MILLERTON — Area moviegoers who have passed by The Moviehouse’s darkened doors this past year and missed the thrill of seeing a movie in Millerton’s long-standing theater won’t need to wait any longer as the theater will at long last open its doors this Memorial Day weekend.
The Moviehouse, 1977 to 2021
The history behind The Moviehouse, located at 48 Main St., is a familiar tale for many residents of the region. Long before it was purchased by its co-founders, the late Robert Sadlon and his widow, Carol, of Lakeville, Conn., in 1977, the building was previously a two-story 1903 historic Grange Hall and a boarded-up, single-screen porno house.
Ardent in their dream of giving patrons an unparalleled movie viewing experience, the Sadlons put their love and labor into turning the theater into a landmark for art, entertainment and culture in the village of Millerton. Almost 44 years later, The Moviehouse offered patrons a diverse showing of performances: the latest blockbusters and independent films, midnight premiere screenings, art exhibitions, National Theater Live productions, opera screenings, the Bolshoi Ballet and select screenings with post-screening discussions.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, The Moviehouse was forced to close its doors, though Carol Sadlon continued to push forward and offer The Moviehouse experience from a virtual platform. She launched a new streaming service and a virtual “Art Talks” series and started a Movie Club.
After taking stock of her business, she explained in a letter to the community last fall that she recognized the theater’s potential to grow “with an influx of new thoughts and ideas,” but realized she couldn’t do it all by herself. She then began her pursuit of new stewards to carry the theater into the future.
In a story published by The Lakeville Journal this March, The Moviehouse was listed with Select Sotheby’s Realty for $1,195,000; it soon received 11 bids. By mid-February, Sadlon had found her buyers: David Maltby and Chelsea Altman. Partners in life and now in business, Sadlon accepted Maltby and Altman’s offer and soon introduced them as The Moviehouse’s new owners.
Renovating the theater
Expecting to open this Friday, May 28, Maltby and Altman have already made impressive strides to create a smooth movie experience for their audiences, such as updating the theater’s system and revamping the website, www.themoviehouse.net, so that transactions will be easier and save people time.
Altman explained their renovation is working in two stages: the two downstairs theaters will open for screenings on Friday, and then the entire Moviehouse will have an official grand opening on Fourth of July weekend, given the more extensive renovations taking place upstairs.
The renovation work downstairs, Altman said, is more of a “sprucing-up to add a pop of color,” and indeed moviegoers will be dazzled by the bright shades of yellow, blue and red in the theater lobby, thanks to the updated paintwork and new carpeting.
Then, of course, there’s the elevator: A massive renovation piece and a long-desired goal finally realized, painted red and established on the ground floor next to the second theater. The elevator is currently in operation, though customers will have to wait to use it with the other renovations still underway.
Walking up the theater’s steep flight of stairs, what currently resembles a skeletal version of the first floor will soon feature a brand new lounge where people can come and mingle. In place of the theater’s former cafe, there will be two new, larger bathrooms. A bar will soon be installed, carrying tasty snacks, alcoholic beverages and other fun items the theater can handle without needing a full kitchen.
The former café will be renovated into a lounge space while the fourth screening room will house club-like seating, lounge chairs and couches to create a comfortable, fun feel and host any kind of event, said Maltby.
“The idea is to try to generate more of a vibe upstairs where people want to relax before seeing a movie,” Altman said.
The remaining theater on the first floor will be kept the same as will the main two theaters on the ground floor.
“We’re trying to keep the basics of the theater — the four screens — but enhance it and put our spin on it,” Maltby said.
The show must go on
Avid moviegoers might wonder whether Maltby and Altman plan to change the theater model established by the Sadlons.
“Initially, I think my philosophy is to start simple and have the same great programming of films and get our audience’s needs met and then build from there,” Altman said.
She elaborated, noting they want to preserve the opportunities that were previously offered at the theater and then add more packages, such as a horror movie package or a cult classic package. Right now, she said they’re trying to figure out what the community they’re serving likes.
Already, Maltby and Altman have hired their general manager, Casey Lehman, who is now in the process of hiring the theater’s staff — two of whom previously worked at The Moviehouse.
Similar to the Sadlons’ vision, the couple plans to show movies seven days a week, but will close after Memorial Day on Tuesday, June 1, due to the launching and staffing, and then reopen Wednesday, June 2. Tickets can still be bought in the box office, though Altman said they expect most people will buy tickets online and take advantage of reserved seating. After Thursday, July 1, all four screening rooms should be up and running.
Given how frequently COVID-19 guidelines change, they’re planning to open with the existing COVID-19 regulations from two weeks ago: masks on and space between the seats, which will bring their capacity to only 33%. After that, then they’ll continue with that model and see how consumer confidence is as they go along.
