Timmins closes Shania Twain centre

A failed tourist attraction in Timmins is set to become the gold mine the city always hoped for.

The Shania Twain Centre permanently shut its doors Friday.

International gold miner Goldcorp will officially acquire the property in June. The company plans to demolish the structure to make it part of a massive open-pit gold mine.

City councillors decided several weeks ago the center was too big a money pit to keep subsidizing.

About $4 million in tax dollars went toward building the failed tourist attraction just 12 years ago.

The centre has racked up more than $1 million in operating deficits in the years since.

'Should have taken a better look at the numbers'

Grant applications to the Ontario and federal governments in the 1990s projected annual attendance of 50,000 tourists by 2005. But the sleek, modern structure, featuring displays of Twain memorabilia — along with gold-mining artifacts — has drawn no more than 15,000 people in any year.

The now-47-year-old singer, who grew up poor in Timmins, got her fledgling start singing in local bars before striking it rich on the world stage in 1995.

In the end, every resident of the century-old mining town of 47,000 was shelling out $7 a year just to keep the lights on. And by 2010, each visitor to the centre was being subsidized to the tune of $33.72.

It was supposed to be the other way around, with the centre generating enough revenue to at least break even — that would require about 33,500 paying visitors annually — while filling local hotels and restaurants with tourists.

"We probably should have taken a better look at the numbers to ensure the expectations could be met," Mayor Tom Laughren said of the planning that happened long before he took office.

The Shania Twain Centre was built to celebrate Twain, her successes and her growth from young artist in Timmins to international superstar, according to the centre's website. (shaniatwaincentre.com)

Sold for half of construction costs

A 2011 financial analysis showed that Timmins city council faced continuing operating deficits of at least $233,000 a year, no matter what future business plan it chose, whether expansion or scaling back.

So council last month announced a deal to sell the property to mining firm Goldcorp Inc. for $5 million, just half of the tax dollars spent for construction.

Goldcorp, which will officially acquire the property June 28, plans to demolish the structure to make the gold-seeded land underneath part of a massive open-pit mine being developed adjacent to the town.

Recent media reports have suggested the centre cost as little as $3.7 million to build. But a May 2011 analysis by PKF Consulting Inc. in Toronto says the figure was actually about $10 million for all construction, including the building, site development and upgrades to the co-located gold-mine tour attraction.

The entire 65-acre site is to be razed, including the gold-mine tour facilities, and added to Vancouver-based Goldcorp's planned open pit.

Clearing out the gift shop

For the last week, local residents have been picking over merchandise at the gift shop, offered for up to 75 per cent off, including hockey jerseys emblazoned "STC." The sale was expected to bring in at least $25,000.

The sad end of the once-bright hopes for the centre began last May, when Twain's management company repatriated most of her memorabilia — including an entire tour bus — to Las Vegas, where the singer now has a regular show.

The city dropped the $9 adult admission fee to the Twain exhibits last summer, in recognition that only few items were left to see, including four dresses.

Municipal officials said Shania Twain and her management company, Maple Leaf Productions, were highly supportive of the centre over the years, and they lay no blame at her feet.

Instead, the city's tourism manager says passion trumped reason when planning took place in the late 1990s, with provincial and federal funding agencies buying in.

Canadian country singer Shania Twain signs autographs after unveiling her star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California in 2011. Twain's management company repatriated most of her memorabilia from the Shania Twain Centre in Timmins — including an entire tour bus — to Las Vegas, where the singer now has a regular show. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni )

Lack of local support

"The projections were extremely ambitious," said Guy Lamarche of discussions that happened before his time in the job.

"When people come forward to support projects, and bring a huge passion to projects, sometimes things get skewed. And, in this case, the projections never materialized — they were way off."

Mayor Laughren cites a series of problems for the failure of the centre, but calls the lack of local support by Timmins citizens a big factor.

Lamarche put it this way:

"The old adage 'build it and they will come'? Forget it. If you build it, you better be prepared to market it."

The city plans to place remaining Twain memorabilia and mining artifacts on display around the community, including the airport, library and even street corners.

Claims on sale proceeds

But the fate of the $5 million in proceeds from the coming property sale is not yet clear. The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp., a provincial agency, paid $5 million into the construction project under an agreement with the city that runs until March 31, 2018.

The NOHFC gave prior written permission for the sale to Goldcorp "with conditions relating to the earnings from the sale," said Julia Bennett, spokeswoman for Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

She did not spell out the conditions, but said "negotiations are underway to determine the next steps to get the best use of taxpayer dollars for growth in the north."

FedNor, the federal investment fund for Northern Ontario, provided $500,000 for the construction in a contribution agreement that expired in 2002. A spokesman said the agency has no claim on the sale proceeds.

With files from the Canadian Press

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Jackie Chan named to Chinese government advisory board

Action star Jackie Chan, 2012 Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan , and other prominent Chinese cultural figures have been appointed to a top political advisory body by the Chinese government.

According to Chinese media, government officials have unveiled a fresh list of national-level delegates named to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory group that meets at the same time as the National People's Congress in March. Delegates typically serve a four-year term.

The appointment of the 58-year-old Chan comes after the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon star has been making headlines for his nationalistic comments supporting China's Communist Party leadership.

