JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Video loaded by Retrontario Today on Torontoist, I wrote about this late 1980s Toronto tourism commercial from the late 1980s that aired frequently in the Detroit/Windsor market. This is a fine example of Tony Bennett's side career promoting cities located on the Great Lakes. In the late 70s or early 80s (date not verified) Bennett sang the praises of Detroit in a TV spot. I've searched unsuccessfully for a video or lyrics, which memory tells me began with "welcome to your city" and ended with "you're one of a kind"—I'll spare you from hearing me hum a few bars. It's conceivable that Detroit tourism officials hoped for an impact akin to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," but Motown wasn't as lucky as Capital City .

Wendy's was on an advertising roll in the mid-to-late 80s, hitting gold with the "Where's the Beef" campaign. Two others stick out in my mind: one where a customer is told to "step aside, please, step aside" and today's find, 1985's "Russian Fashion Show". None of these drew my family into Wendy's (we were Harvey's diehards until they changed the fries), but they lingered on in memory. Ask my sister how many times I've brought up this ad with no provovcation. Some background on this commercial, from Bernice Kanner's 1999 book The 100 Best TV Commercials : The commercial, called the best Cold War spoof since Dr. Strangelove , first aired during the week of the Reagan/Gorbachev Geneva conference. Viewers flooded the company's Ohio headquarters with complaints that it could jeopardize the preace process. "People don't really take commercials like these seriously," director Joe Sedelmaier said. "The...

Time for another trip in the local wayback machine, to live music venues and clubs from twenty years ago. Descriptions are taken from the "Hot Spots" section of the Dec/85 issue of Toronto Life , written by Melanie Reffes and Susan O'Connor. First off, spots that still exist, if in name only. Venues names are the ones listed in the magazine (i.e. Cameron Hotel instead of Cameron House), links are from the current incarnations. ALBERT'S HALL - An upstairs tavern that happens to feature the best blues and R&B acts from in and out of town (Etta James led off Dec/85) . Downstairs is the Brunswick House (no official website found for current incarnation) , a beer barn covered floor-to-ceiling in mucky pop art. The walls boast photos of wet T-shirt contestants. The draft is cheap. Carla and Irene do requests such as Is That All There Is? on the mournful old piano. THE CAMERON HOTEL - A sign in front reads "This is Paradise". Here is where Queen Street...