Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 14-Malcolm White

Transcript

Episode 14-Malcolm White · Johnny's World

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: BW.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing today, BW?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, doing great, Johnny.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: How about yourself?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing great.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Sunshine.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great day outside.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, we've got a very special guest today, a well-known Mississippian who you might know from uh Alamow's restaurant in Jackson or Wells Fest or the St.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Patty's Parade, or he was the uh executive um of the Mississippi Arts Commission.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, Malcolm White, welcome to the show.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: We really appreciate it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, guys.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Glad to be here.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, Malcolm, uh, we we just uh want to know how you ended up in Jackson.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: We we we want to know, uh I know a lot of our listeners out there are very familiar with the St.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Patty's Parade and Wells Fest, and and they've eaten or hung out at Hall Mell's, and that's all part of you.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll just we just want to sit back and listen and tell us your story, how you ended up in Jackson.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for having me on.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh, you know, I was uh born in Hattersburg because it was considered the closest hospital to where I actually lived, which was in Perkingston, Mississippi, on the campus of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I lived uh there and uh spent a lot of time in Wiggins, just five miles away where my all my grandparents lived, until I was 15.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when we were 15, uh my dad uh became the president of Northeast Mississippi Community College.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we moved to Boonville, Mississippi.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we being my brother Hal and my brother Brad and my mom, my stepmom and and my my dad.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So in 19 in the summer of 65, we moved from you know the coastal plain to the to the hills, and and we went to high school uh in Boonville, and uh I went a couple years uh at Northeast, played football uh there.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then I uh went off to Mississippi State simply because my brother was there, uh, and I didn't really have any uh large-scale goals at that time that required uh college education.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to Mississippi State and uh I was on the committee that booked all the concerts, and that was a lot of fun, but I wasn't interested uh in college or Starkville or Mississippi State.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I only stayed one semester and I dropped out and I moved back to Stone County, back to Wiggins, and moved back in with my grandparents uh uh who had helped raise us because uh my mom and Hal's mom died when I was three and Hal was five.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So until my father remarried a few years later, we were actually raised by our grandparents.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved back home uh you know, as a college-age kid and and lived with my grandparents a while and worked in the logging business down there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I went up, uh went up to Ole Miss and had the exact same experience in Oxford uh and and at Ole Miss one semester, had a great time, did some super interesting things, but uh not really interested in uh higher education.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh dropped out again.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then this time I moved to California and I moved out to Los Cetas, California, and I lived out there for a year, year and a half.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I worked at a community radio station uh and uh at a computer startup uh in Sunnyvale in the um uh in the Silicon Valley, and that was really interesting.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but then I came home and this time I went to Southern.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I went to University of Southern Mississippi, now it's 1974, and uh I got a I got a job uh of washing dishes in a restaurant uh to supplement to pay for my college education and and it you know alas, something clicked.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I was uh washing dishes, then I became the cook, then the chef, then the food and beverage manager and uh of a hotel.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was this restaurant I worked at was connected to a Ramada Inn.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And in a very short time, really not even a year, in just a matter of months, I went from dishwasher to uh assistant manager of a hotel, restaurant lounge, and was transferred then to New Orleans to become the assistant general manager of the Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter, which was quite uh quite an experience.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I lived and worked there for two years at the Bourbon Orleans, then came back to Hattiesburg, took my old job at the Ramada Inn and finished college, then went to work for uh a restaurant group called Ichabods, and they had they were a New Orleans-based, uh sort of steak and ale with a sort of Creole Cajun slant.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I I worked for them in Hatterburg.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: They had three restaurants in New Orleans and one in Hattersburg, and I ran the Hannesburg store, and I did very well there, and the plan was I was to go back to New Orleans and go back to work for them there.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: But a guy from Jackson came to see me one day, a guy named Joe Mitchell, Lebanese guy.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: He owned George Street Grocery, and uh he had recently bought Oliver's restaurant in Highland Village.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was a white tablecloth high-end restaurant with a bar called the Boars Head Pub.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he hired me to come to Jackson and run uh that place, which I did.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said I'd come for a year, but because I was going back to New Orleans.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh from there, I I ran Oliver's for a while.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I lived in the old building that is that was for years, Two Sisters Restaurant, uh, but ultimately took over George Street and uh converted the upstairs, which was just kind of a lounge, and I turned it into a live music venue.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I worked there for three or four years and decided I wanted to go into business for myself.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I got out of the restaurant business temporarily, opened up a business, Johnny You'll know, Malcolm White Productions, and that's where I did Zoo Blues, Jubilee Jam, Wells Fest, Mouse St.