The Champ is here!

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali returned to Toronto, Canada for the first time in almost a decade on November 19th. The Champ was making the single night visit to the city for an appearance at an annual David Foster Foundation benefit Gala.

It was a much quieter return to Toronto for Ali considering the fanfare that accompanied his last visit during 2002, when Ali appeared at Toronto’s Skydome for an Argos football game and press conference (with fellow boxing champions Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, & George Chuvalo!)

From the first time meeting Ali during an appearance in Detroit during 1996, HoundsTV has had the pleasure of seeing The Greatest a few times over the years and witness him autograph some very beautiful pieces of memorabilia for the autograph Hounds.

RELATED: Muhummad Ali autographed boxing glove. Signed “aka Cassius Clay” from Cleveland National.

But on Muhammad’s latest visit to Toronto towards the end of 2010, it’s evident the Parkinson’s disease Ali was diagnosed with many years ago has now slowed his body considerably. On arrival to his downtown Toronto hotel a few hours before his scheduled appearance at the David Foster hosted benefit – Muhammad had to be helped from the car into the hotel by wife Yolanda and another person supporting him on each side.

When Ali last visited Toronto in late 2002 – it was very public and many cameras captured that special scene. But Muhammad Ali’s 2010 visit was private and low-key. And unlike last time, very few photographers even managed to capture a shot of Ali in the city. The Champ didn’t appear before photographers assembled for the red carpet arrivals at the David Foster fundrasier and it was asked repeatedly by representatives accompanying Ali at the event that people who approach Ali – please don’t ask for autographs.

YouTube: It was a much more public appearance for Muhammad Ali on his last visit to Toronto during late 2002. Ali arrived to great fanfare, and signed autographs for the collectors.

RELATED: Muhummad Ali autographed boxing glove. Signed “aka Cassius Clay” from Cleveland National.

HoundsTV had to get up pretty early in the morning to catch up with the Big Bang Theory’s breakout star, and recent Emmy winner Jim Parsons. Parsons, along with co-stars Simon Helberg (Howard) and Kunal Nayyar (Raj) were making the first stop of many media engagements at a local radio station.

On exit, Jim Parsons was nice about signing this officially licensed, large sized, blue “It’s Not Cartoons… It’s Anime!” T-shirt [ $150.00 CAN] Big Bang Theory writers and Parsons have created one truly memorable character in Dr. Sheldon Cooper – who have now spawned a mini pop/geek culture T-shirt industry based from the success of the show.

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ITEM: JIM PARSONS autogrpahed Dr. Sheldon Cooper BIG BANG THEORY T-SHIRT – (Size: Large, Signed in blue sharpie on T-shirt. HoundsTV watermark graphic does not appear on actual item.)
PRICE: $150.00 CAN + $20.00 (S&H in North America.)
SIGNED: October 7, 2010 – Toronto, Canada

Contact us for any questions about this item and/or shipping charges outside North America. Includes Guarantee of Authenticity. Additional Terms & Policies. Satisfaction GUARANTEED.

HoundsTV was able to catch up to Clint Eastwood on his arrival into the city the day before. Leaving the private airfield, Mr Eastwood was very kind to stop and beautifully autograph this 26″ x 38″ movie poster of “Dirty Harry” [ $995.00 CAN ] – one of Clint’s most famous roles. This poster is an exact reprint of the official 1971 release poster and features the graphic artwork of legendary movie poster designer Bill Gold. This was the first in the series of iconic “Dirty” Harry Callahan movies.

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Contact us for any questions about this item and/or shipping charges outside North America. Includes Guarantee of Authenticity. Additional Terms & Policies. Satisfaction GUARANTEED.

HoundsTV in the past has posted stories about celebrities and pop culture icons that unfortunately pass away.

Today, HoundsTV is sad to report about another type of legend to us – an icon of the autograph collecting world passed away this month, Blair Richards of Cleveland.

Besides Blair’s love of teaching and practicing the law – Blair was a proficient traveler of the world, visiting well over hundred countries. It was on many of these journey’s that Blair collected the signatures of some of the biggest music stars in the world.

We shared many hounding adventures over the years with Blair. And it’s there HoundsTV will fondly remember the many stories shared with Blair as collectors chit-chat to waste time as you wait for the celebrity encounter. If it was a former staple of the modern music scene touring – anyone from Cheap Trick, Kansas, Supertramp, or Meatloaf – you could be sure Blair would have an interesting story of an autograph encounter with them.

Loving husband of Lena Richards. Loving son of Carole Richards Kusik (nee Kelty) (husband John), and Edward Richards. Dearest brother of Linnea Smith (nee Richards) (husband Stephen), grandson of Greye Richards and Harold (deceased) and Betty and James Kelty (both deceased). Cousin of Shannon and Derek Richards.

