Monthly Archives: November 2014

A #ThrowBackThursday Party with Big John Miller at the River Market this evening

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TBT WJC10Combining the concept of #ThrowbackThursday and the Clinton Library 10th anniversary, the Convention & Visitors Bureau is offering a Throwback Thursday party this evening.

Join the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau for a “Big Downtown Thursdays“-style party in the River Market Ottenheimer Hall.  The fun runs from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

This Throwback Thursday event will be free and open to the public, and like “Big Downtown Thursdays,” which took place in the mid-to-late 90’s while President Clinton was in office, this will be a fun networking and social event, and will feature music by the Big John Miller Band. Food and beverages available for purchase.

Originally planned for the outdoor pavilions (which were the final location of the Big Downtown Thursdays), due to the colder weather, tonight’s event has been relocated to the Ottenheimer Market Hall of the River Market.

 

Tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater – the documentary THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT

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wjc10 huntTonight at 7pm, the  documentary THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT will be shown at the Ron Robinson Theater. The screening is free.

Well-known director, producer and Arkansan Harry Thomason, and Nickolas Perry’s incendiary documentary, based on the best-selling book by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, offers a glimpse at the genesis of these partisan vendettas and explores the myths and truths behind the nearly ten year campaign to systematically destroy the political legacy of the Clintons.

Using previously unreleased materials, interviews, and revelations from both sides of the beltway, this probing work focuses on the smear campaign against Clinton from his gubernatorial days in Arkansas leading up to and including his impeachment trial.

Less of an advocacy film and more of an  treatise on the political power of the media and personal interests, The Hunting of the President offers a gallery of defeated politicians, disappointed office seekers, right-wing pamphleteers, wealthy eccentrics, zany private detectives, religious fanatics and die-hard segregationists, all chiming in discord from the tops of their soapboxes

The film is narrated by Morgan Freeman.  Others making appearances include Jonathan Alter, Steve Barnes, Paul Begala, Richard Ben-Veniste, Robert S. Bennett, Sidney Blumenthal, Max Brantley, David Brock, Joe Cammerata, John Camp, James Carville, Larry Case, Paula Casey, Joe Conason, Andrew Cooper, Gil Davis, Ernie Dumas, Jerry Falwell, Mike Gauldin, Howard Kurtz, Gene Lyons, Susan McDougal, Don Moldea, Robert Parry, Claudia Riley, Jeffrey Toobin, Bill Watt and Betsy Wright.

 

Little Rock Look Back: Woodrow Mann, LR’s 53rd Mayor

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IMG_3231Future Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann was born on November 13, 1916, in Little Rock.

In 1955, he ran as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Little Rock and defeated two term incumbent Pratt C. Remmel, a Republican.  He took office in January 1956 and immediately set about to make a lot of changes.  In addition to revitalizing the City’s bus system, and removing some color barriers at City Hall, he oversaw the dismantling of the copper dome on top of Little Rock City Hall (as opposed to the repair of the dome championed by Mayor Remmel).

Mayor Mann was caught up in a grand jury investigation into purchasing practices at City Hall as well as within the City government in North Little Rock.  Partially in response to this, Little Rock voters approved a new form of government in late 1956.  Mayor Mann opposed the switch to the City Manager form and refused to set the election for the new officials but was ultimately compelled to do so.

He was also Mayor during the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School.  He sought to keep the peace and to broker a deal between President Dwight Eisenhower and Governor Orval Faubus.  His powers within the city were, no doubt, hampered because of his lame duck status as Mayor.  In November 1957 following the election of the new City Board of Directors, he chaired his last City Council meeting and left office.

In January of 1958, a series of articles written by Mayor Mann detailed his perspective on the events at Central High. These were carried by newspapers throughout the US.

Because of ill will toward him due to the Central High crisis and grand jury investigation, Mayor Mann felt it would be difficult to maintain his insurance business in Little Rock. He moved to Texas in 1959 and remained there the rest of his life.  He died in Houston on August 6, 2002.

