Liberty Theater

The Liberty Th. closed July 18,1970. Original owner was L.B.Wilson who went on to great financial owning radio stations.

Hello, I worked as an usher primarily at the Liberty but sometimes on busy Sundays at the Madison from June 1967 til Oct 1968. We didnt make much money, 75cents an hour but we had the perk of seeing all those great films at that time for free. Having spent my childhood years as a customer there it was a dream come true job. I had just turned 16, the legal age for working in those days.
My first Saturday working the Liberty was a madhouse. People from all over NKy would come into Covington to shop & drop the kiddies off
at the movies for the day. There were so many kids it was often difficult to maintain order.
As I recall during my time working there we only had that great balcony open a few times. We opened it for Bonnie & Clyde and for The
Good, The Bad & The Ugly at Christmas of ‘67. Saturday & Sunday were
always our busiest days. Late in the evening we would sneak a smoke
sitting on the steps leading to the balcony with Lady Liberty & her
orange light bulb torch watching over us from her niche.
Back then the seats were recliners with 2 positions, rare for a theater in those days. some great films played while I worked there.
The Dirty Dozen, the 2 I mentioned above, Born Losers ( a motorcycle
gang pic that was the first Billy Jack movie), El Dorado, Rough Night
In Jericho to mention a few. Except for Good, Bad & Ugly we always
had a double feature plus short subjects. A box of plain popcorn was
15 cents & a big cup of buttered popcorn was 25 cents. Each had a penny tax added for the new Ky sales tax tho many kids never seemed
to have that extra penny. A lot of times the concession ladies or ushers would kick it in for them.
Going there as a child ( I only lived a couple blocks away ) I recall the balcony being open on many occasions. I recall being in the balcony & being scared out of my wits watching the axe murderer
movie Strait Jacket starring Joan Crawford & Diane Baker. Spending
many an afternoon watching those dubbed into English Italian sword &
sandal flicks. Not to mention all the westerns, war films, monster &
cops n robbers films. Just a fabulous place to kick back & be greatly
entertained for 4 hours or so. And if you missed the beginning of a
movie well just stay in your seat until you saw it. You could stay all day w/o ever having to leave or ante up another quarter or 50 cents.
When I worked there both the Liberty & Madison were owned by the Hill Bros. of Hill’s Seed Co. I believe they also owned the Dixie
Drive In & another Drive In too. It was a great time to live in
Covington & to go to 2 such great theaters. I think the date for the
Liberty closing above may be in error. I seem to recall it lasting
until sometime in 1971. I have the fondest of memories of both those
theaters & Covington in general back in those days.

http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/kenton1526.htm
Based on this picture and the previous one, is it possible that there were two Liberty Theaters in Covington?

My great grand-uncle was L.B. Wilson, who owned the Liberty Theater in the 1920s and ‘30s. He also owned the Rialto, Strand, Hippodrome, and Madison (then known as the L.B. Wilson) Theaters. L.B. was also president of Peoples-Liberty Bank, which was adjacent to the Liberty Theater.

L.B. Wilson was named with the initials of his mother, Lyda Beall Miles, who died from complications of his birth. Being short in stature, it was often joked that “L.B.” stood for “little boy”. He and his brother, Hansford, were vaudeville actors as youths growing up in Covington. They traveled across Europe with a vaudeville company in their late teens. Hansford would go on to become an actor on Broadway.

In 1911, L.B. got a job working for Orene Parker as manager of the Colonial Theater, a vaudeville house. He left due to feeling underpaid. A couple years later, Parker invited Wilson to his office at Madison and Pike to offer him a new contract. Wilson refused the offer, saying he was making more money selling cigars (he owned a cigar shop). As he was leaving Parker’s office, he remarked that someday he would build the nicest theater Covington ever had at Madison and Pike. Almost 10 years later, Parker’s building burned down and L.B., along with department store owner Frank Thorpe, purchased the lot. The bank and theater began construction in 1922 and the theater opened on July 21, 1923.

Previously posted 1943 photo credit Kentucky County Public Library. But it is enlargeable in below link. Copy & paste to open.

https://image.isu.pub/100908191730-6e33a2c46bf5460b9d086480166d2328/jpg/page_1.jpg