LITTLE ROCK — THE OTHER OSBORNES:
Seems everybody has their own reality show, so why not Little Rock philanthropist and medical research testing company owner Jennings Obsorne?
Don’t laugh; this could become a reality.
Former Pine Bluff resident Rosemond Cranner, now developing TV shows in Los Angeles, made a recent trip back looking for reality show fodder to pitch to networks.
A couple included crop-dusting families in the Arkansas/Mississippi Delta, and a show focusing on checkpoints manned by Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies. The third idea?
A look inside the lives of Jennings, wife Mitzi and daughter Breezy.
“One of the first reality shows was The Osbournes, on Ozzy Osbourne and his family, so why not have another?” says David Bazzel who assists Obsorne with promotion.
“They’ve got 5 million lights at Disney and Graceland. Jennings is involved in politics and re-establishing his medical testing business but still mows his own yard and helps mow a neglected cemetery. Breezy is now divorced, dating, and has her own business [a yoga studio],” says Bazzel. “I think it could be interesting.”
Recently filmed footage includes celebrating Breezy’s birthday at the Riverfest fireworks display that the family sponsors.
OF SNAKES AND SCOUNDRELS:
Most Arkansans who know Randal Berry associate the Little Rock Zoo reptile keeper with snakes and other slithering critters.
But another of his lifelong interests is the April 14, 1865, assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by actor John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Berry, fascinated with the assassination and accompanying conspiracy theories since he was 11, has created a website - www.
Lincoln-Assassination.
com - on the subject. The site, created last August, has been viewed 30,000-plus times.
“Once a year, I trudge up to Washington, D.C., to attend a conference dedicated to the assassination, along with other Civil War topics,” says Berry.
His website includes a discussion forum that examines “the many twists and turns regarding the conspiracy to overthrow the government right after the Civil War ended.”
ARKANSAS TIES:
The recent passing of entertainer and sausage company founder Jimmy Dean recalls the connection the Texas native had with Arkansas. In 1970 Dean, still enjoying the success of his song “Big Bad John,” came to Little Rock. While here, he said he was looking for ahungry ad agency to launch his sausage company.
The story goes that someone at one of the local radio stations recommended Bill Holland. The two began working together - turning Holland’s struggling business into a successful agency. The two worked together until Holland’s death of cancer.
Paper Trails appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact Linda Caillouet at (501) 399-3636 or at lcaillouet@arkansasonline.com
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/23/2010