Two crowds have assembled this Wednesday, this clear summer evening, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of downtown Little Rock's Movies in the Park series.
One gathering is a reception for the outdoor movie series' founders, Blake Rutherford, Heather Allmendinger and Ben Beaumont. The other is just what the founders hoped to see, because it means another success for this free movie night at First Security Amphitheater in Riverfront Park.
The audience starts to arrive hours early to enjoy the evening, settling into the amphitheater's 1,375 seats, or with blankets and lawn chairs, around the grassy slope.
Man of Steel (2013), about Superman, will be the night's feature, and this looks like another super turnout. People attend by the thousands some nights.
"We certainly worked hard for a number of years," Rutherford says. "And it can't be forgotten that everywhere we turned, people wanted to help us with this."
Superman's secret origin on the planet Krypton is better known than how Movies in the Park came to be. But Rutherford remembers.
"I was walking through the River Market," he says, "and I thought, 'Why don't we show movies? It's a beautiful space.'"
He called his friends and soon-to-be Movies in the Park co-founders Beaumont and Allmendinger.
They shared being newly out of college. They had jobs in public relations, communications, city development -- connections to get things done, maybe. They wondered just how much they could accomplish.
"I have this crazy idea," Rutherford said. "Let's show movies at the amphitheater."
The idea doesn't sound so far-out now, he agrees. But 10 years ago, they found only one other place Little Rock's size with a summer movie series. They modeled Movies in the Park after the North Carolina Museum of Art's movie series in Raleigh.
They had no money for hoopla, Beaumont says, just word of mouth. People ask, didn't they think of calling attention on Facebook? No, because Mark Zuckerberg was still writing code for Facebook 10 years ago. They talked it up.
"We crossed our fingers," Allmendinger says, "and hoped people would come."
The series opened with A River Runs Through It (1992), about fly-fishing. They picked it mainly for the word "river." The movie reeled in an audience of about 400.
"It was encouraging," Rutherford says. "It was more than zero."
The movie series has grown year by year -- four shows the first season, eight this year. Eat Pray Love, Office Space, Frozen, Hunger Games, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ...
"Each movie has brought a different crowd to downtown Little Rock," Beaumont says.
For instance, earlier this month, it brought a crowd of rowdy teenagers. The police were called and the yobs were escorted out, but along President Clinton Avenue, gunfire rang out. No injuries were reported. Police and city officials have said they are evaluating security measures in light of the popularity of the Wednesday night movies, and that the incident happened even after an increase in security in late June around the weekly event.
Security notwithstanding, the series has even prompted other cities to call on the founders for advice on how to create something similar, Rutherford says.
He answers with encouragement. But Little Rock has special advantages. Namely, the river.
The amphitheater right by the river -- in a park, no less. Sandwiched between beautifully uplit bridges and the River Market. Restaurants all around. Beat that.
The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau took over managing the movie series in 2008. The founders retain advisory roles, but in different circumstances. Movies in the Park has held its place all these years, but the founders have gone off in more directions than Superman and the Justice League.
Rutherford is with the McLarty Companies in Philadelphia. Beaumont is off to a higher degree in education at the University of Wisconsin. Allmendinger is public relations director for Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, and now a mom, she points out.
The reception was like dinner and a movie for them -- well, hors d'oeuvres and a movie, anyway, a chance to get together and talk about what has changed, and what hasn't.
Summer is still summer. Movies in the Park is still the place to be.
COMING SOON
This summer's Movies in the Park series offers two more chances to join the scene around the screen for shows starting at sundown:
• Wednesday: Friday Night Lights (2004): Arkansas-grown movie star Billy Bob Thornton coaches the high school football team in Odessa, Texas, where football is everything. "Gentlemen," the coach tells the Permian Panthers, laying a guilt trip the size of a defensive lineman, "the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders."
• July 30: E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982): A 10-year-old boy befriends a stranded creature from outer space. Oh, sure, you've seen it before. But this time, watch closer. See if it's true what the Internet Movie Data Base says -- that "almost everything about the phases and appearance of the moon is wrong."
The moon on screen, that is. Also available for viewing, the moon in the sky. It's always astronomically correct.
(More information about Movies in the Park is available at moviesintheparklr.net, or by calling (501) 375-2552.)
High Profile on 07/20/2014