showing of motion pictures (foreign, experimental, and Hollywood) seven years before films were shown at the Museum of Modern Art. The most far-reaching of Austin's theatrical ventures was the Wadsworth Atheneum's sponsorship, at Lincoln Kirstein's request, of choreographer George Balanchine's immigration to the United States in 1933, originally to found the School of American Ballet in Hartford. Ringling Museum Austin was also a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Later in life, he was the first director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. He was instrumental in bringing the Asolo Theater, first constructed in 1798 in Asolo, Italy by Antonio Locatelli, to the museum. Later years Austin died of lung cancer in Hartford, Connecticut on March 29, 1957, at the age of 56. Austin House A. Everett Austin House, the West End home Chick Austin built in 1930 after seeing the Palladian Villas of the Veneto on his honeymoon, is a National Historic Landmark. It is among the homes featured in Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes: In Search of Palladio, a six-hour A&E Network study of the work and influence of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Bibliography 1958: (published posthumously) A. Everett Austin Jr.: a Director's Taste and Achievement. Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1958. References 1900 births 1957 deaths Directors of museums in the United States American art curators People from Brookline, Massachusetts People from Hartford, Connecticut Harvard College alumni Noble and Greenough School alumni Phillips Academy alumni Deaths from lung cancer in Connecticut