Tag Archives: Westport Historical Society

When TV Stars Shined Here

Posted on June 28, 2011 | 60 Comments

On “Bewitched,” Samantha’s family lived in a typical suburban town:  Westport.  In development, the title was even “The Witch of Westport.”

Some of TV’s most famous personalities — Harry Reasoner, Phil Donahue, Jim Nantz — lived in Westport.

And some of the most famous Westporters — like former Governor John Davis Lodge — appeared on television as early as 1937 (the BBC, in England).

Those facts — and many, many more — form the basis for TV Neighbors:  Westport and Weston Television Personalities, a new book by Tom DeLong.

The research was intriguing — a natural follow-up to “Stars in Our Eyes,” DeLong’s much-acclaimed earlier volume on the many actors and actresses who lived in Westport and Weston.

Using material amassed for a 2003 Westport Historical Society exhibition on Westport’s relationship with television, DeLong went to work.  His notes were mostly done, the chapters all outlined — when suddenly last July DeLong suffered a stroke and died.

His good friend Wally Woods — who had worked with DeLong on WHS exhibits since 1997 — and Woods’ wife Denise vowed to finish the book for DeLong.

The Woodses dove into crates and boxes of files and photos.  They deciphered DeLong’s notes to himself.  They organized the material.

Tom DeLong (left), Wally Woods, and vintage televisions at the Westport Historical Society's 2003 exhibit.

Wally wrote; Denise scanned photos.  Together, they indexed hundreds of personalities.

The result has just been published — a handsome and intriguing tribute to our town’s television history, and a memorial to its late author.  Woods is proud to have completed it, and devastated that he had to.

The book includes every television category that Westporters have contributed to:  dramas, comedies, soaps, sports, sitcoms, variety shows, quiz shows and more.

Lodge — and people like Victor Keppler (future founder of the Famous Photographers School, but in 1947 host of Dumont’s “Photographic Horizons” show), and actress Eva Le Gallienne (who did live classic plays on TV) — are featured in a special “Pioneers” chapter.

The book is filled with big names and little tidbits.  For example, in the 1940s stage actress Dorothy Bryce was Arlene Francis’ television hand model.

Lucy Ricardo reads a poster to Ethel Mertz in "Westport." It says: "Yankee Doodle Day Celebration -- Statue Dedication at Jessup (sic) Green."

In “I Love Lucy”‘s final season, the Ricardos and Mertzes “moved” from New York to Westport.  In one memorable episode Lucy destroyed the Minuteman statue, right before the “Yankee Doodle Day” celebration.

As for “Bewitched,” Elizabeth Montgomery and her family lived at “1164 Morning Glory Circle” in Westport.  If that sounds like a pseudo-local address with a California house number — hey, the series was filmed on a Hollywood lot.

Famous names cascade off the pages:  newscasters Doug Edwards, Pauline Frederick, Robert Hager, John MacVane, John Siegenthaler — and Gordon Joseloff.

Sportscasters Win Elliot, Sal Marchiano, Jim McKay and Brent Musburger.

Actors and actresses better know for movies and Broadway — Bette Davis, Michael Douglas, Mia Farrow, June Havoc, James Naughton, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward — also appeared in key roles during TV’s dramatic heyday.

And who can forget Rod Serling?  He wrote the seminal “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight” dramas while living on High Point Road — and some of the best-remembered “Twilight Zone” episodes too.  Westport worked its way into more than one of those stories.

Westport today is filled with big TV screens.  A 55-inch screen is the new normal; 108-inch, 150-inch, even more ginormous sets are not rare.

Back in the day, Westport was filled with big TV stars.  Thanks to Wally and Denise Woods, Tom DeLong has lived long enough to honor them.

(The Westport Historical Society will host a book event on Thursday, August 4 [5-7 p.m.], and is selling TV Neighbors for $22 their Remarkable Gift Shop.  It’s also available for $19.95, plus $5 shipping for the 1st book and $1 for each additional book, from BearManor Media, PO Box 1129, Duncan, OK 73534; tel. 580-252-3547; email benohmart@gmail.com)

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Posted in Entertainment, Looking back, Organizations, People

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Do Know Much About History

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 6 Comments

If you’ve stayed up nights wondering when the 1st telephone came to Westport — or the 1st white folks, or anyone for that matter — your insomnia is over.

