For BlogTO, Derek Flack has uncovered several impressive pics of old-school Scarborough motels from the archives, all that used to occupy space on Kingston Road. Here’s a link to the post in question and what follows are some of the pics.
Toronto
Interview with Morgan White, director of the Rep
Toronto documentary director Morgan White spent several months filming Charlie Lawton, Alex Woodside and Nigel Agnew as they struggled to manage the now-closed Toronto Underground, which was arguably Toronto’s most interesting rep theatre experiment in years. Documentary The Rep is the result of his efforts. Toronto Film Scene editor-in-chief Krystal Cooper recently featured an interview with White that is worth reading and can be found here.
What was the best part of making the film?
I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people making the film, many of whom I call friends. Meeting Alex, Nigel and Charlie, and getting to know them and call them friends, will always be the best part of this whole project.
The most frustrating?
Not surprisingly, the guys from The Underground! It’s very hard to spend most of your time with the same people, following them with the intention of getting to the deepest part of their personality. Sometimes that proved to be a challenge, and one that was both frustrating and exhilarating.
For more info on the rep, including screening times and episodes from the original web series, follow this link.
George Romero interview
Further to my earlier post on tonight’s Creepshow screening, I note that the Toronto Star‘s Philip Brown has an interview with director George Romero worth reading here.
Romero on Hollywood remaking his classic horror films:
I try not to see them. I saw Dawn and thought it had lost its reason for being because there’s nothing about consumer society and what could they even say? Malls were already starting to close. And The Crazies? They even managed to turn that into a zombie movie.
Do you know that he lives in Toronto and now has dual citizenship? Who’d have thunk it.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
The Toronto Port Authority is screening Creature from the Black Lagoon tonight as part of its sail-in cinema program. Tickets are free (and still available). Viewers are invited to bring their blankets and treats and watch this Universal Studios classic in glorious black and white from the shore as the film is projected onto a floating screen on Lake Ontario. It’s hard to think of a more perfect film (Jaws?) to show in this manner. With the forecast for tonight calling for clear skies, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. For more details, go here.
All behind-the-scene stills from Retronaut.
Toronto Underground Cinema to close in September
One of the more exciting things to happen to Toronto in the last few years has been the reopening of the Golden Classics Theatre on Spadina as the Toronto Underground Cinema. Since opening, the Toronto Underground set itself apart by screening classics and offbeat fare like Heavy Metal, Infernal Affairs, Deep Red, The Beyond, Cowboy Bebop, and Detroit 9000, scheduling monthly burlesque shows and programming truly awesome events like the original Batman screening / Adam West Q&A. When the theatre announced in July that it was closing for August for renovations, most of us thought that the theatre would only come back stronger and better. However, John Semley for the Toronto Star reports that the Underground will be reopening shortly only to close for good in mid-September. Definite bummer.
It’s hardly an amicable breakup, but the Underground crew knew it was a gamble going in. “We were never working with a reasonable budget to do what we were trying to do,” says Woodside. “And we just decided we were going to do it anyway.”
The Underground will screen its last double-bill Sunday, Sept. 16: fittingly programmed screenings of the cult doomsday flick Night of the Comet and The Band’s 1976 farewell concert film The Last Waltz. Both films will be projected in 35mm.
Read the rest of Semley’s article here.
Then and Now: the El Mo
In Then and Now, a series of articles detailing the history of Toronto night clubs, respected writer Denise Benson has a feature on the El Mocambo during its 1989-2001 years. Interestingly, Benson bypasses the club’s more famous earlier years to make the case that the club was just as vibrant at the turn of the century. One of Benson’s great strengths as a writer is her ability to get quotes from those who were there. This article is no exception with interesting insights from among others promoter Dan Burke, past owner Enzo Petrungaro, and DJ Davy Love.
“I’d quickly learned that, as a new player in the field, I had to tap into acts, labels, and booking agents that weren’t already sewn up by established competitors,” Burke writes in an email interview. “So that’s what I did —and very deeply so—once I was at The El Mocambo. Whatever was cutting-edge—The Toilet Boys from N.Y.C., stoner rock acts from Man’s Ruin Records, nerd heroes like Wesley Willis, electroclash ensembles like Chicks on Speed, Japan’s Zoobombs and The 5,6,7,8s, Montreal’s The Dears—I got the best of them, and made the El Mocambo an important international club again.”
