Joseph Armando Liberto, a 54-year veteran of Baltimore movie houses who managed the Stanley, once Baltimore's largest cinema, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Sept. 19 at the Northwest Hospital Center. The Catonsville Manor resident was 82.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Greene Street in downtown Baltimore, he attended St. John the Baptist Parochial School and was a 1944 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School.
While in high school, he worked summers in his family's Lexington Market produce business. According to a 1957 Evening Sun story, he replied to an newspaper ad for an usher's job at the Stanley, a 3,500-seat Howard Street theater several blocks from his home. Mr. Liberto began working at the Stanley in June 1943 and remained there, except for service in the Navy during World War II, until the movie house was demolished in 1965.
"It was a very long summer," he told the reporter who interviewed him 14 years after taking the job. He worked 55-hour weeks and opened the theater at 10 a.m. and closed it after midnight. When he lived downtown he often slipped home for dinner with his mother and sister.
"He was good at taking care of crowds," said his sister, Rosina M. Campagna of Catonsville. "He was always at that theater, he practically lived there. It was hard to get him to take a vacation."
Because the Stanley had live stage acts, Mr. Liberto, who enjoyed popular music and opera, often took a seat and listened to rehearsals. He liked hearing the Stanley's pipe organ, originally installed for silent films but played in later years between film showings.
He said he rarely saw a film from beginning to end.
In the newspaper interview, he said that a James Dean film attracted "the hep set," meaning that young patrons would lift light bulbs from sockets and soap holders from lavatories.
"They take things that you wouldn't see any use for," he said, adding that "odd things would be collected."
He said that teenagers, sitting in groups of 10, often "give him fits."
"Stilling the enthusiasm of extroverted teenager is a major task for the theater's six ushers," the article said, quoting Mr, Liberto as saying, "You have to keep the kids quiet and some of them do tend to get rowdy at times. If they continue to be obstreperous, we get them out."
He said that he would refund admission fees to those he ejected. He also had to deal with adolescents who cut the seats, sailors "on weekend passes who try to make like [Charles] Boyer in the balcony" and "self-styled critics who vent their rage on the manager."
He also said he liked his job and that behavior problems were more the exception than the rule.
After the Stanley closed, Mr. Liberto went on to manage other downtown houses, the Hippodrome and the Towne, and later worked to at North Avenue theaters, the Five West (Parkway) and the Seven East. He also managed the Playhouse on 25th Street in Charles Village.
His last theater was the Westview Cinema on Route 40 West.
"The only reason he retired is that they tore the theater down," his sister said.
In his free time, Mr. Liberto read history.
In addition to his sister, survivors include a niece and nephew.
A Mass of Christian burial was offered Wednesday at St. Jude's Shrine, where he was a member.