Westporters.com — the original Staples alumni site, which over the past decade morphed into much more — has unveiled an interactive database.  It’s the gold standard for Westport history.

And trivia.

Westport Historical Society, eat your heart out.

It starts just where you’d expect:  19,000 BCE (“Glacial ice melts, creating the spillway that formed the Saugatuck River”).

The next 13,000 years were pretty dull — kind of like the 1970s — but in 6000 BCE there was “evidence of prehistoric human activity in the Green’s Farms and Old Hill areas of Westport.”  (They probably were not yet called by those names).

An early Westport family amuses themselves. Back in the day there was no beach, no Black Duck, no Netflix -- amazing!

By 1000, Native Americans began growing corn, beans, pumpkins, squash and tobacco — in other words, everything sold at today’s Farmer’s Market, except for the devil’s weed.

The Pequot Indians prospered until 1637, when they were defeated by colonial troops in the Great Swamp War (near what is now the Southport line).

In 1648, the 5 “Bankside Farmers” acquired land from the Indians of Machamux in the area around present-day Beachside Avenue and Sherwood Island.  Westporters.com does not mention whether the Bankside Farmers promptly established 5 banks on the site.  I’m betting yes.

In 1654 Mary Staples  was accused by Roger Ludlowe of being a witch.  Her husband, Thomas Staples, sued for defamation, winning 10 pounds.  That established both the Westport sport of lawsuit-filing, and the Staples-Ludlowe rivalry that lives on in high school sports today.

The timeline picks up steam in the 1800s.  In 1846 Westporters vigorously 0pposed a railroad line.  After a bitter battle, the town failed to block construction of the tracks.  It’s a good thing no one fights anything in Westport today!

The 1st telephone was installed here in 1882, at Osborn’s general store downtown.  Just in case you were wondering.

Well, at least you could see what was around you when you pulled out of parking spots.

It was followed, in 1899, by the 1st automobiles.  Local blacksmith J. Nelson Bulkley proudly displayed his Stanley Steamer.  Interestingly, there was a blacksmith here through the 1960s — far after steam-powered buggies disappeared.

In 1902, Daniel Bradley challenged the ownership and public use of Compo Beach in Bridgeport court.  He lost, but ended up with a street named after him.  At the beach.

The Board of Finance was created in 1917, after the town “unexpectedly ran out of money.”  Look for something similar to happen on a national scale sometime this summer.

Also in 1917, Westport voters defeated a proposed local alcohol prohibition ordinance, 355-256.  Two years later, the national 18th Amendment passed.  From Saugatuck to the Penguin, and throughout the rest of town, no one heard the news.

The 1st traffic signals were installed here in 1929.  As with Prohibition, no one noticed — then or now.

A 1943 “Art Attack on the Axis” exhibition at the library raised $151,000.  In today’s money, that’s enough to fill your tank with gas for an entire 15 weeks.

Westporters.com notes various other events — our 1st condos in 1977, on the site of the old Rippe’s Farm; the new library, which opened in 1986 on the site of the old dump; the May 20, 2011 purchase of the post office building — but the historical dates tabs are only part of the database.

Click on “Businesses,” and you’ll find everything from the 1st general store in Saugatuck (opened in 1798), through Allen’s Clam and Lobster House (1890), Embalmers’ Supply Company (1891) and Remarkable Book Shop (1962) to the demolition of the Main Street Mobil gas station in 1986 (think Vineyard Vines).

The much-loved Remarkable Book Shop. Or, as we call it today, Talbots. (Photo/Westporters.com)

The “Churches & Temples” tab covers includes famous events like the moving of the Saugatuck Congregational building across and down the Post Road in 1950, to less well-known moments (the 1st record of Catholic services here was 1853 — “a small gathering at the Universalist Church”).

Are disasters your thing?  We’ve had our share, from the British torching of 15 homes and 11 barns in 1779, to the 1895 destruction by fire of the Tidal Mill (sounds like an Onion headline), and more.

The “People” tab includes famous names like Jesup, Nash, Coley, Sherwood and Winslow.  “Organizations” covers everything from the PTA (established 1897) and the Fairfield County Hunt Club (1923), through Little League (1952 — actually 1951, according to LL officials) and the World Affairs Center (1961).  It’s an eclectic list, befitting our town.

