I realize Hollywood has produced a number of really bad movies over the years, so it would be hard to put a finger on their worst production. However, in the running for one of the worst, Butterfield 8, released in 1961, can certainly hold its own. Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, and Dina Merrill starred in this less than stellar movie. Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for Butterfield 8, and even she hated the movie. A small portion of this really bad movie was filmed at Stratford Point. The Stratford Point segment is the only part of the movie that should have been given any type of award.
Dina Merrill and Laurence Harvey are firing shotguns at clay pigeons at the Remington Gun Club at Stratford Point. The lighthouse keeper’s cottage can be seen in the background at the beginning of the scene, but, unfortunately, the scenes featuring the lighthouse must have ended up on the cutting room floor. The training budget for this scene must have been very low or non-existent. While Laurence Harvey loads his shotgun shells correctly, Dina Merrill loads hers with the brass end of the shell (the portion containing the firing pin for the shell) towards the front. Obviously, the shotgun could have never been fired with the shell loaded backwards.
Dina is so skilled with her shell-loading that she loads the shotgun incorrectly, not just once, but both times she is seen firing it. A clay pigeon explodes each time she pulls the trigger, so obviously someone off-camera is shooting so the clay pigeons can be seen exploding in midair for Dina. This scene just makes the movie for me! Not only do I love the scenes of Stratford Point, but Dina’s shooting makes me want to nominate her for an Oscar-winning non-functional shooting/acting award.
The Housatonic Gun Club was founded by Stratford’s own amazing decoy carver, Shang Wheeler, in the very early 1900s. The club was originally located about where Outrigger’s Restaurant sits today. As homes began to be constructed on Housatonic Avenue, the residents of these new homes quickly tired of shotgun pellets piercing their walls and windows, and raining down on their roofs. The residents begged Shang to relocate the gun club. Shang complied and bought several acres of land to the east of the lighthouse property. In 1915, the Housatonic Gun Club relocated to Stratford Point.
In the mid-1940s, Remington Arms purchased the Housatonic Gun Club, renamed it, and continuously hosted large national and international shooting competitions until 1986. After 1986, DuPont Company, which had purchased Remington Arms, offered the gun club to the Town of Stratford. The Town Council rejected this offer, not wanting to be faced with the enormous cost of cleaning up the millions of pounds of lead shot scattered around the property and well out into the Housatonic Estuary. By 2024, with the lead shot cleanup fully recognized by the EPA and Connecticut’s DEEP, Sporting Goods Properties (a DuPont subsidiary) turned the property over to the Connecticut Audubon Society.
The former gun club is a beautiful addition to Stratford’s shoreline and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8am until 5pm. Connecticut Audubon operates the property as a nature preserve. However, I can never visit the CT Audubon nature preserve without reflecting on Elizabeth Taylor’s dubious Oscar and Dina Merrill’s amazing marksman skills.
