Liberty Theatre
321 E. Missouri Avenue,
East St. Louis,
IL
62201
321 E. Missouri Avenue,
East St. Louis,
IL
62201
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The Liberty Theatre opened in the 1920’s and was closed in 1943. It was located on Missouri Avenue near Collinsville Avenue.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
A history of East St. Louis….In 1940 the Range Theater at 321 Missouri Avenue opens. It will shortly become the Liberty Theater and have two statues of Lady Liberty at the entrance. When it closes, it becomes the Youth For Christ building.
There must be some sort of office building located at this address today. One of the occupants at this address is:
Senator James Clayborne Jr
327 Missouri Ave Ste 422
East St Louis, IL 62201
Disregard that last post. One search engine gave 321 Missouri Ave for the Senator and the correct address of the Senator is 327 as I posted above which is NOT this former theater.
This is from a history site on E. St. Louis. They also give the address as 327 instead of 321. Were these streets renumbered?
“Mary Angela Vogt’s father, Theo Vogt, and uncle (Herman Hauser) had a liquor store in the early 1900’s at 327 Missouri Ave. This later became the Liberty Theater”.
The site where the Liberty once stood is a conglomeration of state and federal offices located just down from the Federal Court House. The Liberty was long gone when the buildings were erected in in early 60’s.
Header should be Closed/Demolished
It would seem the theatre reopened in late 1944. A news story appearing in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in January 1945 related that the mayor of East St. Louis ordered the New Liberty Theatre to stop showing “adults only” type of films that it had been exhibiting for three months. Max Wald, the manager, then said he would change to “general interest” films. How long this policy lasted is not known.
Max Wald seemed to be an adults only theatre manager, he also managed the World Theatre (Adults Only) in downtown St. Louis in the 1960’s.