There are databases for politics, population, publications and schools as well.

It’s all searchable — and you can also access it through an all-encompassing PDF file.

“06880″ welcomes the Westporters.com history file.  Use it often, and well.

Though I don’t think it will stop people from emailing me questions like, “Do you remember the names of all the restaurants across from the place that used to be Toys R Us?…”

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Posted in Beach, Downtown, History, Local business, Looking back, Organizations, People, Places, Saugatuck, Staples HS

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A Bunch Of Farmers

Posted on May 30, 2011 | 34 Comments

Before we were hedge fund wizards — before we were a world marketing capital — before we were an artists’ colony, even, we were farmers.

Back in the day, Westport was a farming community.  And by “the day,” I mean not only the early Puritan settlers, but the Indians we snagged the land from.

The Westport Historical Society has partnered with Wakeman Town Farm and the Westport Farmers’ Market to honor our agrarian tradition.  “Back to the Roots” includes not only the 4-part WHS exhibit on display across from Town Hall, but a summer-long series of programs and field trips.

Barns, stone walls, fresh food — they’re all part of “Roots.”

So are these fun facts:

  • “Long Lots” got its name from the shape of early farming plots.
  • Westport’s incorporation in 1835 resulted in large part from our successful maritime exportation of fish and produce to New York, Boston and beyond.
  • Onion farmers used nutrient-rich seaweed as fertilizer.  During the Civil War, Westport was the leading onion supplier to the Union army.
  • After 2 blights, onion growers switched to apples and cidering.  However, shellfishing continued, and Lloyd Nash developed a major ice harvesting business, revolutionizing local food preservation.

If you’re downtown for today’s parade, check out the Historical Society exhibit.  You’re sure to look at this afternoon’s cookout with fresh eyes.

(Special “Back to Our Roots” programs for food and farm lovers of all ages will run every Saturday at Wakeman Town Farm, Thursdays at the Farmer’s Market, and at various times at the Historical Society.  Click here for details.

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Posted in Environment, Organizations

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Memorial Day Memories

Posted on May 29, 2011 | 8 Comments

Alert “06880″ reader Wendy Crowther sends along a couple of photos from former Westporter Esta Kraft Sands.  In the 1950s and ’60s Esta’s parents owned the McLaury House (99 Myrtle Avenue, across from the Westport Historical Society).

Several years ago, Wendy helped restore the house.  She also did historical research, and provided website content.

The photo below, from Memorial Day around 1966,  shows a marching group — Machamux — as it approaches the house.

Wendy writes:

I’m not sure whether the Machamux group was a precursor to the Y’s Indian Guides and Princesses that used to meet out at Camp Mahackeno, or whether it was its own dad/son association.

I don’t think the Machamux group would get a passing grade in Westport anymore.  The feathers, tom-toms and totem poles were probably not routine gear for Westport’s native Americans.  Of course the last of the Connecticut Pequots were massacred by English colonists up in the Southport swamps.  And the Bankside Farmers purchased what is now Green’s Farms from the local native tribe who called the same land “Machamux.”

In his 1933 “Greens Farms” book, George Penfield Jennings writes, “On their own responsibility they decided at once, ‘with Yankee knack for a good bargain,’ to purchase the land from the Indians.”

Ah, Yankee ingenuity and a good bargain.  It makes me wonder if the “Indians” thought they got a good deal.  Whether it was a good deal or a bad one then, I’m sure they’d regret that deal now.

It wouldn’t be all bad to help Westport kids know that Westport once had inhabitants that looked and lived nothing like today’s residents.  Today we would be sure to portray the facts accurately and not proliferate stereotypes.

And, circling back to the photos and Memorial Day,  Wendy says, “It’s always fun to be reminded that the more things change, the more they remain the same.  The parade still marches past those same houses on Memorial Day, and people still line the streets to cheer on their kids or their favorite clubs, politicians and civic groups.”

The photo below shows Esta’s family in front of their home — the McLaury house.  Wendy is absolutely right.

Wendy concludes:

I head down to the parade every year because of the old-fashioned, hometown feel of it.  It’s one of Westport’s big gatherings.  It’s a day to remember our fallen heroes (which many unfortunately tend to forget), and a day to celebrate the start of summer with games and barbecues.

