Lights! Camera! Arkansas!: From Broncho Billy to Billy Bob Thornton

Lights! Camera! Arkansas! traces the roles played by Arkansans in the first century of Hollywood’s film industry, from Hollywood’s 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 the setting for Hallelujah (1929), and locations all over the state’s southeastern quadrant in 2012’s Mud are all given fascinating exploration.

Portrayals of Arkansans and Arkansas have appeared as appalling stereotypes, with I’m from Arkansas, from 1944, being one of the worst offenders. And sometimes these portrayals have been balanced, nuanced stories that became critically acclaimed standards. They have ranged from laughable box office bombs to laudable examples of film-making.

Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray screened close to two hundred films in their research for this spirited, chronological narrative. They’ve included an appendix on documentary films, a ratings section, and illustrations chosen by Jo Ellen Maack of the Old Statehouse Museum, where Lights! Camera! Arkansas! debuted as an exhibit curated by the authors in 2013