Monthly Archives: December 2014

Little Rock Look Back: Actress Fay Templeton

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Fay_TempletonActress Fay Templeton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on December 25, 1865.  The daughter of vaudevillians, she grew up on stage touring throughout the country.  The family was in town for some performances when she was born.

Templeton made her “legitimate” Broadway debut in 1899’s Helter Skelter, although she had been appearing in New York theatres and opera houses since age 8.  She appeared with many of the leading performers of her day including Weber and Fields, who hired her for their repertory company.

In 1906, she appeared in George M. Cohan’s Forty-five Minutes from Broadway. His recruiting of her for the role was recreated in the musical George M!  She is also portrayed in the Cohan biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy and spoofed by Judy Garland in the movie Babes on Broadway.  Templeton herself did not appear in movies.

In the 1910s, she became the definitive Little Buttercup in New York City productions of HMS Pinafore.  Her final Broadway appearance was in 1933’s Roberta.

Templeton was married several times and lived with other men.  Throughout her career, she would “retire” from the stage but then return when she needed money.  At age 71, she was forced to stop working due to illness. She died at age 73 and is buried in New York.

12 Days of Christmas Movies: THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

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The_Shop_Around_the_Corner_-_1940-_PosterThe final movie in this list is Ernst Lubitsch’s 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner.  Based on a 1937 Hungarian play, it tells the tale of warring co-workers who are actually conducting an anonymous love affair through lonelyhearts letters.  (If this sounds familiar, Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail is based on this movie.)

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan play the dueling lovers with Frank Morgan as their boss.  Others in the cast include Joseph Schildkraut as a cad, Inez Courtney as a bad girl with a heart of gold, Sara Haden, Felix Bressart, and William Tracy as other workers.  There are mixups and confusions in the quiet, leisurely paced romantic comedy.  Stewart plays a character who is not completely noble – he has fun teasing Sullavan when he realizes who she is, but knows she hasn’t a clue he is the correspondent.  Sullavan is a delight too.  The rest of the cast giddily inhabit their roles.

The movie ends with the characters all getting what they deserved.  However there is a layer of poignancy. Given its setting of (an unnamed) Budapest in the late 1930s, the audience knows what they don’t – the Nazis will soon be marching through and destroying happiness.  At the time the film was released, the US was not yet in World War II, and the outcome was far from certain.

The movie ends on Christmas Eve.  It is during a gift exchange that the (probably temporary) happy endings unfold for the characters.

This film and the European play also inspired the MGM musical In the Good Old Summertime (set in a music store) and the Broadway musical She Loves Me.  Of all the remakes, only She Loves Me keeps the setting in Budapest in the late 1930s, and thus the added layer of poignancy.

Hurst to lead Department of Arkansas Heritage

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stacy-hurstYesterday Governor-Elect Asa Hutchinson announced that Stacy J. Hurst of Little Rock will be the next director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

“Stacy is extremely bright and hardworking, and she understands the importance of protecting and preserving our state’s incredibly rich history and culture. I have no doubt she will do a remarkable job in her new position as the director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage,” Hutchinson said.

As director of the agency, she will serve as the state’s chief preservation officer. She will oversee the Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templar’s Cultural Center, and Old State House Museum.

From January 2003 until December 2014, Hurst represented Ward 3 on the Little Rock City Board.  A native of Pine Bluff, she moved to Little Rock in 1985 after graduating from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a degree in Communications.  Since 1996, she has worked at Tipton & Hurst, Inc.  Prior to that, she worked for Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation for twelve years, retiring from the organization as Vice President.

From January 2007 to December 2008, she served as Vice Mayor of the City of Little Rock.  Prior to her election to the City Board, she served as co-chair of the Vision Little Rock, Recreation and Tourism workgroup.  She also served as a member of the Little Rock Zoo Board of Governors from 2000 to 2002.

Hurst chaired the three (3)-year community-wide planning process that led to a vision and Master Plan for the renovation of War Memorial Park.  Since the plan was adopted by the Board, over $2 million has been devoted to improvements within this signature park.  She was instrumental in the revitalization of the Midtown Redevelopment Corridor.  These efforts started with the Statement of Expectations planning document and a Design Overlay District adopted by the Planning Commission and board of Directors.  As a result of this work, tens of millions of dollars of private investment in the Midtown Corridor that continues today.

