For National Connecticut Day: Connecticut in the Movies

Okay it’s probably unseemly to be doing my third post about Illeana Douglas, the most recent having been about a month ago, but honestly it just shook out that way. And each post had a reason for being. In the first, I announced the pub date of her new book Connecticut in the Movies; in the second, I got my hands on the book. In this one, I’ll talk a little about the contents, having had a chance to pore through it.

And I’m doing tributes to States now! I doubt that I’ll get around to all of them. There are a few (though a surprising few) about which there is virtually nothing at all to say. But recently I found myself inspired to write posts on New Jersey and Florida, and I know I’ll do others. Having done tons of writing about the history of Connecticut (my ancestors there go back to the Colonial founding and I grew up next door in Rhode Island) this book is the perfect solution for a focused post on the State.

Connecticut in the Movies is a most unusual book in the best of all possible ways. While I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as a gift book, a coffee table book, on account of its copious beautiful illustrations, Douglas does tackle the topic with scholarship. It’s full of critical insights and historical background that will reward actual reading, as opposed to just thumbing through it. Then, on top of it, of course Douglas is a movie star herself. She’s actually in the book. Not just as an actress in movies set there, but she also did legwork, and visited locations. I was thrilled to see that one of the places she ticked off was Roseland Cottage, in my mother’s hometown of Woodstock, which has been used a movie set. And also Gillette Castle, William Gillette’s gonzo estate, which I wrote about here. When Douglas talks about a movie like Stanley and Iris (1990) she goes deep into the context of the town it is set in, in that case Waterbury (where it just so happens my father-in-law was mayor). Or another cherished example, Mystic in Mystic Pizza (1988), which was shot (and takes place) quite close to where I grew up.

Douglas writes about certain stars with close connections to the State, such as Katharine Hepburn and Paul Newman. She reminds us that the Group Theatre held summer camps there back in the day, and Eugene O’Neill made his base there, a legacy that lives on at the O’Neill Theatre Center.

But above all, the movies. There were lots of screwball comedies set there, including Theodora Goes Wild (1936), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Christmas in Connecticut (1945), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and the related musical Holiday Inn (1942).

When commuter lines and the new interstate highway system came in, Connecticut’s identity shifted from a country haven to a suburb of New York City, theme of such movies as Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (1956), Rally ’round the Flag, Boys (1958), and two by Frank Perry, The Swimmer (1968) and Man on a Swing (1974).

The latter was also a thriller, reminding us that Connecticut was also the location and the setting for Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1972), The Last House on the Left (1972), and The Stepford Wives (1975).

More recent films exploring Connecticut as a suburban setting include The Ice Storm (1997), Far From Heaven (2002), The Family Stone (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008), Rachel Getting Married (2008).

Douglas writes about dozens of other films too of course, these are are just ones that jumped out at me because I know them well.

One thing that Douglas’s book makes abundantly clear is that Connecticut’s image, at least as acknowledged by Hollywood, is that of a State populated by people who are white, white, WASPy and white. First rural, then suburban, but white. Which means, that the movie business has neglected an important story. It’s not a new story, it’s at least a century old. And it’s so well buried within popular culture that there is no way for me to express it without tempting you to laugh. But I would be doing injustice to the people it impacts if I ignored it. The truth is that there is an urban culture in Connecticut. The State has no big cities, but it does have five that can be categorized as medium sized (populations over 100,000): ranked in order, they are Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford, and Waterbury. The State is about 11% black (a higher percentage than over half of U.S. States), and nearly 20% Latino. Throw in the 5% of the State who are Asian or Pacific Islander, and that’s already a third of Connecticut that is non-white. Further, over 16% of Connecticut is Italian, second only to Rhode Island as having the highest percentage of Italians in the country. And 39% of Connecticut is Catholic, which means NOT WASP. Immigrants came to New England to work in factories A LONG TIME AGO. They are not a small part of Connecticut.

So there is definitely an opportunity here for some young film-makers to start telling stories that reflect the reality of contemporary Connecticut. I thought Mystic Pizza did a good job talking about class disparities, one of the few, and the characters are Portuguese. That’s the idea. But it’s only one movie and its decades old. I’m sure there are others, no doubt, many indie films, which answer the need I’m describing. But as Douglas’s book makes clear, the gulf between Connecticut’s Hollywood image and the reality is as wide as the Connecticut River.