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Patty's Parade, and Elvis Presley Festival and all sorts of other community celebrations around Jackson and throughout the state, really.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then my brother and I had had this lifelong dream of opening our own place in 1985.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: We opened Hal and Mouse in the Gemino Freight Depot, and we're we're still there doing that.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: 36 years later, unfortunately, I'm doing it without my brother Hal, who we lost eight years ago.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we I just came from a shift there an hour ago.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're still down there, still doing it.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um so that's that's the deal.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I got here, and that's what I did.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, along the way, I owned some other bars and and restaurants.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh at one time with Joey Mitchell, we owned five restaurants, and I was the general manager.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: We owned Oliver's, George Street Grocery, Walker's Drive In, the Old Depot in Fort Gibson, and two Manila's in Vicksburg.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So during that period, uh where I was GM of five restaurants, I had an apartment in Vicksburg and an apartment in Jackson, and I just ran back and forth.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and after that experience, I started opening up little sort of side projects.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I had a uh a place called the Pyramid, which was on I-55 in the old Sheraton uh hotel on the hill.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I had a place in the quarter called Skidmarks.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would I had a place out at the old Metro Center called Judges, and I had a place out on Highway 80 called Yancey's.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would invest in and partner uh in these other ventures uh all along the way.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, you know, after that, I spent some time consulting.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I opened up a Scrooge's in Natchez.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I worked for the Mr.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Gat, the guy that owned the Mr.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Gaddy's pizza chain here in Jackson.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but in 85, as I said, my brother uh, well, actually, he came in 84, moved to Jackson, we took over that building, which had been temporarily the Lamar.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The old Lamar Theater was a nightclub.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when they tore it down, we moved that operation over to GMO Freight Depot, ran it there for a year or so until they changed the drinking age from 18 to 21.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: That wiped that business out.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's when I called my brother and I said, Hey, I got this 36,000 square foot building in downtown Jackson.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's open up our lifelong dream.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we did.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Had he been in the restaurant business before, too?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Did he have the same experience kind of as you?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: We had a very similar experience.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes it ran parallel, and sometimes uh we were actually competitors.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: He, unlike me, actually got a degree in hotel motel management uh from Northeast, where my dad was president.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, my brother Howe was in the first class of graduates in the newly uh uh organized uh what later became known as Votech, and it's now called Career Tech, where community colleges taught you know electrical, air conditioning, auto repair, nursing, and hotel-motel management slash culinary.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and my brother was one of the first to graduate from this program at Northeast, uh, where my dad was president.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: He then, my brother then went to Alexandria, Louisiana and was assistant general manager of the old Bentley Hotel.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then he moved to Hattiesburg while I was there running the Ramada Inn and he ran the Holiday Inn.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we were competitors in Hattiesburg for a while.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then he got out of the restaurant hospitality trade and got in the oil and gas business, did that for a decade.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when it kind of went south in the 80s, uh, that's when I said, Hey, what you're doing isn't working.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've got this building, we've had to shut this bar down.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's do this restaurant bar nightclub thing we've been talking about.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we did it uh at Hallam House.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Were y'all competitive in in Hattiesburg?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Were y'all were y'all always comparing notes?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my business is doing better than yours, the brotherly stuff, or were y'all pretty?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were competitors.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: We went after each other's business.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, it wasn't ugly or anything, it was just like he ran the holiday in, I ran the Ramada in, they had a bar and lounge, we had a bar and lounge, they had bands we wanted, we had bands they wanted, we had waiters they wanted, they had bartenders we wanted, and you know, we just uh we just ran our businesses as best we could.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of funny.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, tell us a little bit about uh I know we mentioned uh when we spoke the other day about how you got into booking bands.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: That was pretty interesting what you were talking about.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Tell tell us how that came about.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in high school, uh I was that guy that would rent the community center, book a band, and and produce uh, you know, a dance.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: They were called dances back then.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I did my first show in 1968.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I booked a band called the Sam and Bob Soul Review, out of New Albany, Mississippi, who became Mosley and Johnson, and they were recording very successful recording artists with Malico Records.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they have a blues marker in New Albany.