Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2007-11-10 - Identified through online information from James R. Stettner. -- Salem had two Libety Theatres....one on N. Commercial St. and one on S. Commercial St. The S. Commercial location was the later of the two. It is not known which of these two locations had the organ. Disposition of the instrument is also unknown. -Database Manager
2015-11-29 - Updated through online information from Eric Schmiedeberg. -- There has been a lot of confusion over the years in various places concerning the Liberty Theatres in Salem. Here is what the newspaper microfilms and business directories have shown me: The first Ye Liberty was located at 149 N. Commercial Street. I have looked all over the place to see if it had an organ of any kind. There is no evidence of it anywhere I have looked.<br><br>The time frame for this building is 1909 to 1910. Beginning in 1911, the address for the Ye Liberty changes to 140-142 N. Liberty. This is the new Liberty Theatre that opened within the new McGilchrist Building.<br><br>This is the theatre to which three different makes of organ were sent; beginning with a Photoplayer in 1919. The second was a 2/4 Robert Morton installed in 1921. The third was a 2-manual Smith of (probably) 4 or 5 ranks and was used for only a little over a year until the Liberty closed at the end of June, 1925.<br><br>There is no record of a Ye Liberty Theatre at 170 N. Commercial in the Salem Business directories or newspaper microfilms going as far back as 1907. Perhaps this building predates that year. There is a third Liberty Theatre that operated at a South Commercial address for a short time in the 1950's.<br><br>I had the unexpected opportunity of seeing the smooth plaster patch of wall that was undoubtedly the rear wall of the Liberty's organ chamber when the McGilchrist Building was recently gutted for a total interior remodeling. The chamber was at an elevated level in the house-right position. Seeing as the Liberty relied completely on their instruments for music, it is reasonable to believe the console was in a fixed position at the center of the orchestra pit.<br><br>Smith Unit Organs of 4 or 5 ranks usually contained: 8' Vox Humana 16'Flute 8' String (of some kind) 8' Trumpet or Tuba 8' Tibia Plena or Open Diapson Xylophone Glockenspiel Cathedral Chimes Bass/Kettle Drum Crash Cymbal Cymbal Snare Drum/Tom Tom Tambourine Castanets Chinese Block<br><br>Smiths were known for the open Plena rank, though it was not always included in the specification in smaller instruments. David Junchen refers to this choice as being an unfortunate one as they do not impart the "warmth" to the Smith organ's tone like the stopped Tibia Clausa, which was favored by pretty much all of the other builders; though not necessarily designated by that name.<br><br>The Smith organs I have read the stoplists and seen the pictures of (I have never actually seen one) show that the company unified them generously. Usually they grouped stop tabs together according to ranks rather than pitch. So the stops for the a given manual would--for example--read like this: 8' Trumpet 4' Trumpet 8' Open Diapason 4' Octave 8' String 4' String etc., etc. with percussions and then traps following The small Smiths I have seen did not have combination action or second touch stops. They had no back rails. Tremulant tabs were found at the end of the Solo manual stop section to the far right of the console horseshoe. -Database Manager
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