Six consecutive sold-out audiences greeted the world premiere of a Chapman University professor's documentary on the late Huell Howser in March. Now, due to popular demand, A Golden State of Mind: The Storytelling Genius of Huell Howser, returns to the Orange campus for two screenings Saturday.
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Film Professor Jeff Swimmer's documentary was originally shown as part of a weekend of tributes to the late host of several PBS programs popular to Californians. Chapman was the site because Howser donated his archives and many personal items (and homes!) to the university, where before he passed he'd struck up a friendship with President James Doti.
“We were astonished by the overwhelming popularity of this film during our March event, which drew nearly 5,000 people to the campus–and although we added several screenings throughout that day, we still had to turn some people away,” explained Sheryl Bourgeois, Chapman's executive vice president for university advancement. “We've been receiving so many calls and emails from people wondering when the film will screen again that we decided to hold another public event for Huell's many fans.”
It screens at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Chapman's Memorial Hall. Tickets are $12 each in advance or $10 for members of the Automobile Club of Southern California, which presents the event. If any tickets remain–sell-outs are quite possible–they will be $15 each at the door or, again, $10 for AAA members. Visit huellhowserarchives.com to snag them or get more info.
Whether or not you can get in, know that the university's permanent Huell Howser exhibit in the Leatherby Libraries will also be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday–free of charge! A newly released DVD of the film will also be available for purchase.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.