These photos reflect the past, but aren’t too far off from what still happens today.  It’s why I love that parade.  Hanging out on the sidewalks with people I know, and don’t, and cheering on the passing soccer teams and fire engines, makes me feel proud somehow.

It also makes me feel a little bit like a dork, except that the streets are lined with my homeys, parade dorks like me, clapping for their faves.  It’s a great way to express some gratitude and “feel the love,” especially in a town that is so often creating or fighting about change.

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Posted in Looking back, Organizations, People

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Happy Birthday, Vivien Testa

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 12 Comments

In 1936, Vivien Testa began teaching art at Bedford Junior High School (now King’s Highway Elementary).

She moved to Staples (now Saugatuck Elementary) in 1948.

Vivien Testa

Ten years after that, she was part of the new high school campus on North Avenue.  (In fact — having minored in architecture — she helped design the place.  She has an enormous slide collection from that time, which she will donate to the Westport Library.)

Vivien Testa chaired the art department through the 1970s.

Today she celebrates her 99th birthday.

She is as sharp as  when she ruled the 4 Building.

“I do a lot of reading,” she says.  “People come to visit.  Other than that, I sit in my chair.”

Does she have a birthday message for her many fans and former students?

“Tell them I enjoyed them all,” she says.  “And they’re welcome to visit any time.”

—————————————————–

Several years ago, while writing my book Staples High School: 120 Years of A+ Education, I found an interview Vivien Testa had recorded for the Westport Historical Society oral history project.  Here is an excerpt:

My family spent summers in Westport, so I knew the town in 1936 when I came to teach art at Bedford Junior High School.  It was the Depression, and my father said I was taking a job away from a man who needed one.

In 1936 the school had a place in the life of the community.  Teachers knew what they were expected to do and not do.  For example, teachers were not supposed to smoke.  But the faculty played basketball against the youngsters, and put on plays for them.  There was a feeling we were all growing and learning together.

When Mrs. Holden, the arts supervisor, left in 1948, I took over.  We had a lovely art room in the building on Riverside Avenue.  It was good size, and well lit.  There were 15 to 20 students in a class, and I taught 4 or 5 classes a day. Westport was growing as an arts colony.

I still carried nearly a full teaching load, but I was given one or two afternoons a week to supervise.  There were three townwide directors in art, music and physical education.  Those were considered special subjects, and the principals were not trained in them.  But the Board of Education members and superintendent really knew teachers.  They came into the classroom all the time.

Pop Amundsen was the custodian, and his wife ran the cafeteria.  They set the tone for Staples.  If they saw youngsters doing anything out of line, they let them know.  Students respected them just as much as the principal.

Everything was in apple pie order.  No one dared mark a desk.  We were a small family.  Education at that time was a family business.  Teachers and students and parents all felt responsible for what was happening.  There was no closing eyes to what was going on.  Everyone respected what was happening.

We got help from a lot of places.  The Westport Women’s Club had a $350 art competition, and when Famous Artists School came in they gave scholarships.  Al Dorne [a founder of Famous Schools] always helped.  He’d produce booklets for new teachers or students. He underwrote hundreds of dollars.

I was involved in the plans for the North Avenue building.  I worked with the architects, Sherwood, Mills and Smith.  I minored in architecture, so I was able to lay out my ideas about what I wanted to have.  It worked nicely for me, except when they cut this, that and the other thing, and we ended up with just a mishmash.  That was kind of too bad.  But it was still better than you would find in many places.

The "new" Staples, circa 1959. The auditorium (center left) and gym (largest building in the rear) are the only original structures that remain today.

There were many bugs in the building that had to be taken care of.  A 3rd art room was cut out of the original plan, and a wing in the auditorium was cut.  We had to put all the crafts stuff – kilns, etc. – in 2 rooms designed for 2-D stuff.  Then when they added Building 9 a few years later, they added a 3-D room, and extended the stage.

Before they did that, a ballet company came to use the stage.  The stage had only been planned for lectures and assemblies, not theater – there was no room for stage sets.  As you face the stage, there was a brick wall on the right, and a passageway and electric panel on the left.  A handsome male dancer ran right into the brick wall.  Performers had to dress in the art rooms, too.  It was quite a mess.