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and Sam Mosley is still alive and performing.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bob unfortunately passed, but uh that was my first band.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I uh when I went to Northeast for the two years there, I was on the student government and I booked all the bands for for the student activities.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I got to state, I was on the concert committee, I booked all the bands.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I got to Hattiesburg and started um, you know, washing dishes, cooking, you know, they also had a big bar and they booked bands, and I eventually took that over.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time I got to Jackson um in 1979, you know, I'd been booking bands for a decade.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so I started booking bands at Oliver's, which really was not a music club, it was it was just a lounge.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I started putting uh we had a keyboard, we had a piano in there, and we booked uh keyboard players, and I started booking things like Fingers Taylor and Fred Noblock and other singer-songwriters.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then but it was obvious that where I needed to be was at George Street, not at Oliver's.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was a white tablecloth, you know, flambe desserts, table side, a French Maitre D.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I was into New Orleans music and RB and blues, and so George Street was where I needed to be.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got there, I mean, I got the book B.B.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: King, uh, John Lee Hooker, Mo'lison, uh, Gatemouth Brown, all these great artists, I was able to get to come to that little venue, the upstairs of George Street.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that really got me going.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what Hal and I decided about Hall and Mouse was that we needed a place that had good solid food and a large live music venue, and we felt like Jackson was ready for that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I also had started the St.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Paddy's Parade, uh, Johnny, in 1983, uh, just on sort of a whim.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had I had left George Street as the manager.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I had started this Malcolm White Productions uh company, and uh I was in George Street one day and ran into a writer with the Claren Ledger, a guy named Rod Caufin.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he asked me what I'd been up to.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't seen him in a while.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was explaining to him that I had gone off on my own, I'd started this production company, and that I was doing Jubilee Jam and Zoo Blues and Wells Fest, and uh and that I was thinking about starting a St.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's parade because we had been having these St.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's or St.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Patty's celebrations at George Street, which were a huge success.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he sat there and listened, asked me some questions, and you know, I just sort of brainstormed out loud with him.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the next day I wake up and open up the Claren Ledger, and here's a story.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's written a column about this parade that I am going to produce.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I was kind of I was kind of stuck and I had to get busy uh and and throw together a parade.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and the first person I called was my friend Jill Connor Brown, and I said, Hey, Jill, uh, I think I'm going to uh uh uh put together a St.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Patty's parade.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Oh, great, I'll I'll be there and I'll be a sweet potato queen.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, okay, sounds great.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyway, we you know, my first idea was that it would be like a pub crawl, that we would go from one bar, restaurant to the other, to the other, to the other.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the far the problem was there were only about five in Jackson in 1983.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I settled on starting at CS's and ending at George Street.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But just a few days before that, when it was time for me to go apply for a permit from the Jackson Police Department, uh I decided to apply for a permit that would allow us to leave CS's and go all the way over to Capitol Street, parade up Capitol Street, and then come to George Street.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, they gave me a permit.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was on a Thursday afternoon at 4:30 in the height of what used to be uh a very uh busy, congested uh rush hour in and out of downtown Jackson in the morning and in the afternoon.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and we paraded right up through that with a police escort, and people were honking and waving, and we thought it was adoration.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It turns out they were mad as hell because they wanted to get home from work.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it got us a lot of publicity.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, all the news media covered it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: The story was about the traffic jam, but I turned the story into the parade and you know what a great opportunity we had to create a signature event for Jackson.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I promised JPD, if they would give me a permit the next year, I would move the parade to a Saturday.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, fine, and the rest is history.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the parade has always been interesting because you know, you talk to people that aren't from Jackson, and nobody really thinks that big of a deal of it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, St.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Paddy's in Jackson is such a big deal.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to see like an old classmate or old friend, I mean, just go down to the St.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Paddy's parade and you're gonna see them.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I call it a homecoming.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's it's it has gotten to the it's it's so established and uh so institutionalized that um a lot of people who grew up in Jackson, went to school in Jackson, or has family in Jackson, they choose that weekend to come to Jackson because they know they can see a lot of people and touch a lot of bases and have a big time uh at the you know, all in one.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's one of the reasons uh that it's successful.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: The other is that it's very unique, it's not like any other St.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's parade anywhere.