The Deadly Snakes, The Sadies (sometimes with R&B legend Andre Williams), Danko Jones, Sum 41, and Peaches were among the local favourites booked by Burke. He was also responsible for repeat visits by Japan’s Zoobombs, who recorded their album, Bomb You Live, at the El Mo in April 2000, and released it on Toronto’s Teenage USA label in 2001.
“Being a show promoter is like gambling,” says Burke. “When you win, sometimes you also get to see a great show. When you lose, sometimes you get to see a great show. It’s the greatest job in the world if you can keep going.”
Check out the article here.
Toronto’s only Porn Theatre to Start Nightly Screenings of Art, Schlock, Indie and Foreign Films
The story of Toronto’s west end Metro Theatre is fascinating. Opened in the 1930s, the Metro is one of the Toronto’s oldest independent theatres. The theatre switched to adult-only fare in the 1970s (I remember reading that the owner held the Canadian distribution rights to the Emanuelle series), and has been dying slowly ever since, a not uncommon fate for adult film theatres.
Generally, the story of the Metro and its downfall is a depressing one, particularly the owner’s perpetual bad luck (he actually had dreams of screening Bollywood movies), who is by all accounts a nice guy (the ticket booth used to stock charged car batteries for people with car problems). The Metro has always had a place in my heart. Back in the ’90s, I was lucky enough to catch Shaw Bros. classic Master Killer: 36th Chamber of Shaolin at the Metro where it played as part the Kung Fu Fridays series.
However, there may still be hope for the theatre yet. The Toronto Star reports that Jonathan Hlibka and Nadia Sandhu, owner-operators of east end rep theatre the Projection Booth, have a management deal to program nightly screenings at the Metro.
Hlibka and Sandu plan to schedule a mix similar to that of the Projection Booth–recent indies, documentaries and cult faves. This is great news and Hlibka and Sandu are the right people for the project.
Pagliaro, Jennifer. “Toronto’s Last Porn Movie Theatre to get Art House Cinema Makeover.” The Toronto Star. 3 Aug 2012.
Jonathan Hlibka is smiling in the Metro Theatre‘s front lobby, pointing behind the concession stand to the Caribbean-themed mural of a giant big-beaked toucan and the words “Welcome” spelled out in yellow and orange paint.
Nearby is another out-of-place bird — so dirty it’s hard to tell if it’s bronze or gold — perched atop a stone fountain, buried under piles of junk and debris through a nearby door whose frame hangs orphan from any wall.
“It’s like Scarface,” Hlibka says of the west-end Koreatown space. “I love the space…I love how ostentatious and how gaudy it is. It’s charming.”
Al Pacino reportedly liked it, too, and was rumoured to have sat in one of the dingy theatre seats during the filming of his 1989 film Sea of Love, in which the opening credits feature the exterior “XXX” marquee.
In those days, the theatre had passed through the glorious cinema boom, having switched to adult movies — what film buffs call “skin cinema” or simply, pornography — for more than a decade.
But after sinking its current owners into debt, the province’s last porn palace may finally make a comeback with the help of Hlibka and partner, Nadia Sandhu, who hope their “labour of love” will transform the near Bloor St. W. theatre, near Christie St., into a nightly arthouse cinematic experience.
The pair, who run the distribution company Studio Film Group, will be kicking off their trial run on Aug. 17 with regular programming of “art, schlock, indie and foreign” films.
“Consider us like a pop-up shop,” Hbilka said.
For more on the Metro’s depressing but interesting history, also check out the following stories.
Akler, Howard. “A Tale of Two Theatres: While the Bloor Cinema is Reborn, nearby Metro Threatre Languishes.” National Post. 10 Mar 2012.
Kennedy, Brendan. “The Metro: Still X-rated, still for sale.” Toronto Star. 29 Dec 2011.
