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Local filmmaker turns spotlight back on Hollywood’s Mermaid
D.H. Callahan
May 13, 2026
Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952).
Provided
For decades, Esther Williams was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but the swimming sensation of the silver screen has largely faded from public memory — a disappearance that intrigued Millerton filmmaker Brian Gersten and inspired him to revisit her legacy.
As a millennial, Gersten grew up largely unaware of Williams’ influential career. His teen years in Chicago were spent with friends who obsessed over movies, spending hours at their local independent video store,and watching anything that caught their eye. Somehow, though, they never ventured into the glossy world of synchronized-swimming musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Gersten’s life changed when he first saw the documentary “Hoop Dreams,” which follows two young Chicago basketball players as they’re groomed and recruited by scouts with hopes of college stardom – and possibly the NBA. These boys grew up just 40 minutes from Gersten’s home, yet their world felt far away. The film’s power pushed him to take his love of movies to the next level.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Gersten realized documentaries were his passion. He enrolled at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine before heading to Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where he earned an MFA in documentary film.
Since then, Gersten has made a series of short, often heartwarming documentaries on subjects ranging from pigeon enthusiasts and hollerin’ competitions to the history of bowling in America and even Balloon Boy, the nickname for Falcon Heene, the child at the center of a bizarre media frenzy.
When he’s not making his own films, Gersten often edits and helps structure other projects, including the cycling documentary “Enter the Slipstream” and “Radical Wolfe,” a profile of writer Tom Wolfe.
It was while editing one of these projects that Gersten first encountered Williams.
“Who was this figure? What was going on in these films?” he wondered.
What he learned fascinated him. Williams starred in over 30 movies despite having no formal acting training. A champion swimmer, she made the 1940 U.S. Olympic team, but when the games were canceled because of World War II, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw an opportunity.
Studio scouts recruited Williams, and she took to film like a fish to water. Her confidence, athleticism and, crucially for Hollywood, photogenic looks lit up the silver screen. In 1944, “Bathing Beauty” rocketed her to stardom.
For nearly two decades, Williams starred in one or two films a year, including “Million Dollar Mermaid” and “Skirts Ahoy!”. But as Hollywood turned toward grittier fare, synchronized-swimming spectacles fell out of fashion.
Williams stepped away from the camera, and her fame slowly receded — until Gersten stumbled across a clip and dove in.
Gersten’s short documentary, “Hollywood’s Mermaid” (2026) will screen alongside “Bathing Beauty” (1944) at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at The Moviehouse in Millerton. It will also screen later this month at the Berkshire International Film Festival. Tickets are available at themoviehouse.net.
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Hotchkiss to host inaugural International Piano Competition
Natalia Zukerman
May 13, 2026
Murong Yang ’08, a founding supporter of the Hotchkiss International Music Competition, helped establish the program through the Yang and Hamabata families to support young musicians and artistic excellence.
Provided
The Hotchkiss School will launch a major new addition to its arts programming with the inaugural Hotchkiss International Piano Competition, a three-day event taking place May 15–17 in Katherine M. Elfers Hall.
The competition will bring together young pianists ages 10 to 18 from around the world, with participants representing the United States, Thailand, Korea, China, Canada, and Azerbaijan. Performers will compete across multiple age divisions, culminating in final rounds that will be open to the public, offering audiences the opportunity to hear a wide range of emerging international talent in performance.
The jury features an internationally recognized panel of performers and educators, including Artistic Directors Fabio Witkowski and Gisele Nacif Witkowski of The Hotchkiss School, alongside Gloria Chien, Olga Kern, Leonel Morales, and Álvaro Teixeira Lopes. Together, the panel brings broad global experience as performers, pedagogues, and competition jurors, and will evaluate contestants over the course of the event.
Organizers describe the competition as both a rigorous artistic platform and an opportunity for cultural exchange, emphasizing performance under professional conditions and the development of young artists at a formative stage in their careers. Winners will receive a total of $25,000 in prize awards, along with opportunities for broader recognition and future performance engagement.
The competition is made possible through founding support from the Yang and Hamabata families. Murong Yang (Class of 2008), whose experience at Hotchkiss shaped her early connection to music and the arts, and her husband Corey Hamabata envisioned a program that combines artistic rigor with personal growth and international exchange. Their support establishes the competition as part of a longer-term commitment to nurturing emerging musical talent.
“This competition offers a platform for extraordinary young artists to challenge themselves, share their artistry, and connect with a global community of musicians,” said Fabio Witkowski, Artistic Director.
The final rounds of the competition will be open to the public, inviting audiences to experience live performances from some of the most promising young pianists on the international stage.
More information is available at hotchkiss.org/piano-competition.
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Trash or treasure? Choose your groundcover with care
Dee Salomon
May 13, 2026
Violets, a keystone groundcover, under a magnolia tree.
Dee Salomon
This brief period in the spring, before the mosquitoes and poison ivy proliferate, is irresistible to me. I want to do everything all at once: plant, remove invasives, examine what is coming into leaf and tend to plants that need protection, whether from deer or downy mildew.
Amid the nonstop gardening work, I recently made time to join a tour of two nearby gardens. Each had a fascinating history, and we looked at photos to see how much had changed and what was still there and flourishing, including a stand of large yellowroot with delicate brown-and-yellow flowers that look like a cross between an orchid and a lilac. It has been there for decades, a lesson in successful gardening with native plants.
