JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Was the holiday season of 1931 a good moment to launch a pricey magazine for the men's fashion trade? The backers of Apparel Arts felt so.  "We prefer not to brag about the expensive character of Apparel Arts ," editor Arnold Gingrich noted in the magazine's debut editorial. "You all know, by now, what a photograph costs. You can guess, when it comes to drawings, paintings and sculpture. The Depression still being officially on, we're rather ashamed to admit payment to the piper. To dwell on this aspect of Apparel Arts , quite apart from considerations of modesty, would be, it seems to us, to elucidate the obvious." Apparel Arts was distributed to clothing salesmen, and included swatches attached to pages that could be shown to clients. "Our only hope," Gingrich declared," is that each issue may contain some one page, at least, that you may find it impossible to ignore, or to forget." The magazine's mission would be "to fi...

From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile, which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. The following was originally posted on March 24, 2012, with some additions made on March 7, 2013. When Isadore “Issy” Sharp decided to build his first Four Seasons hotel at Jarvis and Carlton Streets, everyone thought he had lost his mind. Once a street lined with the homes of wealthy Torontonians, by the end of the 1950s it had a reputation as a hangout for derelicts, drug dealers and prostitutes. “How could you think of building a motel or hotel on Jarvis?” he was told. “People will think it’s a flophouse!” Sharp ignored those comments. Once opened, nobody mistook the hotel at 415 Jarvis Street for a flophouse. As the Globe and Mail noted years later, the Four Seasons Motel Hotel was “an elegant, relaxed place for a drink or a night’s stay.” Sharp, who worked at his father’s construction firm, had gathere...

(click for full-size version) But how could our intrepid writer not been impressed with the facilities, flat rates and "Fiddler on the Roof" while writing this advertorial? He's being paid to enjoy it...which makes me wonder how Mr. Halliday would have raved about a lesser establishment... I spent a considerable amount of time researching each and every room at the Harlequin Hotel and declare that these character-filled spaces have their own unique touches. I could visualize the merry moments of bliss that filled each eye-catching element of all twenty-five rooms. The sheets come in a rainbow of colours that reflect the moods and inspirations of previous guests. The lush carpeting retains an inkling of the form and function of times long past. Sam the manager has done a spectacular job taking every guest's needs into consideration, from the cool breeze percolating through the stained-glass windows to the complimentary selection of toiletries carefully chosen t...

Day two began with a quick bite in the hotel lounge. It was your standard bare-bones continental: juice, cereal, fruit and Otis Spunkmeyer bagels (the latter displayed little spunk, but an application of apple jelly and Philly helped). I took the Thruway to Utica, then hopped onto New York Route 5 to drive along the north side of the Mohawk River . It was a peaceful drive, with few agitated or pokey drivers between Utica and Schenectady. A relaxing winding highway, towns with baby food factories, places my brother-in-law warned me not to linger in, etc. The weather was a damper, with intermittent showers preventing me from shooting photos. I stopped for lunch at the Farmer Boy diner in Colonie. First up was a soothing squash soup with bonus red peppers and bacon. My main was one of the better-marinated half-chickens I've had, bathed in lemon and oregano and flattened, served atop chicken-flavoured rice pilaf. It was roadtrip comfort food gold. After a few hours on the M...

This pretty much sums up my day - kind of slumbery, except for a short roadtrip into the 'burbs in search of pickle curry spice mix (it was an excuse). When I was kid, I was fascinated by hotel directories, mainly due to the maps. We usually had the latest Holiday Inn guide kicking around, as it was the chain we tended to stay at. We often picked them up at the downtown Windsor location, which burned down ages ago. Located on the Detroit River, one had to drive down a long ramp to get to the lobby. It also included an Odeon movie theatre, which we rarely went to (the last movie I saw there was Lawnmower Man , which wasn't my choice but since friends were going, why quibble?). This campaign appeared in early 1980s directories, usually as bookends. Source: Sports Illustrated , November 30, 1981

Among the many things I did over the long weekend was snap some shots of the Inn on the Park demolition. Once the abode of the jet set, the hotel gradually declined until its closure early last year (though my family stayed there a few times in its Holiday Inn phase and found the rooms were fine enough for them). The following pictures were shot under wind tunnel conditions. The grey, drizzly skies felt appropriate while looking at the remains of the complex. Until I drove around the site, I hadn't realized just how run down the exterior had become, especially on the side walls at the back of the east tower. The lobby entrance, facing Eglinton. Note the crooked light. Graffiti artists making use of a temporary canvas, next to a site directory. I almost succeeded in creating enough shadow to shoot this picture of an interior sign by the east side ballroom entrance. Almost. The fate of the west tower (in front of the east). The rest of the property is slated to...