NewHavenBIZ

42 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 9 n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m T H E L O O P An undated special issue of Connecticut Circle commemorated the 1938 opening of the Merritt Parkway, which was deliberately routed around cities like New Haven and Bridgeport to safeguard its 'quiet charm and natural beauty' — and to limit access by undesirable urbanites to tony towns like Greenwich and Westport. A R C H I V E Reimagining a Connecticut for Yankees L ong ago but not so far away there existed a Connecticut of the mind: a lush greensward of horse farms, garden clubs for ladies, yacht clubs for gentlemen and stately Colonials functioning as second homes for the right people to escape the vulgar crowds, chaos and com- merce of the city. at Connecticut existed not only in the mind, but also in the glossy pages of a magazine, Connecticut Circle, first published in 1938 as a print celebration of the Constitution State. at magazine "functioned as a kind of real-estate prospectus to rebrand Connecticut for a tonier de- mographic" of tourists and prospective second-home owners. So says Jay Gitlin, a Yale historian and editor of a new book, Country Acres and Cul- de-Sacs: Connecticut Circle Magazine Reimagines the Nutmeg State, 1938- 1952 (Acorn Club, 2019, $29.99). is fascinating volume offers a rich trove of reflections on a Connecticut that is now long past, increasingly little remembered and, in some cases, never existed in the first place. Connecticut Circle was the brain- child of publisher Harry Franklin Morse, a Princeton man, native Mainer and New London shipbuilder whose forte was promoting and pub- licizing his adopted state. Connecticut Circle debuted in 1938, the year of two transformative events in Connecticut: the opening of the Merritt Parkway ("Connecticut's own Yellow Brick Road," Gitlin calls it, and the historic hurricane that struck the East Coast in September of that year. Connecticut Circle depicted its home state in a gauzy glow as glossy as its pages — the pastimes and play- things of the rich and not-so-famous (because the pursuit of fame is vulgar, don't you know). Articles such as "Edna Ferber's Garden," "at House in the Country" and "How Ladies Must Behave in Connecticut" vied for editorial elbow-room with regular features such as "Yachting Notes." Of course, the use of an imagined past as a present-day sales pitch can deliberately blur the line separating myth and reality. "ere are towns in the state that looked more Colo- nial in the 1950s than they did in the 19th century," Gitlin writes. Race and ethnicity did not exist in CC's pages. "e magazine emphasized the older Yankee heritage of Connecticut not only because it still existed and set the tone," writes Gitlin, but also because that was the image the magazine was selling to its aspirational readers. e year aer Connecticut Circle first appeared war broke out in Europe — and soon, around the globe. Soon the pages of Connecticut Circle were filled less with dewy debutantes and garden parties and more with patriotic profiles of armaments manufacturers in previously ignored cities such as Bristol and Bridgeport. Part of that transformation was a product of harsh wartime realities, but part also a nod to economic necessi- ties. Like almost all print media since time immemorial, CC was beholden to its advertisers for financial sustenance -- and while the war's outbreak super- charged the nation's economic engine and obliterated the Great Depression, that engine was the manufacture of armaments, not consumer goods to advertise to civilians. And fewer consumer products meant fewer ad dollars for the perennially undercapi- talized Connecticut Circle. In the postwar years the magazine descended into a long but irreversible decline. During the 1950s the GI Bill, baby boom, suburban flight and a tectonic shi in societal mores and de- mography soon rendered Connecticut Circle a quaint token from an era that was, but would be no more. n My back pages: A 1950s cover of Connecticut Circle featured Katherine Hepburn, 'Connecticut's Leading Actress at Home' at her Fenwick retreat in Old Saybrook. By Michael C. Bingham

• Cover