Liberty Theatre

My Grandfather owned this theater in the 1940’s His name was Joseph Corwel and I find the Liberty theater under his name in Bridgeport City Directory with the 1292 State St. address. Anyone have a picture?, when demolished etc?

OK – further research indicates the address of 1292 State Street is correct, which indicates this theatre is demolished. The 1242 State Street building that resembles a movie theatre was actually the West End Bowling Alley.

If the placement shown in the photograph is correct, and the Liberty stood approximately where the fenced-in limousine service now stands (with its blue awnings), then here’s the problem: move the street marker to the right and you’ll see the building (red door) that was supposed to be the West End Theater. Also, the red dot indicator in the map shows the West End and Liberty on the same side of the street, but this wasn’t the case at all. I lived on Hanover Street, a few blocks away from both of these theaters, and with friends attended Saturday matinees at both theaters during my late forties-early fifties childhood. The favorite of me and my buddies was the Liberty—ten cents on a Saturday afternoon. Two tenth run movies (Hopalong Cassidy, or “The Fighting Seabees” or “Sands of Iwo Jima” or two horror pictures, etc., plus cartoons, cartoons, cartoons.) There was a famous seat that everyone ran for—its bottom was out and you could rest your duff on the floor, but look out for the rats!. The West End, which was snazzily remodeled, was fourteen cents, and who had that kind of money? I do remember, though, one Saturday wanting to go to the West End for a live appearance of Clarabel the Clown (I don’t know which one) from the Howdy Doody Show. It was a quarter! Somehow I reached down into that tiny money pocket on my jeans and found it—twenty-five cents! Anyhow, the West End and the Liberty were practically across the street from one another, NOT on the same side of the street. If I can still remember, the West End was on the south side of State Street and the Liberty was on the north side. And if I look hard at that building with the red door, I’m willing to bet it’s not the West End but the Liberty. In the early sixties the new manager of the West End ran everything from Russ Meyer flicks (“Lorna”) to Igmar Bergman festivals. I think I saw fourteen Bergman films in a week’s time. It was truly an experience. But the West End, the whole city in fact, was imploding, and nothing, not even the best films in the world, could save those movie houses.—Bill Zavatsky

The theatre opened as the Studio and the name was changed around 1916 to the Liberty. It had 483 seats.It closed about 1952 and was converted to commercial use.