The Liberty

We attended a live performance of Oliver today at the Little Theatre on the Bay, which is in her 63rd season of live theatre. LTOB is situated inside the Liberty Theatre in North Bend, which was built in 1924 and opened on April 20th of that year for the first showing of a silent movie.

The story in the Coos Bay Times read as follows:

The formal opening and dedication of the beautiful new Liberty Theatre in North Bend yesterday afternoon, was attended by many invited guests and friends. The program began at 2 pm with the playing of the 'Star Spangled Banner'. Mayor Phil J Keiser introduced the speakers. Congratulatory telegrams were received from Mayor George Baker of Portland, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Jack Holt, and Gloria Swanson. One of the attractions at the new theatre is the big Wurlitzer organ and organist Rex Stratton. The house will seat 722 persons and has 42 lodge seats in royal blue plush velour. the other seats are covered with blue leather. The interior is highly artistic and blue and gray are the colors carried out. The floors are covered with heavy Hartford Saxony carpets of gray ground with blue figures. All of the hangings and draperies are of royal blue velour. The interior walls of the theatre are rough plaster, decorated with shades of yellow, blue and green. Several pictures are beautifully blended on the walls. All the woodwork is painted green, and the building has elaborate electric fixtures.

The theatre closed in 1954 when the Port Movie Theater opened in North Bend, and was acquired by the founders of Little Theatre on the Bay in 1958. In 1959, after an extensive cleanup and remodeling, The Tender Trap directed by Hope Cahill was staged. LTOB is the second oldest theatre group in Oregon, and has enjoyed continuous productions on the stage of the Liberty since 1959.

I was spoiled as a Theater Major at the local Community College in 1978 and 1979 to have the pleasure of being in a couple of plays here. Between this theatre and the exquisite proscenium theatre at Marshfield High School, I grew up with the illusion that all towns and all schools had such grand structures in which to learn the art of the play. I have since learned it is not so, sadly, not so.