The reason went back to the 18th century but the celebration was anything but 250 years old as a sold-out crowd of business and non-profit leaders, corporate well-knowns, politicians and local celebrities joined a who’s who of Hartford Courant’s past and present at the newspapers 250th “A Courant Affair” gala Friday at the Bushnell.
The special anniversary crowd included many of the former publishers and editors who have made their marks as part of the Courant’s history including Mike Waller, Marty Petty, Brian Toolan , Jack Davis, Ray Jansen, Rich Graziano and David Barrett as well as current executives including outgoing publisher Nancy Meyer, new publisher Rick Daniels, editor Andrew Julien and Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin.
“This is a spectacular way to celebrate 250 years of service to the community,” said Daniels. “We are looking forward to 250 more years.”
The Courant is the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper, winning two Pulitzers and numerous major journalism awards over the years.
“I think the legacy of the Courant is helping people to do and be better,” said Waller.
The evening included words acknowledging former reporter and editor Cliff Teutsch, who passed away earlier this month.
“I think my legacy was to make sure that Cliff was made editor,” said Toolan, who was succeeded by Teutsch when he left the position to join the Associated Press.
The evening began with a history -making red carpet, one that included representatives of all the area’s major television stations including Scot Haney from WFSB, Gerry Brooks from NBC Connecticut, Teresa Dufour from WTNH and Jenn Bernstein from Fox Ct.
The cocktail reception provided a boisterous start to the evening with many guests dressed in black and white newspaper-themed bow ties, shawls and headbands, while models sported dresses made of Hartford Courant newspapers.
The evening also included video congratulations from a host of area celebrities , a display of Courant front pages, dinner , entertainment by the Yale Whiffenpoofs followed by dancing. Emcees for the evening were ESPN personalities Seth Greenberg and Andy Katz.
