Shelton in the 1950s

[Bill Dyer]

Anyone have any idea where this house might have been and what happened to it?
 
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=33294
 

[Teresa G]

That's not the villa on Mill Street, is it?

[Tom Harbinson - Personal]

Come on that one's easy (cool to see the video though).  I took organ lessons from Rosa Rio (her stage name), and she was the organist for the radio show "The Shadow".  Bill Yeoman was her husband/manager and involved with the Conservation and Land Trust back in the 70's.  I remember standing with him and my Dad on Commerce drive when it was being rough graded and his concern over the impact on Mill Street.  The house, was known as "The Cave" and is on Mill Street next to Gristmill Trail where the new house Simonetti built that replaced it. Rosa's house had the music studio with a concert grand piano, and 4 organs built above the area that Bill is shown watering as grass in the video.  The cave portion became the garage.  They had numerous washouts along the Far Mill River, and it was mostly a small patio garden area when I was around - not much swimming taking place.  Rosa had her most significant organ in the private residence portion of the home, not the music studio, and it was placed so she could look out the picture window and see the falls.  I played it only a few times in practice for some competitions at the Thomaston Opera House.  Rosa and Bill were in Shelton about 4yrs ago and toured the new house that replaced theirs.  They currently reside in Florida, both still alive, though Rosa recently fell and broke her hip.  NPR did an episode on Rosa in 2006.  Enjoyable.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5559593

 

It was always a secret about how old she was - especially given that she played organ music at theaters for silent movies.  Her best line when asked by a reporter?  "Honey, age is just a number and mine's unlisted".  Census records eventually outed her.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/07/Hillsborough/The_queen_of_soaps_co.shtml

 

I bet that with the makeup of the ConsComm, there are few questions regarding Shelton that nobody in the group had an answer for.

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 10:50 AM, Bill Dyer <bill....@gmail.com> wrote:

Anyone have any idea where this house might have been and what happened to it?
 
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=33294

 

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[Tom Harbinson - Personal]

right at bottom of your street Teresa

[McCreery, Edward P.]

Very cool piece of local history.  Thanks for sharing all.   So are all remnants of the "cave house" now gone?

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From: shel...@googlegroups.com [mailto:shel...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tom Harbinson - Personal
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 11:32 AM
To: shel...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: SheltonCC Shelton in the 1950s

[McCreery, Edward P.]

Shelton Ct in the 2000's:  Warner Volpert send this video clip around about a talking bird in Shelton Ct. that belongs to one of his customers.  What a hoot.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTqyuiSBB2o

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From: shel...@googlegroups.com [mailto:shel...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tom Harbinson - Personal

Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 11:54 AM
To: shel...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: SheltonCC Re: Shelton in the 1950s