway, which is not the location of the early Dixie/Liberty as given above. Two theatre fires within a matter of days in Hugo or is the photo the Liberty? Adjoining buildings in pic do not match W Duke St in height, but very well could match structures on N Broadway.
The Dixie Theatre opened in the building at 120-122 Duke Street. It operated under that name from 1909 to November of 1917. Under new sole operator, A.L. Blunt it became the Liberty Theatre on November 11, 1917 with a benefit screening for the local YMCA showing a patriotic film. (The Liberty was a commonly-used World War I moniker for theaters.) But the biggest splash came just weeks later when the Liberty showed “Birth of a Nation” on December 2-3, 1917 at road show prices.
Blunt then sold the Liberty / former Dixie to L.R. Stout in April of 1921 for $16,000. The Liberty fell under the umbrella of O. Gill and Griffith Amusement Circuit next also in the 1920s. Late in 1927, it was reported that new equipment was added to the Liberty. It was gutted by fire in January of 1928. Interestingly, Gill would be arrested for setting fire to the Erie Theatre five years later. The remaining Liberty Theatre structure would then be incorporated into a bus terminal for two different bus lines, the latter of which was the Northeast Texas Motor Lines Inc.