by Andy Piascik For five days in the summer of 1936, Bridgeport’s Park Theatre played host to one of the most innovative and talked-about theater productions of that era: the Federal Theatre Project’s staging of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with an all-black cast, as directed by Orson Welles ...
Golden Memories of the City I Love By Richard Sattanni I have many fond memories growing up here in Bridgeport. I was born and raised in the city’s Hollow Section. Life was pretty simple then - not complex like it is today. Somehow we've become a different type ...
By Andy Piascik When Bridgeport’s Kennedy Stadium opened in 1964, there was as much excitement in the city as there was three decades later with the construction of the Ballpark at Harbor Yard and Webster Bank Arena. There were plenty of parks in the Park City ...
Laurel and Hardy's comic antics in "Way Out West," was being viewed by hundreds of area residents the summer of 1937. Since the theaters opened to the public in 1922, the grand building in downtown Bridgeport became the place to be seen. By 1939, the Majestic ...
Theaters of the past, especially, in Bridgeport are indeed gone --virtually disappeared. No longer is Main Street bright with the marquees that once held our attention. Downtown Bridgeport has changed dramatically. I can remember so vividly the Loew’s Poli with the headliner letters announcing the latest ...
By Chi-Ann Lin Among the vacant structures in the city of Bridgeport are the historic Palace and Majestic Theaters along with the adjoining Savoy Hotel, all entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.¹ This unique complex, opened to the public in 1921 and ...
By Andy Piascik Rarely has an American play met with the kind of government opposition that Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty faced in 1935. Mayors and police departments forbade the staging of the play in a number of cities and stopped performances mid-play in others. Audience ...
By Stephen Thornton On stage at Bridgeport’s Park Theater in the fall of 1944 stood “Republico, The Little Mechanical Man.” He was an empty-headed dummy that the stage barker described as “handy, dandy, and works like a whiz.” With his slick hair and neat mustache, the ...
