Liberty Theater

Tom Lasser opens a film reel storage cabinet in the projection room of the Liberty Theater. The cabinet dates back to the time during World War II when the 1942 USO theater was used to show movies. Lasser, now retired, is a former commander of the Joint Forces Training Base airfield and acts as the theater's unofficial historian.

Tom Lasser opens a film reel storage cabinet in the projection room of the Liberty Theater. The cabinet dates back to the time during World War II when the 1942 USO theater was used to show movies. Lasser, now retired, is a former commander of the Joint Forces Training Base airfield and acts as the theater’s unofficial historian.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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On stage

Tom Lasser talks about the Liberty Theater on the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Wall graphics are decor for a theater group that uses the space, which is purported to be haunted by a friendly ghost.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Barbershop

For 16 years, Dorothy Tielsch has been giving military haircuts in barbershop of the Liberty Theater, built in 1942 as a USO theater.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The Liberty Theater,

The Liberty Theater at the Joint Forces Training Center in Los Alamitos is used by a community theater group and as a university satellite campus.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Still frame

A still frame from the movie “Patton” hangs in the lobby of the Liberty Theater. A caption with the photo reads that the scene in which actor George C. Scott, as Gen. George S. Patton, delivers a stirring patriotic address in front of a huge American flag was filmed in the theater.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)