WJC Mail: Hot Ticket, Little Rock & Bangladesh

Clinton Center a very hot ticket

October 4, 2004 Cox News Service LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The buzz builds daily in Little Rock for the Clinton Presidential Center opening on Nov. 18.

From busboys to friends of Bill Clinton's, everyone wants a ticket to an event during opening week festivities. For Arkansas, the grand opening of the center - which houses the Clinton Library - will be one of the biggest events in the state's history. All former presidents and President George W. Bush will attend. Ben Affleck, Bono and Barbra Streisand have been invited, along with foreign dignitaries.

Aretha Franklin will perform on Nov. 16.

"This will be a great, memorable event for Little Rock," said Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Foundation. "I think the world will see that Little Rock is a great tourist destination and that the presidential center will be an attraction the world wants to visit."

For Little Rock, preparing for the opening is comparable to preparations in Boston and New York for this year's political conventions. Both local and federal law enforcement agencies have been planning event security for months.

Following Bill Clinton's open-heart surgery, foundation officials expect the facility to receive massive attention. The center opening may be Clinton's first post-surgery public event.

The complex will be the country's 12th presidential library site. It will be the most expensive in the National Archives' system, with the most material. Eight C-5 cargo airplanes brought the Clinton collection from Washington to Little Rock in 2001.

The 30-acre center is the largest and most expensive presidential library in history. The city of Little Rock bought the land - an old warehouse site - for $16 million to lure Clinton to select the spot in 1997. At $165 million, the library is the most costly private construction project ever undertaken in central Arkansas.

James Polshek, a New York architect, designed the building to resemble a glass bridge to the 21st century. Ralph Appelbaum, exhibit designer for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, designed the museum exhibits for the Clinton facility.

Since Clinton was the first president during the Internet age, tourists can expect a heavy dose of technology. A replica of the White House Cabinet room will have interactive stations to tell visitors about Cabinet members from Clinton's eight years in office. An interactive timeline will highlight each day of the Clinton presidency.

"I don't work under the theory that if you build it, they will come," Rutherford said. "You have to work under the assumption that if you want people to come, it has to be a destination with exhibits and events."

You have to have easy access to the library, and you have to offer something to people once they arrive. Where you build it and what you surround it with have to have an impact."

The library is built near I-30, one of the most traveled highways in Arkansas. It is within 10 minutes of the Little Rock National Airport. A highlight will be a replica of the Oval

EFTA00579162

Office with the decor from Clinton's White House. Even the ivy that sat on the Oval Office mantel will be the same. When Clinton left office, the staff snipped the ivy and replanted it. That ivy has been growing since then.

The Clinton foundation decided not to open a gift store on the library site. Instead, the Clinton museum store will open in the River Market district near the library. The store will have gifts, political memorabilia and new and old books. It also will have a child-sized model of the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign bus where children can have their pictures made.

The library will also house Cafe 42 - Clinton was the nation's 42nd president - a trendy restaurant that will feature Hillary Rodham Clinton's tollhouse cookies and recipes from the Clinton cookbook. It will also have a salad bar for the health conscious, Rutherford said.

"We want this restaurant not to compete with downtown business but enhance it," said Tyler Denton, the foundation's director of marketing and special events. "We will have a chef and open for Sunday brunch. Customers who want to enjoy the cafe won't be charged for museum entry."

Downtown revitalized

The Clinton Library has served as an anchor for more than $1 billion in investment in Little Rock's downtown. The revitalization of the River Market area has attracted new hotels, including the Peabody and Marriott, restaurants, bars and a light rail system for the area. Actors Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson have bought a condo in the area.

Heifer International, a world hunger organization, will open its headquarters behind the library in 2005.

"What is happening in downtown is amazing," said Barry Travis, chief executive officer of the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau. "You can't say that the Clinton Library hasn't had a direct effect on Little Rock. It has, and this is only the beginning."

Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) recently delivered the inaugural address at the Clinton School of Public Service. The historic Choctaw Station of the Rock Island Railroad on the library grounds houses the Clinton school, which when it opens in 2005 is expected to attract students from around the world who want to study public service. It will be the only school of its kind in the United States. Former Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) will serve as dean. The former president plans to have a hands-on role in the school, Rutherford said.

"We've changed the way presidential libraries are built, and we'll change the way they are looked at in years to come," Rutherford said.

Bengali version of Clinton's 'My Life' a hit in Bangladesh
By Farid Ahmen
October 4, 2004
Hindustan Times

Former US president Bill Clinton's autobiography "My Life" is doing roaring business in Dhaka with street vendors hawking the cheap pirated versions at busy crossings and a Bengali translation becoming a huge hit.

Seeing the massive response to the Bengali version, the publishers, Ankur Prakashani said they plan to market the book in West Bengal, India, soon.

Mesbahuddin Ahmed, managing director of the publishing house, said the company had run out of the 3,000 copies of the Bengali version printed within a few days last week.

"We are processing the second print," Ahmed told IANS.

"It's a tremendous response beyond our expectations... since we alone have been licensed for publishing 'My Life' in Bangla."

EFTA00579163