Lights! Camera! Arkansas! traces the roles played by Arkansans in the first century of Hollywood’s film industry, from the first cowboy star, Broncho Billy Anderson, to Mary Steenburgen, Billy Bob Thornton, and many others. The Arkansas landscape also plays a starring role: North Little Rock’s cameo in Gone with the Wind, Crittenden County as a setting for Hallelujah (1929), and various locations in the state’s southeastern quadrant in 2012’s Mud are all given fascinating exploration.
Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray screened close to two hundred films—from laughable box-office bombs to laudable examples of filmmaking -‑ in their research for this book. They’ve enhanced their spirited chronological narrative with an appendix on documentary films, a ratings section, and illustrations chosen by Jo Ellen Maack of the Old State House Museum, where Lights! Camera! Arkansas! debuted as an exhibit curated by the authors in 2013. The result is a book sure to entertain and inform those interested in Arkansas and the movies for years to come.
Want to see all the films mentioned in the book? Download the Lights! Camera! Arkansas! checklist.
Robert Cochran has lived in Arkansas for thirty years and has produced many articles, books, and documentary films devoted to the arts in Arkansas, including Our Own Sweet Sounds: A Celebration of Popular Music in Arkansas and A Photographer of Note.
Suzanne McCray, a Fort Smith native, is a faculty member in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas and the Vice Provost of Enrollment.
“This tender, cogent, droll, and beautiful book reminds you of so much you never knew and makes you all the richer for it.”
—Gill Dennis, screenwriter for Walk the Line
“A valuable resource for anyone interested in Arkansas’s place in movie history.”
—Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“Not only will this book provide a welcomed foundation for appreciating and assessing Arkansas’ relationship to American filmmaking, it identifies a heritage that future filmmakers associated with this state will recognize as their own. Congratulations to the authors for a job well done.”
—Frank Milo Scheide, noted film scholar
Introduction
Take One
Hollywood, Arkansas: “Broncho Billy,” Uncle Tom, and Hallelujah
Take Two
Tough Guys, Early 3-D, and a Sharpshooter in Pigtails: The 1940s and 1950s
Take Three
True Grit, Fake Monsters, and Many Explosions: The 1960s and 1970s
Take Four
More Grit, Young Gun Directors, and Shelter Hard to Hold: The 1980s to 2014
Bonus Feature One
Documentary Film in Arkansas
Bonus Feature Two
Picks and Pans
Bibliography
Index
