Arts & Entertainment
Arkansas Arts & Entertainment
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The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock is recognized internationally for its extraordinary collection of drawings, dating from the Renaissance to today.
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Elvis Presley received his legendary GI crew cut at Fort Chaffee, just east of Fort Smith, on March 25, 1958. While at Fort Chaffee, Elvis also received his olive drab uniform and shots for tetanus, flu, and typhoid.
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William Grant Still, Jr., reared in Little Rock, was the first major African-American classical music composer-conductor in the nation. He wrote four symphonies, three ballets, plus theme music for major movies such as Pennies From Heaven and Lost Horizon, and television shows like Gunsmoke and Perry Mason.
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The setting for the fictional design firm in the television show "Designing Women" is the Villa Marre residence at 1321 Scott Street in Little Rock. It is featured in the opening credits of each "Designing Women" episode.
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King Biscuit Time with Sunshine Sonny Payne on station KFFA in Helena is the longest running live blues radio show in the country. Helena's King Biscuit Blues Festival, held the second weekend in October, is the largest free blues festival in the world.
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Johnny Cash's hit record "Five Feet High and Rising," was based on a January 1937 flood that forced the evacuation of Dyess Colony where Cash and his family lived when he was a boy.
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According to Paul McCartney, the 1957 desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School is what inspired him to write the song "Blackbird."