As we toured, I overheard someone grumble about having too much wild strawberry in their garden. I secretly laughed, as I have worked for several years to encourage the spread of this sweet plant with its pert white flowers and miniature fruit. I have planted it under trees, encouraged it along woodland paths, and sat on the edges of the lawn for hours pulling out the very similar mock strawberry, Potentilla indica, to allow the native one to proliferate.
One of its characteristics is that it spreads readily, given room. As a groundcover, it also controls erosion. According to Native Plant Trust, Fragaria virginiana supports 75 different species of butterflies and moths throughout their life cycles and supports numerous other insects, as well as mammals and birds. This makes it a “keystone” plant, a designation that means without it, an ecosystem is vulnerable to collapse. That is a big responsibility for a small plant.
One person’s trash is another’s treasure. On the very same garden tour, another person was extolling the flowering lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, situated in a stone-walled bed. I used to feel the same way until I noticed large swaths of it growing in the woods.
This romantic and fragrant flowering plant is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Its deep rhizomatous roots crowd out native groundcover neighbors. Lily of the valley is highly toxic to mammals and, as a nonnative, supports only a few insects that use its pollen. I have tried digging and pulling it out to no avail. This year, I am using a strimmer, aka weed whacker, even though I risk damaging nearby plants. I am hoping that after doing this a few times over the next several years, I will succeed in getting rid of it. I will keep you posted.
Native groundcover may not be our first thought when we garden, but it is an easy and fundamental way to tie together a garden bed, especially when garden plants are still immature, while helping nature at the same time.
In addition to wild strawberry, another keystone groundcover in our area is violet; it is the exclusive larval host plant for dozens of fritillary butterfly species. They are flowering now in numerous shades of their namesake color. I find them to be a native treasure, too long taken for granted and eschewed for fancier plants.
In shady areas, two gorgeous native options are foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia, which has a delightful early spring flower — a 4-inch spike of tiny white foamy blooms — and wild ginger, Asarum canadense, a dignified option that creates a bed of overlapping semicircles completely covering the soil beneath.
If you are looking for something that forms a clump, the species Heuchera americana and Heuchera villosa are known as alumroot or coral bells. Finding the original species version can be difficult, as there is an abundance of colorful cultivars at nurseries. Aside from being too flashy for my taste, the versions with red and purple tones will be largely ignored by the native insects we are trying to protect. Stay away from those and stick with the green-leaved versions.
Where do you find these and other useful and beautiful plants? The Cornwall Garden Club is hosting its annual native plant sale Saturday, May 23, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the terrace at The Pink House Restaurant, 34 Lower River Road in West Cornwall. I will be there, as will Michelle Paladino from Lindera Nursery and Heidi Cunnick from the Cornwall Conservation Commission. Come visit and say hello.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
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Dahlia Daze
Lakeville Journal
May 13, 2026
Provided
Dahlia Daze is a multi-farm dahlia tuber festival and seedling sale featuring local growers, rare varieties, and plant starts, plus a Dahlia Talk on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Foxtrot Farm & Flowers, 6862 NY-82, Stanfordville. Reservations required at foxtrotfarmflowers.com
Track and field athletes meet in Winsted
Riley Klein
May 13, 2026
Rand Copley and Simon Markow in the 110m hurdles.
Riley Klein
WINSTED – Northwestern Regional High School hosted varsity track teams from Housatonic Valley Regional High School and Terryville High School Tuesday, May 5.
The sunny afternoon of competition featured 18 events for boys and 17 events for girls – there were no female pole vaulters.
The meet was well attended with spectators lining the fence around the track.
In team scores Northwestern won, followed by Housatonic and then Terryville. As for individual winners, Housatonic placed first in 18 events, Northwestern won 14 events and Terryville won three events.
Many competitors set new personal bests and season bests. For full results, visit athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/663562/results/all
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Kent moves forward with Emery Park master plan
Alec Linden
May 13, 2026
The swimming pond at Emery Park, which has been out of use for six years, will get an upgrade under the plan.
Alec Linden
KENT — The Kent Board of Selectmen accepted a $37,000 proposal for a master project plan for the redesign of Emery Park during a special meeting Tuesday, May 5.
The proposal was brought to the town by the Parks and Recreation Commission, which has been discussing a comprehensive survey of the site with Meriden-based firm Cardinal Engineering since early March. The rehabilitation project for the park has centered around a defunct swimming pond – a stream-fed, man-made basin that has been out of use for six years – but Cardinal’s plan intends to address general accessibility and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is requisite for municipal park facilities.
During the May 5 meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Matt Frasher said redesigning the swimming area without accounting for access would be irresponsible for what is intended to be a public resource. “If we’re limiting access, we’re really doing a disservice to the community,” he said.
The plan is meant to address features of the lower section of the park beyond the swimming pond, including a playground, sloping grassy field and proposed future installments such as toilets and showers.
Emery Park features a lower area with a pond, playground and several fields, surrounded by steep wooded hillsides with a growing network of hiking trails.
Late last year, an RFP was put out for just the swimming pond, but was later repealed due to issues with guidelines surrounding funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, $100,000 of which had been granted to the town for the project.
These funds, known by the acronym ARPA, are highly regulated and have to be spent before the end of the year, or they will be retracted by the federal government. Treasurer Barbara Herbst reported on May 5 that she has been in communication with the state as to whether the funds can be used to finance the plan itself.
Cardinal’s Vice President Timothy Cermola and engineer Roy Seelye were confident the funds will be applied to some aspect of the project that could be completed before the year’s end, and will not go to waste.
They anticipate the survey will be complete by the end of summer, which will act as a guideline for more specific construction and design plans down the road.
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