As most know, the Texarkana Gazette has a new home.
Earlier this month, we moved to the Landmark Building across state line and down the street from our longtime offices on Pine Street.
I remember when the Landmark was State First National Bank, and then later Ben F. Smith's department store. And I recall some good times in the late 1970s when there was a restaurant/disco called Tres operating on the top floor.
I have worked at the paper for nearly 30 years and spent a lot of time in the old building. I'm sure there will come a time when a certain nostalgia sets in for the old digs, but for now I'm happy as can be with our new offices. David Potter Sr. and Jr. have done a great job on this place. It's a pleasure to be here.
The move was delayed by more than a month. And that worked out to my advantage.
You see, I had already planned a vacation back in the summer and by the time the final date for the move was announced, I was ready to head off to New England. So while my co-workers back in Texarkana were lugging boxes down the street, my wife and I were enjoying the sights of southern New Hampshire.
By the time I returned, the move was done and the Gazette had been up and running
in the new space for
nearly two weeks.
Timing. Everything in life is timing, even if unintentional.
So far my new office has little decor, not much of a personal touch save for a bit of clutter on the desk. That will change soon, though.
I've decided to decorate the walls with original movie posters related to Texarkana. And there are a surprising number to choose from if you stretch the concept of "relate" just a bit.
There are movies filmed in Texarkana, such as "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and "The Legend of Boggy Creek." There are others that take place, at least in part, in the Twin Cities even if the cast and crew never came near our town. "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Papa's Delicate Condition" are among those.
Then there are films made by folks with connections to Texarkana. The films of Charles B. Pierce are most prominent in that regard. In addition to "Sundown" and "Boggy Creek" I have one-sheets from "The Evictors" and two from 1974's "Bootleggers," one under the alternate title of "Deadeye Dewey and the Arkansas Kid." The posters are exactly the same save for the title. The film's female lead is the lovely Jaclyn Smith, and after she shot to fame with "Charlie's Angels" the movie made the rounds again as "Bootlegger's Angel." If I can find a poster under that title, I'll snap it up.
"Papa's Delicate Condition" came out in 1963 and was based on the memoirs of silent screen star Corinne Griffith, who was born in Texarkana way back in 1894 and whose grandfather, Italian immigrant Anthony Ghio, was a prominent early businessman and served as Texas-side mayor. Still, it isn't the oldest film linked to the Twin Cities.
Texarkana's Joy Houck Sr., who owned the Joy Theater chain, started producing and distributing films back in the early 1950s, eventually forming Howco International, which distributed many of Charles B. Pierce's films and has at least one Edward D. Wood film-1954's "Jail Bait"-to its credit. Houck's earliest productions were Lash La Rue westerns directed by Ron Ormond, who later made a name for himself in exploitation films and then-after a near-fatal plane crash-devoted himself to fire-and-brimstone religious potboilers.
I have some material from Houck's films. But what I really want is a one-sheet from his 1957 science fiction thriller "The Brain From Planet Arous," starring John Agar and Joyce Meadows. I remember watching that movie several times on TV when I was a kid and I always enjoyed it.
But 1950s sci-fi, even low budget drive-in fair, commands some pretty lofty prices in the poster market. So that one may have to wait.
I've collected movie posters, pressbooks, lobby cards and the like for a while. Most of my stuff comes from exploitation and roadshow films of the 1930s into the early 1960s, the works of such independent-and in some cases notorious-filmmakers as Kroger Babb, Dwain Esper, George Weiss, Ed Wood, David F. Friedman, Herschell Gordon Lewis (who sadly died this week) and others. Texarkana-related films have never been my focus.
But now after many decades, the Gazette is starting a new chapter in a historic building fitted for the 21st century. And I think a bit of Twin City screen history will fit right in.