The Clinton Years: George Fisher’s Political Cartoons

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Clinton's tricycle transforming into a speeding truck June 1, 1986 20th Century 11 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. George Fisher (Searcy, Arkansas, 1923 - 2003, Little Rock, Arkansas) ink, pencil, collage on paper Arkansas Arts Center Library Collection of George Fisher Cartoons. Fisher.1986.06.01

Clinton’s tricycle transforming into a speeding truck
June 1, 1986
George Fisher
(Searcy, Arkansas, 1923 – 2003, Little Rock, Arkansas)
ink, pencil, collage on paper
Arkansas Arts Center Library Collection of George Fisher Cartoons.
Fisher.1986.06.01

Native Arkansan and longtime political cartoonist, George Fisher caricatured Arkansas politics for many years, including Bill Clinton’s journey as Arkansas attorney general and later governor, and two-term American president. For most of his career, Fisher hid his wife Rosemary Snook Fisher’s nickname, “Snooky,” into most of his cartoons. Finding it became a favorite game for those who read his cartoons regularly.

The Arkansas Arts Center has several pieces by Fisher in its collection. They are showcasing these through Sunday, November 23, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.

THE WAR ROOM documentary screens tonight

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The_War_Room_FilmPosterTonight at 7pm, the Oscar nominated documentary THE WAR ROOM will be shown at the Ron Robinson Theater. The screening is free.

This 1993 American documentary film follows Bill Clinton’s campaign for President of the United States, during the 1992 presidential election.  At the start of the 1992 Democratic primaries, filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus requested permission from the Campaign to film its progression. The Clinton Campaign agreed, and Pennebaker and Hegedus were allowed to film Communications Director George Stephanopoulos as well as Lead Strategist James Carville; they were given limited access to Bill Clinton.

At the start of filming, the film team was embedded with the Clinton Campaign in New Hampshire for that state’s Democratic primary. During the onset of the campaign, the film crew traveled around the state with the Bill Clinton Campaign.

After the surprise Clinton second place finish in the New Hampshire primary, the crew filmed mostly in Little Rock, Arkansas, home to the Clinton campaign’s national headquarters. As the film focused in on Carville and Stephanopoulos, the film crew saw no need to travel outside of Little Rock as both were present in the city for much if not all of the primary and general election campaigns.

Over a time span of four months filming, Pennebaker and Hegedus only shot about 35 hours of film. Essentially, over four months they were only allowed to film less than 2 days of activity in the Clinton War Room.

Though Stephanopoulos and Carville were the film’s main figures, many other prominent figures in the campaign were featured, including Paul Begala, Dee Dee Myers, Mandy Grunwald, Bob Boorstin, Stan Greenberg, Mickey Kantor, Harold Ickes, and Bush deputy campaign manager Mary Matalin, who later married Carville. Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm was extended an invitation to participate, but declined. Also featured are Election rivals George H. W. Bush, Ross Perot and DNC rival Jerry Brown.

“396 Days: From Arkansas to America” to be screened at noon today

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396daysAs part of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center, the Central Arkansas Library System is showing a series of documentaries pertaining to the Clinton presidency.

Today at noon at the Ron Robinson Theater it kicks off with “396 Days: From Arkansas to America.”  This documentary short was directed and produced by videographer and local TV news director Randy Dixon for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library. It chronicles the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign from an Arkansas perspective. The project has received more than a dozen national and international awards.

Free admission.

Starting the Clinton School – A Look Back at Its First Decade

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Clinton-School-of-Public-Service-LogoTo commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Clinton School’s inception, the Clinton School for Public Service will host a panel discussion on the founding of the school.

The first school in the nation to offer a Master of Public Service (MPS) degree, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service gives students the knowledge and experience to further their careers in the areas of nonprofit, governmental, volunteer or private sector service.  This panel discussion will take a look at the impact of Clinton School students public service projects, ranging from local work in Arkansas communities, to international projects on all of the world’s six inhabited continents.

The panel members include the founding Dean and former U.S. Senator David Pryor, Clinton School staff member Dianne Kelly, founding Associate Dean Dr. Tom Bruce, and Pat Torvestad, who led much of the school’s early planning effort for the University of Arkansas System.

The panel will take a look at the early planning efforts of the school, which opened in 2004.

The program will take place at noon today at Sturgis Hall, which Dean Pryor would lovingly call the “little red school house.”