WCSU show features Eppridge photo chronicle of Beatles’ 1964 US visit

A remarkable photographic chronicle by legendary Life Magazine photojournalist Bill Eppridge of the Beatles’ historic 1964 visit to the United States will be featured in a Western Connecticut State University Art Gallery exhibition that will open Tuesday, Jan. 19, and continue through Saturday, March 13, at the university’s Visual and Performing Arts Center.

A collection of 55 black-and-white photographs taken by Eppridge during his coverage for Life of the British rock group’s visit to New York and Washington from Feb. 7 through 12, 1964, will be shown in the exhibition, “The Beatles: Six Days That Changed the World,” sponsored by the WCSU Department of Art. An opening reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Art Gallery at the arts center on the WCSU Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. Reservations to attend the free public reception may be made on the VPAC events Web page at www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com.

Eppridge, who resided in New Milford in his later years, died in October 2013 in Danbury after an extraordinary career as a photojournalist spanning 60 years. He is widely recognized for capturing iconic images of contemporary history including the Beatles’ Feb. 9, 1964, appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and the poignant image on June 6, 1968, of a busboy kneeling beside the mortally wounded Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen moments after his assassination. “You are not just a photojournalist,” he said in recalling the Kennedy image. “You’re a historian.”

Yet the WCSU exhibition of selections from his 1964 Beatles tour photo shoot, which consumed more than 90 rolls of film and 3,000 photographs, would have been impossible without the mysterious recovery of these images seven years after they went missing and the painstaking work of Eppridge’s editor and wife, Adrienne Aurichio, to review and organize this vast photo archive into a comprehensive record of the Beatles’ tour as it unfolded.

Aurichio recalled in a 2014 essay for CBS News marking the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” appearance that the 26-year-old Eppridge found himself in the right place on the morning of Feb. 7, 1964, to draw the assignment from Life Magazine photography director Dick Pollard to cover the Beatles’ arrival that day at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. He followed the Beatles as Life’s photo correspondent throughout the first six days of their U.S. tour, shooting spontaneous images documenting performances, rehearsals and private moments during the tour that established the group as an international rock ‘n’ roll sensation.

At the time, Life Magazine published just four of the images from Eppridge’s assignment, and the original film submitted to the Time-Life photo lab for processing could not be located when he attempted several months later to retrieve the images. By his account, at least seven years passed before the film turned up on his desk with no explanation of how it had been recovered.

Aurichio’s role in re-creating Eppridge’s Life photo chronicle of the 1964 Beatles tour began in 1993 when she came across one of his prints from the shoot while researching photographs for a magazine project. Intrigued at the prospect of discovering more photos from the Beatles visit, she soon learned the full story of Eppridge’s recovered film chronicle, which provided the images featured in the WCSU exhibition and in the book, “The Beatles: Six Days That Changed the World,” released in 2014 by Rizzoli Publishing.  In his acknowledgments for the book, Eppridge noted that Aurichio played a critical part as co-editor in “piecing together my story. I relied on her vision and experience as an editor to research and unravel the photographs, and then pull them together in chronological order.”

Aurichio observed that Eppridge’s photographs of the Beatles’ 1964 visit reflect the fact that “he made pictures as they happened, never staging anything. The pictures are so personal. You know that there 

AUTHOR, CHEF AND EMMY-WINNING HOST LIDIA BASTIANICH ‘COOKS UP’ GREAT CONVERSATION AT THE PALACE THEATER

Following the October release of her latest book, Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to be a Great Italian Cook, Lidia Bastianich, the Emmy-winning host of Public Television’s Lidia's Kitchen and Lidia’s Italy, serves up an evening of conversation and storytelling celebrating our love of Italian food at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the show are $56, $46, and $36 and can be purchased online www.palacetheaterct.org, by phone at 203-346-2000, or in person at the Box Office, 100 East Main St.

Bastianich is a best-selling author and beloved ambassador for Italian culinary traditions throughout the world. Her multiple culinary endeavors have married her two passions in life – her family and food – which she discusses in detail during her live theater tour. The evening will be moderated by popular radio host Faith Middleton of "Faith Middleton's Food Schmooze" heard weekly on WNPR and WNPR.org.

Bastianich’s successful television series airs internationally in dozens of markets, and her extensive experience as a chef/restaurateur includes acclaimed New York City restaurants Felidia, Becco, Esca and Del Posto, as well as Lidia’s in Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Lidia and her team opened Eataly, the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in New York City, Chicago, and Sao Paolo and LIDIA's pasta and sauce can be found in supermarkets nationwide.

As part of a special promotion, the Palace has teamed up with four of its Entrees & Encores restaurant partners to offer patrons a special dinner-and-a-show package for the event. For $75 per person (excluding tax and gratuity), guests can enjoy a four-course, pre-fixe dinner at either D’Amelio’s Italian Eatery, Nino’s Trattoria, San Marino Ristorante or Vasi’s Restaurant and Bar, before heading to the theater to experience the show from prime orchestra seats at a discounted ticket price. The dinner-and-a-show package is available for purchase on the Palace Theater’s website, or by calling 203-346-2000. Dinner reservations must be made by the ticket purchasers in advance of the show by calling one of the four restaurants of their choosing.

Greenwich Choices: 50 Objects That Illustrate Our History at Greenwich Historical Society

Every town has a story to tell, and Greenwich's is 375 fascinating years old. Greenwich Choices: 50 Objects That Illustrate Our History explores defining moments in the town's growth and development through objects drawn from the collections of the Greenwich Historical Society. A shirt worn by Obadiah Mead, shot by a loyalist "cowboy," connects visitors with the American Revolution. 

