Liberty Theatre
The facade of the Liberty Theatre was absorbed into Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditorium.
THE LIBERTY THEATRE, built in 1904, was designed by architects Herts & Tallant to reflect a patriotic theme. The theater’s facade boasted a relief carving of the Liberty Bell with an eagle hovering in flight above it. To signify the Liberty’s theatrical mission of presenting light entertainment, the entrance was guarded by the carved figures of Comedy and Song. Additional eagles and bells decorated the gold, amber and ivory interior, which was topped by a Colonial-style ceiling dome.
The Liberty opened on October 14, 1904 with a musical farce, The Rogers Brothers in Paris, and was quickly followed by George M. Cohan’s Little Johnny Jones, which also had a short run. More successful were 1907’s Polly of the Circus, 1912’s Milestones, 1917’s Going Up, George White’s Scandals in 1918 and Cole Porter’s Hitchy-Koo in 1919. During the following decade, the Liberty was kept afloat with hits by Kern, Kaufman, Cohan and Gershwin, most notably Lady Be Good starring Fred and Adele Astaire, and Tiptoes with Jeanette MacDonald and Queenie Smith. Then came the sensation Blackbirds of 1928 starring Bill (Bojangles) Robinson and Adelaide Hall, which preceded the theater’s final hit, Brown Buddies, in 1930. After turning to movies for the next several decades, the Liberty was closed to the public in the late 1980s.
Liberty Theatre marquee, circa 1991
Liberty Diner marquee, June 2025, Photo: Alexis Buatti-Ramos
In May 1992, New 42 signed a 99-year master lease with the City and State of New York for the seven historic theaters known as the Apollo Theatre, Empire Theatre, Liberty Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Selwyn Theatre, Victory Theatre and Times Square Theater. A lease was signed in 1996 between New 42 and Forest City Ratner for the Liberty, Harris and Empire theaters. Construction began in August 1997 on a five-story entertainment complex which includes a 25-screen cineplex operated by AMC (opened in April 2000), the renowned Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum (opened in November 2000) and a variety of entertainment-related retail uses.
The Liberty and the Harris facades (all that remained of the Harris Theatre) were integrated into the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditorium museum in the mid-2000s, while the auditorium was used by an adjacent Famous Dave’s restaurant. The auditorium was converted to a rental event space and the restaurant portion along 42nd Street became the Liberty Diner. Parts of the auditorium were still visible from the restaurant. The Liberty Diner and the auditorium closed in 2015 and Ripley’s closed permanently in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
