Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Address: 25 John St N Date: May 2015 Website:capriristorante.ca
The Capri Restaurant in downtown Hamilton has been there since the early 1960s. We have visited several times through the years and it has undergone some changes. We were once allowed to take a peek at the famous Blue Grotto room upstairs which is designed like a blue cave. We have also been lucky enough to visit the site of a historic ass kicking in the parking lot out back. Sadly, this appears to have been turned into a construction site building new condominiums.
When we first visited Capri it still had its original look. A mural on the wall, round tables and bright colours with dim lighting. It has since been renovated with a more modern look. Change is always inevitable.
The wall at the back of the building was painted to read Capri Pizza & Spaghetti. In the movie Kick-Ass, this is where Kick-Ass comes across a couple of car thieves and makes his first attempt to be a hero.
Unfortunately, Kick-Ass and his baton are no match for the two thieves. Kick-Ass ends up getting stabbed in the stomach.
As his attackers run away, an injured Kick-Ass stumbles out into the street. Now for a bit of movie magic. Note the interlocking brick roadway. A car hits Kick-Ass and he flies up over the roof.
Kick-Ass lands with a thud on the ground. Not only is he now lying on an asphalt road, but he is also two blocks over on Mary Street. The car that hit him speeds away past the Hamilton Vision Centre. The movies mix a bit of reality with fantasy. You can visit what is left of the Capri Pizza parking lot and area, but be sure to come inside and enjoy a very real meal.
Location: New York, New York, USA Address: 220 E 42nd St Date: November 2014 Website:slgreen.com
The News Building in New York City is known for both its interesting interior and exterior. From its art deco entrance to its globe filled lobby, it is in a word... super.
The front entrance includes a huge, three story tall granite carving. At the top are the words "The News" and near the bottom, just above a crowd of people it says "He Made So Many Of Them". This quote is from Abraham Lincoln referring to the common people who would be reading the daily newspaper.
The lobby contains a giant world globe that is sunken into the floor. This truly is the world news.
The News Building has also played an important part in movie history. In the Superman movies it played the part of The Daily Planet. In the original Superman, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) walk past the giant globe and out the revolving doors onto 42nd Street. The exterior of the building is also shown in the movie. The building exterior plays an increasingly smaller part in the sequels Superman II and Superman III.
On the floor surrounding the globe are distances to world cities. We recommend that no matter where you are in the world, you try and find your way to The News Building for a visit.
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Address: 252 Queen Street East Date: February 2017 Website:www.cbc.ca
A convenience store changed the outside signage in order to be used as part of a Canadian television show. That show is Kim's Convenience and it first aired in 2016. The show is now entering its fifth season and follows the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Kim as they try to run both the store and their family.
The real Kim's Convenience used to be known as Mimi Variety. It is used for some external shots for the show even though most of the taping takes place in a replica store built inside a studio. When we visited the real life location on Queen Street East, it looked just like any other variety store in Toronto.
The Kim's have two children, Janet & Jung. Jung worked at HandyCar Rental. In one episode Mr. Kim has a life size cardboard cutout of his son advertising the car rental business. He puts it outside the front door and two neighbourhood kids steal it. Mr Kim chases them out onto Seaton Street (above) to rescue his son's likeness.
If you find yourself in downtown Toronto you can pay a visit to the store. Just don't expect to find Umma and Appa inside.
Location: Hollywood, California, USA Address: 1660 N Highland Ave. Date: June 2019 Website:thehollywoodmuseum.com/
The Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles has so many movie props and memorabilia that they fill every nook and cranny. Since it is the Halloween season we thought we would revisit their basement and a few classic horror movie icons.
First off is an old classic, Frankenstein. While the novel was written in 1818, we are talking movies here. This Frankenstein was played by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film and is seen above with his bride from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein.
There were life masks of Boris Karloff and Bela Legosi. Bela Legosi had played Dracula and along with Boris was part of Universal Studio's classic monster movies.
Another early creature that scared audiences was the great ape, King Kong. The original King Kong was a stop motion model. The museum had various King Kongs on display.
Flying ahead a few decades there were some birds from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. We are not sure if these were just props or former movie stars preserved for future generations.
While not a movie monster herself, Elvira became very popular in the 1980s as a host presenting B grade horror movies. Horror movies had never really gone away, but the 80s saw a group of classic horror villains rise to stardom and appear in numerous sequels.
Michael Meyers changed Haloween night forever and gained his place as one of the greatest characters in slasher film history. Michael escapes from a sanitarium and visits his hometown for a night of fright and murder. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a babysitter that Michael is stalking while wearing a plain white mask. So far there have been eleven Halloween films.
