JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

It was a serene winter Friday afternoon. Bellevue Square Park was quiet, perhaps the quietest I've ever seen. Perhaps it was due to my visit happening on a workday. Maybe regular visitors were seeking refuge from the snowy landscape in one of Kensington Market's shops and eateries. Or maybe people were afraid of the recent change in one of the park's landmarks. At first it was the odd bird or two found drained of all of their blood. Then larger urban animals were discovered in the same state. You might think a raccoon is a nuisance, but nobody wants to see one, or any other creature, drained of their life fluids for no apparent reason. All of the deceased animals were found within the immediate vicinity of the Al Waxman statue on the west side of the park. Was there a secret ritual going on at night under the noses of the residents around the square? It was after the third report of foul play that investigators noticed something odd about the statue's head. Th...

The last in a series of testimonials from famous, semi-famous, and not-at-all-famous users of Vidal Sassoon products which, unlike the others, was printed all by its lone self. Guess the non-user had to be isolated to strengthen the punchline. Not that we mean any disrespect to Mr. Holder , whose half-century artistic career has encompassed acting, choreography and painting. He may be best known for two roles: James Bond villain Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die , and the white-suited 7UP pitchman who extolled the virtues of the non-cola during the 1970s and 1980s. Holder didn't see doing commercials for as a comedown. "I'm no snob," he noted in a 1975 interview with People magazine . "The commercial is an art form unto itself. After all, you are seducing people." View all of the ads we've found in this series . Source: a 1985 issue of Rolling Stone (forgot to note the date) - JB

Two more testimonials from famous, semi-famous, and not-at-all-famous users of Vidal Sassoon products. We wonder if the police officer was teased by his colleagues for his puffy do. More to come... Source: a 1985 issue of Rolling Stone (forgot to note the date) - JB

More testimonials from famous, semi-famous, and not-at-all-famous users of Vidal Sassoon products. Today's testifiers: a member of Woody Allen's stock company (who appears ready for a day at the country club) and a gold-medal Olympic gymnast. Source: a 1985 issue of Rolling Stone (forgot to note the date) - JB

One in a series of testimonials from famous, semi-famous, and not-at-all-famous users of Vidal Sassoon products. One presumes Warhol was amazed by the artful way the spray kept his wigs in place. As for Animotion , their lasting legacy is a tune that was used for years as the theme music for CITY-TV's Fashion Television . More of this campaign to come... Source: a 1985 issue of Rolling Stone (forgot to note the date) - JB

In light of the current kerfuffle over Bell's pursuit of usage based billing (UBB) for the internet, here's a story I stumbled upon while researching something else that shows protests in Toronto against Bell's practices aren't new. Source: The Globe and Mail , August 22, 1957 - JB

When watching late-night reruns of SCTV on Windsor’s CBC outlet during our teens, Amy and I expected that most of our laughs would come from the fake ads on the Canadian comedy classic, not the real ones during commercial breaks. One exception was Woody Pontiac, located across the border in Hamtramck (a suburb of Detroit surrounded on all but one side by the city of Detroit). Their pitchman was dealer Woodrow W. Woody (1908-2002), an elderly gentleman whose on-air demeanour came from an earlier era. Mr. Woody wasn’t a hard sell salesman, nor did he use gimmicks like flying around in a cape (hi Mel Farr!). No, Mr. Woody reached out to potential customers by stressing his long involvement in the car business as a genial, slightly doddering old man whose eyes were fixed on a teleprompter might do. We imitated his exit lines for years afterward. The cheerful reassurance we’d like his dealership. The quaintness of seeing any TV pitchman from the late 1980s/early 1990s say to viewers “s...

In the midst of winter cleaning at the Warehouse, we've uncovered a treasure trove of romance comics from the 1960s and 1970s. Here's one of the gems we found. After a near-death experience with a perfectly spherical boulder that charged at you on an idyllic cliffside beach, what pair of stiffly-drawn young lovers can't resist a touch of in-law humour? John and his unnamed lover soon returned to the picnic, where everyone had a good laugh as if it was the closing minute of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. When the lovebirds wandered off to change their clothes, the in-laws had a quiet conversation... MOTHER : I told you not to buy a boulder from the Acme catalogue! FATHER : But it was the only one I could afford! SMERSH's boulders cost too much! MOTHER : (sighs) I knew I should have brought the arsenic. None of the major comic book databases have a clue as to who the uncredited writer and artist of this one-page filler were. Source: Just Married #102 , October 19...