Gwen Moritz, editor of Arkansas Business since 1999, will walk attendees through the differences between hard news, biased news, opinion and fake news and prepare listeners to better navigate the current (and often confusing) media environment.
The program starts at 6:30 pm tonight at the John Gould Fletcher branch of the Central Arkansas Library System. It is located at 823 N Buchanan Street.
For teens and adults 15+. Call 663-5457 or come by the branch to register.
Last week, Fox network screen a “live” version of the musical RENT. Tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, the 2005 film version of this Pulitzer and Tony-winning musical will be shown. The film is being shown one day after what would have been the 59th birthday of the composer/writer Jonathan Larson.
Many of the original 1996 Broadway cast members appeared in the film. Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermain Heredia, Idina Menzel, and Taye Diggs all recreated their Broadway assignments for the film. Rosario Dawson replaced Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Tracie Thoms replaced Fredi Walker for the film.
Larson’s script was adapted to a screenplay by Stephen Chbosky. Christopher Columbus directed the film and was one of the producers along with Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, Mark Radcliffe, and Michael Barnathan.
The film begins at 7pm at the Ron Robinson Theater. Admission is $5.00.
On February 2, 1910, the Little Rock Public Library officially opened its doors. There had been an open house the night before, but this was the first day of acquiring a library card and checking out books.
Various private libraries had existed sporadically in Little Rock throughout the 19th Century. In November 1900, a Little Rock School District committee made the first inquiry into the the creation of a Carnegie Library in Little Rock. Over the next several years, numerous entreaties were made, but funding for the City’s portion was an obstacle. On December 17, 1906, the Little Rock City Council passed an ordinance to move forward with building, furnishing and equipping a library. Finally, in February 1908, the City approved acceptance of $88,100 from Andrew Carnegie. The building would be designed by Edward Tilton, who designed Carnegie libraries, working with local architect Charles Thompson.
Mary Maud Pugsley was hired as the first librarian for Little Rock in May 1909. She began her duties on September 15, 1909, in order to get ready for the opening of the library at the southwest corner of 7th and Louisiana Streets.
On February 2, 1910, formal circulation of books began. J. N. Heiskell was issued library card number 1. He was secretary of the Library’s Board of Trustees and had long been an advocate for a public library in Little Rock. He had often used his bully pulpit as editor of the Arkansas Gazette to advocate for a public library since arriving in Little Rock in 1902. (Years later — he lived until 1972 — he received a replica of the library card made out of gold.)
That first day of operation, 500 people had applied for library cards. The application process required one to be a Little Rock property owner or to have a property owner sign the application.
Within the first year of operation, 2.5% of Little Rock’s population of 45,951 had applied for a library card.
For more on the history of the transformation of the Little Rock Public Library into the Central Arkansas Library System, read Shirley Schuette and Nathania Sawyer’s From Carnegie to Cyberspace — 100 Years at the Central Arkansas Library System, published by Butler Center Books.
Tonight (January 31) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, there is the chance to view a rare movie – Within Our Gates. It is part of the Movies of a Movement: the Civil Rights & Social Change Collection. The screening starts at 6:30. Admission is $5.00
Within Our Gates is a 1920 American silent film by the director Oscar Micheaux that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Great Migration of blacks to cities of the North and Midwest.
The plot features an African-American woman who goes North in an effort to raise money for a rural school in the Deep South for poor black children. Her romance with a black doctor eventually leads to revelations about her family’s past and her own mixed-race, European ancestry. The film portrays racial violence under white supremacy, and the lynching of black people.
Produced, written and directed by Micheaux, it is the oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director. The cast included Jack Chenault, Flo Clements, Evelyn Preer, and James D. Ruffin
Before Lady Gaga. Before Barbra. Before Judy.
Janet Gaynor starred in the first film version of A Star is Born, which was released in 1937. Co-starring Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Lionel Stander, and Andy Devine, the film was directed by William A. Wellman. Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Robert Carson wrote the screenplay.
As with the subsequent versions, this film tells the tale of a young woman with dreams of stardom. But she achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including nominations for March and Gaynor (both of whom were previous Oscar winners). It won the award for Best Story, which went to Wellman and Carson. It also received a special Oscar to W. Howard Greene for his color cinematography.
The 1954 version (Judy) received six Oscar nominations and zero wins, while the 1976 version (Barbra) received four nominations with a win for Best Song. The latter is also the only version to date which received no acting nominations. The 2018 version received eight nominations. How many it may pick up will be announced on February 24.
The showing starts tonight at 6:30pm. Admission is $5.00.
Last week John Travolta from the 1970s was on the CALS Ron Robinson screen. This week, a 1990s version of Travolta takes the screen.
Twenty-five years ago, PULP FICTION was released. In honor of its silver anniversary, the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre is showing the movie tonight. The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
The film starred Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Frank Whaley, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, and Rosanna Arquette.
The movie was nominated for eight Oscars and took home the statue for Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary).
The showing starts at 6:30. Admission is $5.00.
Before it was a musical or a movie with Claude Rains, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA was a 1925 silent movie starring Lon Chaney.
Tonight the Ron Robinson Theater will be screening this movie. A silent movie, it was shot largely in black and white, but there are some color sequences where filters were used to add hues to it.
Directed by Rupert Julian, the movie came out fifteen years after Gaston Leroux’s novel first appeared. In addition to Chaney, the movie features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis, Snitz Edwards ,Mary Fabian, and Virginia Pearson.
When the movie was first released, Universal Pictures would not allow any magazine or newspaper to publish a photo of Chaney as the phantom. They wanted the audience to be surprised by his face.
The showing starts at 6:30pm. The cost is $5.00.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 