Tag Archives: Ben Fry

Second Friday Cinema at Old State House – A FACE IN THE CROWD

Posted on by

OSH FaceFor Second Friday Cinema, the Old State House Museum will screen A Face in the Crowd.

With scenes shot in Piggott and other Arkansas locations, A Face in the Crowd tells the story of an Arkansas native, Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith in his first screen role), who becomes a media sensation. Director Elia Kazan used many Arkansans as extras in the film and praised the people of Piggott for their hospitality. The film has achieved notoriety in recent years because of its predictions about the rise of the cult of celebrity and the power of television to make and break personalities and politicians.

Joining Griffin in this film are Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick and Kay Medford.  Also in the cast are Lois Nettleton, Charles Nelson Reilly, Diana Sands and Rip Torn. Lending an air of reality to the movie is a series of cameos by media personalities playing themselves including Bennett Cerf, Faye Emerson, Betty Furness, Burl Ives, John Cameron Swayze, Mike Wallace and Walter Winchell.

Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening.

The screening starts at 5:30 pm.

A LOVEly 2nd Friday Art Night

Posted on by

2nd friday art nightSince Valentine’s Day falls on 2nd Friday Art Night, expect some touches of red and pink along the way at the various sites.

Among the participating locations are Historic Arkansas Museum which will feature live music by Kit & Kaboodle as well as the opening reception for the Mid-Southern Watercolorists 44th Annual Juried Exhibition. Awards will be announced at 6 pm.

This exhibition includes 43 watercolors from members of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists (MSW), a group founded in Little Rock in 1970 with members in more than a dozen states.

MSW was formed to elevate the stature of watercolor and educate the public to the significance of watercolor as an important creative, permanent painting medium. MSW offers workshops, programs and competitive exhibits throughout the year.

The Old State House Museum‘s Second Friday Cinema will feature the film Hallelujah at 6:00pm.

One of the earliest Hollywood feature films shot on location in Arkansas, Hallelujah was innovative in several ways. It was the first talking picture made by popular director King Vidor, one of the first Hollywood movies with an all-black cast, and it introduced an early form of sound dubbing. Scenes of cotton picking and outdoor church revivals were shot in Tennessee and Arkansas, with the movie’s climactic chase scene shot in Ten Mile Bayou near West Memphis.

Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening.

At CALS’ Butler Center Galleries, they are promising “Sweet Art for Your Sweetheart.”

The featured artist is Russell Lemond.  He is a contemporary sculptural artist who works primarily with metal. His work is deemed “outside the box” by some, but he feels that in art as in life, there is no box.  The featured musician,Oksana Pavilionis, is a premier concert violinist playing mix of classical and folk tunes. Originally from Russia, Oksana now lives and teaches in Benton, Arkansas.

The current exhibitions are “Reflections in Pastel,” “Arkansas Women to Watch 2013,” “Native Arkansas,” and “Unusual Portraits: New Works by Michael Warrick and David O’Brien.”

First 2nd Friday Art Night of 2014

Posted on by

2nd Friday Art NightThe first 2nd Friday Art Night of 2014 takes place tonight.  Among the participating locations are Historic Arkansas Museum, the Central Arkansas Library System and Old State House Museum.

Historic Arkansas Museum will feature live music by Phil G. and Lori Marie from 5pm to 8pm.  It will also host the opening reception for Chasing the Light: Photography by Brian Chilson, in the Second Floor Gallery through March 10.  Arkansas Times photographer Brian Chilson has had a front row seat to some of the most exciting, entertaining, eventful and sometimes poignant events in Arkansas, as well as those smaller moments of everyday life. This collection of photographs taken over the past decade, from 2003 to 2013, serves as a sort of retrospective of life in Arkansas in the arenas of fashion, sports, politics and human interest.

At the Central Arkansas Library’s Butler Center a new exhibit will open.  Unusual Portraits: New Works by Michael Warrick and David O’Brien features explorations in portraiture by two accomplished Little Rock artists. Featured musician for the evening is Das Loop, a Little Rock duo that creates instrumental compositions using live loops and “layers of poly-rhythmic bliss.” The featured artist is Jacquelyn Kaucher, a painter who works with watercolor and acrylics, and she is a long-time teacher of watercolor and experimental watercolor painting in Little Rock.

The Old State House will host Second Friday Cinema: “Broncho Billy Anderson: Arkansas’s First Movie Star” at 6:00 pm. Born Max Aronson in Little Rock, Ark., Gilbert M. Anderson was a motion picture pioneer, who appeared in the groundbreaking film The Great Train Robbery in 1903. Anderson partnered with George Spoor to form the Essanay (S and A) Studios, where he wrote, directed, and starred in hundreds of one-reel westerns and comedies, the most popular featuring a character Anderson created for himself, Broncho Billy. “Broncho Billy” Anderson became Hollywood’s first western star, and Essanay one of the most successful studios of the early motion picture era.

The screening will include three short movies featuring Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson:   The Great Train Robbery (1903) Broncho Billy’s Fatal Joke (1914) The Son-of-a-Gun (1919).  Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the films and lead a discussion.