Little Rock - Then & Now

Thoughts from last week (October 13-15, 2019):

I've spent the last couple of days at the Marriott in Little Rock, Arkansas. This hotel (or an earlier incarnation of it) features prominently in the Little Rock chapters in Rockin' Heaven Down.

The Marriott, formerly the Peabody, formerly the Excelsior

In 1985, the Marriott was the Excelsior Hotel. Before that, it was an empty lot after the old Marion Hotel was razed. I have a matchbook from the Marion that was my grandfather's and remember when it was brought down, to make way for an exclusive luxury hotel right on the river. Later on it became The Peabody. I actually performed in the ballroom when it bore this name. It was for their summer concert series. We knew the manager, who also had a band at that time. 

I first stayed at the Excelsior when I was a senior in high school for the Arkansas High School Press Association Conference. When I first wrote this down, I couldn't remember the official title of the conference, then it just sort of came to me after I got home.

The Excelsior is probably the first "luxury" hotel I ever stayed in and a lot of the antics in the LR chapters are based on the real life (albeit fairly tame) adventures I had with my classmates Michael French and Marlena Cogburn. Marlena was an editor and photographer for the Bear Facts, our school newspaper, and for the yearbook. I think Mike did sports and other news, and I was the features editor. Mike and I were also the primary editors for Ebony Rose, the school's literary magazine.

I do remember Marlena and I running around the hotel, all the way to the back entrance, leading to the river front, where there was no re-entry. And it's still this way, as you can tell by the photo. I don't remember the "patio" that is there now, and somewhere back there was a picnic table and a sidewalk that led all the way around to the front entrance. I didn't really look but I don't think there's a sidewalk like this anymore, although now there'a a long walkway behind the hotel that goes for about a mile or two in either direction so you can visit the Clinton Library and the Old State House. As far as the "no entry", Marlena put her shoe in that door so we could get back in, and someone, maybe Mike, was standing inside holding that shoe, laughing at us, and we couldn't get back in. We had to walk all the way around the west side of the hotel to get back in. This same scene is played out in the book, with Randy stealing Jon's shoe out of the door.

There was also an impromptu wrestling match outside of Mr. Lindsey's room the next day. Again, this is in the book, between Randy and Steve and Terry. No one in real life was naked though. I don't even remember what incited the tumble into the hallway in front of a disgruntled maid. And there may not have even been a maid. There was also someone (maybe from another school?) who ended up lodging in one of those two-story suites that was mentioned in the book. I don't know if those still exist or not.

We did, however, take a jaunt down Main Street, which was a walking mall in the 80s. It has since been re-opened as an actual street, sometime in the early-mid 90s. There's still a wig shop run by Asians, but it's not in the same building anymore.

Old location of Wig Shop

I actually bought a wig there, at its old location, when I lived in Little Rock in 1994. That was the second time I lived in Little Rock. The second biggest mistake I ever made in my life. The first was moving there the first time. But that's another story.

Building that once housed the package store/newsstand.

There was a newsstand/package store on Main Street in the 80s, but it's gone now. I think that's where the Wasabi Sushi place is now on the ground floor. When the guys in RHD visit this establishment in 1985, it's on a Sunday. Jon buys a bottle of Crown Royal in the story, but in reality he wouldn't have been able to do this - as it is STILL to this day, in 2019 - illegal to purchase alcohol on a Sunday in Arkansas. I was going to change this in the book, but...I just left it as is.

Where McDonald's used to be

The McDonald's that used to be on the corner on the ground floor of the "Whatever" Building is gone, too. But it's still a restaurant. One that I'm pretty sure serves more expensive and better tasting food.

Capitol Avenue & Main Street

Today's view of Capitol Avenue from Main Street.
Those trees have really grown in thirty-four years!

The walk all the way up to the Capitol building - we did actually do that when we were at the AHS Press Association Conference. Mike, Marlena, and I walked the entire 13 blocks of Capitol Avenue from Main Street to the Capitol, then hung out on the steps that Friday evening in 1987, just like the band guys do in the book. The Church of Christian Science, where the guys "go to church", has moved from its location and the Capitol View Church is there now I believe. Then again, this church may have been at that location to begin with, but I'm pretty sure is was the Christian Science church. I didn't have a chance to walk up to it but I did find a photo online. I still don't know how one of their services goes, but oh well.
It's amazing to me now that three "small town" teenagers running around downtown Little Rock on a Friday night didn't seem to scare us at all. We certainly didn't run into any trouble and no one else seemed to care we were running around. Ah, youth. 

The Marriott Elevators today

The lobby of the Marriott/Peabody/Excelsior is very different than it was in the 80s. There's still a fountain but I think they moved it when it was the Peabody, so the ducks could wander around. Plus there wasn't a set of stairs to the immediate right of the front entrance leading down to the convention center. At least I don't remember them. The escalators may have been in the same place but I'm not sure. 

If you want to see what Little Rock looked like in the early 90s, watch a film called Stone Cold with Brian Bosworth and Lance Hendrickson. You can see a rather epic motorcycle race through the State Capitol (at marker 1:18:53). And I SWEAR there was a rather exciting chase through the old lobby of the Excelsior and up and down the glass elevators, but that must have been in another movie, because it's not in Stone Cold. Maybe in The Firm? I know I didn't imagine that, but I can't seem to find that online anywhere. There is a flyover of the Excelsior at marker 1:13:23, and a view of the Capitol down Capitol Avenue at marker 1:13:20. You can also catch a glimpse of the Camelot Hotel (now the DoubleTree), the Simmons Building, the Regions Building, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building. And the river, of course, long before the new bridges.

I took a ride on the outside glass elevator on this trip, where in the book, Season professes her love for Jon for the first time. I think people thought I was kinda koo-koo for waiting for the outside elevator, just to ride it up and ride it back down, but I did have a purpose. I made a 30 second video of the ride, found HERE.

It does provide a great view of the city, which is a lot "cleaner" now than it was in '87. Downtown Little Rock was practically a slum, but now it's thriving, with restaurants, clubs, shops, and a streetcar.

I did go into the wig shop at its new location. I didn't find any feather earrings or rhinestone barrettes but I did get a couple of "Season-esque" earrings for a $1 each. The Asian woman who runs the store was amazingly pleasant.

The Capital Hotel

I've also included a picture of the Capital Hotel. I once saw Poison's bus parked out front when the Open Up and Say Ah! Tour was in town. I don't know WHY I was in Little Rock that day - job interview maybe?- but I remember seeing it there, with that ridiculous picture of the animal girl with the long red tongue painted on the back. I've gotten to stay at the Capital twice now, and I like it a lot. It's like stepping into the past when hotels were glamorous and you had your own staff to cater to your every need. You don't get that at newer hotels. They try, but it's not quite the same. I can't imagine what it was like the day Bret Michaels and Company came swaggering (or stumbling, in Bobby Dahl's case) into the lobby.

Speaking of...

Heart's song Bad Animals is all about the "pack in black" when they arrive at their hotel after a long jaunt on a bus at three in the morning. When I first heard that song, I envisioned Ann, Nancy, Howard, Denny, and Mark walking right through the front door of the Excelsior, so naturally that inspired the scenes I've mentioned here, and that's the song I associate with those scenes. It's here where the song falls on the soundtrack list.

Anyway, that was my trip down memory lane a couple of weeks back.