There was one boys’ and one girls’ bathroom – none for the faculty.  I learned a great deal about youth by using that bathroom.  But we always took an interest in keeping our building beautiful, because art is beauty.


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Posted in Arts, Education, Library, Looking back, Organizations, People, Staples HS, Teenagers

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Zooming In On Westport

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 2 Comments

One of the last places realtors take prospective home buyers is Town Hall.

It should be one of the first.

At least, while Larry Untermeyer’s “Zoom in on Westport” photo exhibit is up.

Last summer and fall, Larry was a frequent flyer in Chuck Tanner’s Cessna 182.  The result:  stunning aerial photos of town, now hanging on the wall just around the corner from the auditorium.

Larry captured Westport in all our verdant and leafy glory.  The beach, Longshore, downtown, Staples — it’s all there, from a perspective you’ve never seen before.

Larry’s photos show how amazing our town is.  How small downtown is.  How much open space remains.  Who knew?

The photos hung, until recently, at the Westport Historical Society.  At Town Hall, they’re even more accessible.

Unless, that is, all those realtors and home buyers won’t let you near.

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Posted in Arts, Beach, Longshore, Organizations, People, Places

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Any Old Movies?

Posted on February 13, 2011 | 14 Comments

The recent “06880″ post about Westport’s way-cool 1934 aerial photos prompted one reader to write:

Amazing how rural the town was back then.  This reminded me that a long time ago, a local photographer told me he had old movies of Westport.  They included film shot from a car driving up and down the Post Road.  I can’t remember who he was (I think his studio was on South Compo, a block or two from the Post Road).

Have you ever heard of such movies?  Is there anything like that at the Westport Historical Society?  Perhaps you could ask your readers.  Someone must know about these.  Or have their own.

Someone must know.  And many Westporters must have movies, from the days when we actually filmed (rather than “videotaped”) our lives.

So the question becomes:  What next?  How can we (or who should) collect, organize and make available what must be a treasure trove of Westport film?

“06880″ readers are a passionate, creative and (in a good way) obsessive bunch.  Click “Comments” if you’ve got a good idea about this project.

The Fine Arts Theatre is gone -- but it must live on in some old movies taken around town.

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Posted in Looking back, Westport life

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Sketch Class

Posted on January 27, 2011 | 10 Comments

Long-time residents, artists of all ages and realtors — even those who got their licenses yesterday afternoon — are fond of referring to Westport’s reputation as an “artists’ colony.”

But what does that mean?  What actually happened in an “artists’ colony”?

For one thing, illustrators shared stories, ideas — and drinks — on the train home from New York, where they worked day jobs in advertising, PR, publishing and magazines.

For another, there were some wild parties, involving artists, artists’ hangers-on, alcohol, swimming pools and whatnot.  I’ve heard plenty of stories, from plenty of sources.

But living in an artists’ colony was serious work too. There were regular “sketch classes” — not classes, really, but gatherings of artists and artist-wannabes, who gathered to draw or paint from live models.

These gatherings took place in studios, basements, or anywhere else large enough for a model stand, easels and chairs, lights, and random props.

After 30 minutes of drawing, the models took breaks.  That’s when the artists walked around, critiqued each other’s work, and schmoozed.

Remington Schuyler — a Boy’s Life magazine illustrator – held a sketch class in his Westport home.

John Steuart Curry's famous -- and controversial -- John Brown mural, for the Kansas statehouse.

In 1932, weekly sketch classes met at Edward C. Nash’s home (now Nash’s Corner).  Among the regular attendees:  John Steuart Curry, Robert Lambdin and Rose O’Neill.  (She created the Kewpie doll.)

Bob Baxter and Ann Toulmin-Rothe held a sketch class in the mill building on  Richmondville Avenue.

Robert Fawcett — one of the 10 Famous Artists’ founding members — ran classes in the company building on Wilton Road (now Save the Children).

But sketch classes have not gone the way of Famous Artists School.  (I know, it still exists — but it’s a shell of its former self, and long gone from Westport.)