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it is it is more akin to a Mardi Gras parade of what we call a rites of spring, but we have it uh loosely based uh around St.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and and it's uniquely Jackson's own.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: It very much reflects Jackson, Jackson's sensibility, Jackson's sense of place, Jackson's sense of humor.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh, you know, we're not mimicking New York or Boston or New Orleans or Memphis.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're just doing our own thing, and I think people really like that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he said that uh rights of springs is because uh seems like every year at the St.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Patrick's, that's when I break out the shorts.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for the for the longest time we didn't have any rain.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think you remember that it didn't it, it was sunny every single time for the parade on it for many years.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We've never been rained out.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've went we have been rained on, but we have never been rained out.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: We parade regardless.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you're right, man, for years and years and years and years we had these, you know, Chamber of Commerce weather.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like postcard weather.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, after 36, 37 years, you're gonna run into a few clouds and rainstorms out there.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and you know, about 10 years into this is when I formed my relationship with what we used to call the Blair Batson Hospital for Children, now known as Children's of Mississippi.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Johnny, that's where you and I started working together.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: You were working at UMMC or and and I and and we were doing this parade together.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and that's been a that's been quite a rewarding experience to to be affiliated with them and to to represent you know that brand and that good work that they do uh at children's uh of Mississippi.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: It it really has, and man, I I can't thank you enough because uh what you do it with this parade with benefiting the hospital just makes a world of difference.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people who come to this parade who who don't might, you know, what we always say about the hospital is uh a lot of people might not know about it, but you won't know about it until you need it, you know.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: But and it's always there because um, you know, people like me who have been born sick with I have cystic fibrosis, and I've been a patient at the hospital and worked at the hospital whole life, but you don't have to be born with an illness to be affected by the hospital.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: It could be a car wreck, a bike wreck with a kid, and you might and bam, you know, and don't know about it, and then you need it.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just what you've done through the years with the hospital is just uh such great, great work by doing that because number one, getting promotion out, let people know about the hospital, but then helping raise funds for it and uh we commend you for it because it's uh it's really great.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: How how did that come about?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: How did that you know it's an interesting story, and and uh I like telling it because you know, we were only a few years into the parade, and and I was approached by a fella who worked at it, wasn't even called UMMC back then, it was just called the University Hospital, right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the children's wing was called the Blairy Batson.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hospital for children.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a guy named Vincent Wright.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever know him?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't remember him.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Vincent worked in the PR department.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he came up with this idea, having seen the parade start to mature and grow.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he came up with this idea, came to me and he said, Hey, would you consider uh working with us?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're we're the university hospital, the charity hospital.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to raise awareness for our children's hospital, and we need money and we need support and we need friends.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And would you consider becoming a partner of ours?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, man, I don't want to attach myself to a nonprofit just, you know, to get attention or free publicity.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen that game and and I just I don't want to play it.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I don't I don't want to do that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to, you know, like attach myself to some great cause and and get all this publicity and and and act like I'm some do-gooder when all I'm trying to do is have a parade and have some fun.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, man, I he said, I he said, I appreciate that and I understand where you're coming from.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, would you would you do me a favor?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, sure.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, would you come up here and just look at what we do?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Would you meet me up here one day and let me just show you what we do?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, yes.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was it, of course.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I got the tour, I saw the children, I saw the miracle, you know, I saw the work.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I left there in tears, of course.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't go there and you're not moved, then something's wrong with you.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have your pulse checked.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I said yes.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what it was gonna look like, but I I said yes.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we started trying to figure out what this relationship partnership was gonna look like.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we've been at it uh for a lot, for a lot of years, over 20 years of uh of that partnership.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's done more for me than I could ever imagine that I could do for the hospital.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just because I run into people everywhere I go every week who will say something to me about thank you for you know being a patron of the children's of Mississippi, my next door neighbor's son that was sick as a child, my cousin, my niece, my nephew.