Cooper Cinerama Theatre

Joe Vogel on July 9, 2009 at 12:05 am

The December 9, 1950, issue of Boxoffice said that the Cooper Foundation’s Harber Theater in Oklahoma City, formerly the Warner Liberty, was undergoing a complete remodeling at an estimated cost of $225,000.

The July 7, 1951, Boxoffice article about the opening made it sound like the Harber occupied an entirely new building, saying it was “…built on the site of the old Liberty….” Vague phrasing in various issues of Boxoffice from early 1951 brings no clarification. A January 6 item said that the Harber was being built “…from the ground up….” Then a May 5 item about the project said that the Liberty had been “…torn down….” but later uses the word “remodeling” to describe the project.

The Cooper Foundation only had a lease on the property, the land still being owned by J.N. “Doc” Harber. Earlier Boxoffice items had said that Harber and his wife were the owners of the Liberty Theatre building, but apparently the remodeled (or new) building was owned by the Cooper Foundation. Perhaps the imprecise information about whether the building was entirely new or just extensively remodeled had something to do with the lease arrangement between Cooper and the Harbers.

In 1949, there had been a lawsuit over the lease of the Liberty Theatre, with Warner Theatres suing the Cooper Foundation, the Harbers, and a number of other parties. I’ve been unable to discover if the suit was decided against Warner or if they ultimately settled out of court.

The December, 1950, Boxoffice item named the architects of the Harber Theatre as Carl Boller and Dietz Lusk. However, Carl Boller had died in 1946, so the lead architect must have been Robert Boller. The firm was Boller & Lusk, in any case. The 1951 item said that the murals in the auditorium and lobby had been painted by Hans Teichert of Chicago. The July 21, 1951, issue of Boxoffice ran a small photo of the opening day crowds outside the theater, showing the very modern style of the new facade.

The name change to Cooper Theatre took place in 1959. The June 29 issue of Boxoffice said: “The new Cooper Theatre, formerly the Harber, was formally opened Wednesday Evening (17) by Cooper Foundation Theatres with a press showing of ‘Windjammer,’ the Cinemiracle special.”

I’ve been unable to find anything about the house being called the Cooper Cinerama Theatre. Boxoffice refers to it as simply the Cooper Theatre through most of the 1960s. In the photo on this web page, the name Cinerama is clearly above the name Cooper, so it seems likely that the house was never actually called the Cooper Cinerama Theatre, but only sported the standard Cinerama signage. An advertisement naming it Cooper Cinerama Theatre would be better evidence than that photo.

The Cooper Foundation had actually disposed of all its Oklahoma City Theaters by 1964, according to an item in Boxoffice on November 2 that year. The June 15 issue had said that the foundation had put the Midwest, Warner, and Sooner theaters up for sale after buying out the lease of Stanley Warner Theatres, who had been operating the houses for some time. The Cooper Theatre itself had been leased to Dr. and Mrs. L.A. Newcomb earlier that year.

jchapman1 on April 13, 2007 at 3:11 pm

c1926 exterior shot -
View link

seymourcox on February 9, 2007 at 6:56 am

Architect of the Liberty Theatre placed the projection booth beneath the balcony, at mezzanine level. This resulted in a perfect picture by completely eliminating keystoning.
I can’t help but wonder if famed architect W.W. Ahlschlager, while in OKC to design the Ramsey Tower, borrowed this idea from the Liberty when he adopted the same projection arrangement in NYC’s Roxy Theatre.
Okmulgee’s Yale Theatre also built its booth into the balcony base.

kencmcintyre on December 29, 2006 at 7:05 am

I can’t figure out which Liberty was run by Warner Brothers in the 1930s. Any ideas? By the way, I thought people only slipped on banana peels in the movies:
http://tinyurl.com/yexfu8

Okie on July 15, 2006 at 1:22 pm

On the left of this antique color postcard can be seen the Liberty Theatre. Apparently this view was shot prior to (1937) construction of the State Theater that was located across the street from Liberty.
View link

xxx on March 31, 2006 at 5:10 pm

And the 12-16-1923 issue has grand opening photos of Shriners Theater exterior, lobby, and 2300 seat auditorium.

Okie on March 19, 2006 at 8:52 am

Architects for 1923 Shriners (AKA-Warner’s Auditorium, Home) Theatre were Layton, Smith, & Forsyth. Forsyth also designed Ponca City’s Poncan Theatre.
View link

Okie on March 16, 2006 at 3:01 pm

Also in the above -OKCPostcards- site can be seen the HOME Theatre (1923-1951, nee-Shriners, AKA-Warner’s Auditorium). Today the Home’s marble lobby is still intact, but the auditorium area was converted into office space in 1952.

xxx on October 22, 2005 at 10:36 am

Phot album – vintage downtown; this postcard view of Robinson Street shows the Liberty Theater situated directly across from the State Theater. The background sky scraper was designed by famed Architect W.W. Ahlschlager who also created NYC’s Roxy Theater.
http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/

Ken Roe on July 6, 2005 at 1:37 pm

The Harber Theatre designed by the Boller Brothers in 1951. It could have been a re-model of the Liberty Theater?