Monthly Archives: December 2014

The Top 6 Stories from Season 9 of Tales from the South tonight at Stickyz

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Tonight for the Season 9 finale, Tales from the South returns to Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack.

The featured storytellers are a surprise since they will be the top six stories from Season 9.  Because there are six storytellers, tonight’s program is one hour.  talesfromsouthLive music is provided by Brad Williams and bluesman Mark Simpson.

“Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

Doors open for dinner, socializing at 5 pm; Live music at 6 pm; Dinner available for purchase until the kitchen closes at 6:30.  Show starts at 7 pm Tickets $20 (show only).

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show.

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.  This program will air on January 1.

12 Days of Christmas Movies: STALAG 17 and THE APARTMENT

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Wilder filmsToday’s Christmas movies take a darkly comic turn with Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 and The Apartment.

William Holden won an Oscar for his heroic-anti-hero Sefton in 1953’s Stalag 17. Set in a German POW camp during World War II, it tells the story of a group of Americans who share a barracks.  Holden’s character is a black market profiteer who is disliked by most of his fellow prisoners.  Otto Preminger plays the iron-fisted commandant of the stalag.  Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Don Taylor, Richard Erdman, Neville Brand, Gil Stratton and Robert Shawley play other residents of the barracks.

Wilder’s movie was based on a play written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. The two playwrights had actually spent time in a Stalag during WWII.  The latter also had a bit part in the movie.  Once “Hogan’s Heroes” started airing on TV, the makers of Stalag 17 sued for plagiarism since they had pitched it as a TV series in the 1960s. The case was settled out of court.

Stalag 17 is a layered story with much humor in such a depressing setting. It is also a mystery as the barracks residents seek to determine who is sharing their secrets.

Wilder would return to Christmas Eve and a different type of hero in 1960’s The Apartment.  Jack Lemmon plays a rising corporate executive who tries to succeed by letting his superiors use his apartment for their assignations.  Complications arise when he falls in love with Shirley MacLaine, who is involved with his boss played by Fred MacMurray.  Others in the cast include Hope Holiday as a barfly who meets Lemmon in a bar on Christmas Eve, Ray Walston, Edie Adams, Jack Kruschen and David Lewis.  David White, better known as Larry Tate on “Bewitched,” plays a less honorable businessman in this movie.

This is definitely an adult comedy. It subtly shifts between comedy and drama.  Like Stalag 17, Wilder chose to shoot this movie in black and white to add to its mood.  These films serve as reminders that in the 1950s and early 1960s, the choice of filmstock really lent a tone to the movie.

The chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine is palpable.  They both play lovable losers that the audience wants to root for.  MacMurray, who had starred in Wilder’s Double Indemnity, is unafraid to play an unlikable character. Interestingly he was just starting his run in “My Three Sons” when this film came out.

The Apartment won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director (Wilder), Best Original Screenplay (Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), Black & White Art Direction and Film Editing.  It was also nominated for five other Oscars including Lemmon (Actor), MacLaine (Actress) and Kruschen (Supporting Actor).

Billy Wilder was a genius of a filmmaker.  These two films are testaments to that fact.

Little Rock Look Back: Roswell Beebe, LR’s 16th Mayor

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Mayor BeebeOn December 22, 1795, future Little Rock Mayor Roswell Beebe was born in Hinsdale, New York.  His family were wealthy English immigrants.  At seventeen, Beebe went to New Orleans and fought with Andrew Jackson in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans.  He stayed in the Crescent City for the next two decades building successful lumber and brick businesses.

Due to health concerns, he moved north to a drier climate in 1834.  After first stopping in Fulton, Arkansas, he settled in Little Rock in 1835 at the age of forty.  He stayed at the home of Chester Ashley and married Ashley’s sister-in-law, Clarissa Elliott.  He and Clarissa had two children, Roswell and Cora.

For nearly 30 years, Little Rock had a complicated history of deeds, titles and land ownership.  In 1839, Beebe went to Washington DC and received the original patent from President Martin Van Buren.  He then set about clearing up the land and title issues, as well as drawing up a plan for the city and laying off blocks and streets.  Beebe deeded the streets and alleys to the City for a dollar.  He also donated the land on Markham Street for a new State Capitol building (now home of the Old State House Museum).  Along with his brother-in-law Chester Ashley, he donated the land for the establishment of Mount Holly Cemetery.

In 1848, Beebe was elected to the Little Rock City Council.  The following year, he was elected Mayor.  He served as Mayor of Little Rock from April 1849 to February 1850.

While his primary business focus in the 1840s had been real estate, in the 1850s he focused on railroads.  Beebe was named president of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company in 1853.

While on a visit to New York, Beebe died on September 27, 1856.  His body was returned to Little Rock, and Roswell Beebe was buried at Mount Holly Cemetery.  The town of Beebe, Arkansas, is named in his honor.

12 Days of Christmas Movies: POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES

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pocketfulYesterday’s movie featured Bette Davis cast against type as a frump.  Today’s movie marks her transition into character parts.  It is 1961’s Pocketful of Miracles which was Frank Capra’s final movie.  Davis plays Apple Annie, a homeless woman who shakes down the other panhandlers in NYC.

In the complicated plot (based on a Damon Runyan story) Ann-Margret plays Davis’ daughter who has never met her because she has been away at boarding school in Switzerland (paid for with proceeds from Davis and her cohorts).  Glenn Ford and Hope Lange play a friendly gangster and his moll. Thomas Mitchell, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Horton, Arthur O’Connell and Sheldon Leonard.

