JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

December 1972. You're producing a weekly show about finance for PBS . The final episode of the calendar year is upon you. How can you spice things up to mark the upcoming new year?  Throw a party on-air of course! Pop a few corks, encourage your guests to wear their snazziest socializing threads, and encourage the host to go into full lounge lizard mode. Because, when you cross the financial markets in New York with Playboy After Dark , how can you lose? (Though, sadly, you aren't able to hire any groovy rock bands.) Foreign Affairs, Spring 1985. Wall Street Week was one of those shows whose opening credits fascinated me as a kid. Something about the energetic music and (even by the early 1980s) retro graphics, coupled with a few moments of Louis Rukeyser's soothing voice. Never mind that I no idea how financial markets worked, or that I'd flip the channel within a few minutes.  Financial Post, May 13, 1978. A piece on a Wall Street Week taping in Toronto, profiling ...

This installment of my "Retro T.O." column for The Grid was originally published on April 10, 2012. Cartoon by Patrick Corrigan, Toronto Star , December 7, 1990. It was an evening that should have been joyous for Canadian television. But as the Gemini Awards ceremony ended on December 4, 1990, the audience learned of an ominous announcement on that night’s edition of The National . The hosts of Monitor —the Gemini-nominated investigative-news series that aired on Toronto’s CBC affiliate, CBLT—stood arm-in-arm as they watched a story indicating that CBC would slash $110 million from its budget by closing 10 regional TV stations and cutting 1,200 employees. It was believed that Monitor was among the shows that would get the axe, an event for which co-host Jeffrey Kofman seemed prepared. “Toronto is already well served by the media,” he told the Star . “I’ve had five great years. I’ll survive.” The punctured mood was summed up by Peter Mansbridge, who found it difficult to...

This summer, I had the opportunity to be interviewed for an online bonus feature for Murdoch Mysteries. After quickly slipping back in time to tour the show’s sets, the camera rolled. Here’s the result – I show up around the 1:55 mark to discuss the state of automobiles in Toronto during the early Edwardian era. Between this, giving a talk to a local historical society a few weeks ago, and leading a heritage walking tour this summer, my confidence in my public speaking ability has skyrocketed. It’s a sideline worthy of further exploration as a sideline to my freelance activities. Fingers crossed that I can tap into more opportunities like these. 

This post offers supplementary material for a Torontoist post I recently wrote , which you should dive into before reading any further.  Art by Ted and Pat Michener. The Toronto Star , September 11, 1976. As much as I hate the new archives databases the Toronto Public Library uses for the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star (a grocery list of reasons that would fill several posts), there are some bright spots. One is the inclusion of Star Week , which will be handy for researching television- and food-related articles. For this particular story, Star Week helped nail down Doctor Who's initial airdates on TVO. It also offered an interesting glimpse into Saturday night television at the dawn of the 1976-77 season.  None of the shows spotlighted on Star Week 's cover had staying power. Clockwise from top left: Bill Cosby - Cos . Sketch comedy/variety show. Cancelled November 1976. Tony Randall - The Tony Randall Show . Sitcom about a widowed judge. Only sho...

While sorting through the stacks of magazines residing in the official warehouse coffee table, I came across the lone issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland I've ever possessed. Fueled by the horror movie boom on television during the 1950s, editor Forrest J. Ackerman cultivated many a budding film buff with a mix of classic movie stills and articles geared to a younger audience. I picked up this issue out of curiosity amid a stack of 1970s Marvel black-and-white magazines for 50 cents at the K-W Bookstore in downtown Kitchener years ago. Juvenile, but fun to flip through for its great images and breathless prose. Not mentioned on the cover of the Bicentennial month edition is the second-longest feature in the issue, a profile of a long-running British sci-fi television series which had been shown in a few American markets since 1972: Doctor Who .

Quick, name things you feared as a child. For me, it was comic books, films, or TV shows involving transformation sequences or body horror. These scared the beejezus out of me, even if the transformation was merely implied and not shown, such as a deceased Chevy Chase going back to Earth as adorable mutt Benji in Oh Heavenly Dog (a movie which scared Roger Ebert , for other reasons).  At home, I couldn't handle the transition from Bill Bixby to Lou Ferrigno in The Incredible Hulk . Hearing the Hulk theme music was the cue to scoot elsewhere. Why this shook me up was a good question - maybe I thought it was horrifying that a poor schlep could turn into a raging beast, that he was going through something so unpleasant I didn't want it to happen to me.

From circa 1978, an ad spotlighting the annual monarch butterfly migration through Point Pelee. Note slightly-creepy soundtrack that sounds vaguely like chirping wildlife. - JB

Another wonderful find from Retrontario : from 1981, Elwy Yost interviews legendary 3-D movie star Dr. Tongue on Saturday Night at the Movies , who happens to look a lot like John Candy. Note how Elwy is totally in the spirit of the thing. For those of you not familiar with the cinematic oeuvre of Dr. Tongue, enjoy one of his first films, Dr. Tongue's Evil House of Wax , as taken from a 1977 ad for Monster Chiller Horror Theatre .

Launched in 1975, WGPR-TV was the first black-owned television station in the US. It operated as a sister station to WGPR-FM , whose playlist over the years has varied from gospel to urban hits and was graced for several stints by The Electrifyin' Mojo . It was the second television station to occupy channel 62 on the Detroit dial - the first, WXON , had moved to channel 20 three years earlier. WGPR was fascinating to watch, as it was the closest thing we had to local access cable stations...except this wasn't on cable. Even as a kid I could sense that its production values were low. Shows shot in health food stores? Check. Budweiser commercials dubbed into Arabic? Check. Low-tier college basketball packages? Check. Ads touting nightclub dancers who are barely conscious? Check. Movies? Any low-priced package they could get. Lots of old British movies, especially the early Carry On flicks (usually Carry On Spying or Carry On Screaming ). The piece-de-resistance was th...

