 Stamford Advocate
Date: 06.16.09
On 70th birthday, Avon Theatre is the movie star
STAMFORD -- As he mingled on the top floor of BUtterfield 8 during the 70th anniversary celebration of the nearby Avon Theatre, Neil McMorrow recalled paying $1.10 to see the James Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever" at the theater in 1971.
In the 1960s and 1970s, parents would drop their children off at the movies without worrying about anything happening to them, McMorrow, 49, said, adding that it was one of the few distractions offered in the downtown at the time.
"We pretty much would just go to the movies," he said. "In those days, Stamford wasn't the way it is now. It was a little grittier."
While downtown may have been gritty in the 1970s, "Bedford Street was Stamford's Fifth Avenue in the '40s and '50s," said
The opening of the Avon Theatre on Bedford Street, Stamford, was the front page in the Bedford Street News on Thursday, June 15, 1939. Jean Palley, who moved to the city from Brooklyn in 1948.
"They had very elegant stores," Palley said. "It was all very upscale."
Palley recalled seeing movies in the evenings at the Avon with her husband.
"In those days, they had a lot of great talent in the movies," she said.
McMorrow and Palley were among the 300 people who gathered at BUtterfield 8, a new restaurant on Bedford Street, yesterday evening to celebrate the Avon Theater's 70th anniversary. Now a nonprofit organization, the theater looks for ways to collaborate with downtown businesses to promote the rejuvenation of Bedford Street, said Louisa Greene, director of marketing and development for the Avon Theater Center Film Inc.
"We put this party together as a way to celebrate the old and look forward to the new," Greene said. "We're so happy to still be serving the greater Stamford community as a beacon for the finest films available."
When the neo-Georgian-style theater opened June 15, 1939, it advertised state-of-the-art facilities such as air-conditioning and reclining theater seats. These amenities, as well as the Pilgrim murals on the walls, are still part of the historic building.
The movie selection has varied. The Avon was a hot spot for first-run films when it opened, attracting patrons from Connecticut as well as New York. The theater's first screening was of the romantic comedy "It's a Wonderful World," starring James Stewart and Claudette Colbert.
In the 1960s, the films were more geared toward children, with movies for adults being shown at the nearby Stamford theater on Atlantic Street, McMorrow said. In 1989, the Avon celebrated its 50th anniversary with "Ghostbusters II," starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.
The theater closed for about five years beginning in 1999, after the company running it decided not to renew its lease, said Michael Hveem, Avon Theatre's treasurer. In February 2004, the Avon reopened as a nonprofit arts center dedicated to showcasing classic, foreign and independent films. A recent event featured an evening with director Milos Forman and a special screening of his "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which swept the Academy Awards in 1975. This week, the Avon is playing "Easy Virtue," a movie set in 1929, and "O'Horten," a Norwegian film.
For Lou DiGiusro and his stepdaughter, Nicole Dalto, the cinema on Bedford Street represents an opportunity for family bonding.
"Avon is our special time together," DiGiusro said. "We come to all the events and movies."
The Avon membership was a Christmas gift from Dalto to her stepfather. Film fanatics DiGiusro and Dalto enjoyed last month's screening of "Gone With the Wind," which was released in 1939, the year the Avon opened. They also attended the Oscar night gala at the Avon, which is one of only a few theaters nationwide licensed to show live screenings of the Academy Awards ceremony, DiGiurso said.
"We got all dressed up, I bought a dress," his stepdaughter said. "It was amazing."
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