Easton Resident Dolly Curtis Honored With 4 Cablevision Community Access Awards

***"Dolly Curtis Interviews…" Most Honored Program at 1998 Awards***

(Easton, CT, July 24,1998)…Easton Resident Dolly Curtis, hosts of the long running public access program Dolly Curtis Interviews… took top honors at the 1998 Cablevision Community Access Awards banquet held at the Three Door Restaurant in Bridgeport on July 15.  Recognized for four episodes of her Cablevision Channel 27 series, Ms. Curtis received the most awards of any Community Access producer representing the 16 cities and towns served by Cablevision of Connecticut and Cablevision of Southern Connecticut.

Dolly Curtis Interviews… The Stained Glass Project at Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church won First Place in the ``Information" category. Cablecast on Cablevision Channel 27 in December 1997, the program profiled the creation of stained glass windows for the children's chapel at the Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Milford, Connecticut.  Ms. Curtis interviewed Reverend Terentieff, Ph.D., a Catholic priest and professor at Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland who served as project artist. Over 40 Community volunteers assisted with the installation of the windows that Rev. Terentieff characterized as the expression of spirituality through art. Also interviewed during the half-hour program was Rev. Dr. Linda Lee Stein of the Methodist Church. The program was taped by Peter Stewart, with audio provided by Dan Peck.

Dolly Curtis Interviews…Alison Marshall: The Internet and Webcasting took Second Place in the ``Education – Adult" category. In this episode, subtitles ``Dolly Goes Global," Ms. Curtis interviews Alison Marshall and Haydn Kuprevich of Webcast Center, a Pennsylvania company that allows school anywhere in the country to send video through the Internet.  Shot by Victor Cromwell, the episode contains a primer on Internet terms and used for the beginning web surfer.  Viewers are also introduced to the Dolly Curtis Interviews…website, found at www.dollycurtisinterviews.com.

Taking Third Place honors in the ``Performing Arts" category, Dolly Curtis interviews… The JW Walker organ Comes to the First Congregational Church of Darien was videotaped by Victor Cromwell at the Church on April 13, 1997.  The episode covers the dedication concert performed by mast Organist Walden Moore, choir master and organist at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven. In an interview conducted by Ms. Curtis, the organist discusses the craftmanship that went into the making on the organ and what it takes to make the instrument sound its best.

Dolly Curtis Interviews…Victor DeMasi: Butterflies in your Backyard took Third Place in the ``Entertainment" category. Shot by Peter Stewart, the episode features Ms. Curtis' interview with butterfly enthusiast and lepidopterist Victor DeMasi at his butterfly garden in West Redding, Connecticut. A research affiliate at Yale Peabody Museum, Mr. DeMasi shows viewers different varieties of nature's most beautiful insect and talks about their living, eating and breeding habits.

A 20- year Easton resident, Ms. Curtis was introduced to the world of Cablevision Community Access in 1986, when long-time Access producer (and frequent Dolly Curtis Interviews…collaborator) Victor Cromwell urged her to do a pilot about six local artist.  Ms. Curtis has been producing access programs from the Cablevision studios ever since.  She now produces two editions of Dolly Curtis Interviews…per month, devoting approximatley 25 hours in interviewing and editing per week to the programs.  The program is no seen on eight Connecticut cable systems.

With over 100 Dolly Curtis Interviews…shows now in the Easton Library and some at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, Dolly's commitment to profiling interesting people, places and things in Connecticut is truly a labor of love.  ``It's fun to go out and tape the show," she says ``and I learn a lot from it."  She gets her ideas for new shows just by ``paying attention" to all that's around her, mainly from converations with others and the 12 newspapers she reads each day.

While she used to balance a full-time job doing large scale textile art with producing her show, a crippling bout with Lyme disease caused her to leave the job and devote herself to the show full-time.  Dolly particularly prizes those Dolly Curtis Interviews…shows profiling local citizens who have since passed away as a way of preserving their contributions to the community that otherwise might be forgotten.

In one instance, a two part episode of Dolly Curtis Interviews…helped rebuild a local business. A few years after Dolly did and extensive profile of the Atlas scenic set design company in Bridgeport, the business was completely destroyed by fire. Tapes of Dolly's show were submitted to the local arson squad and the police, who were able to determine that the fire was not caused by vandalisom.  As a result, Atlas owner Leo Meyer was approved to receive insurance monry he needed to rebulid the business.

``Dolly Curtis is truly a Cablevision Community Access institution," said Cablevision Programming Director Maryce Cunningham.  ``Having dedicated the past 12 years of her life to producing top-notch ``Dolly Curtis Interviews… programs, Dolly has become the definitive chronicler of those whose important contributions to life in Fairfield County and beyond deserve recognition. Her work achieves the goals of true community access, and Cablevision is proud to recognize her with four 1998 Community Access awards.

Cablevision Systems Corporation is one of the nations leading telecommunications and entertainment companies, and one of the largest operators of cable television systems in the United States.  Cablevision serves more than 3.3 million cable customers with major operations in Boston, Cleveland and the New York Metropolitan areas.  Its subsidiary, Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., manages entertainment, news and sports programming, and is a 50- percent partner in Fox Sports Net.  The company owns a majority interest in Madison Square Garden L.P., which includes the arena complex, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, as well as MSG Network. Its Radio City Hall, and hold a long-term lease on the property.  Cablevision Lightpath, a wholly owned subsidiary, provides telephone services to more than 1,000 businesses on Long Island, while Optimum Online offers high-speed online and Internet access via cable modems to customers in New York and Connecticut.  Cablevision owns and operates Nobody Beats the Wiz stores.

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