1,159: PLUNK YOUR MAGIC TWANGER FROGGY! Growing up, my father was full of wacky catchphrases, mostly gained from radio or TV shows from his childhood. This must be a genetic trait, as it takes little prompting for my sister and I to run off lines from, say, SCTV or Kids in the Hall . One radio show that seemed to stick with Dad was Smilin' Ed's Gang (aka The Buster Brown Show , after its sponsor). Running from 1944 to 1953 and hosted by Smilin' Ed McConnell , it featured stories and an array of animal characters . The latter included Midnight the Cat, who always said "Nice" (or,as Dad put it, "'Niiiiice', says Midnight"), Squeaky the Mouse and, most infamously, Froggy the Gremlin , a malevolent doll with a repetitive speech pattern. What got me to thinking about this was an entry at News from ME , which included a lengthy clip from Smilin' Ed's successor on television, veteran character actor Andy Devine (Smilin' Ed moved th...

Another break from the vintage CBC ads this week for a peek at how CITY-TV advertised itself in the late 70s. Little flash or uber-hipness here, just strong lettering and increasing shades of grey. On air for five years when this ad appeared, CITY had upped its signal the year before, when the CN Tower went into service. Note that the station was way up the dial at channel 79, where it stayed until 1983. The station had a mixed ownership, including Moses Znaimer - CHUM wouldn't buy its first stake until the following year and wouldn't gain full control of the station until 1981. Brian Linehan's City Lights enjoyed a healthy run on the station and in syndication (1973-89). Known for digging deep into the background of those he interviewed, he was later parodied by Martin Short as "Brock Linehan" on SCTV . Linehan's 2004 obituary from the Globe and Mail . Another CITY regular spoofed on SCTV was Morton Shulman, whose life included stints as Toronto...

A short break from the usual Tuesday CBC ad for a look at one of its competitors. CHCH started off as Hamilton's CBC affiliate in 1954, severing its ties around 1960-61. For the next three decades, it was one of Canada's strongest independent stations, developing programs such as Hillarious House of Frightenstein , Party Game and Smith & Smith . A number of sales followed, until it formed the basis of CanWest Global's CH network after the station was acquired from WIC. The introduction of colour programming spurred this series of trippy ads, featuring the station's "flower" logo. Also note that while the ad is tuned in and turned out, it doesn't suggest that the audience "drop out". The bean counters wouldn't have appreciated the audience numbers had that happened... Source: Toronto Life , December 1967 

Colour programming debuted on CBC in September 1966 with a documentary on the Calgary Stampede on Telescope ( video clip ). Slowly, colour worked its way across the schedule, which brings us to today's ad. A description of The Paper People from a 1991 article on author Timothy Findley's dramatic work in Theatre Research in Canada : The 1967 broadcast of The Paper People , CBC's first feature-length colour film, caused an immediate controversy. Members of Parliament joined the public and critics in an outcry over the film's high cost and subject matter. The film focuses on an artist who fashions life-size figures out of papier-mâché then burns them in a kind of early performance art, filming the conflagration. The filming of a documentary about the artist's work frames the story. Findley came up with the plot idea after producer Mervyn Rosenzveig said he wanted a script to capture the essence of the sixties. Script editor Doris Gauntlett and director David ...

1970 was a time of change for the evening newscasts on both sides of the border. Stateside, NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report ended after 14 years with the retirement of Chet Huntley. John Chancellor and Frank McGee joined Brinkley for the next year on the renamed NBC Nightly News , then Chancellor went solo. ABC News started the year with Frank Reynolds and Howard K. Smith behind the anchor desk, until Reynolds was replaced by Harry Reasoner (in between stints on 60 Minutes ) in December. The National officially gained its name in 1969, amid an anchor change (Stanley Burke, who quit as newsreader to raise awareness surrounding the Biafran war in Nigeria, was replaced by Warren Davis) and a switch to colour. Lloyd Robertson replaced Davis in 1970. One question this ad raises: was grey jacket/tan or mustard yellow shirt the official CBC newscaster uniform in 1970? As for the hosts pictured, Robertson remained as anchor through 1976, while George Finstad became one of the orig...

The Summer Olympic Games. It's good for Canada!...It's good for you! With a tag like that, all that seems to be missing is a tie-in to Participaction , which was getting off the ground at the time...but then the ad would have to be red and blue, instead of the classic 70s green spot colour used. How good was it for the Canucks? We went home with five medals (two silver, three bronze), putting us on par with the Netherlands and North Korea. The Soviet Union led the gold count with 50, followed by the US (33), East Germany (20), host West Germany (13) and Japan (13). Interesting to note which cities were among the finalists for these games: Montreal (who landed the next Summer Olympics), Madrid and Detroit. The Prelinger Collection contains a 1965 film promoting Motown as an Olympic site . Keep in mind that Detroit was only two years away from the '67 Riots when this was filmed. Viewers and listeners would receive more than tales of the thrill of victory and agony o...

TELEVISION, Pulser - passed away peacefully on the evening of June 9, 2005 after a short illness. Adopted from a Canadian Tire store 20 years ago, it served as a faithful servant to the Bradburn family, through sitting on a toybox, displaying college basketball games while endless newspapers were cut, etc. Spent past five years in Toronto serving as an alternative to cable. Remained strong until its last two days, when periods of consciousness were brief. A brief remembrance ceremony will be held on Wednesday, June 15, 2005, before being laid to rest on the curbside. - JB