Ithaca’s rich film history and status as a “Hollywood of the Northeast” has has left its mark on the town in a myriad of wonderful ways. There’s no doubt that the city’s population has a flair for the beautifully theatric, and productions of both stage and screen have emerged from every corner of Ithaca for as long as living memory. Our new window display pays homage to Irene Castle, Ithaca resident, starlet of the silver screen, and wife to Ithaca’s Robert Treman.

Castle in the 1917 film Patria, the image we used as inspiration for our window.

Castle moved to Ithaca to work as a silent film star, after a whirlwind career as a ballroom dancer with her former husband. Settling down in the newly-constructed Cayuga Heights in the 1920s, Castle quickly became a darling of the booming film scene in Ithaca. Hob-nobbing with Warner Oland and other stars on their lakefront properties, Castle’s bobbed haircut and short (knee length, ooo!) skirts made her a trendsetter of 20′s fashion in the Northeast and beyond.

Beautiful beaded bodice.

Dancing shoes!

Fabulous fans, skirts of scandalous lengths!

Our Irene Castle display is part of the Ithaca Motion Picture Project’s most recent exhibit Romance, Exploits & Peril, an 8 piece multimedia exhibit commemorating the period, almost 100 years ago, that the Wharton Brothers made Ithaca a bastion of the silver screen. The flagship installation is a 90 ft sculptural timeline of the period at the Tompkins County Public Library, and other exhibits scatter the city at Gimme, the State Theater, GIAC, Petrune, and more! For more details, check out their site at www.ithacamotionpictureproject.org