2021.03.25 THROW BACK THURSDAY - THE PROSPECT THEATER

The Prospect Theatre was on North Beech right behind the Churchman
Rhea drug store on Kavanaugh.  Pulaski Heights Methodist Church held services there while their new church was being built.

The Prospect closed in 1953 and it became the State’s first UHF TV studio, KRTV.  They aired Oscar Alagood’s newscast, Bennie Craig’s sports show and Betty Fowler’s “Little Rascals” kids show.  KRTV lasted just one year before KATV-7 of Pine Bluff acquired it and erected a controversial 600-foot TV tower.  When KATV moved in, the station continued to be associated primarily with Pine Bluff due to some sort of federal regulation.  Over time it gravitated to Little Rock as the main headquarters and the Pine Bluff association was pretty much abandoned.  On Halloween night, 1957(?), the studio burned down mysteriously and KATV moved downtown.

One that “got his start” as a regular on Betty’s “Little Rascals” show was Daniel Davis, better known now as a fine actor in “Hunt for Red October” .  He was also Niles, the butler on the now defunct TV show “The Nanny”.  Daniel “Danny” was a 1963 Hall High graduate.  He gives creds to his beginning a serious acting career at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Then Mickey Davis, a Central High classmate (’54), loved across the street from The Prospect at 623 North Beech (now Beechwood).  He and Gwen Neser had a summer replacement show on KATV.  They ended up in New York City on Broadway.  Mickey lives in New Mexico now.  I don’t know what happened to Gwen Neser.

Around 1976 or 1977 another fire, one that was  massive,  destroyed the John Bush Barber Shop, previously located next to The Prospect and KATV building.   By then that barber shop was owned by a Merle Barnwell and his brother, Al. Other nearby businesses were also destroyed by the fire.  Al lost a huge antique car tag collection in the blaze along with a old barber’s pole.  Merle moved the shop a block west in the 1980s.  Peters Travel Agency that was on Kavanaugh between Beech and Palm also burned.

CLASS NEWS

Please keep Mary Catherine Kline in your thoughts. She's battling lung cancer. She really likes her doctors

and has a lot of faith in them. If you would like to send her a card and don't have her address, hit REPLY.

Otherwise, her address hasn't changed since the last Directory.

Our sympathy to Barbara Edwards in the death of her sister, Patricia Edwards Emmerling, who was a 1953 Central High grad.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still looking for someone to help with our website. In particular the Lost But Not Forgotten section

needs so badly to be updated and corrected. Anyone interested? Doesn't matter where you live. You can do this from

the comfort of your own home.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

ML