Blair Richards from Cleveland is certainly one of the best autograph collectors HoundsTV ever had the pleasure to work with and was taken from his wife, family, friends, and autograph hounding community at far too young of an age.

But we know Blair – and we doubt his passing will stop him from continuing his pursuits of celebrity signatures. So, a note to Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, John Bonham, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Miles Davis, and Stephen Ray Vaughan – Blair is probably going to be finding you with a stack of albums and a sharpie marker in hand real soon.

A memorial service is being held today, July 31st, in Clevelend to remember and celebrate the life of Blair Richards.

Blair getting Mick Jagger to sign a guitar in Toronto, 1999.
Blair and good friend and fellow collector Brad celebrating getting a huge haul of items signed by Roger Waters (ex of Pink Floyd) in Brazil, 2002.
Brad and Blair in Brazil.

“I was in Montreal for the F1 race and got the shock of all collecting shocks when I spotted ex-Beatle George Harrison walking out of a hotel. After getting Harrison to sign at about 7pm, not a minute later I run to a phone and call Blair and tell him I got Harrison. Phone goes dead. Not 12 hours later at 7 am all the way from Ohio, Blair drove through the night and is standing out there to graph Harrison on his guitar as George was leaving his hotel to head to F1 track. Blair got several Harrison signatures that trip to Montreal – that was vintage Blair!” – friend and fellow autograph collector Brad Byrne

The jersey that Paul Henderson wore when scoring that historic goal is currently being auctioned and is set to become the most expensive piece of hockey memorabilia ever sold. It is currently up for sale at Classic Auctions.

Is the Paul Henderson jersey worth $250,000 or more? The short answer is “yes.” The oldest rule in the collecting world is an item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. So if someone is putting down hundreds of thousands on the Henderson ‘72 Series jersey – than that’s what it’s worth.

In the sports memorabilia world – while the physical item the collector is buying may be a jersey, stick, or puck. What the collector is really buying is a piece of history.

And People collect history. It can be argued that Henderson’s ‘72 Summit Series winning goal is one of the most celebrated and historic hockey moments in Canadian history.

If the Henderson ‘72 Canada jersey does indeed top $250,000 (and as of June 15th – it’s sitting at $232,000) it would make it the most expensive piece of hockey memorabilia ever sold.

A jersey from Wayne Gretzky’s career is believed to have traded hands privately for $250,000. Just a month ago, a sweater from the rookie year of Bobby Orr fetched almost $200,000 at an auction.

There has been much debate on what should happen with the Henderson jersey. A majority feeling it should end up in a Hall of Fame somewhere. The hardware retailing giant, Canadian Tire, recently bid $200,000 for the jersey feeling it would be a nice item to display on a tour around it’s stores (and no doubt, a massive publicity coup in the process.) But when some media complained that might not be such a good idea. Canadian Tire dropped out of the bidding.

UPDATE (June 23): There was some furious bidding at the end between two bidders but the Henderson ‘72 Jersey was sold for $1,067,538 last night – more than double any of the most optimistic estimates before the auction began. The winning bid (comes to over $1.2M after all auction fees factored in) was submitted by Mitchell Goldhar, owner of SmartCentres.

The Henderson ‘72 jersey sale becomes the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of hockey memorabilia.

Don’t want to spend a million dollars on a ‘72 Summit Series collectible? Consider this item from HoundsTV

Auction listing for Henderson ‘72 Jersey at Classic Auctions.

Don’t want to spend a million dollars on a ‘72 Summit Series collectible? Consider this item from HoundsTV

This June, Alomar will also become one of Canada Sports Hall of Fame’s newest members (but we all know Alomar fans are really waiting for next year when Robbie will be inducted into the only Hall Of Fame that matters – Baseball’s)

When Alomar was launching his new line at Sear’s in Toronto – he also debuted a new logo – a silhouette graphic image of Alomar’s arms up reaction to hitting arguably the Blue Jay’s biggest home run ever (and yes, I’m including Carter’s in that opinion. Sure Joe won the whole damn thing with his swing. But Robbie’s blast off an unhittable Dennis Eckersley in the ‘92 ALCS slayed serious demons for Toronto and set the stage for everything to follow.)

Roberto’s wife and son Robertito were accompanying him while greeting fans at Sear’s Eaton Centre.

Roberto Alomar autographed for HoundsTV this offically licensed photo file 8″ x 10″ color photo of Alomar in his famous “arms up” pose after hitting the home run off Eckersley ($59.00 – with MLB hologram.)

Alomar would eventually be named Most Valuable Player of the 1992 American League Championship series and provide Toronto fan’s one of their most cherished sports memories ever.