The next mask wearer to terrorize teenagers is Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th movies. He drowned as a boy and is best known for wearing his hockey mask while slashing his way through twelve (or is it only eleven?) movies. This franchise just has to make Friday The 13th: The 13th.
The next horror franchise to arrive in the 1980s started with A Nightmare On Elm Street. This movie starred Freddy Krueger who terrorized teenagers in their dreams. Johnny Depp's Hollywood dreams came true after being one of Freddy's victims. There have only been nine movies in this series but there was a Freddy vs Jason cross-over movie made.
In the late 80s came Chucky. He was a psychotic, knife wielding doll from the Child's Play movies. Only 8 movies made so far. He did find love in Bride of Chucky just like Frankenstein did over 60 years before him. If you have ever seen videos of dogs wearing costumes, and we know you have, the Chucky costume is one of the best.
The museum is crammed with movie props and costumes from many other films. There was this stick figure from The Blair Witch Project.The Blair Witch Project grossed almost 250 million dollars on a budget of less than 500 thousand. It's shaky hand held camera work caused as much tension and fear as it did nausea.
After having a role in A Nightmare On Elm Street, Johnny Depp spent a lot of time making movies with a Halloween feel to them thanks to director Tim Burton. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is both a Halloween and a Christmas classic. Johnny's Sweeney Todd costume was on display.
We headed upstairs again to escape from the horrors we had seen in the basement. We did spot a couple more monsters up in a corner. Mike Wazowski and Sulley from Monsters Inc. are a little less creepy than the hundereds of items you can find in The Hollywood Museum's dungeon.
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Address: 250 Front St W. Date: February 2020 Website:www.cbc.ca
Canadian television show Shitt's Creek won a total of nine Emmys at the 2020 Emmy Awards Show. This set a record for any comedy series and the wins were especially shocking for a Canadian show. The show stars Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy of SCTV fame and various movie and television roles. The main cast also includes Eugene's son Daniel and actress Annie Murphy. They all went home with awards hand delivered to them during the socially distanced broadcast.
Congratulations to you all!
Schitt's Creek is the story of a wealthy family that loses everything and is forced to live in a small town motel. We were able to visit a part of that motel at CBC studios in Toronto.
We were at the studios to watch the taping of a show that will never win an Emmy. We were there to see Family Feud Canada. In this version of Family Feud, Steve Harvey has been replaced by Canadian host Gerry Dee. In order to qualify for an Emmy your show must be on an American network. Schitt's Creek qualified since it was on Pop TV and Netflix.
We waited in a huge lineup in order to enter the studio for our Family Feud Canada taping. At the front of the line they were storing cellphones and other items before taking people up to the studio by elevator. They take away your electronics in order to keep anyone from leaking any behind the scenes footage of the show. While waiting in line we took turns exploring and we were able to take some behind the scenes footage of Casey's treehouse from Mr. Dressup. Canadians of a certain age may fondly recall this show and enjoy a glimpse from behind the little blue door (above).
CBC is also known for their Canadian sports coverage. We particulary enjoyed their Olympic coverage with sportscaster Brian Williams. In the foyer there were a couple of chairs made out of a wide variety of sporting equipment.
On the other side of the foyer was the Rosebud Motel from Schitt's Creek. The final season had finished filming and the prop motel sign had been brought to the studio for fans to view. The real motel used for filming is about one hour's drive north of the CBC Studios in Orangeville, Ontario.
With the added exposure brought to the show by it's Emmy Award sweep, we are sure a new wave of Schitt's Creek fans will want to connect with the down on their luck Rose family. If the prop is still at the studio they can do just that. Family Feud Canada is airing its second season in October 2020 if you want to connect with other Canadian families hoping to increase their fortune by $10,000 dollars.
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Address: 5515 Melrose Ave. Date: June 2019 Website:www.paramountstudiotour.com
After a successful run on the sitcom Cheers, the character of Frasier Crane was given his own show. Frasier aired for 11 seasons as did Cheers before it. We were fans of both shows.
Kelsey Grammer played the role of Frasier and didn't have far to go between jobs. Both shows were filmed at Paramount Studios and both shows were filmed on Stage 25. We took a Paramount Studio tour when we were in Los Angeles. We were able to see the exterior of this famous sound stage as well as visit a section of the backlot where one episode from the first season of Frasier was filmed.