Ford, Lange and Mitchell help Davis pass herself off as a society matron during her daughter’s visit. But of course, mayhem ensues.  It is a witty story filled with its share of Capraesque moments as people do the right thing for the right reasons.

Peter Falk nabbed an Oscar nomination for his wise-cracking portrayal of Joy Boy, one of Ford’s henchmen.  The film was the last for Mitchell, who once again played a lovable Irish drunk as he had in Gone with the Wind, It’s a Wonderful Life, Stagecoach (winning and Oscar) and so many other films.  Ann-Margret is, well, Ann-Margret.  While Ford and Lange may simply walk through their parts, they are affable, relaxed performers who seem to be enjoying the company.

Davis would later become a caricature of herself. But in this movie there are still flashes of brilliance.  She spends much of the movie looking unglamorous. But when she emerges as a regal society grand dame, it is clear that she still can command a room.

The climax of the movie takes place on Christmas Eve. Capra’s message of hope and redemption fits well within this setting.

Last chance to see VELVETEEN RABBIT on stage at Arkansas Arts Center

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aac velvrabWhat is real?” the Velveteen Rabbit asks his strange new friend. “Real is something that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long, time—not just to play with—but really loves you,” the old Skin Horse replies. From this moment on, the timid toy bunny longs for only one thing in the world—to become real.

But how can he become real when the boy doesn’t play with him or even notice him, let alone love him? Then one day, the Velveteen Rabbit is taken from the dark toy cupboard and finds himself in the warm arms of a sleeping child. And so he begins his journey down the long, long road to real.

This classic tale has been made “real” at the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre.

This is adapted by Keith Smith from the classic story by Margery Williams.

The final performance is at 2pm today.

12 Days of Christmas movies: THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

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The_Man_Who_Came_to_DinnerWhat if you had a horrible house guest, and they would never leave?  That was the premise which launched Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman to write The Man Who Came to Dinner.  This rip-roaring stage play was made into a 1942 movie starring Monty Woolley, Bette Davis (cast against type as a frump) and Ann Sheridan.  In it Woolley plays a high-maintenance famous personality who is stuck as a guest in a house in small town Ohio due to an injury.

Others in the cast include Jimmy Durante, Billie Burke, Mary Wickes, Richard Travis, Grant Mitchell, and Reginald Gardner.  This is definitely a period piece rife with references to people and events in the 1930s and early 1940s.  But it is a lot of fun.  Woolley gleefully skewers everyone and everything in sight as he plots and plans ploys.

Most Kaufman and Hart plays and movies have underlying social themes or pertinent messages. This one does not.  Its only aim is to have fun.  Brothers Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, do a good job of condensing the Kaufman & Hart play into a 90 minute movie without losing the bite or the wit.

Why is it a Christmas movie?  It takes place at Christmastime. A Christmas Eve radio broadcast is a plot point that provides a great deal of upheaval for the characters. In addition, a unique Christmas present serves as one half of a deus ex machina that helps wrap up the plotlines nicely.

Orson Welles, Don Knotts, Lee Remick, Joan Collins and Marty Feldman starred in a 1972 remake. A 2000 Broadway revival was filmed and aired on PBS with Nathan Lane, Jean Smart and Harriet Harris.

A Swingin’ Holiday Extravaganza on Tap with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra this weekend

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Photo courtesy of ASO

Photo courtesy of ASO

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO), Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents Swingin’ Holiday Extravaganza this weekend.  Performances began last night and continue tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 3 at the Pulaski Academy Connor Performing Arts Center, 12701 Hinson Road, Little Rock.

The ASO presents a children’s fair one hour before the Sunday concert featuring arts and crafts, instrument petting zoos, and live music. The fair is complimentary for ASO patrons.

Broadway singers Destan Owens and Mandy Gonzalez return to lead a celebration of holiday music and festival. Traditional tunes will be performed like “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and music from holiday movies like “The Polar Express” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The exciting and uplifting swing stylings of Owens and Gonzalez are sure to bring a smile to faces of all ages this holiday season. The Pops Live! Series is sponsored by Acxiom.  The concert sponsors are Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Tickets are $19, $35, $49, and $58; active duty military and student tickets are $10 are can be purchased online atwww.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Connor Performing Arts Center box office beginning 90 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100. All Arkansas students grades K-12 are admitted to Sunday’s matinee free of charge with the purchase of an adult ticket using the Entergy Kids’ Ticket, downloadable at the ASO website.

PROGRAM:
The Polar Express Concert Suite
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
The Christmas Song & Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Baby it’s Cold Outside
How the Grinch Stole Christmas Medley
We Need a Little Christmas
The Nutcracker Suite
Feliz Navidad
12 Days After Christmas
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Sleigh Ride
Audience Sing-Along: (Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, O Come, All Ye Faithful)
O Holy Night
The Prayer

About the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 49th season in 2014-2015, under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. The resident orchestra of the Robinson Center Music Hall – under renovation until 2016 – the ASO performs more than sixty concerts each year for more than 165,000 people around the state of Arkansas. During the renovation the ASO will perform the Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center and the Acxiom Pops Live! Series at the Connor Performing Arts Center of Pulaski Academy. In addition to the Masterworks, Pops, and Landers FIAT River Rhapsodies, the ASO serves Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing symphonic music education to over 26,000 school children in over 200 schools.