Howard Munce — the 95-year-old, sharp-as-an-illustrator’s-pen living legend of Westport’s artists’ colony days — still attends a sketch class at Elizabeth Gaynor’s house in Southport.  It’s a cross-section of old Westport artists, others from the area, and younger folks with whom the veterans happily share their knowledge and humor.

Howard Munce (Photo by Kristen Rasich Fox)

Now, the Westport Historical Society honors all that with “The Sketch  Class:  A Westport Tradition.”  The exhibit chronicles the history and significance of Westport’s sketch classes , and features a great group of artists of all ages.

It opens on Sunday (Jan. 30), and runs through April 30.  It kicks off with a free, open reception this Sunday, 3-5 p.m.

The exhibit is curated by Howard Munce himself.  So in addition to learning about sketch classes, if you go to Sunday’s reception you’ll learn all about Westport’s “artists’ colony” past — from a man who was there then, and still creates art today.

(For more information on the Westport Historical Society’s “Sketch Class” exhibit, click here or call 203-222-1424.)

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Posted in Arts, Looking back, Organizations, People, Places

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Map Quest

Posted on September 30, 2010 | 13 Comments

A decade or so ago, RTM member and pilot Irwin Donenfeld invited me on a flight over Westport in his small plane.

We took off from Sikorsky Airport.  Banking over Bridgeport and flying west, a remarkable thing happened:  I “saw” the border separating the city from Fairfield.  Because of suburban zoning regulations, the demarcation — in foliage, home sizes and density — was as clear from the air as if a line was drawn on a map.

A couple of minutes later, approaching Westport, the same thing happened.  This time was even more dramatic.  2,000 feet in the sky, I felt as if I was seeing a map.

Google Maps has brought satellite views to laptops and cellphones.  But I’ve never forgotten the images of that flight.

Westport, looking east over the Post Road bridge. Note the small size of downtown; the surprising amount of foliage -- and the proximity of the Saugatuck/King's Highway School athletic complex (lower right) to downtown.

I thought about that experience recently, when I read about the Westport Historical Society’s upcoming exhibits:  “Zoom in on Westport” and “Putting Westport on the Map.”  Opening this Sunday (Oct. 3, 3-5 p.m.), they combine 2 fascinating elements of Westport life:  aerial views, and the changing map of our town.

“Zoom In” features bird’s-eye photos taken by photographer Larry Untermeyer.  If they’re anything like what I saw on my flight, they’ll open your eyes to a Westport far different from the one you thought you knew.

Compo Beach, for example, does not lie directly opposite Long Island; it juts out at a sharp angle.  And the Post Road, that straight shot through town from Fairfield to Norwalk?  It twists and turns every few yards.

The Sherwood Mill Pond covers more area than we imagine -- and its contours are more irregular than we think.

The 2nd exhibit includes maps from long before Westport’s official incorporation, and a “humorous” town map from 1921.

The WHS’ iconic 1878 map — listing every downtown harness maker, coal merchant and dry goods purveyor, plus the homes of Westporters with names like Jessup, Gorham and Treadwell — will no doubt be displayed too.  It provides a perspective on this place you’ll never get from a book or news clippings.

You may not get to fly over Westport soon.  But the Westport Historical Society will provide a grounding in our town’s history you won’t forget.

(The Westport Historical Society’s exhibits run through January 8.  For more information click here or email info@westporthistory.org.)

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Posted in History, Organizations

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As The Crow Flies

Posted on September 14, 2010 | 5 Comments

As a Westport history buff — and chair of the town’s Longshore 50th committee — Scott Smith is a stickler for accuracy.

News of the Westport Historical Society’s Sept. 25 The British Are Coming! bus tour — commemorating our Revolutionary War claim to fame — brought to mind a pet peeve of his:

The lopsided, cluttered sign at the corner of Post Road East and South Compo.

As any bicyclist or jogger knows, Compo Beach is not “one mile south” of the street sign.  The British might have wished it were so — they marched all the way north from there to Danbury where they demolished an ammunition depot; burned 19 houses, 22 stores and barns; destroyed food, clothing, medical equipment, tents, candles and a printing press, then trooped all the way back to their boats moored off Compo — but it is definitely more than a mile.

Which brings to mind an important question:  If something as simple as that distance can be wrong, how accurate is everything else on all those historical markers?

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Posted in Beach, History, Organizations

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