The Paramount backlot has a section named SOHO after the New York City area. In episode six of season one, Frasier purchases a piece from an art gallery. He is embarrased when the artist comes to his party and declares the work a fraud. Frasier is angry and further frustrated when the art gallery dealer insists all sales are final. He stands on the street ready to throw a brick through the gallery window. Frasier would be standing between the bike rider and the green subway entrance in the photo above. The subway entrance was removed in order to film the scene.
A couple walks by and Frasier hides his brick behind his back. You can see the building above behind them as they cross the street. Frasier turns to throw his brick but this time his brother Niles pulls up in his car. Niles tries to calm Frasier by telling him of a time Frasier stopped him from exacting revenge. Frasier gives Niles the brick and reminds him of how stromg he was despite the nicknames, such as Peachfuzz. Niles hurls the brick through the window, tosses some money into the gallery and leaves.
"We may be barbarians, but we pay for our pillaging!"
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Address: 770 Don Mills Road. Date: Jan 2020 Website:www.ontariosciencecentre.ca
Every winter around Christmas time, the Ontario Science Centre puts their collection of Rowland Emett's machines on display. It is the largest single collection of these mechanical inventions and never ceases to amuse and amaze. Rowland Emett started as a cartoonist for Punch magazine before building these herky-jerky contraptions which always seem to include lampshades and teapots and be driven by thin men with mustaches. Let's take a look at a few of these dream machines.
The Vivivision Machine
This machine is made up of a gramophone and an old sewing machine. Like most of Rowland's creations it has a lot of moving parts but it is hard to figure out the purpose.
It somehow projects an image into the horn of the gramophone which is supposed to be that of a man bull-fighting with a goat. This machine made a brief appearance in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The Humbug Major Sweet Machine
This next contraption had a bigger role in the Dick Van Dyke movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It makes candied apples and more as it whirs and turns.
The machine makes candy but as Truly Scrumptuous says, "The boiling point of your sugar is too high". As a result the candy has holes in it but lets you blow into it to make a whistling sound. Toot Sweets.
Dick Van Dyke's character Caractacus Potts takes his candy to try and sell it to the candy factory. As everyone blows into the candy, the whistle attracts dogs which end up making a mess of everything.
Little Dragon Carpet Cleaner
Also in the movie is the little dragon carpet cleaner which instead of cleaning a carpet sucks up the whole thing. The carpet cleaner on display at the Science Centre had a little brush that looked like a mustache. The Hush-a-Bye Hot Air Rocking Chair
This chair works with a hot air engine to keep it rocking. It also conveniently has slippers sticking out in front so you can put your feet inside. Keep your eyes open and you might notice it also in a certain film.
Clockwork Lullaby Machine
When Caractacus Potts sings Hushabye Mountain to his children he first starts up this contraption which is made up of a conch shell and a wine bottle among other things.
Featherstone Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentleman's Flying Machine
This machine is our all time favourite and it also boasts the longest name. It has been at the Ontario Science Centre for decades. It is meant to be a flying machine but as it lurches back and forth we don't think it is ever going to get off the ground. It looks like it has a better chance of making tea.
This machine features one of the thin, mustached men that Rowland seems to like to add to his contraptions. It also has a few furry friends like the dog looking forward at the front of the plane and a little kitten sitting in the rudder.
The Forget Me Not Computer
Memory may hold the door, but elephants never forget. The picture above shows FRED who is part of the Forget Me Not Computer that Rowland made for Honeywell. FRED stands for Frightfully Rapid Evaluator and Dispense.
The next part of the Forget Me Not Computer looks like an elephant. The computer frame is made from a lot of bamboo.
Inside it has something called the Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Mo unit.
Another smaller elephant is called Forget Me Not Junior and works the card punch system. Unforgetable.
Afternoon Tea Train To Wisteria Halt
Rowland Emett's popularity increased after he created a railway for the 1951 Festival of Britain. This next machine is another train creation. It is a tea train headed to Wisteria Halt.
It is made up of several train cars. The last car has a cow being milked in order to provide cream for tea.
The next car has a first class passenger enjoying their tea. The cow has chosen to munch on the ostrich feathers sticking out of her hat.
The whole train is pulled by Nellie the steam engine in a beautiful blue. Nellie also heats up and pours tea as well as preparing a bit of breakfast as she goes.
Exploratory Moon Probe Lunacycle MAUD
The last device on display was designed to be landed on the moon and then pedalled about for exploratory purposes.
The mustachioed man must keep pedalling in order to bring oxygen into his helmet. He looks out through a stained glass dome over his head.
Check out Rowland Emett's machines in action in the video below and find out why they are known as dream machines.
Kick-Ass In The Street , Capri Pizza Parking Lot
Capri Family Restaurant 
