History Restored
Some 10 years ago, Averill Geus, a local historian, discovered a reel of nitrate film in her East Hampton barn. She brought it to Genie Chipps Henderson, the archivist at LTV, a repository for many films that document historical moments in East Hampton’s history.
Last October Ms. Henderson conveyed it to New York University’s Moving Image Archive and Preservation program along with other films from LTV’s archive. Although nitrate film is flammable and unstable, Robert Anen of the Moving Image Archive discovered that Ms. Geus’s find was in perfect condition. Its subject: The 1915 Fourth of July celebration on East Hampton’s village green.
Thanks to Sag Harbor’s Joe Lauro, founder and president of Historic Films in Greenport, the five-minute film was not only cleaned and transferred, but also colorized, “like an old postcard.” Mr. Lauro also added simulated sound.
Among the sights are the Riverhead Marching Band, paraders on horseback, homemade floats, early automobiles, political speeches, little girls in white dresses dancing, and Civil War veterans on a float draped in an American flag. Mr. Lauro hopes to show the film at an outdoor screening in East Hampton on July 4. It will also run locally on LTV and SEA-TV.
Playwriting Seminar
Hope Villanueva, a playwright and Bay Street Theater’s literary manager, will host “Writing for the Stage,” a free one-hour workshop for aspiring dramatists as well as theater lovers, next Thursday at 7 p.m. via Zoom. The seminar is one of four presented as part of the Lifelong Learning Series sponsored by AARP Long Island.
Ms. Villanueva is a member of the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and the founder of the Garden Script Development, a playwrights’ workshopping program based in Washington, D.C. Her plays have been produced at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the Capital Fringe Festival, the Ally Theatre Company, the Black and Latino Playwrights’ Conference, and the Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, among others.
Garden Talk
Dan Hinkley, a plantsman, garden writer, horticulturist, and nurseryman, will discuss “From Shadow to Sun: The Making of Windcliff” on Sunday at 2 p.m. via Zoom, as part of the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons’ spring lecture series. Mr. Hinkley is perhaps best known for collecting, propagating, and naming varieties of plants new to the North American nursery trade. He is the founder of Windcliff, a private garden near Indianola, Wash., and of Heronswood Garden in Kingston, Wash., and the author of “Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants and Gardens.”
Registration through the alliance will secure a link for the talk, which is $10, free for members of the alliance.
