Category Archives: Film

Jump to the Left! CALS Ron Robinson Theater is showing ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW tonight

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Do the Time Warp again tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater when The Rocky Horror Picture Show is screened.

The movie starts at 9:30 pm, and it is interactive!

A mixture of fantastical rock opera and horror movie spoof. A couple of ordinary kids – Brad and (Dammit) Janet (I love you) – have car trouble one dark and rainy night and knock on the door of a looming gothic mansion. They are stunned to learn that they have stumbled into an ongoing convention of kinky characters, hosted by Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who is a sweet transvestite from Transylvania.

The movie stars Tony nominee Tim Curry, Tony winner Barry Bostwick and Oscar winner Susan Sarandon along with appearances by Meat Loaf, and Richard O’Brien (who wrote the stage show and co-wrote the movie).

Originally a flop, it became one of the first cult-classic movies which ended up running for years in various cities.  Now is the chance to again see it on the big screen.

Admission is $5. Concessions are available for purchase.

CALS will be showing the movie again on each Friday in October!

A Fortnight Before Halloween, See THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS on the CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen

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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, PG)

Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere.

See The Nightmare Before Christmas at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater tonight (October 11).

The movie stars the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Paul Reubens, and Ken Page.  It was based on an idea by Tim Burton.  The songs were written by Elfman.

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Film starts at 7:00 p.m. Beer, wine, and concessions will be available. Admission is $5.00

Hitchcocktoberfest continues with REAR WINDOW

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Rear Window (1954, PG)

Join the CALS Ron Robinson Theater for HITCHCOCKTOBERFEST! They will be screening FIVE classic Hitchcock films throughout October, and continue the series off tonight (October 8) with Rear Window.

The screening starts at 7pm.

The 1954 film is the second collaboration between Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart. It also featured Grace Kelly (another in the long line of cool, attractive blondes which Hitchcock cast in his movies), Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, and Judith Evelyn.

Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (Stewart) breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man (Burr) across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Freemont (Kelly) and his visiting nurse Stella (Ritter) to investigate.

The movie was nominated for four Oscars: Director, Screenplay, Color Cinematography, and Sound. Surprisingly none of the cast were nominated. At the time, Ritter was nominated almost every year in the Best Supporting Actress category, though she never won.

TV’s Annie Oakley – Little Rock native Gail Davis born on October 5, 1925

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Gail Davis is best known as TV’s Annie Oakley.  She was born Betty Jeanne Grayson on October 5, 1925. Her mother was a homemaker and her father, W. B. Grayson, was a physician in McGehee (Desha County), which did not have a hospital, so her birth took place in Little Rock (Pulaski County).

When her father became the state health officer, the family moved from McGehee to Little Rock, where Grayson attended Little Rock High School. Grayson rode horses and was a tomboy growing up. Grayson also held various beauty titles in high school and college, and she sang and danced in local shows from the time she was eight.

While studying dramatics at the University of Texas in Austin, she married Robert Davis in 1945, with whom she had a daughter, Terrie (the couple divorced in 1952). After World War II, they moved to Hollywood, where she worked as a hatcheck girl until being discovered by an agent who obtained an MGM screen test for her. She was signed to a contract, with her first appearance in 1947’s The Romance of Rosy Ridge, starring Van Johnson.

She worked steadily in movies, including fourteen films with Gene Autry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was impressed with her, changed her name to Gail Davis, and cast her as the star of the Annie Oakley TV show, which he produced. The show ran for eighty-one episodes from 1954 through 1956.

After her TV series ended, she appeared as Annie Oakley in the 1959 film Alias Jesse James starring Bob Hope. In that film, she appears in an uncredited role along with such other stars, also uncredited, as Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, James Garner (as Bret Maverick), and Fess Parker (as Davy Crockett).

Her television appearances include guest roles on The Lone Ranger, The Gene Autry Show, The Cisco Kid, and Death Valley Days, as well as a 1961 episode of the Andy Griffith Show (Episode 37, “The Perfect Female”), her final appearance as a performer and in which she demonstrated her trademark sharpshooting.

Gail toured with Gene Autry’s Wild West show and made appearances as herself on TV programs such as Wide, Wide World: “The Western” (1958) with fellow Arkansan Ben Piazza. For her work in television, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard, and in 2004, she was inducted posthumously into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

Gail Davis died of cancer in Los Angeles on March 15, 1997, and is buried in Hollywood’s Forest Lawn cemetery.  In 2007, she was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Entertainer’s Hall of Fame.  In 2016, a room was named in her memory at the newly renovated Robinson Center.