Paul Becker is the current Mayor of Historic Jacksonville, Oregon. Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
An announcement for all citizens!
We hereby proclaim an event to celebrate our country’s independence on July 4th, 2016.
A concert to take place on the lawn of our New City Hall from 1:00-2:00pm.
The concert will be performed by the renowned […]
Now for July’s movie. WE have been waiting some time to run this film… it is The Westerner, a classic western if there ever was one. It stars Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. Brennan, who plays Judge Roy Bean, won his third and final Oscar for this one.
Directed by William Wyler, The Westerner tells the […]
Good Evening All… Our movie in June 2016 is one of those films you don’t hear much about anymore, but one which was highly-popular when it was released. So said the book from which it was made… God Is My Co-pilot, starring that stellar good-looking leading man, Dennis Morgan… with support from Raymond Massey and […]
My wife kept reminding me about how I talked of writing a column on aging, in other words, growing older. I kept putting it off but finally came to the conclusion that I’d better write this now before she forgets to remind me. (She’s getting older, too.)
This […]
Hello Everybody…
Well… here is the information on the next Movie night at Old City Hall. The movie is Make Way For Tomorrow. I chose this film because, though having a sad story, it is a brilliant piece of film making. Make Way For Tomorrow, is a generational story concerning the plight of an aged couple […]
Most of our Jacksonville citizens have never been to one of our City Council meetings. They don’t know what they are missing. It’s true each meeting has an agenda, but that doesn’t always foretell what might happen since human behavior is quite often unpredictable. This was certainly […]
Good Evening Everyone…
Our next movie is It Started With Eve starring one of the brightest talents on the silver screen… Deanna Durbin. She had an impressive list of credits to her name and this one ranks pretty high. Even so, there is another actor who steals the show… Charles Laughton… the same fellow who uttered […]
An odd thing happened a few days ago… I saw a penny on the sidewalk and kept on walking, never bothering to pick it up. That would be unthinkable at an earlier time… a time when a penny meant something.
When I was ten-years-old, five pennies could buy […]
Good Morning… Continuing our salute to British actors, our feature attraction in March is THE LODGER… a film starring virtually an all British cast… George Sanders, Merle Oberon, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sara Allgood, and most importantly… Laird Cregar. A brilliant actor, Cregar is unknown today because of his early untimely death.
Despite boasting two Oscar winners, […]
Downton Abbey has ended. We knew it must. One of the most watched series in television history, it carved out a special niche in the hearts of its audience… one that will be difficult to ever duplicate. Even its cast may never again see a production as […]
Last month, a friend complained to me about reading newspaper headlines declaring what a bad year 2016 will be. Her reaction was to avoid reading these columns all together… and who could blame her? We seem to get enough bad news without some writer trying to tell […]
Hello everyone… Here is the coming attraction for February 2016… and what an attraction it is. It’s certainly one our Lucille Ball fans will want to see, though it’s not a comedy. The film is Lured, and it also stars George Sanders, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff, George Zucco, Alan Mowbray, Robert Coote, and Alan […]
Almost everyone I meet seems to be talking about the soon-to-be-seen final season of Downton Abbey. It struck me that this might be a fine time to show some earlier British performers who dominated our film entertainment… so for the next few months we’ll concentrate our efforts in that direction.
In January our “night at the […]
Year end approaches and so does Christmas. For some, it is a time of giving and perhaps not much more. This act of giving, which most of us engage in, began a long time ago when the Magi brought gifts to celebrate the birth of the […]
December’s film at Old City Hall is a heart-warming redemption story of two men…one a hobo who occupies a mansion on Fifth Avenue during the winter when the owner is gone…the other, the owner who is unaware of his uninvited guest. Add to that a mixture of the owner’s divorced wife, their daughter, a GI […]
I remember, as a child, being struck by the Greek mythological fable of Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demetra, who was abducted by Hades and brought into the underworld. Demetra, whose task was to bring fertility to the land, became so depressed she renounced her divine duties, […]
Good Evening Everyone… I promised to follow up with our last announcement and give you a little background on November’s film, Shanghai Express. It stars Marlene Dietrich in her third film directed by Joseph von Sternberg, a director under whom she became a world renowned celebrity actress. I love train movies, and this ranks as […]
The film for October at Old City Hall is one that I don’t believe most of you may have ever seen. The Mystery of Mr. X starring Robert Montgomery is as neat a thriller as ever written. Evidently Montgomery thought so too, because he really threw everything he had as an actor into this role […]
Last month at movie night, we commemorated the Battle of Britain which took place 75 years ago. Old City Hall was so packed people were turned away because of lack of room. Following an interview with Clifford Wilton who survived that battle, we ran the film Spitfire, […]
September’s movie night at Old City Hall features the last of nine films made at RKO starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire… The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.
