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Historic place

Cooper Cinerama Theatre (Liberty Theatre)

19 N Robinson Ave, Oklahoma City, OK

Opened as the Liberty in 1915, it became the Harber and then the Cooper, where Cinema Treasures says Cinerama and Cinemiracle took over.

📅 1915–1975🏛️ TheaterDemolished
Open on the mapSlide back to 1915

The story

The Liberty Theatre opened December 13, 1915, built by Paramount Pictures. Warner Bros. took control in the mid-1930s, when Paramount nearly went bankrupt. Cooper Foundation Theaters took over in the late 1940s, razed the original facade and lobby, and modernized the auditorium. It was renamed the Harber Theatre on July 1, 1951.

Cinerama equipment went in around 1953, and half the balcony was blocked off, cutting capacity from 1,700 to about 1,100. It reopened June 19, 1958, as the Cooper Theatre with Windjammer in Cinemiracle, though a commenter gives 1959 and Retro Metro says it became the Cooper Cinerama in 1960. A comment citing the Oklahoma Journal says it closed on September 2, 1975. Cinema Treasures lists demolition in 1976.

What's There Now

The pages I opened do not say what occupies the site today.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The Liberty's lobby and auditorium were reportedly separate buildings joined side by side, per a Cinema Treasures commenter.
Half the balcony was blocked off for Cinerama.
It had four names across its life: Liberty, Harber, Cooper, Cooper Cinerama.

Nearby history

Warner Theatre (Overholser Opera House / Orpheum)

217 W Grand Ave · 32 m away
It opened as an opera house in 1903, became the Orpheum and then the Warner, and in the 1950s was Oklahoma City's first

Globe Life Insurance offices

311 W Grand Ave · 89 m away
Globe Life Insurance Company bought the building in 1953 and kept offices there for 21 years.

Katz Drug Store

200 W Main St · 96 m away
In August 1958 Clara Luper led Black students to its lunch counter, and by the third day the counter served them.

John A. Brown's Department Store

213 W Main St · 106 m away
Oklahoma City's biggest downtown department store spread across a block of Main and Park, and was torn down for a Galler

Biltmore Hotel

228 W Grand Ave · 114 m away
At 33 stories it was the tallest building in Oklahoma, and it was brought down with explosives in 1977, four years after

Hales Building

201 W Main St · 128 m away
A 12-story bank building that owners fought to save for years was dynamited in 16 seconds, to clear a shopping Galleria

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Sourceshttps://cinematreasures.org/theaters/12480