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Abilene Reporter-News - Sunday, July 11, 1999 |
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Kilgore’s
East Texas Oil Museum
by Pamela Percival
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[excerpt from article]
In the nearby small community of New London,
stop for a vanilla coke and a piece of homemade
buttermilk pie at the London Museum and Tea Room
on Highway 42 across from what is now the West
Rusk school campus. The tea room features an
old-fashioned soda fountain and weekday lunch
specials like chicken and dumplings and roast
beef. If you order from the menu, expect
overly-generous helpings of mayonnaise on almost
anything unless you specify differently.
The tea room was opened several years ago by
volunteers to help finance a small museum
dedicated to the more than 300 people who died
in a cataclysmic explosion at the New London
School in 1937. The museum opened a year ago,
thanks largely to the efforts of volunteer
museum director Mollie Ward.
Ward was 10 years old on March 18, 1937 when,
while sitting on a school bus outside the New
London School, she saw the building explode and
crumble into pieces. The tragedy of the
explosion rocked the community, which because of
the oil boom going on at the time, had the
distinction of being the richest rural school
district in the nation. The explosion, caused by
a natural gas leak in the school’s basement,
also touched people across the world. Sympathy
telegrams poured in, including one from "Adolf
Hitler, German Reichs-Chancellor." His yellowed
telegram is displayed in the museum near an oral
account of the explosion’s
aftermath that was recorded by young newsman
Walter Cronkite who had just been assigned to
the Dallas bureau of UPI news service.
Ward tries to take each set of museum visitors
on a personal tour of the facility, sharing her
extensive historical and personal knowledge. |
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Angelic Pictures - Press Release December 3,
2002 |
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The following press release was located on the
internet and we have been unable to verify that
such a project is actually being developed at
this time. For accurate information it is
suggested that you contact the public relations
division of Angelic Entertainment directly at
619-238-8234.
ANGELIC DEVELOPS LONDON TEXAS
Press Release
San Diego, CA. December 3, 2002
Entertainment Group Angelic Entertainment
announces the start of pre-development work on
their newest feature-length motion picture
project, "LONDON TEXAS." This 1937 period drama
takes viewers along an emotional roller coaster
ride through a dreadful tragedy and the rescue
efforts of hero's from day's past. This dramatic
feature definitively states; "Character alone
holds a hero to the task in the face of
unspeakable horror!"
"The story about the LONDON TEXAS disaster has
long been over looked. Only now are we living in
times when people search for answers to
difficult questions regarding community, family
and most of all faith", stated Ronald Dale
Hollomon author of the screenplay. "And this
story certainly delivers those answers as
history is always there with the response
teaching us how to react in the face of an awful
tragedy."
Hollomon first approached Angelic with his
script in early August 2000. But it wasn't until
Jerry G. Long, Principal & Executive Producer of
Mustang Pictures, Inc., a Texas based movie
production funding company became interested and
in late November 2002 a co-venture was
negotiated and the LONDON TEXAS project finally
got off the ground.
Long stated, "I was impressed with the integrity
of Mark Maine and Angelic's
management team; not to mention the company
mission statement of 'content-responsible'
entertainment. I've known Ron all my life and I
absolutely love the story he's
written, and even my dad recalls the event as he
was only 18 years old at the time. In fact,
everyone I've talked with here in Texas has
either heard about this incident or has even had
their own family touched by it in some way. I
know it will be a fantastic movie."
"LONDON TEXAS is a powerful and catastrophic
drama filled to the brim with heroic real life
characters, especially that of a 12 year old
heroine. It's
also a morality tale that connects the young and
elderly", stated Rex Piano. "It was really
heart-wrenching to learn of this disastrous
historical event and yet humbling to be a part
of accurately telling such a painful story."
Piano, an established and respected
producer/director, has already worked on a
number of pre-development projects for Angelic,
and he recently produced and directed Angelic's
first film a multi award winning romantic comedy
"The Month of August."
"Hero's,
especially Firemen, have often been seen as
American idols, and anything involving them is a
very hot topic," states Mark Maine, Chairman &
CEO of Angelic Entertainment. "I've been
intrigued how the subject of tragedy has been
handled on the big screen, and LONDON TEXAS is
Angelic's chance to tell a true and compelling
story encompassing the real people and
individuals involved in one of the most
devastating natural disasters in our history.
And the movie will actually show us all just how
precious and fragile life really is with this
heart-twisting life-changing story. I know
audiences will be thoroughly touched by this
film, and I'm excited that this inspirational
script was not discovered by Hollywood first." |
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