The Bantam Cinema was opened in 1929 as "The Rivoli" by Dominic Evangelisti. For its first year or so, the Cinema showed silent movies accompanied by a Wurlitzer organ. In the 1960's, the Cinema was owned by the Duvall family, who also owned the restaurant next door (now Wood's Pit BBQ). In 1968, the Duvall's sold the Cinema to Michael Mabry (former head of the Ford Foundation's Theater Communicat
ions Group and Intern Program) and his wife Patricia, an artist's agent. They remodeled the building inside and out, renamed it "Cinema IV Bantam" and began showing foreign, independent and classic films. Pat opened an art gallery, "The Images Gallery," in the lobby. Their projectionist, George Shaunessy, had been with the theater since it opened in 1929. In 1985, the Mabrys sold the Cinema to Jim Bohnen, a stage director (Hartford's TheatreWorks, Seattle's Repertory Theater, among others). Jim continued the Cinema as an art house and remodeled the lobby, adding the concession stand. In 1990, Jim sold the Cinema to Lisa Hedley, an entertainment lawyer. Lisa renamed it "Bantam Cinema" and modernized the projection equipment, as well as adding a second screen in 1997. Lisa started the "Meet-The-Film-Maker" series, in which writers, producers, directors and actors, including Arthur Miller, William Styron, Campbell Scott, Mia Farrow and Joan Rivers, appeared to discuss their films. On January 2, 2007 Lisa Hedley sold the Bantam Cinema to David Koch, Sidney Koch, and Elizabeth Merz. On November 12, 2020, after a temporary closure due to Covid-19, a group of local film enthusiasts joined forces to save the historic theater and turned it into a non-profit cinema and arts center slated to re-open September 2021.
