HOT SPRINGS -- Bill Freeman remembers how it all began.
"It," being the Hot Springs Jazz Society's annual Mardi Gras Costume Ball & Contest, the lone major fundraiser for the nonprofit organization, whose mission is to keep jazz alive in Central Arkansas.
The first ball took place in 2013, three years after Freeman came on the society's board.
It was held at the Clinton Field House in Hot Springs, a relic of former President Bill Clinton's high school and an edifice in such bad shape that the fire department almost put the kibosh on the whole thing. And just after the event ended a hard rain added to the building's problems. Then it got condemned.
But the jazz society's New Orleans-theme tradition was off to a good start.
"Everything really just went well," Freeman says. "We probably really, really worked hard but we made some money."
This year, the omicron strain of covid-19 prompted the jazz society to postpone the ball -- which wasn't held at all in 2021, due to covid -- from its usual Saturday-before-Fat-Tuesday time slot and postpone it to Saturday, when it will be held in its longtime venue: The ballroom of the Hotel Hot Springs.
This event, dubbed the 10th annual, will have as its king and queen longtime costume-contest darlings Richard and Beth Gipe, who run Legacy Fine Art Gallery in the city.
The ball is chaired by Freeman, a retired printing company owner, current publisher of the Arkansas Senior Resource Directory, and past board president of the Hot Springs Jazz Society.
"When I joined the jazz society they were doing a few things ... they were bringing in some military bands, primarily things that they'd have to pay for because they didn't really have much money. ... They had a few people that were helping with it, but they'd never had a fundraiser," Freeman says. "And so they were sitting around and they said, 'What could we do?' ... Donna [Freeman's wife] and I were sitting there one day and we said ... 'They don't do a Mardi Gras in this town.'" The couple, former Houston residents, remembered how impressed they'd been by the massive crowd attracted to a parade of New Orleans Mardi Gras floats they'd once witnessed during a trip to Galveston, Texas.
They decided they couldn't do a parade in Hot Springs, since it would be held so close to The World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade, also held in the city. They'd do a ball.
"And then of course the biggest thing was, where [are] we gonna do it?" Freeman says. Hotels were out of the society's budget; some suggested the Clinton Field House, which had been the site of the Hot Springs Music Festival and which would be free.
STATE OF DISREPAIR
The building, however, was in a considerable state of disrepair. The society rounded up a volunteer crew to clean and spruce it up.
"Everybody pitched in because everybody wanted to try to find a way to make money -- to do something for the city and for the people and make money too," Freeman says.
As the date got closer, they lined up the musical entertainment, the food vendors, and a ball King and Queen. "And suddenly it was February, and we saw the forecast," which heralded low temperatures. They rented a handful of propane heaters to keep revelers warm.
The day of the event, as they were making last-minute preparations, "this guy walks in, in a uniform, and introduced himself," Freeman recalls. It was the fire chief.
"And he said, 'What are you guys doing?' I said, 'Well, we're gonna have a Mardi Gras party in here. We got all this stuff' and he said, 'I can tell you right now. You cannot put those heaters in this building. There is no fire suppression in this building at all. Matter of fact there aren't even any fire extinguishers in this building. And some of these exits over here are locked.' And he said, 'You just can't do this.'
"Our hearts just dropped ... I said, 'This will virtually put the Jazz Society out of business.' And [the chief] called one of his guys and they talked a bit, and he said 'OK, here's what we can do. You cannot put these heaters in here under any conditions. You can put them out in the lobby and out here at the front, but you can't put them in this building because there's too much wood in here.
"'And we've got to open these exit doors and you need to go buy some fire extinguishers. And I'll tell you where to go to buy them.' And he said, 'We have to set them at different places out here,' and he said ... 'You can hire two of my guys; they will man these exits.'" The society agreed. They also hired a police officer for security.
"We'd done a lot of advertising and we got a bonus crowd. Everybody had heard about it [and] of course it was real cheap back then. ... So the dance floor was filled.
