Rotary International visitors to Fort Smith last month – Keiko Sato, Junji Asaba, Hiroko Inoue, Ikumi Osawa and Toshiko Sano – saw as much of the city as their Fort Smith Rotary Club hosts could cram into their guests’ four-day stay.

I got to visit with the group when they toured the Fort Chaffee Barbershop. Although Elvis Presley is still quite popular in Japan, they all told me, they did not know about Elvis' first military haircut. And, they all added, they were “shocked” to discover that the Rock’n’Roll King’s G.I. buzz had created a world-wide frenzy among Elvis fans, reporters and photographers.

The ages, occupations and interests of the visitors from Yamanashi and Shizuoka (near Mt. Fuji) were quite diverse. Keiko owns a custom Harley Davidson motorcycle shop. Junji is a police sergeant. Hiroko works in design production for an advertising agency. Ikumi is a social worker for the mentally handicapped. Toshiko teaches English to Japanese students from infancy to 13.

Local hosts for the group were Dean and Sharon Pitts; Jim and Dixie Spears; Warren and Cynthia Giss; Mary Lynn and Jerry Stevenson and Fred and Shirley Williams.The visitors were in the USA for a month and also spent time in Joplin, Kansas City, Tulsa, Wagoner, Bentonville, Springdale and Fayetteville. Fort Smith was their last stop in the States before returning home.

When I asked members of the group to name some of their favorite experiences of the trip, having their photo made in the Chaffee Barbershop made the list that included tours of a Harley Davidson plant in Kansas, the Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville and the Tyson headquarters in Springdale.

The Barbershop museum opened September 1, and offers guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and by appointment on other days. Volunteers recruited and trained by the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Carolyn Joyce staff the tours.

The Barbershop museum welcomed 115 visitors the first eight days it was open, Joyce reported last month to a very pleased Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority board of directors, and its executive director, Ivy Owen. And they hope to see the numbers of visitors to the Barbershop – and the adjacent Dollhouse Museum and Vietnam Veterans Museum that can currently be visited by appointment only – increase as more and more people learn about the new local attractions.

U.S. Marshals museum
Construction of the national U.S. Marshals Service Museum may still be a few years away, but meanwhile the project’s local staff plans to hold more “museum without walls” gatherings such as the Kids Safe! event that was going on in September, when John Walsh was in town filming the America’s Most Wanted show that airs November 8.

Walsh took part in the museum’s first publicly presented event and will feature a scene from the safety fair in the show filmed in Fort Smith. He also promised to be on hand for the “ribbon-cutting” when the Marshals Museum opens on the downtown Fort Smith riverfront.

It was fun to observe Walsh and his very professional but friendly crew going about their business while they were here. Walsh could not have been a more gracious TV star as he talked to, shook hands with, signed autographs for and had his photo made with what had to be several hundred local people.

During the filming of a scene on horseback at the Fort Smith Historic Site, Walsh was obviously very at ease in the saddle. And no wonder – he’s an avid polo player, he told me. And he often plays at the ranch of his good friend Tommy Lee Jones. Jones has made many great movies, and in two of my favorites – The Fugitive and U.S. Marshal – he portrays the heroic but very human and interesting U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard.

So, wouldn’t it be fun, and ever so appropriate, if John Walsh brought movie star U.S. Marshal Tommy Lee Jones here with him for the grand opening of the new national Marshals Museum? Or maybe Jones could even show up here for some kind of fun museum fundraiser event to help get the museum built quicker. A polo match including him and Walsh, perhaps?

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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