El Mo
I don’t get out to shows as much as I used to, but I was very happy to learn that the El Mocambo has been bought by Marco Petrucci and Sam Grosso, Grosso of Cadillac Lounge fame. Numerous bands have played this Chinatown venue, including famously the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello. Its last owner Abbas Jahangiri (who purchased the bar back in 2001) never seemed to really “get” the bar’s history or the importance of its iconic street-side palm tree sign, as proven by his plans to turn the place into a jazz/hip hop dance studio. Anyway, Petrucci and Grosso definitely do “get” El Mo’s landmark status and have plans to restore it to its former glory. They are certainly the right people to be handling this project (as anyone who has been to Cadillac Louge will attest).
Shadowy Men From Toronto
Among post-1980 instrumental groups, there are few that can best the Canadian Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and for too long their albums have been out of print. This tragedy is being remedied by Mammoth Cave Recording Co. which is planning on re-releasing the trio’s three albums: Saavy Show Stoppers; Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham; and Sport Fishin’: The Lure of the Bait, the Luck of the Hook. The label is currently taking pre-orders for Saavy Show Stoppers, with plans to release the other two albums later.
In related news, drummer Don Pyle has also recently authored a book featuring his concert photography during Toronto’s punk heyday: Trouble in the Camera Club: A Photographic Narrative of Toronto’s Punk History 1976-1980. Here are two excellent examples of his work. For those of us in Toronto, Pyle’s photos are also on display on the walls of Thirsty and Miserable, Kensington Market’s best bar.
It would seem appropriate to end this post with Shadowy Men’s classic theme to that timeless Can-Con fave Kids in the Hall.
The End of an Era
Two interesting articles from Toronto’s The Grid this week, one focusing on the demise of Captain John’s and the other paying witness to the death of “cheesy” Toronto.
It is hard to forget the iconic sight of Captain John’s large ship / restaurant for anyone who has wandered around Toronto’s downtown harbour-front. A floating restaurant staffed by waiters in nautical uniforms, it recalls a very different era of dining. However, owing hundreds of thousands in property taxes and unpaid rent, Captain John’s is being shut down at the end of this month by order of the City.
Liu, Karen. “The Ballad of Captain John.” The Grid. 25 Jul 2012:
Letnik’s quest to become a restaurateur is the quintessential immigrant success story. In 1957, then 17 years old, he left his family behind in the former Yugoslavia for a better life in Toronto. He worked as a dishwasher at an Etobicoke golf club (and lived there, too), and was eventually promoted to sous chef. After saving enough money, he brought his girlfriend over; they married in 1959 (and later divorced). Two years later, Letnik opened his first eatery: Pop-In Restaurant at Dundas West and McCaul, where he charged 45 cents for pork chops and fried potatoes.
Letnik hatched the idea for a local floating restaurant in 1966, while eating on a ship bound for France. Thinking that it would be a novel concept for Toronto, he sold Pop-In and bought the MS Normac for $30,000 in 1969. The 120-foot, 405-ton boat originally came from Detroit, and had seen better days. But Letnik soon transformed it into a five-star restaurant, giving people a reason to venture down to the bottom of Yonge.
In Edward Keenan’s “The slow disappearance of Cheeseball Toronto,” (25 Jul 2012) The Grid rightly puts the end of Captain John’s in the context of a larger shift away from Toronto’s cheesy past, noting the death of a number of Toronto’s more brash landmarks (World’s Biggest Bookstore, Sam the Record Man):
The Toronto of my youth was a land cascading with blinking light bulbs and gimmicky gimcrackery. And it was awesome. In the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, famously uptight Toronto underwent a garish revolution: The restaurants at the top of the CN Tower and the Westin Harbour Castle actually revolved, as did the sunken stage at the Ontario Place Forum, which was situated right next to the modernist orb of the world’s first IMAX screen at the Cinesphere. Oh, the superlatives. Everything was the world’s tallest, or biggest, or first: not just the freestanding structure and the bookstore and the cinema, but the World’s Biggest Jean Storeand the world’s first retractable roof multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility (built just as the world decided to start constructing single-purpose, open-air baseball shrines instead). And, of course, predating all of this was the world’s biggest, most brazen bargain-house, Honest Ed’s.
Both are good articles and worth reading. You may also want to check out an earlier piece by Karen Liu: “I spent New Year’s Eve alone at Captain John’s.” The Grid. 3 Jan 2012. It has some great photos.
A Gin Soaked Afternoon 