JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Today's trip in the wayback machine revolves around a show that may that started my love of old movies. Magic Shadows ran weeknights on TVOntario throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The show divided old movies into 20-25 minute segments, bookended with comments by host Elwy Yost. Often, one day a week was reserved for serials. The length was perfect for little me to get hooked on classic movies, especially if they were pictured in our quickly-tattered copies of Daniel Blum's photo histories of film. Dad often tuned in for British comedies - I'm All Right Jack and The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery stick out in my mind. It wasn't long before I started watching Saturday Night at the Movies . Around this time was a brief period where I was trotted around my elementary school as a seven-year old film expert lecturing grade eights, though I think Dad quashed that quickly (probably thinking I didn't need to be paraded around like a carnival freak). Some peo...

Forty years ago today, the world shrank a little more. Our World was the first TV program to be broadcast live around the world via satellite. 19 countries were slated to contribute, but five countries (USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany) pulled, allegedly to protest the recent Six-Day War in Israel. The BBC spent nearly a year preparing the broadcast, which was seen by over 400 million people in 31 countries. The most-repeated clip from the show is the UK's contribution, where the Beatles debuted a new song that captured one of the main themes of the summer of '67. See if you can spot some of the other notable rock stars in the audience. (Apologies for the picture quality - this is the fullest, non-colourized clip I was able to find). CBC carried a "pre-game" show, featuring remarks from Marshall McLuhan, which you can watch over at the CBC Archives . This clip also features Canada's contributions to the full broadcast: ranching...

Day 4: Newark, NJ to Lancaster, PA Getting out of Newark did not prove a problem, except for filling up the car. Since 1949, self-serve gas stations have been illegal in the Garden State , with proposals to relieve pump jockeys of their duties never having gone very far. I pulled into a Hess not far from downtown and failed to convey to the attendant that I wanted the car to be filled, not just a strict dollar amount. My guess is that with current prices, a few drivers have raced away without paying. I drove west on I-78, which quickly turned into a tree-surrounded route. Once I hit Pennsylvania, construction reduced traffic to lanes so narrow, my knuckles barely stayed within my skin. Needless to say, I was happy to hop off at Reading and head into Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Goodbye tailgaters, hello winding roads and oddball town names. I stopped for lunch outside of Lititz at Oregon Dairy , a combination grocery store/family attraction/sit-down restaurant. I had the lunch ...

From Toronto Guidebook , published by Toronto Life in 1974: Toronto's two best record shops are practically next-door neighbors. Together they offer the widest selection of records in the city, and maybe the world; Sam the Record Man, 347 Yonge St. and A&A Records, 351 Yonge St. Both stores are open until around midnight every day, including Sunday. (156) A&A, owned in its later years by an American conglomerate, is long gone. After a dance with death several years ago, Sam's is about to join it in the history books. During childhood visits to my grandparents, it was rare that Dad and I didn't stop at either of the record stores on Yonge. I barely remember any details about A&A, but the handwritten artist dividers, the tossed-together atmosphere and the signatures on the walls of Sam's linger. Dad usually spent an hour or two browsing the classical record section in the back - it was one of the few places I recall him looking through the regular-pr...

Way, way back, I posted the self quiz on the inside front cover of this guidebook produced by GM during World War II. Try it and see how many you can answer before the answers are revealed over the coming months. I found this guide amidst the new arrivals of used magazines at the K/W Book Exchange in Kitchener. As you read, keep in mind the rationing mindset of the war years and contrast the tips on how to prolong the life of your fine North American automobile to the disposable nature of most modern technology (case in point: I just tossed out a print that gave up the ghost after less than two years of service). Posts will be limited to two-to-four pages from the guide, warts and all - let's say some of the accompanying cartoons are on the non-PC side. Onto page 1. If you'd like, rig up some chimes in the background, like those childhood book-and-record sets. "Information not generally available" - how tantalizing. But would the information for new drivers...

Before setting off on my recent roadtrip, I had a request to bring back Tastykakes , a Philadelphia-based snack food brand with a cult following. I brought back Snowballs, ( which I reported on a few years ago and required several stops before I found a box that would remain fresh by the time I returned to TO) and today's featured product, Chocolate Kandy Kakes. Package Notes : Clean-looking blue and yellow background, with child-like font. What's It Like : Think miniature chocolate cupcake, not much larger than a thick cookie (Amy compared their appearance to Snackwells Devil's Food cookies). One of the main selling points of Tastykakes is their short shelf life, so my fingers were crossed this box had not gone stale early. It hadn't - the cakes were fresh and chocolaty. The layer of white goo tasted less artificial than cheaper cupcakes. Bonus points for looking almost exactly as depicted on the box. Would You Buy It Again? : Definitely. Friends I shared them...

I spent most of Victoria Day weekend back home in Amherstburg, which meant another opportunity to trace the ongoing demolition of White Woods Mall. It looked like someone decided to bring a chair for a front-row view. The pace had quickened since my last visit - the east wing and A&P were history, though rubble in the lot may have belonged to either. Left: Bundles of twisted metal occupied the area around the old northeast entrance. Right: Clearing away the rest of the lot for the Bentonville Behemoth was well underway. Have not checked on the number of calls Crimestoppers has received in relation to this site. Years ago, Crimestoppers ran weekly ads before SCTV reruns on Windsor's CBC affiliate. The last one I remember, regarding an incident at a Burger King at Tecumseh and Lauzon Rd, ran for months. The narrator was more dramatic than usual, placing slow, heavy emphasis on "SUS-PECT NUM-BER ONE". Left: Anyone need an air conditioning unit? Note ...

A meeting of titans, both facing crossroads in their lengthy careers. Jerry Lewis's movie career petered out as the 1970s dawned. Apart from the infamously unreleased concentration camp drama The Day The Clown Cried (1972), Lewis did not star in any movies for a decade between Which Way to the Front? (1970) and Hardly Working (1980). This, along with declining sales of humour comics in general, may have played a part in the end of his 20-year run as a comic book headliner in 1971. The latter part of the run played Jerry off against his nephew Renfrew, with the occasional cameo from DC Comics' stable of superheroes. As for Jerry's co-star, Wonder Woman was in the middle of her "Emma Peel" era . Changes to the character in 1968 eliminated her powers, costume and romantic interest. Out with invisible planes, star-spangled shorts and Steve Trevor , in with butt-kicking, pseudo-trendy outfits and a midget retainer named I Ching . Any boost from these changes f...

Ladies and gentlemen, the new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum , the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal . Full photo set (and explanations) . More stories, photos and links at Spacing and Torontoist . All pictures taken June 3, 2007 

Day 3, Part 2: New York, NY Time for an afternoon rest spot...in this case, Washington Square. The picture of the arch is the winner of the "most postcard like picture of the day" sweepstakes. Left: Roll over Karl Marx, and tell Engels the news. Discovered on 6th Avenue, it's no shocker that this ad for Forbes was perched on a environment-depleting vehicle. Right: Still my favourite bookstore name of all time, a remainders store located in the West Village on Carmine St. Finds on this trip: an overview of taboo-breaking films by Joe Bob Briggs ( Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History ) and a guide to sexual slang over the centuries. Speaking of bookstores, after a stroll around the West Village, it was back over to Broadway for a peek into Strand . I don't dispute their claim of 18 miles of books, given how tight some aisles are (though they are a far cry from the old basement location of Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor, where sideways ...