Liberty Theatre

The Savoy Nickelodeon launched in 1907 and was credited as the first true movie theater in McKeesport. It opened in a building at 512-514 Fifth Avenue that had previously housed the McKeesport Natatorium and Medical Institute for five years. The Nickelodeon got short-term attention but went into a receivership auction due to bankruptcy in March of 1909.

The venue reopened with new owners as the Savoy Theater. It closed on April 30, 1920 for a major five-month refresh by then owners Pete L. Gorris and Harry R. Barney. (Goris additionally served as McKeesport’s mayor, sheriff and served as an alderman and city council member.) The building would go from 300 seats to 1,198 seats extending to Ringgold Street in a major expansion and with all new Powers 6B projection in an impressive $200,000 makeover. It re-emerged as the Liberty Theater.

The Liberty Theater added sound to remain viable and would operated in the 1930’s as part of the Joseph Weiss Theatres of McKeesport portfolio including the Capitol Theatre, Lyric Theatre and Globe Theatre. Warner Bros. held four of the town’s other theaters including the Memorial Theater and the long-running Victor Theater.

The Liberty Theater hit its 60th year of exhibition with mainstream films. It closed at the end of a leasing period. But soon thereafter, under new operators, the venue tried to take advantage of the porno chic movie exhibition era by switching to adult films on February 9, 1969. It was sometimes called the Liberty Art Cinema to prove that there was artistic merit in the curation of films presented.

The change to adult cinema, artistic or not, didn’t go over well within the community and, then McKeesport mayor, Albert “Abby” Elko took action. He attended a double-feature of Deborah Downey in “We, the Family” and “Girls Do, Too.” He clearly wanted to get his money’s worth staying for the entire presentation as he not only found both of the films obscene but also determined that the coming attractions were lewd, as well.

The Mayor had the police magistrate impound the films and arrested Liberty operator Patsy Bordello, its projectionist Michael Sholtis and even its 17-year old usher on obscenity charges. The charge against the usher was dropped but the case got delayed in the court system with the films apparently still in police lockup. The Liberty appears to have not reopened. There was no happy ending for the longest-running movie theater in McKeesport history. The building has since been demolished.

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