Save Me a Seat! is a chronicle of a lifetime love affair with cinema. Rick Winston carries his enthusiasm for the NYC independent theaters’ fare of the 50s and 60s to the Green Mountains of Vermont, where it takes root in virgin cinematic soil. He describes the origins and growth of a community of film lovers far from the traditional centers of popular culture. Every page throbs with Winston’s passion for movies. If you love movies, you will love this book.
— Paul Hirsch, Oscar-winning film editor and author of A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away . . .
Pop some corn, pour a drink and find a comfy chair. You’ll want to settle in for this autobiography framed by the author’s consuming love for film. Save Me a Seat! is part romp and part documentary, culled from Rick Winston’s earliest moments as a fanboy in the 1950s to his years as an encyclopedic cinema owner and teacher decades later. Serious cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike will enjoy the show.
—Pamela Polston, Cofounder and art editor, Seven Days.
This memoir by one of the early heroes of film culture brings back the adventure of moviegoing in the glorious heyday of that phenomenon. Establishing a beachhead in Vermont, Rick has done it all as teacher, programmer, and finally running a theater and opening a video store. The bumps and joys of his journey, the portraits of the films and people he encounters along the way, make for a buoyant read. This is an irresistible feast for serious moviegoers.
— Molly Haskell, author of From Reverence to Rape
Author and film scholar Rick Winston tells us the genesis story of Vermont’s landmark Savoy Theater which for decades has satisfied the cinematic hunger of Vermonters. But beyond starting the Lightning Ridge Film Society in 1973 that evolved into the Savoy, for so many of us Rick was the scholar and educator about a broader film culture. This outstanding memoir and history encompasses both the origins of the Savoy and the naissance of a film culture in Vermont that understood film both as art and entertainment.
— Bill Schubart, author of Lila & Theron
As huge film lovers, whose independent distribution company we started from ’scratch’ 34 years ago, we identified mightily with both Rick Winston’s great satisfaction as well as the tribulations he experienced in starting his wonderful Savoy Theatre. And as tremendous fans of Rick we couldn’t be happier that he put this fascinating account down on paper for others to read and be inspired by. It’s a vivid personal history of a world that is relevant to everyone who loves movies, from audiences of a ‘certain age’ to twenty-somethings who have just discovered the marvelous world of repertory and specialized cinema.
— Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, Zeitgeist Films
Rick Winston’s book is an immensely engaging personal history that any passionate filmgoer will instantly relate to. By reliving his lifelong love of movies, he also allows us to relive our own.
—Peter Rainer, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Criticism, author of Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in Turbulent and Transformative Era.
“Anyone who opens an art or repertory cinema, especially one in a small town, should have their head examined. But we should all be grateful to dreamers like Rick Winston, who’ve managed to turn their young passions into, not just careers, but into cultural touchstones that enrich everyone. Add Rick’s charming book to the rarefied few that explain how.”
— Bruce Goldstein, Founder of Rialto Pictures and Repertory Artistic Director, Film Forum (New York)
Rick Winston’s passion for movies led to a lifetime devoted to advocacy—and to bringing contemporary and classic films to new audiences. He writes with verve and joy about great movies (Children of Paradise, Sullivan’s Travels) as well as can’t-miss films that are less well known, such as the British anthology picture Dead of Night. What Rick has written is, in effect, a charming autobiography in the form of a chronicle of a love affair with an art form.
—David Lehman, author of The Mysterious Romance of Murder: Crime, Detection, and the Spirit of Noir
Graham Greene said, “I’d like to write the biography of an inimitable movie house.” Rick Winston has done just that! In this splendid memoir, he exhibits the most generous writing ethic: sustaining an intimate tone while at the same time providing a behind-the-scenes education. Also, with just his second book, Rick has become an indispensable historian of Vermont, who can bring the political and emotional dimensions of a given decade to us with vivid immediacy. Late last night, reading certain passages aloud as if to ghosts, it felt as if decades of Savoy evenings knocked on our farmhouse door, and we had a joyful reunion.
—Howard Norman, author of Come To the Window –
