LITTLE ITALY NEWS NOVEMBER 2012 EDITION

www.littleitalytroy.org

troylittleitaly@gmail.com

South Central/Little Italy

News
The Record, October 20,
2012, p6. Esposito and
Canestrari to be honored.
The Troy Rehabilitation and
Improvement Program and
Rensselaer County Housing
Resources will present its
annual Troy Treasure Award
to Little Italys Mike
Esposito and its annual
Community Citizenship
Award to State Assembly
Majority Leader Ron
Canestrari at the Annual
HomeComing Dinner,
December 3rd at the Franklin Ballroom.
The Record, October 18,
2012, p4. Stapleton remembered for her lifelong love of
Troy, by Andrew Beam,
photos by Mike McMahon.
Author Jane Scovell who
collaborated with the Maureen Stapleton on her autobiography A Hell of a Life
discussed her friendship and
work on the book with the
late Troy actress. The event,
held at the Troy Public Library, was followed by the
dedication of a bronze
plaque at Ms Stapletons former residence, 188 First
Street. Members of the Stapleton family, friends and
fans attended both events
sponsored by Troy Little Italy with the cooperation of
Russell Sage College and the
Rensselaer County Historical
Society.

The Record, October 28,

2012. Honoring Esposito
and Canestrari, by Claire
Pitts. Troy Treasure article.
The Record, October 26,
2012, p7. Owners hope new
wine bar will fill niche, by
Danielle Sanzone, photos by
Mike McMahon. Little Italy
property owners and former
residents Heather LaVine
and Vic Christopher will
soon open the Charles F. Lucas Confectionary & Wine
Bar at 12 Second Street in
downtown Troy.
The Record, November 6,
2012. Community Calendar.
Mike Esposito is the guest
speaker at the Tuesday, November 13, 2012 monthly
meeting of the Sand Lake
Historical Society, at Sand
Lake Baptist Church, 2960
Route 43 at 7:30 pm. Mike
will present a review of his
book "Troy's Little Italy".
Admission is free and
open to the public. Homemade Italian refreshments
will be served.

82 Ferry Street, Troy, N.Y.

Peter Fisher is open for business. His store sells guitars
and accessories, he also repairs guitars and does restoration. Guitar lessons are
also available. You can
reach Peter at 518-833-6699
or check out his web site at
collarcityguitars.com
We wish Peter success in his
new adventure and remember to shop locally.

Notice the November Meeting

is the 2nd Wednesday
November Meeting
11/14/2012
Neighborhood Watch 6 pm
Little Italy 6:30 pm
233 Fourth Street
Corner of Washington
and Fourth

Maureen Stapleton Tribute Events

Over ninety people attended the first of two events held on Wednesday, October 17th to honor
Maureen Stapleton. An enthusiast crowd enjoyed author Jane Scovells presentation at the Troy
Public Library and later several dozen gathered at Maureens former residence at 188 First
Street for the unveiling of a bronze plaque by her brother Jack as family members, friends,
neighbors and fans looked on. Included in the crowd were Maureens daughter, Katherine Allentuck and her children, Alexandra and Max Bambery, as well as Maureens cousins Bill
Stanton and Redmond Griffin. The event was sponsored by Troy Little Italy partnering with
Russell Sage College and the Rensselaer County Historical Society. The Troy Public Library
and its Friends Board helped coordinate the Jane Scovell presentation. Bill Carey Jr. supplied
the attractive banner, poster, and information brochures as well as the several photos for our
newsletter.