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I hear these stories everywhere I go, all the time.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's just remarkable because uh it's not only a research institute and a hospital, as you know, Johnny, but it it cares for all Mississippi children, regardless of the parents' ability to pay.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's world-class health care in a state where there's so much need and so much poverty and so much um, you know, there's just so much work that they do that is important.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, I'm just humbled to even be affiliated with them.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's been a great, great uh journey.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, one thing I remember uh talking about the hospital and and uh what you've done through the years is uh one year I remember um you had Dr.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Batson as the Grand Marshal.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember coming up there and and taking him to that parade that year.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and uh tell us a little bit about how you picked the grand marshals and a little bit about that, because I remember that was such an honor for him that year, and and uh it was it was a really neat experience.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this I think this came from my years in New Orleans and uh, you know, being a sort of fan of Mardi Gras and watching those crews uh produce those parades, and and I and I I knew they always had a grand marshal, and I just thought that was a kind of a neat thing.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in New Orleans, there's a celebrity grand marshal for most parades, and then there are these guys who are sort of grand marshals of communities and grand marshals of brass bands, and and I was trying to sort of merge those two ideas.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um so from the very beginning, our the first parade had a grand marshal, uh, and it was a guy named Arthur Mahoney.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Arthur Mahoney was an Irishman who lived in Jackson because he was married to Thalia Mara, who brought this city to you know, Thalyamara Hall, the international ballet competition.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: She did magnificent things.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Thalia and Arthur were dancers in New York City together.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: They met, they were professional dancers, they got married, and when she came here to take over uh ballet, Mississippi, and ultimately to create the international ballet competition.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, her husband, Arthur Mahoney, came with us.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Arthur was a boxer, he was he was just a character.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he and so I found out about him, and when we got ready to have this first parade, I called him on the phone, and he was delighted to do it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, you know, I I would pick local celebrities.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mac McEnally was uh Cleta Ellington one year, uh David Adcock one year, Tiny Tim one year, uh you know, Kat Cora uh one year, and you know, we've had 37 or so grand marshals, and it it's been fun.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, O.C.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: McDavid was a grand marshal one time.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it's been fun sort of developing that grand marshal notion.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Cotton Baronich was a grand marshal one year.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh VA Patterson, who we lost this past year, was a grand marshal one year.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it that's it.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I just thought it was a fun way to uh celebrate people, everyday people and celebrities who are from Mississippi, uh, you know, just connecting one more piece of tissue to this idea of uh celebrating and parading.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was kind of it.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then every year I come up with a theme too.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I tie the themes together.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like the year I had Dorothy Moore uh as Grand Marshal, I took her first name, Dorothy, and developed a theme around the Wizard of Oz.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it was the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy Moore.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and you know, anyway, so I I think about this stuff throughout the year, you know, Grand Marshal theme, big idea.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what can I come up with to have a theme and a uh it gives people something to decorate around, it gives them something to dress up to.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it continues, I think, to make it a creative endeavor rather than just like everybody put on their cut-off shorts and and get a beer and go get on a trailer, right?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this Grand Marshall theme thing gives it some identity every year, it connects it to something, and I think lifts it up and makes it a little more interesting than just the same old, same old.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that sounds really cool.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um we, I know, you know, speaking for John Clark, we really appreciate everything you've you've done for that.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I've seen lots of pictures of John Clark in the parade, and looks like lots of fun moments he's had with his dog out there and and everything.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but this has been really good.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think everybody from Jackson will really, really enjoy listening to this.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And folks around Mississippi, uh, we've we've got a lot of listeners everywhere, and uh, so maybe we'll get some some visitors.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, a lot of people in Ohio listen to our podcast.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe some of these Ohio folks will come down and check the parade out this year.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um maybe we'll have another maybe we'll have an Ohio theme, you know.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe so.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now, now, what's the plan uh in the foreseeable future?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're just kind of waiting to see.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: I know I know it got postponed or canceled again because of the COVID.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um how's that gonna work?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, last year we had to pull the plug on March the 11th, and and so it was like two weeks before the parade.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was devastating.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: The floats had already been built, people had their costumes, their throws.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was it was just horrible.