Castle is a reasonably accurate biography of the two dancers who set the dance world on fire in the Edwardian Age until World War I. They were […]
“Where Liberty dwells, there is my country.” Words spoken by Ben Franklin. But today? We are willing to forsake Liberty for comfort or safety. Certainly this was untrue in Franklin’s day. So conditioned to some government bureaucrat telling us how to behave, it no longer concerns us […]
The idea crossed my mind the other day that many who read this column haven’t met many of the dedicated people responsible for making our City work as well as it does. And dedicated is the word. I realize this sentiment runs counter to much of what […]
Our film for July is Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, a 1942 adventure film directed by John Cromwell, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney. It was the last film with the tragic actress, Frances Farmer, before her legal problems and eventual commitments to psychiatric hospitals until 1950. It also features a powerful […]
A while ago I wrote a column in which I rhapsodized over the construction of the historic Courthouse soon to become Jacksonville’s City Hall. Built in 1883, it is an example of superb hand-craftsmanship. Using only natural materials of the day, it was built […]
Jacksonville Mayor Paul Becker and the City of Jacksonville invite everyone to come-out and celebrate Saturday, July 4th on the Courthouse grounds from noon until 3:00pm and enjoy complimentary hot dogs, chips and bottled water. Picnickers may opt to bring their own food and drinks if they so desire. Once again, the Fire Department will […]
Zounds! “They seek him here… They seek him there… Those Frenchies seek him everywhere… Is he in Heaven… Is he in Hell… That damned elusive Pimpernel.”
Yes, it’s The Scarlet Pimpernel and it is scheduled for our June show at Old City Hall. This is the […]
Well… it seems as if your Mayor has finally done it. I broke a rule every Boy Scout was taught since the first one earned that title in 1910. Even my grade school teachers did their best to make me understand… in any endeavor, in any undertaking, […]
Our movie for May 2015 is Gold Diggers of 1933, a “deliciously-maddening extravaganza, Depression-era Broadway musical,” according to one critic on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Indeed, it ranks 100% on their rating meter… impressive for any movie.
Gold Diggers of 1933 is just plain fun from beginning to end. Yet, surprisingly, it ends on a number […]
At the risk of sounding like a disgruntled stage actor upset with his Wednesday afternoon matinee audience, I feel the need to share my thoughts about citizen attendance at our City Council meetings. Where, oh where are most of you? My one desire is to see more […]
A Few Minutes with the Mayor – April 2015
As you know, this column seldom devotes attention to affairs outside of Jacksonville; numerous other news and opinion outlets exist for such information. However, reports on the national level about Hillary Clinton’s emails prompted me to join in the conversation, so please bear […]
Are you troubled by the political discord today? I am! Not that it is anything new. It is as old as the art of politics. History bears that out. I remember the hatred directed at President Harry Truman. It was intense, personal, and vicious… especially after he […]
Before beginning this first column of the year, I wish to thank the editor/ publisher of this newspaper who approached me four years ago with the offer to write my own column, promising to allow me total freedom to write whatever I felt like. Now I ask you, […]
‘Tis the season of Christmas! (Yes, we can still call it that despite all who would have it otherwise.) Christmas is upon us, as well as the end of another year, and it’s been a very busy year for this mayor!
As I wanted to do something special […]
GREAT EXPECTATIONS, our film for November is considered by many to be the greatest adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel ever produced. Starring an impressive British cast, including John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Francis Sullivan, Jean Simmons, Alec Guinness (in his first screen appearance), and Finlay Curry. GREAT EXPECTATIONS was nominated for five Oscars, winning two […]
The following scenario has not happened, but with all things possible is certainly worth contemplating…
It took months, but the sale of the old courthouse to the We Operate Efficiently Corporation finally went through. WOE had worked at obtaining the building even before the citizens of Jacksonville became […]
Now there’s a word that can strike fear into the hearts and minds of otherwise stout-hearted men and women. How many times have we all heard someone say, “I wish they’d stop changing things all the time,” or “Why do we need to change… I like things […]
How many of you remember one of the most common commands in the English language appearing in the business community following the end of World War 2? The command was short… one word… and it seemed to be posted wherever one worked, especially in the tabulating department… […]
This June marked the 70th anniversary of “D Day,” when a brave and mighty fleet of soldiers landed on Normandy’s beach, where virtually the entire first wave of Americans, 10,000 in all, was annihilated by enemy fire—one of the most difficult missions ever carried-out by our soldiers […]
We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that June’s Movie Night feature is the wonderfully-joyous MGM production…
We may live in an historic town, but I’ll wager that when studying history in school, you hated it. Was your history class like mine, consisting of nothing more than memorizing important dates of people and bigger-than-life events? King George may have been a bad king… at least from the American colonists’ point of view, but what were we taught about the man himself? Very little!
In today’s world the question arises… what is the definition of ethics, for often it seems to be lacking in at least some of our public officials. At least the daily headlines keep telling us that...
An incident occurred on my recent vacation that some might call coincidence… but I know better. My wife and I were strolling around a crowded street fair in Palm Springs when, quite unexpectedly, we heard a voice behind us cry out, “There’s the mayor of Jacksonville.” Sure enough, it turned out to be a couple who were also vacationing from Jacksonville.
New Year’s Eve 2013 marked the end of my third year as mayor, an occupation which seemed most improbable to me when growing up—it was a different world back then. This thought crossed my mind while recently watching an old Hopalong Cassidy film...
It was almost a century ago, 1916 to be exact, when a young man, only 18, was put on a boat by his six older brothers and shipped off to America before the Turkish army could conscript him...
This month brings us Thansgiving—A time to reflect on our reasons to be thankful—I would like to take this opportunity to...
I was recently criticized as someone who lived in the “Wild West” and unable to move into the 21st century...
Lately, we have been hearing from a small number of citizens about their concerns over what they’ve heard...
That was quite a picnic on July Fourth! Five hundred hot dogs purchased, five hundred hot dogs served...
This month, I ask your indulgence to wander a bit from my usual reflections over City happenings to devote some thought to…
It seems appropriate to lead off this month’s column by mentioning the successful conclusion to the MRA land swap...