Film festival for a city that

loved its movie theaters
Just weeks after our neighborhood
tribute to acclaimed actress, Maureen Stapleton, comes the announcement of the First Annual
Collar City Film Festival to be
held on Saturday evening, November 3, 2012 at 51 Third Street
(between Broadway and State
Street) from 7 to 9:30 pm. The two
hour event will spotlight twenty
films selected from forty-five submissions of Capital District artists
selected by Emily Zimmerman,
India Lombardi Bello and Ryan
Jenkins. Snow bird friends who
make their winter home in Sarasota, Florida cite the Sarasota Film
Festival, which started modestly in
1996 as a French film event, as
one of the highlights of their winter stay. The festival, now is in its
twelfth year, is a ten day event
which shows 200 films and attracts performers, artists, film executives and hundreds of film
buffs to Floridas west costal city.
Our hope is that Capital Region
residents give the Collar City Film
Festival a try. Plans that include
additional events which will increase visibility of our downtown
amenities and bring people to Troy
are to be encouraged. Many of us
remember Troys first Victorian
Stroll, Turkey Trot, Chowder Fest
and other annual events which
now attract thousands to our
downtown - so why not a film
festival, especially in a city that
that loved its movie houses and
has a dedicated group of activists
rallying around the Troy Proctors
Foundation to restore our most
respected movie house to its former glory.
There were at least six neighborhood movie theaters scattered
throughout Troy including two in
South Troy, the Monroe and the
Madison, later to become the
AOH, presently serves as head-

quarters for Troy Area United

Ministries (TAUM). The Beman
in the Beman Park area on 15th
Street was later converted to the
Arrow Cash Market and is now a
restaurant. The Oxford on Fifth
Avenue in the Burgh originally
opened in 1918 as the Bijou, and
was rebuilt as an art deco building
in the 1930s. A new building on
the site houses a bank. The Palace,
located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Hoosick, closed after a
fire and was demolished for construction of the Collar City bridge.
The Lyceum, opened in 1912 at
Federal Street near Seventh Avenue, closed many years ago. The
six long time downtown movie
houses included two huge theaters,
Proctors, opened in 1914, a premier movie house which closed in
1977, but proudly standing, awaiting a renewed life, and the Troy
on River Street which had a fifty
year run (1920 to 1970) before it
was demolished to make way for
an urban park along the Hudson.
The four smaller movie houses
downtown were the Cinema Art
opened in the 1920s as the American, converted in the 1970s to
adult films and closed in 2006, the
Griswold at 12 Third Street demolished to make way for a Woolworths which was later demolished for the downtown Atrium,
the Lincoln opened in 1922 at 68
Third Street across from Barker
Park, demolished in 1962 for a
parking lot and the State at 143
Fourth Street, formerly the Rose
(opened by the Rosenthal family),
demolished in 1960 for a parking
lot. For a number of years the
State would show Italian language
movies two evenings a week. The
Atrium Cinema US 1 and 2, twin
movie houses, located in the
downtown Atrium Mall lasted
only a few years following their
opening in the 1980s. A Vermont
company added four additional,
smaller screens and the complex
was called Atrium Cinema 6 but

remained open for a short period

of time. Plans had been discussed
to open a movie theater at the City
Station complex on Ferry Street
but nothing definite has been decided.
Least we forget, Troy has been the
site of several movie locations
over the years. The Troy Savings
Bank Music Hall was used during
the filming of The Bostonians,
based on the Henry James novel,
starring Vanessa Redgrave who
won an Oscar nomination in 1975
for her role. Both Meryl Streep
and Jack Nicholson were nominated for Oscars in 1987 for their
roles in Ironweed partially filmed
in Troy and Albany, which was
based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by area author William
Kennedy who also wrote the film
screenplay. In 1993, Martin
Scorsese directed the film version
of Edith Whartons 1920s classic,
The Age of Innocence, at several
Troy sites including the John
Paine Mansion on Second Street
and the Washington Park area. The
film was nominated for five Oscars. The campus and buildings of
the Emma Willard School on
Pawling Avenue were the locale of
two films, Scent of a Woman,
nominated for four Oscars with a
win for Al Pacino in 1992 and The
Emperors Club, an Oscar nominated film in 2002 starring Kevin
Kline. The story line for both films
called for a preparatory school
campus setting and the beautiful
grounds of EW (Jane Fondas
choice for a preparatory education)
were chosen. Also in the same
year, downtowns Second Street,
was the site for scenes for a revival of The Time Machine, the
H. G. Wells classic.
Maybe an outgrowth of a successful film festival will spark renewed interest in a downtown
movie theatre perhaps at City
Station.