Documentary profiles pioneer of cinema
Italian-born theater mogul Poli brought entertainment to northeastern cities
A New Haven-based show-biz mogul who brought vaudeville and early cinema to Connecticut is the focus of a documentary showing Saturday at 8 p.m. on CPTV. “Mister Wonderland” tells Sylvester Z. Poli’s life story, from a village in Italy to the United States, where he became the largest theater chain operator in the country.
Poli’s theaters were in New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Meriden and other northeastern cities. Almost all are gone now. The Palace Theater in Waterbury, a former Poli house, was restored to its early 20th-century grandeur in 2004.
The Palace is seen in the film, but the most surprising footage is at a former Poli theater in Bridgeport. Inside a decrepit building, graffiti covering the front, are the remains of a glorious movie house, with ornate decor and 3,200 seats.
Timothy Poli Nolan of Hamden, Poli’s great-grandson, appears in the film. He said Poli (1858-1937) wanted to give the working class a reprieve from their hard lives.
“People needed to be entertained. They needed some way to get out of their homes and tenements. So he built two or three theaters in one particular town,” he said. “They were good-better-best theaters. There were the opulent theaters but a lot of other theaters for people who couldn’t afford those.”
Poli was born in Piano di Coreglia, Italy. He learned to sculpt and took this talent to America, where he showed his sculptures in theaters. He later decided to focus on entertainment on the stage.
Poli built an empire that showed legends such as Harry Houdini, Mae West, Al Jolson, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Will Rogers and Hartford native Sophie Tucker. Later, his were among the first U.S. theaters to show movies.
Poli’s fame is reflected in a 1916 song by James Thatcher, “Welcome Mr. Poli”:
“I dreamed a dream the other night as I lay down to rest and conjured in my drowsy brain the things I love the best
I tried in vain to see the name of the manager so sly, when like a bolt from heaven came the only word, Poli
Welcome Mr. Poli, welcome to Hartford town.”
“This score was published with different lyrics in other cities in which Poli owned theaters, so the ‘Welcome to Hartford town’ part was changed to ‘’Waterbury’, ‘New Haven’ and so on,” said the documentary’s producer, Isaak J. Liptzin.
Poli’s business waned in the 1920s. “He lost his son Edward in 1922. He was in the thick of his business. He lost his mojo when he lost his son,” Nolan said. He sold off his theaters and built homes for himself and his daughters’ children in the Woodmont section of Milford, a complex known as Villa Rosa. Poli is buried in West Haven.