"And that was the start of the Mardi Gras," Freeman concludes. "It grew tremendously after that."
This year's event will feature music by the Delta Brass Express, which will be "playing blues and classic rock with a touch of jazz and some Cajun thrown in for good measure."
NEW AND IMPROVED
A new feature this year: A Cajun buffet -- complete with red beans and rice, gumbo, muffaletta sliders and bread pudding -- included in the ticket price. (Previous balls featured refreshments at extra cost.) Libations will be sold.
The evening will include three raffle prizes, for $10 per ticket (12 for $100). The first-place prize will be a special piece custom made by Lara's Jewelry and Design: a fleur-de-lis pendant of gold and diamonds. Second-place prize: a case of Tito's vodka, "which we've done every year," Freeman says. "And then we put together a case of very nice wines," bottles of which are donated by each society member, for the third-place prize.
"Then we're going to do the other thing that we do that's been real successful for us. We take an envelope and stuff it full of gift certificates. We guarantee the amount ... that is in that envelope and then people buy the envelopes. ... Those are usually gone the first 20 minutes."
Also featured will be the usual silent auction -- and, last but not least, the costume contest, which will bring cash prizes for the best and most creative costumes: Best Man, Best Woman, Best Couple and Crowd Favorite.
"We're still looking ... to see who we get to come out for the costume contest," Freeman says. "We're going to do [it ] a little different this year." They will have a panel of judges who nominate and then choose all winners except for the crowd favorites, who will be chosen by applause.
All festivities will be overseen by the Gipes, who, again, have distinguished themselves as costume-contest favorites over the years. One year he was Alfred Hitchcock; she was being-attacked-by-blackbirds Tippi Hedren. Another year, he was Rhett Butler; she was Scarlett O'Hara, wearing the green dress made from the draperies -- Carol Burnett-skit style, with curtain rod attached. Then there was the year he was the voodoo priest and she was the doll.
ROYAL ORDER OF QUEENS
And Queen Beth Gipe will now join the Royal Order of Queens, which Sharon Turrentine, a past ball queen, organized. The group consists of current and former Mardi Gras Queens of Hot Springs and is a spin-off chapter of the original group in Monroe, La., where Turrentine served as queen in 1986. A third chapter of the Royal Order of Queens is in Lafayette, La. In Hot Springs, the queens get together to celebrate Mardi Gras season and spend a day at the races at Oaklawn Park.
Meanwhile, proceeds for the ball are used for society programs, which, according to the jazz society website, include:
• Scholarships for Arkansas high-school students to attend summer jazz camp. "We send as many as we have money for," Freeman says, adding that the society has sent students to jazz camps in Monticello and north Texas.
• Free America's Art Form concerts at the Garland County Library.
• A free, day-long outdoor concert, "JazzFest Block Party," during the yearly Hot Springs JazzFest.
"Part of the jazz society [mission] is to do stuff for the community," Freeman explains. "We got a call last month from the library. ... And the library has hired the Jazz Society to do a program" one Wednesday a month for a year.
"We're bringing in different kinds of groups for these programs, which will be educational," Freeman says. "That has been a great thing that's happened to the jazz society as far as giving back to the public."
The society also gives away musical instruments. "We've given away some keyboards," Freeman says. "We just gave away an expensive Ludwig drum set -- the full set too. It was donated to us by somebody who had moved on to something else.
"So, anyway, a lot of stuff going on. ... We're doing more interaction with the schools now."
By the way, one need not play an instrument to sign up with the Hot Springs Jazz Society.
"We have different people in the jazz society do different things," Freeman says. "A lot of them are musicians. I am not a musician. I am the guy who listens [to] the guy who plays it. I'm the aficionado."
The Tenth Mardi Gras Costume Ball & Contest hosted by the Hot Springs Jazz Society, 6 p.m. Saturday (doors open at 5:30), Hotel Hot Springs, 305 Malvern Avenue, Hot Springs. Tickets: $70, single; $700, tables of 10. Visit hsjazzsociety.org/product/ mardi-gras-tickets.