She was founding chair and board member of the City Parks Conservancy, which raises money for the City’s parks.  She has served as chair of the Nature Conservancy Board of Trustees in Arkansas.  She is currently a sustaining member of the Junior League of Little Rock, after having led the League’s efforts to purchase and restore the historic Women’s City Club in downtown.  Her numerous other community memberships include the Nature Conservancy,Arkansas Arts Center, Youth Home Board of Trustees, Arkansas Women’s Forum, CARTI Foundation Board of Trustees, Little Rock Garden Club, First Tee of Arkansas Board of Trustees, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, Alzheimer’s Arkansas Advisory Board.

Little Rock Look Back: Ground Broken for Robinson Auditorium

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ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT photo of Mayor Overman, Mrs. Robinson and Mr. Allaire at the groundbreaking. The Broadway Bridge balustrades are visible in the background.

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT photo of Mayor Overman, Mrs. Robinson and Mr. Allaire at the groundbreaking. The Broadway Bridge balustrades are visible in the background.

On December 24, 1937, at 11:30 a.m., Little Rock Mayor R. E. Overman, Ewilda Gertrude Miller Robinson (the widow of Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson) and  Alexander Allaire of the PWA turned dirt to participate in the brief groundbreaking ceremony for Little Rock’s municipal auditorium.  That morning, the Arkansas Gazette ran a brief story on the upcoming groundbreaking.  The story mentioned that the building would be named in memory of the late beloved Arkansas politician.  This appears to be the first public pronouncement of the Robinson name for this civic structure.

Among others in attendance at the groundbreaking were Mrs. Charles Miller (sister-in-law of Mrs. Robinson), Mr. and Mrs. Grady Miller (brother and sister-in-law of Mrs. Robinson), the mayor’s wife, the three architects (George Wittenberg, Lawson Delony and Eugene John Stern), and D. H. Daugherty and Will Terry of the City’s Board of Public Affairs.

Construction had to start by January 1, 1938, in order to receive PWA funds.  By breaking ground on December 24, there was over a week to spare.  The site had been selected in late October 1937, and the purchase had not been finalized.  But the PWA did give permission for the City to let a contract for excavation, demolition and filling on the site.

The groundbreaking took place at the corner of Garland and Spring Streets which was on the northeast corner of the block set aside for the auditorium.  Today, Spring Street does not extend north of Markham; the street was closed to make way for the parking structure and what is now the Doubletree Hotel.  Garland Street is basically an alley that runs parallel to Markham north of City Hall, Robinson Auditorium and the Doubletree Hotel.

Approximate site of the 1937 groundbreaking. Once again it is a construction site as the Robinson renovation is underway.

Approximate site of the 1937 groundbreaking. Once again it is a construction site as the Robinson renovation is underway.

Photo Vulture – Robinson Center Construction

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On the shortest day of 2014, sunlight streaming through the construction at Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium aka Robinson Center Music Hall.

Sunlight December 21 2014

12 Days of Christmas Movies: WE’RE NO ANGELS

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We're_No_Angels_-_1955_-_posterHumphrey Bogart and Michael Curtiz reunited 13 years after Casablanca for a Christmas-time comedy.  Based on the stage play My Three Angels, the film We’re No Angels tells the tale of three escaped convicts who help a merchant and his family in a French coastal town at the Christmas season (or more aptly saison de noël).

Joining Bogart in wearing the stripes are Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov.  Leo G. Carroll and Joan Bennett play the merchant and his wife, while Basil Rathbone is his oiliest as an unscrupulous relative.  This movie has it all: romance, intrigue, and humor.

Wisely, neither Curtiz nor screenwriter Ranald MacDougall tried to “open up” the play too much.  The movie hews closely to the source material and is set largely in the merchant’s store.  In this holiday-themed morality tale, the convicts are more moral than the “upstanding” citizens.  The family and the convicts come to realize this.  In its own way, it has a “happily ever after” ending, or at least an ending of just desserts.

Bogart was not known for his comedies. But he is wonderfully wry in this movie.  Paired with Sabrina, this makes one wonder what his career might have been had he lived longer. He certainly could have slipped easily into character parts in both dramas and comedies.