ITEM: ROBERTO ALOMAR autographed 8″ x 10″ official licensed Photo File photograph from ‘92 ALCS (Mint condition. MLB hologram on bottom right corner. Comes in Photo File protective sleeve. Signed in blue sharpie. HoundsTV watermark graphic does not appear on actual photograph.)
PRICE: $59.00 CAN + $7.50 (S&H in North America) **Just 1 remaining in-stock.
SIGNED: May 28, 2010 – Toronto, Canada

THIS ITEM IS NOW OUT-OF-STOCK

Contact us for any questions about this item and/or shipping charges outside North America. Includes Guarantee of Authenticity. Additional Terms & Policies. Satisfaction GUARANTEED.

That’s because they were doing the near impossible – playing all in one day, gigs in four indie record stores in Toronto. BSS started their Sunday afternoon with a show at Criminal Records on Queen St. Two hours later, a little further west on Queen St. and the band was jammin’ in Rotate This.

Next stop was Soundscapes on College St. And finally in the evening, Broken Social Scene played cuts off their new record at Sonic Boom on Bloor St.

Listen to NEW Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record

With their new record getting rave reviews, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning lead a collective of 31 different musicians through the new albums 14 songs.

photo via weirdscience
photo via sherrydubeau
photo via andyalexanderr
photo via BSSmusic

It’s become an annual event where all things vinyl are celebrated. You remember vinyl? Those big black shinny discs that were quite popular before those little shinny silver discs were.

Well, vinyl is making a big comeback. So the annual Record Store Day is only getting more popular.

The big thing on the day is trying to find some of the limited edition vinyl that is released only on Saturday, April 17th. HoundsTV has scanned the list and made it’s wish list selections.

We’ll let you know how we do. Hopefully, we will be offering for sale some of our selections on HoundsTV soon.

THE HOUNDSTV 2010 RECORD STORE DAY WISH LIST:
—————————-
Beastie Boys – white label 12″
Bruce Springsteen – 10″ live single
Beatles – 7″ paper bag single (!)
Buddy Guy – A Man & The Blues 12″ Vanguard Re-issue
The Doors – 7″ People Are Strange for documentary
Elvis Costello – Live at Hollywood High 7″ (individually numbered)
Flaming Lips – Dark Side Of The Moon 12″ green vinyl
Hole – Skinny Little Bitch 10″ white vinyl
Jakob Dylan/Courtyard Hounds – 7″ vinyl (Courtyard Hounds are Emily & Martie from Dixie Chicks)
Joan Baez – Vanguard 12″ Re-issue of debut
Jimi Hendrix – Live @ Clark University 12″ colored vinyl
John Lennon – 7″ Singles BAG (!)
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone 12″ clear vinyl
Pavement – Best Of content winner 12″
Plants & Animals – La La Land 12″
R.E.M. – 12″ blue vinyl
Ramones – 12″ double blue/green vinyl set
Rolling Stones – unreleased & numbered 7″ vinyl
Sex Pistols – 180 gram double vinyl set
SoundGarden – 7″ orange vinyl
Them Crooked Vultures – 10″ picture disc

In anticipation of 2010 Record Store Day – One of the best movies ever for celebrating the beauty and passion of music on vinyl – High Fidelity

It was a big week for the comic book industry. In a widely reported story earlier in the week, what has long been considered to be the most valuable comic book – Action Comics #1 – the very first appearance of Superman – sold for $1,000,000. This figure surprised a lot of collectors as it was three times the previous amount when the comic book sold just a few years ago.

But that surprise was short lived as that value was upped just three days later when Detective Comics #27 – the first appearance of Batman – sold for OVER one million dollars ($1,075,500) breaking the amount previously held by Action Comics #1.

It is the first time another comic besides Superman’s first appearance can be considered most valuable.

(HoundsTV) Talk about blowing it in Vancouver.

That is, the final Olympic torch lighting.

We know our Canadian athletes will hold up far better under the pressure of Olympic competition then these Opening Gala organizers did in Vancouver.

I was sitting with friends watching the 2010 Opening Ceremonies when like the rest of Canada’s largest ever television audience – a sense of horror overcame me as it became clear something was malfunctioning with lighting the final flame. What if they couldn’t get the thing lit? The final torchbearers – Rick Hansen, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene, and The Great One just seemed to stand around rather dumbstruck.

And who designed these huge arms of this Olympic cauldron? Did nobody step back and suspect the big picture just might become ripe for ridicule?

Amid this train wreck of a final torch lighting in Vancouver – my friends and I began to think back to some of the more memorable torch lightings from Olympics past.

And one immediately came to mind. Muhammad Ali in 1996 from Atlanta. No big fancy designed sculptures and hydraulic arm thingees. Just a final Olympic flame which Ali ignited.

Simple. Intimate.

It’s what they should have done with Gretzky in Vancouver. It would have made a far more memorable final flame lighting.

And if they have kept it more simple there wouldn’t have been the chance for the mechanical screw-up there was – witnessed by about a billion people. Nice, eh?

What’s that good, old mantra… KISS? The end of the Olympic torch relay and lighting of the final flame in Canada would have been a much more special moment if the Games organizers just would have considered it.