This special exhibit at the Greenwich Historical Society, co curated by Karen Frederick, Christopher Shields and Anna Greco will be on display at the Greenwich History Museum located on 39 Strickland Road in Cos Cob through February 28.

A bill of sale for a three-year-old slave boy containing an emancipation clause speaks to changing attitudes toward slavery. Records from local manufacturing plants tell a tale of early entrepreneurs and opportunities for immigrant workers. A congresswoman's scrapbooks on the construction of the Merritt Parkway reflect changes that altered both the landscape and the movements of town residents.

All 50 objects reflect transformational moments in Greenwich's religious, social, economic, industrial, political or artistic lives and symbolize choices made by generations of residents that shaped today's community. Curated by Karen Frederick and Anna Greco, the exhibition also features responses to the objects by local high school students.

For additional area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Benedict Arnold, Connecticut’s Homegrown Terrorist hosted by the Kent Historical Society

 Once an accomplished military man ardently supporting the American Revolution, Benedict Arnold eventually turned on his friends, neighbors, and fellow soldiers to become the terrorist whose name is synonymous with the word “traitor.”

In a talk and book signing Sunday, Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. in Kent Town Hall, author Eric D. Lehman will share a historical look back at Arnold that he presents in his recent book, Homegrown Terror: Benedict Arnold and the Burning of New London. The story sheds light on the ethics of the dawning nation and the way colonial America responded to betrayal and terror.

The Kent Historical Society presents this as part of its Sunday Series program. The 2016 Sunday Series events are being supported through a grant from Connecticut Humanities. Connecticut Humanities, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, supports cultural and historic organizations that tell the state’s stories, build community and enrich lives.

Lehman, an historian and author of numerous books about Connecticut, teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Bridgeport.  His essays, reviews, poems, and stories have been published in dozens of journals and magazines.

The Kent Historical Society sponsors the Sunday Series every other month September through May. Free admission for members; $5 suggested donation for non-members.

About the Kent Historical Society

The Kent Historical Society's mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and present the rich history of Kent as well as to provide educational and research material to enrich the public understanding of Kent’s artistic and cultural heritage.  For more information, see www.kenthistoricalsociety.org or call 860-927-4587.

Fierce and Fragile: Big Cats in the Art of Robert Dallet at The Bruce Museum

The Bruce Museum located on One Museum Dr. in Greenwich Connecticut has organized a new exhibition called Fierce and Fragile: Big Cats in the Art of Robert Dallet that will run through March 13, 2016. Best of all proceeds from this exhibit will benefit Panthera.

Interestingly, Hermès, the Parisian luxury house, and Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, have joined forces as leaders in their fields to mount this first ever major exhibition of the works of the master French animal painter Robert Dallet on the tenth anniversary of his death. The exhibition is a celebration of the beauty and allure of big cats and a call to protect their wild populations for generations to come. The paintings have been selected from Hermès' own collection and from that of Dallet's son, Frederic.

The show will feature approximately 60 of the artist's paintings, drawings, and sketches, illustrating the eight big cat species: tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, cougar, jaguar, snow leopard and clouded leopard. True to Dallet's passion as a wildlife naturalist, the exhibition offers an in-depth look at the science and biology of the big cats while examining the conservation challenges the animals face today. Offering a cross-disciplinary approach that brings together art, design, and science, this exhibition provides a visual framework for a powerful conservation message. The exhibition will launch at the Bruce Museum and is scheduled for an international tour throughout Europe and Asia in 2016 - 2017.

Thanks to a collaboration between the Bruce Museum and Hermès of Paris, general admission will be free from January 10 - March 13, 2016, during regular gallery hours. By waiving admissions, the Bruce and Hermès illustrate their commitment to the understanding and appreciation of art and science to a greater audience.

For more area information on Fairfield County www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Eagles Soar in Southbury

Debuting new telescopic lens viewing equipment and building updates, FirstLight Power Resources, the operator of the Shepaug Hydroelectric Power Station in Southbury, will open the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory December 19.  The observatory will be open on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. from December 19, 2015-March 13, 2016. 

Over 30 years in operation, the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory has hosted more than 150,000 visitors from all over the U.S. and the world.  This observatory provides families, bird enthusiasts, and nature lovers a unique opportunity to see the eagles in their natural habitat. 

“This is a great place to watch these raptors fish and hunt alongside other birds and water fowl such as red-tailed hawks,” said Howie Person, Plant Manager for the Shepaug Station.  “We’ve made some significant improvements to the observatory and invested in all new equipment this year, so we hope to see many people come out.” 

Specialists will be on-site with high-powered telescopes to help visitors see the eagles in action and to answer questions about America’s national symbol.  Visitors are encouraged to dress warmly and to bring binoculars if possible to augment use of onsite telescopes. 

All are welcome and admission is free of charge, but advance reservations are required.  To make reservations individuals, families, and groups can go online at http://www.gdfsuezna.com/shepaug/ and click “Book Now”.  FirstLight will be hosting a celebration in early-January to rededicate the facility and showcase its newest improvements.

FirstLight is a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ Energy North America, which manages a range of energy businesses in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, including electricity generation and cogeneration, natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) distribution and sales, and retail energy sales and related services to commercial and industrial customers.  GDF SUEZ Energy North America is a part of the international energy group ENGIE. For more information, please visit www.gdfsuezna.com.

For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com