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Little Rock Look Back: STAR WARS comes to Little Rock
Today, May the 4th, is Star Wars Day. The classic film first opened in May 1977 (though after May 4). It did not reach Little Rock until June 24, 1977. Given its status as a sleeper hit, it is no …...
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42nd Annual Territorial Fair at Historic Arkansas Museum today from 10 to 4
Historic Arkansas Museum will host the 42nd Annual Territorial Fair on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This popular annual event is a fun and free opportunity for adults and children of all...
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Little Rock Look Back: Elvis plays final Robinson Auditorium Show
After two visits in 1955 where he was down on the bill, Elvis Presley made his third and final appearance at Robinson Auditorium on May 16, 1956. This time he was the star and Robinson was packed. The...
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Little Rock Look Back: Dan T. Sprick
Future Little Rock Mayor Dan T. Sprick was born on May 19, 1902. He served three terms on the Little Rock City Council (from 1935 to 1941). In 1945, he was elected Mayor of Little Rock and served one...
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Little Rock Look Back: Cornice placed on Robinson Auditorium
On June 1, 1939, the cornice was installed on Robinson Auditorium. This granite slab noted the name of the building as the Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium. (It is interesting to note that...
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Tony Awards Week – Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with…. HAIR?
The Tony winning musical The Music Man may have featured a song about “Trouble in River City” but the Tony nominated musical Hair brought trouble to this “river city” in 1971 and 1972. In February...
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Little Rock Look Back: Founding Fathers of Little Rock
There are several men who can be considered founding fathers of Little Rock: William Lewis, the first settler, who stayed for a few months in 1814; Roswell Beebe, who acquired most of the land and laid...
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Little Rock Look Back: President Truman returns to LR
On July 1, 1952, President Harry S. Truman returned to Little Rock for the last time in his presidency. He landed at Adams Field. After a short ride to the Missouri Pacific train station, he boarded a...
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Little Rock Look Back: New City Hall approved in 1906
On July 9, 1906, the Little Rock City Council approved Resolution 281 and Ordinance 1,295. These actions approved the plans for a new City Hall complex to be constructed on land at the northwest corner...
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Shark Week Special: Mack the Knife at Arkansas Rep
In honor of Shark Week and the upcoming 40th anniversary season at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, a quick look back at the Rep’s first production. In November 1976, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s...
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Learn about Little Rock’s earliest auditorium (which also was a roller rink...
Today at noon, the Old State House Museum will have another Brown Bag Lecture. This one focuses on three decades of unsuccessful efforts to build a municipal auditorium in Little Rock. That time...
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Little Rock Look Back: Judge Eisele rules HAIR must flow at Robinson Auditorium
Forty-four years ago today, on August 11, 1971, Nixon appointee Federal Judge G. Thomas Eisele ruled that the musical Hair must be allowed to play in Little Rock in 1972 at Robinson Auditorium. In...
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Little Rock Look Back: First City Auditorium Approved
On August 20, 1906, the Little Rock City Council approved plans for the City’s first municipal auditorium. A week earlier, businessman A. C. Read petitioned the City for the right to construct a...
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Little Rock Look Back: City Council approves 1935 auditorium plan
On August 26, 1935, the City of Little Rock took its first significant step in a decade for the creation of a City auditorium.. Under the leadership of Mayor R. E. Overman, the City Council approved...
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Little Rock Look Back: Plans for a new City Hall finally move forward
After a judge ruled in August 1906 that the City of Little Rock could not build a new City Hall and Auditorium complex, it looked like Little Rock would be stuck with its existing inadequate building....
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Little Rock Look Back: Mayor John E. Knight
On September 20, 1816, future Little Rock Mayor John Elliott Knight was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1843 he married Hannah Donnell in New York, and came to Little Rock that same year. Knight...
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CANCELLED – Jonathan Karl will present the CALS J.N. Heiskell Distinguished...
Jonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, will present the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture on Friday, October 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the Ron...
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1897 UFO Sightings in Arkansas topic of Old State House Brown Bag Lecture...
On Thursday, October 15, at noon, at the Old State House Museum, Brian Irby of the Arkansas History Commission will tell the story of one of the first waves of UFO hysteria that swept through the...
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Little Rock Look Back: Site selected for Robinson Auditorium
On October 29, 1937, the Little Rock City Council finally selected the site for the Municipal Auditorium. It had been approved by voters in January of that year, but no site had been identified during...
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Little Rock Look Back: J. N. Heiskell
John Netherland (J. N.) Heiskell served as editor of the Arkansas Gazette for more than seventy years. He was born on November 2, 1872, in Rogersville, Tennessee, to Carrick White Heiskell and Eliza...
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