Alexandra Peter's collection of historic samplers includes items from the family of "The House of the Seven Gables" author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It’s not that Peters has delusions of grandeur, with those small black or white cards a part of the fantasy. In the past few years, her samplers have gone on outings to historical societies and exhibits. Those small black cards are souvenirs.
About 27 of the pieces from Peters’ collection have just left home again, and are featured at the Litchfield History Museum of the Litchfield Historical Society in an exhibit that Peters guest curated along with the historical society’s curator of collections, Alex Dubois.
A needlework example.Cynthia Hochswender
The exhibit is called “With Their Busy Needles,” and it opens with a reception on Friday, April 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. (The exhibit will remain open until the end of November.) Peters will give a talk called “Know My Name: How Schoolgirls’ Samplers Created a Remarkable History” at the museum on Sunday, May 5, at 3 p.m.
Although Peters was first attracted to samplers as a form of art and craft, she has come to see them as something more profound. Each sampler tells a story, but you have to know how to read between the lines of thread and fabric. Peters has become an able and eloquent curator of what were once educational tools just for young girls and women. She can look at one and give an educated guess about who made it, how old they were, where they lived and how affluent their family was (or wasn’t).
Some samplers were made on linen, others were made with silk. Some linens are fine, others are rough and homespun.
“Some of my favorites are made on what’s called ‘linsey woolsey,’” Peters said. “It’s a mix of linen and wool that’s been dyed green. It was uncomfortable to wear, but it looks great on a sampler!”
Younger girls often worked first on learning darning stitches, and would make simple samplers with letters of the alphabet. More advanced stitchers might create genealogies or family trees. Peters particularly loves to find multiple examples from one family.
“I have a couple sets that were done by sisters,” she said, “and a collection from the family of Nathaniel Hawthorne,” the American author of “The Scarlet Letter.”
All samplers, though, show the importance of girls within families, Peters said.
Alexandra Peters, left, is exhibiting needlework samplers from her collection at the Litchfield Historical Society Museum.Cynthia Hochswender
“Parents were excited about their girls getting an education and coming out in the world and displaying their accomplishments. It’s different from what we think.”
“We tend to scorn or disrespect things made by women, particularly if they’re domestic. But before the Industrial Revolution, all work was done at the home, by women and by men. There weren’t jobs that you went to, you did the work at home. Samplers, and needlework, are the work of women, the work of girls.”
Samplers were rarely sold, Peters said, except ones made to help Southern Blacks to escape slavery.
“They were made anonymously and sold at anti-slavery fairs from the 1830s to the 1860s. I have one that can be used as a potholder and it says, ‘Any holder but a slaveholder.’ I have another that must have been a table runner that says, ‘We’s free!’ We’d see some of them as offensive now, but they weren’t at the time; they were joyful.”
Every sampler tells a story, and Peters is an able and entertaining interpreter of those tales. Learn more by visiting the Litchfield History Museum and seeing the exhibit (complete with explanatory museum cards) and come for her talk about samplers on May 5. Register for the opening reception and for the talk at www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/exhibitions.
Oscar Lock, a Hotchkiss senior, got pointers and encouragement from Tim Hunter, stewardship director of The Sharon Land Trust, while sawing buckthorn.
The return of students on this working walkthrough was part of Hotchkiss’s Fairfield Farm Ecosystem and Adventure Team, a program that incorporates environmental stewardship in the learning experience.
The Hamlin Preserve is a 210-acre property with 2.5 miles of trails, and the Hamlin conifer grove restoration is a large-scale landscape forest preservation project.
Tom Zetterstrom, a tree preservationist, stopped to make the point to Hotchkiss School students that invasives have the power to dominate.John Coston
The group entered at the end of Stone House Road and proceeded into an invasive thicket that has already taken its toll on cedars and pines. Zetterstrom stopped the group for several lecture moments and demonstrations of the proper way to cut bittersweet.
Tim Hunter, stewardship director of the Trust, pulled out a folding handsaw that student Oscar Lock, a senior, used to sever a buckthorn at ground level.
Shaye Lee, a sophomore, took a turn with the saw on some privet.
As the group huddled under a close canopy of invasive vegetation that was overtaking everything in sight, Zetterstrom explained that invasive-laden patch was once productive farmland.
As the two-hour stroll-and-lop ended, the group assembled in a hay field on the property to observe a healthy American elm at the edge of the open field that has been saved by the Trust’s efforts.
Pointing to Red Mountain in the short distance, Zetterstrom told the students: “When you come back for your reunions — maybe in 50 years — you can say I helped save those trees.”
