201. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir with Griffin Dunne

In this episode, Host Mary Donohue talks to Griffin Dunne, actor, producer and director and now New York Times best-selling author about his family memoir The Friday Afternoon Club. His Hartford to Hollywood family includes generations of writers, movie producers, journalists, and actors including his father Dominick Dunne, uncle John Gregory Dunne, and aunt Joan Didion.

 

This prominent family dynasty has part of its roots in Irish-American Connecticut, coming from Ireland to Derby and Hartford. Irish Catholics, unwelcome in Protestant Connecticut from the jump in the 1820s, nevertheless made Connecticut  home. In this episode, Dunne shares stories about family figures such as Hartford’s Dominick Burns, a self-made man who immigrated from Ireland at age 11 and became a business owner and bank president. And Dr. Edwin Dunne, a Harvard-trained surgeon, who was the grandson of an Irish immigrant and the son of a machinist at the Farrell Foundry and Machine Company in Ansonia. And we don’t forget the Hollywood part of the story either with Dunne’s vivid memories of his father’s life as a movie producer and crime journalist!

 

Our thanks again to Griffin Dunne for joining us for this episode. His book is available at your favorite bookstore or on Amazon.

 

The new Hartford Public Library Park Street at the Lyric Branch is located at 603 Park Street. The building that housed the Park Street Trust Company where Dominick Burns served as co-founder and president is located at 617 Park Street, on the southwest corner of Park and Broad Streets.

 

The grave monument company that is mentioned is Beij, Williams and Zito-still in business. John Zito, Jr. was a sculptor as well as a partner in the cemetery monument company.

Their website is here:

https://fineartstone.com/companyhistory/

 

If you want to learn more about Connecticut’s Irish-American history and landmarks, go to the website of the Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society here:

http://www.ctirishhistory.org/website/publish/about/index.php?About-Us-2

 

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This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram , Threads, and BlueSky.

 

Follow host Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at WeHa Sidewalk Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!