Liberty Theatre

434 W. Front Street,
Plainfield, NJ 07060

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Open since at least 11/23/1925 when a Wurlitzer organ (opus 1207) was installed. Back in the early 1960’s this was a Walter Reade theatre and was one of two first-run theatres in the town. It was owned by an independent operator.

The Liberty Theatre was closed in December 1983. Today it operates as a small factory for Ductworks.

Contributed by tc

Recent comments (view all 10 comments)

teecee on March 2, 2006 at 11:00 am

Listed as open in the 1944 FDY with 1075 seats. Listed in the 1961 FDY as part of Triangle-Liggett Theatre Service & in the 1970 FDY (as the New Liberty) as part of Triangle Theatre Service Inc.

teecee on March 25, 2006 at 1:24 am

Opened on Christmas day in 1925. Feature film was The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd.

Plainfied: 300 years, page 117.

josie105 on May 1, 2006 at 5:22 pm

During the fifties and sixties we kids loved the Saturday afternoon shows with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. I remember walking by marquee’s announcing the latest movie by Doris Day or Elizabeth Taylor. It’s the place where I first saw “Song of Bernadette” and I wanted to be a nun-saint that very night…. One time around 1962 I saw a “hand-out” in the lobby asking patrons to help put a stop the “terrible” idea of pay-TV called cable. The gloom and doom prediction saw an end to the film industry. lol

rrettino on February 3, 2007 at 2:40 pm

I worked here on and off from 1975 through closing night in December 1983. In fact I was working there the night it closed. DC Cab was playing and the owner-a very nice man named Fred Fleisher-told me to pack up the print as he was closing down that night.

The films in those years were a mix of horror and black explotiation with occasional forays into porno. The owner truly tried to run a professional operation but the area and clientele was not condusive to that. It was always a single screen running 2000 foot reel to reel changeovers with a working curtain and masking.

teecee on July 12, 2008 at 10:32 pm

1929 program:

View link

kencmcintyre on July 21, 2008 at 5:23 am

Here is a photo taken off Google maps:
http://tinyurl.com/6qcgrj

RickB on April 24, 2009 at 1:46 am

By the time of this shot (dated 1982) the marquee had already seen better days…

lostmemory on May 22, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Here are two more 1982 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

mrwiseguy on December 27, 2009 at 12:56 pm