Niagara Homecoming kicks off tonight with picnic, movie in park

NIAGARA FALLS — An annual homecoming event designed to attract current and former city residents will feature a benefit gala, career fair, Niagara Falls High School reunion and concert by a national country artist.

The third annual Niagara Homecoming will run today through Sunday and is organized by Niagara Rises, a grass-roots group of about 150 concerned residents who banded together in 2008 to create ideas for the region’s improvement.

The organization kicked off its first homecoming event in 2009, which grew out of the similar Citybration event in Buffalo. The festival was created to show off the region to current and former city residents, and to draw back those who have moved.

“The idea is to hopefully entice some of them to make the move back a permanent one,” said Frank T. Croisdale, president of Niagara Rises.

The weekend will start with the “Old-Fashioned Family Picnic” and movie night from 6 to 9 p. m. today at the 91st Street Park in LaSalle.

Friday’s events, at Conference Center Niagara Falls, 101 Old Falls St., include:

• A business awards luncheon from noon to 1:30 p. m., aimed at highlighting the region’s job opportunities and successful business leaders.

“There’s been kind of a malaise over the Niagara County community, and I feel like businesses haven’t been showcased for what they’re achieving,” said Andrea Todaro, co-chairwoman of the Career Fair Resource Expo. “There are a lot of small companies . . . that are coming back. We want to showcase and champion some of those companies.”

Guest speakers will include Dan Hanssel, a marketing executive with expertise in social media; Joan Graci, a hiring and retention specialist; and Todaro, the keynote speaker.

• The free Career Fair Resource Expo, from 1:30 to 4:30

p. m., will include area employers and resource specialists. Job candidates should bring their resumes to exchange and also to use at a resume clinic. Last year’s career fair brought in more than 1,700 people and 90 vendors, organizers said.

The fair will also focus on health and wellness. Health educators, massage therapists, volunteers measuring blood pressure and representatives from the Buffalo Athletic Club also will be on hand.

• After the career fair, a social will be held from 4:45 to 6:30 p. m. at Wine on Third, 501 Third St. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be served, and a cash bar will be available. Music will be provided by the G. Scott Jazz Ensemble.

MacCarthyism's Effect on Hollywood: High Noon « Pequeños pasos de ...

(1950), The latter was nominated to best original screenplay and Carl Foreman won an Oscar for his work. In 1951, the writer was called by the HUAC while he was finishing the script but did not mention anyone’s name before the tribunal and was declared an uncooperative witness. When the producer found out Foreman’s implication with the witch hunting, he forced him to sell his part of the company, as Foreman was the associate producer. Stanley Kramer did not want his friend’s connection to Communism to damage the movie, although Carl Foreman had not been part of the CP for over ten years. It was High Noon ’s main actor, Gary Cooper, with the help of Fred Zinneman who managed to get Carl Foreman out of the country before the movie was released. When Kramer tried to fire Foreman, Gary Cooper menaced him to leave the job if the writer was treated in such a way, even thought it was not necessary as Carl Foreman had already left for England. The actor was not a leftwing as the writer was, but he considered very un-American the outrage. The screenwriter already knew he would not be able to work again in the USA. Kramer erased Foreman’s name from the final credits of the movie; after this they did not talk to each other again, on the other hand Cooper and Foreman became very close friend and that relationship lasted their whole life.