Peter Bogdanovich is on the stage of Stamford, CT’s Avon Theatre, resembling nothing less than a spritely shaman, spinning a gossamer tale.  His dark eyes grace the audience with their distinctive sparkle, dancing behind his glasses, which somehow magnify his mirth, as his bemused voice mesmerizes the rapt audience.

He’s here to celebrate the first anniversary of the Avon’s reopening, to speak about SAINT JACK, his 1979 film which they are screening tonight, and to promote and to sign copies of his new book “Who the Hell’s In It” (Alfred A. Knopf 2004).

“I remember the night of March 31, 1973 . . . President Richard Nixon was about to bestow the Medal of Freedom for the first time on a U.S. Film artist, John Ford, during the, uh, the A.F.I. -- American Film Institute’s -- first Lifetime Achievement dinner.  Grant, Cybill Shepherd and I were standing on line at the ticket tables. . . . and as Cary stepped up for his turn, he smiled while saying, in that inimitable way . . . ”

Here Bogdanovich lapses into his spot-on mimicry of the “inimitable.”

“ ‘I am terribly sorry, I forgot my tick-et – may I get in, please?’”  Bogdanovich laughs.  He enjoys this story.  “One of the women, still looking down, said, ‘Name.’ Grant leaned slightly closer, bending more – he was a couple of inches over six feet tall, though he always slumped his shoulders a bit: ‘Ca-ry Grant,’ he said. Now the woman looked up, frowned just a touch as she appraised him and said. . . .”

Now Bogdanovich becomes indistinguishable from Grant as he slumps and leans forward himself.

 “‘You don’t look like Cary Grant.’ To which he replied, quick as a wink, leaning closer still and shrugging his shoulders,. . . .”

Bogdanovich pauses dramatically and continues, in Grant’s voice.

“‘I know – nobody does.’” 

The Avon’s house explodes with applause and laughter. The legendary writer/director has brought them face to face with a favorite icon brought to life. It’s a quintessential Bogdanovich moment. He’s a master storyteller.

“I had no idea he was so funny!” exudes Adam Birnbaum, Director of Film Programming, who arranged the evening with Bogdanovich. “He was a gracious and giving gueSAINT”

“No wonder,” says Bogdanovich. “I loved the response I got. The people were just terrific. It was a thoroughly gratifying experience.”  

No one loves to perform more than Peter Bogdanovich, but until recently, he was mostly known for his work behind the camera, on the written page.  His background as a gifted actor, adopted as protégé by the very discerning Stella Adler, Grande Dame of American Method Acting, was less salient. 

Serendipity, says Birnbaum, brought him and the legendary writer/director and film historian together. “I was planning the Avon’s first year anniversary celebration when I saw Mr. Bogdanovich on television discussing his book “Who the Hell’s In It,” and I thought, ‘wow, he would be perfect.’ So I contacted the publisher, and they put me in touch with his assistant Meghan McElheny, and there we were.” 

Birnbaum conjectures that perhaps there was some karmic predestination involved in the fortuitous pairing.

Peter Bogdanovich was born in Kingston, NY, a month after the Avon opened its doors for the first time in June, 1939. The theater debuted with IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD, starring Claudette Colbert and a young Jimmy Stewart, who was, as Bogdanovich explains in his book, a longtime favorite of both his parents.

Samuel Weiss, the owner of the theater, was both a film fan and an art patron. He commissioned local artist Oscar Glas, to paint murals for the theater that depicted scenes of local history featuring early white settlers and the indigenous people of coastal Connecticut. 

In those days, Bogdanovich’s father Borislav, a gifted visual artist and musician, was in the throes of making the monumental adjustment to American life after emigrating from what was then Yugoslavia; later, however, the Bogdanovich family would often summer in coastal New London, and, the senior Bogdanovich spent the latter years of his life executing murals of native American life commissioned by businessman Walter Bimson in Scottsdale, AZ.

Like filmmaker Bogdanovich, the Avon has had an illustrious career in the movie business, but one with its share of ups and downs. 

The theater was very successfully owned and operated by the Weiss family until they sold it to the Trans-Lux Chain in 1979, the same year SAINT JACK premiered.  After the chain took over and converted the theater into a two-screen venue, it flourished for a short while and then barely paid for itself until it finally succumbed to the pressures of the contemporary movie business and closed its doors in 1999. The Avon just didn’t seem to have the heart to be a corporate theater. 

The theater lay virtually dormant for three years until Chuck and Deborah Royce, of Greenwich, bought it and renamed it as the Avon Theatre Film Center, Inc. They dedicated it “to the presentation of timeless film.” Appropriately, the Avon reopened in 2004, with NETWORK, Sidney Lumet’s landmark 1976 opus, as part of that year’s Director’s View Film Festival.

Lumet was there that night and commented on what a fitting house it was. 

Films you are likely to see these days at the Avon include foreign and art house films such as DOWNFALL, the Academy Award-nominated German movie that is stirring controversy for its depiction of an all-too-human Adolf Hitler and MELINDA AND MELINDA, Woody Allen’s latest film, scheduled to open March 23. Complete listings and more background information can be found by logging onto www.avontheatre.org.

Among the recent titles was HOTEL RWANDA, which the Avon screened with a talkback event featuring director Terry George and representatives from World Vision.

And, of course, in January, at the celebration of the Avon’s rebirth, Bogdanovich attended the screening of SAINT JACK, a film rarely shown anywhere.

“I opted for the lesser known SAINT JACK,” says Birnbaum;  “to turn people on to

 what seemed to be one of his most overlooked and forgotten films.  And it seemed like it was one Mr. Bogdanovich was happy to do.”

“I was very happy they chose SAINT JACK,” affirms Bogdanovich.  “I think it’s one of my best films, certainly one of the most serious.  In a lot of ways, it’s my Viet Nam picture, only no shots are fired,”

Bogdanovich’s career, which has continually grown and reshaped itself since his days as a journalist writing for Esquire, Saturday Evening Post and others and since his first film TARGETS premiered in 1968, is enjoying something of a renaissance itself. Many people know him as the shrink’s shrink on THE SOPRANOS, but he has been selectively taking on a variety of acting roles. 

Beginning in March, he can be seen weekly introducing a film of his choice on the Turner Classic Movie channel’s new show “The Essentials” (see www.turnerclassicmovies.com ). In April, he begins principal photography on SQUIRRELS TO NUTS, a feature he is directing, which will shoot in New York City.

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Carla Stockton is a filmmaker and partner in Bagel Fish Productions.  She is IMAGINE’s Associate Publisher for Southwestern Connecticut and a frequent contributor. You can email her: carlaatimagine@yahoo.com