Liberty Hall has featured artists and bands from all types of genres. Joan Baez has even commented on how much she loves playing in such an intimate setting.
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onstage that wrote them an e-mail, requesting to play violin in homage to one of the venue's muses. Decades ago, a show by political rockers Rage Against the Machine saw concertgoers stage diving from the lip of the balcony. Though the staff never encourages such activities, the question stands: Why do people love playing here so much?
"The question's answered by standing in the spot," Fitzgerald says, looking out across the empty house from a perch on the stage.
Back in her office, Susan says that, unlike musicians, she prefers to sit in the balcony completely alone, soaking in the atmosphere as much as she can. But as much as she loves sitting in the back, Susan is quick to remind herself how close it all came to never happening.
"It just couldn't have been done without the Oldfathers," she says. "Thanks to Charlie, financing was covered."
Over the years, of course, common wear and tear necessitated fresh coats of paint or new equipment. The owners recently installed a new sound system to accommodate the needs of moviegoers and concert attendees. Some might see these alterations as an attempt to give Liberty Hall a facelift. For Susan, however, the reasoning goes deeper.
"We brought it back into use for the whole community," she says. "Our hope is to fortify the building so that we'll leave it better than we found it."
About the Art
Though there are a slew of artistic facets of Liberty Hall, by far the most dominant is the mural adorning the ceiling of the building's main hall. The piece, entitled "Starry Way," depicts a celestial seascape on which two figures, muses appear. The first, which appears to the left side of the stage, is swathed in an iridescent green dress and is playing a violin. Shooting stars and comets obscure the second figure, located on the right, as he or she manipulates what appear to be the hands of a giant lunar clock. The expanse above the stage and between the
two figures looks as if the ceiling of the venue is falling away to reveal the heavens. The mural reaches so high to the ceiling that parts of it were painted by broom as the artists stood on massive scaffolding.
The piece is just one part of the overall grand designed conceived of by muralist Dennis Helm and completed by Helm, Dalton Howard, Clare Tucker Bell, and Tamara Brown. As Susan Millstein recalls, her husband, David, chose to let Helm take control.
"(David) really left it in Dennis Helm's hands," she says. "He had the grand vision."
In his essay, "Sea Above, Sea Below," Helm described (before his death) the overall impact he had hoped for from "Starry Way."
Source: "Kansas Murals: A Traveler's Guide" by Lora Jost and Dave Loewenstein
"Herein," he writes, "One is invited to move through a corridor of stars, past comets and endless nebulae, into the depths of space. Surely this is the image of the greatest ocean of all."
Tracing the Early History
Tracing the Early History 1854 to 1856: The Herald of Freedom One of a handful of abolitionist papers being published in Lawrence at the time. The Herald of Freedom burned to the ground a mere two years after setting up shop at the corner of Seventh and Massachusetts streets.
1882: J.D. Bowersock buys the Hall — Developer Bowersock buys the Hall out of bankruptcy in hopes of converting it into Lawrence's first opera house.
1856: Liberty Hall opens — Though it would eventually become a theater, the original Liberty Hall was an open room designed for community meetings and events.
1925: Chaney brings a scare — The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces, premieres in Lawrence.
1896: The fire — A fire torches the stage of the Bowersock Opera House. It did not ruin the rest of the building, however. The same fly rails used to light the stage remain hanging in the wings to this day.
1947: Jolson croons, Lawrence swoons The Jazz Singer star Al Jolson appears in Spring 1947 to perform at the Bowersock Opera House.The return performance was his first in Lawrence after canceling a show in 1921.
Source: "One Hundred Years of Lawrence Theatres" by E.F. Scott
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April 30,2009