BRATTLEBORO — Ever since the Latchis Theatre debuted the day after the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, its operators have aimed to take the town by storm with one splashy film premiere after another.

Consider “That Certain Age,” a now forgotten musical comedy “rushed from Hollywood by airplane” for the grand opening before its release anywhere else, the local newspaper reported at the time.

Or “The Wizard of Oz,” screened after a 1939 downtown parade that featured the horse-drawn carriage Judy Garland rode through Munchkinland.

Or “Gone with the Wind,” which arrived with the advertised claim, “Brattleboro will be the first town in the country of less than 10,000 population to see it.”

“A lot of the history of cinema has taken place right here,” Jon Potter, the Latchis’ current executive director, said in a recent interview. “We hearken back to a golden age, and part of the experience is a trip back in time.”

This summer, the Latchis is offering the latest sequels to “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Toy Story” and “Spider-Man.” Yet operators say 2026’s biggest draw so far is an Oscar-winning best picture — not the reigning “One Battle After Another,” but 1942’s “Casablanca,” which sold a near-capacity 400 tickets in a recent one-night-only return.

“Things are in a transformative moment,” Potter said. “Our movie audience is half of what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, so we are doing more special events than ever of all shapes and sizes.”

The Latchis is set to host David Lubin, author of the new book “Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream,” as part of a June 14 showing of the 1950 film.

“Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman will arrive June 19 with her new documentary “Steal This Story, Please!” as part of a program moderated by her brother, VTDigger podcast host David Goodman.

And the “Classics at the Latchis” series that has ranged from 1942’s “Now, Voyager” to 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” will continue June 21 with a Father’s Day presentation of 1973’s “Paper Moon.”

“There aren’t too many places that are a first-run movie theater and also an event space,” Potter said, “and that can be a challenge.”

A horse-drawn carriage that transported Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” arrives outside Brattleboro’s historic Latchis Theatre in 1939. Photo courtesy of the Brattleboro Historical Society

The Latchis’ main auditorium can’t rely solely on films, as for every “Casablanca” is a current box-office bomb that detonates upon arrival. But the theater also can’t limit itself to live performances, since it’s the only cinema in a half-hour radius.

As a result, the Brattleboro landmark has a history of promising something for everyone.

The Art Deco picture palace opened in 1938 as a memorial to Greek immigrant-turned-impresario Demetrios Latsis. (An Ellis Island registrar misspelled that original surname, resulting in what’s now on the marquee.) The four-story building was billed as “a town within a town” for its cinema, 30-room boutique hotel, restaurant and sidewalk of shops.

The block provided entertainment and escape during the Depression and World War II, then saw audiences scatter with the arrival of Interstate 91 and the internet. The Latchis became a nonprofit organization in 2003, only to face $500,000 in flood damage from 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene and up to $1,000 in daily losses at the height of the 2020 pandemic.

To make ends meet, the Latchis now rents its main auditorium and three smaller screens for private events. It mixes in live stage shows: the Windham Philharmonic played there last week and a new production of the opera “Tristan und Isolde” is set for August. It’s also plugging into technology for simulcasts from New York’s Metropolitan Opera and London’s National Theatre.

Theater manager Luis Negron came up with “Casablanca” when brainstorming a film for Valentine’s Day.

“It’s not only about love,” he said, “but also people were so ready to see heroes winning.”

Even so, Negron was surprised when fans arrived with the lyrics to “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem that’s heard in the movie.

“When it played, some people stood up and started singing,” he said. “And every time a Nazi appeared, they booed.”

“It turned a little bit into Rocky Horror,” confirmed Potter, referring to the 1975 cult picture show.

The Latchis isn’t sure how locals will respond when it screens 1951’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” in September. But with the latest “Star Wars” spinoff reporting a 70% drop in U.S. ticket sales from its first to second week, the Brattleboro theater is willing to try something different.

“We’re just opening the doors to what we can do here,” Potter said. “There are lots of reasons to stay home, so you have to give people a reason to come out.”

Vermont plans to build a permanent locked facility for young people involved in the state’s justice system in South Burlington, the state announced this week.

The 14-bed facility, called the Green Mountain Youth Center, would hold youth ages 12 through 18, according to an announcement from the Vermont Department for Children and Families.

The new facility aims to permanently replace the scandal-plagued Woodside Youth Rehabilitation Center in Essex, which closed in 2020 amid allegations of staff abuse. In 2023, the state agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of seven youth over the use of force at the facility.

The state has said the new facility will take a more therapeutic approach and fill a gap in Vermont’s existing juvenile justice system. It will provide youth with a “highly structured, intensive clinical setting,” according to the department’s release.

The permanent facility is slated to have an eight-bed crisis stabilization unit for youth awaiting trial and a six-bed residential treatment program for youth who have gotten a court decision, the release said.

Meanwhile, Matthew Bernstein, the state’s child, youth and family advocate, said the state’s messaging is disingenuous.

“This is a detention facility,” Bernstein said.

Despite the announcement, building the South Burlington facility might not be as simple as it seems. The state has fumbled two different bids to build the facility in two years after running into zoning obstacles and opposition from residents in both Newbury and Vergennes.

While plans for a permanent facility were up in the air, the state opened a temporary facility in Middlesex, Vt., in 2024. That four-bed facility, Red Clover Treatment Center, was built as a short-term stopgap. But now the state has depended on it for longer than expected, raising concerns about the space’s limitations.

Regarding the state’s latest plan for a permanent facility, Bernstein said he takes issue with its model. He worries the facility is too big for the state’s needs and will steer money in the wrong direction.

“Our concern is that there’s still vastly insufficient investment upstream,” Bernstein said. State money could be better spent, for example, on at-home programs that provide kids and their families with therapeutic and behavioral support, he said.

Earlier interventions could prevent kids from ending up in state custody, according to Bernstein.

“A facility like this is the failure of other interventions,” he said.

Before the state can open the permanent facility, it has a long road ahead.

Officials are still in the early planning stages and expect to begin the permitting process later this year, according to the department’s announcement. If all goes as planned, the state said it could begin construction in the spring of 2027 and have the facility running by the summer of 2028.

The state plans to build the facility on Meadowland Drive, a short dead-end road off of Route 116, south of Burlington International Airport.

“We’ve been working to identify a location that offers the right balance of access to critical supports, infrastructure, and community partnership, and we believe South Burlington provides that opportunity,” Sandi Hoffman, the department’s commissioner, said in the release.

Paul Conner, director of planning and zoning for South Burlington, said he had a preliminary conversation with state officials but has not received a formal application.

The parcel sits in the city’s industrial district, where the facility would be allowed under local regulations, Conner said. If the state applies, the South Burlington Development Review Board would hold a hearing and take public input, but its job is to decide whether the design complies with those regulations, he added.

Earlier this year, Vermont also inked a five-year contract worth $21.5 million for a Brattleboro facility designed for youth in crisis or with intense needs. The state contracted with the Pennsylvania company Cornell Abraxas Group, which has faced allegations that its staff mistreated youth in their care, to run the three-bed facility.

As long as the state lacks a permanent place to hold youth, it will continue to rely on Red Clover.

When Red Clover is full, the state may hold youth in adult prisons or send them to out-of-state facilities. One strength of Red Clover is that its small size allows for close attention and care, Bernstein said. But it’s still a detention facility, he added.

“This is not a place where anybody should grow up, right?” he said.

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.