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I mean, COVID is horrible, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: What it's done to the globe, what it's done to instant, what it's done to everybody and everything, and and the parade is insignificant, but but because we're talking about it.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we were unable to have a parade last year.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we planned all year to have one this year.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, we were unable to have a parade this year.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: At least we did a couple of things.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had a a little, you know, a little festival out in the parking lot with some crawfish and some bands.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: We had a TV sort of retrospective that WJTV Channel 12 did.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, we were able to do something this year, uh, but but our plans are full till full traditional parade next year.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we've got I don't know what I'm gonna do about the theme, you know.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but but I'm I'm I'm plotting and scheming about how the the the two-year pause will impact the 2022 parade, I guess it would be.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyway, we we plan to have a full-blown outing uh next year.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I know a lot of people will after these two years not having one, is really gonna enjoy it.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna be awesome.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Brandon, you you mentioned earlier when Malcolm got on, he talked about his glasses.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of tell Malcolm what we have going on and why we while we start the podcast and what it's all about with glasses.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'm an optometrist and uh John Clark has always messaged me throughout my career and said, Hey, I'm really into these glasses right here.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Johnny Depp's got these glasses.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Can you get these glasses for me?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um it turns out they're these really expensive glasses, you know, you can only get in LA or New York or somewhere like that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I could I could never really get my hands on them.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so finally I said, Well, with technology now, why don't we just create our own glasses and kind of model them after that?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I found a guy to help me design them, and he's his idea was to design them off after celebrities, what you see people wearing in Hollywood to make them more affordable.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we were able to make them and we named them after John Clark.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we called him Johnny Packer Eye Wear, so that we can you know donate a portion of every sale to the CF Foundation and just raise a little bit more awareness with cystic fibrosis.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we came up with the idea for this podcast in a way to promote the glasses, but also raise more awareness for CF and be able to donate more and um tie it all in with this Mississippi theme and have a lot of really great guests like yourself from Mississippi on.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's really turned into something that's really fun.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the glasses are great, but at this point they're kind of secondary because I feel like we're getting more awareness from CF just doing this podcast.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but the glasses are cool.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: We've got our website called Johnnypacker.com, and you can go on there and read a little bit more about John Clark's story and check out some of the glasses.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: We named all of them after Mississippi towns and have a little bit of a fun little theme to all of them, and so it's been a great, great thing.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's cool.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll have to delve into all of that and and yeah, we have some that look like yours.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, we really appreciate you coming on today, Malcolm.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: That that's probably it for us.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, some great stories, and like I said earlier, I think everybody's gonna really enjoy listening to this one.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, great.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I enjoyed being on.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate uh your interest, and uh, I certainly wish y'all well with your endeavor.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: If there's anything that that I can ever do uh to help, I will certainly be happy to.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I am uh gloriously retired from the from state government.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no longer the director of the arts commission or the tourism office.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just uh Malcolm White, uh private citizen, a grandfather.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I have a one-year-old and a four-year-old grandchild, two grandchildren.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, I've got I do have this radio show uh on MPB every Monday morning at 9 a.m.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: called Deep South Dining.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a Carol Puckett and I host a show about food, recipes, restaurants, oh great, food culture.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a lot of fun.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I do that sitting right here, just like I'm talking to you, uh, every Monday morning, nine o'clock on MPB Think Radio.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been a lot of fun.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's uh and I'm growing tomatoes, you know, and and zinnias and such.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: So so life is good.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, we can't thank you enough, Malcolm, especially from a personal connection.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know how dear the hospital is to myself and and to so many people in Mississippi, and I can't commend you enough for for what you've done for the hospital.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: It really has it's made a difference in lots of kids' lives in Mississippi.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we just uh thank you for that.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: You're such a great Mississippian and b ambassador for Mississippi and for the Jackson area, and and that's kind of what we're doing with this podcast, like Brandon said, with these glasses, naming them after Mississippi.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: And we're just kind of having a big Mississippi theme, and and uh we we can't thank you enough because we knew you knew you'd be a great guest and a great ambassador, of course.