Speaking about the global financial crisis to a Chinese TV station earlier this month, he described the U.S. as the world's "most corrupt country" and said China had long been bullied by international powers.

In December, he angered residents of Hong Kong when he told a mainland Chinese media outlet that the city's government should place limits on protests. His statements were in response to street demonstrations against mainland intrusion into the affairs of Hong Kong, which is a special economic region of China that maintains its own legal and economic systems.

According to Chinese figures, Chan's latest movie CZ12 (alternately known as Chinese Zodiac) was China's fifth-highest grossing movie of 2012. Expected to open in international markets in 2013, the adventure tale tracks a treasure hunter's quest to retrieve the 12 rare Chinese zodiac sculptures European soldiers looted from the old Summer Palace outside of Beijing during the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century.

Chan has said the film — in which he stars and also holds directing, writing and producing credits — will be his last major action movie. He called it the best role he's played in the past 10 years.

Along with Chan and Mo, new national committee members include award-winning director Chen Kaige, comedian Zhao Benshan, TV anchor Bai Yansong and a variety of representatives from the corporate world.

Actor-director Stephen Chow, best known for his cult hit Kung Fu Hustle, was among new names joining the state-level advisory board in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

The appointment of famous figures to political posts has sparked heated discussion in editorials and on Chinese social media, with commenters noting the spotty attendance records of and lack of concrete contributions by show business and athletic world delegates to the CPPCC in the past.

Delegates named to the CPPCC can be recommended for the post by various groups or be invited by the body's standing committee. Candidates who accept the role must be considered representatives of his or her industry.

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5 surprising artists behind advertising jingles

This Sunday, legendary alt-rockers the Flaming Lips will appear in a Super Bowl commercial for Hyundai. It's not unusual to hear a popular song or see an artist in a commercial, but what is unusual is that the band wrote the song "Sun Blows Up Today" specifically for the spot. As rare as it is, they're not the first artist to mix art and commerce by writing a song for a commercial. Here are five artists who have done the same.

1. The Rolling Stones.

This past April, an episode of Mad Men centred on the Rolling Stones turning down an offer to record a song for a Heinz beans commercial. In reality, the Stones did record a raucous jingle for an English Rice Krispies ad in 1964, co-written by Brian Jones and ad agency J. Walter Thompson.

2. Barry Manilow.

He writes the songs that make the whole world sing, especially when they're singing about bandages and insurance. Before Barry Manilow was making your mom swoon, he was a jingle writer, and composed such classics as State Farm's "Like a Good Neighbor" and the Band-Aid jingle above.

3. Ween.

In 2002, Pizza Hut hired oddball alternative act Ween to write the jingle for their Insider pizza — a product with extra cheese concealed between two crusts. Ween's pitches were rejected, possibly due to the unsavoury language in one version. The commercial ultimately went ahead with a less spirited version of what is essentially the same song.

4. Jack White.

In 2006, Jack White was expanding his sound from the stripped down White Stripes recordings to the larger orchestrations on the Raconteurs debut album. This was also the year that Coca Cola hired him to write and produce this song for their ad campaign. And why not? At the time, his entire wardrobe matched Coke's colour scheme.

5. Foster the People.

Foster the People's breakthrough hit, "Pumped Up Kicks," was written while the band's Mark Foster worked as a jingle writer for Mophonics, a music company that encourages its employees to write three-minute pop songs instead of 30-second jingles. The music in this Muscle Milk commercial (wait, that can't be an actual product name) — that's all Foster.

Related:

The Rolling Stones' cereal jingle, and more rock ads from the Mad Men era
Gone Commercial: 11 Canadian Indie Tracks in Ads
Snoop Dog loves Hot Pockets, but do you love musicians in ads?

posted by Dave Shumka on Feb 01, 2013

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Bolshoi ballerina says feud behind relocation to Canada

For Bolshoi ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, Canada represents a new beginning after she and her family began receiving threats in her native Russia, which she says stem from a feud between her husband and his former business partner.

The 33-year-old prima ballerina spoke to reporters in Toronto Friday to shed light on her relocation to Canada following threats she received at home in Moscow.

News of her move emerged after an acid attack against Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin earlier this month. The renowned Bolshoi has been mired in controversy about favouritism and power struggles in recent years, changing leadership multiple times over the past decade.

Speaking through interpreter Olga Berg on Friday, Lunkina said her decision had nothing to do with the attack against Filin.

Bolshoi ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, right, is seen performing with Dmitri Gudanov in London in 2006. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

Instead, she said she feels she can't go back to Russia because of the feud between her husband, producer Vladislav Moskalev, and his former business partner, performer Vladimir Vinokur, over a failed movie project. Vinokur has denounced Moskalev to Russian media.

Though the spat does not involve her, Lunkina said she began to fear for her life after she and her family received threatening calls and letters from Vinokur. Her Facebook and email accounts were also hacked, she added, and defamatory letters about her sent to top ballet companies around the world.

Known for her interpretation of ballet classics like Giselle, the renowned dancer said there had been no conflict between her and Bolshoi artistic director Filin, with whom she said she has a good relationship. In fact, he had urged her to stay when she asked for special leave because of the threats, Lunkina noted.

Officially, she will remain on leave from the Bolshoi "for family reasons" until the end of summer, at which point she will decide her plans for the future.

At 'home' in Canada

On Friday, Lunkina said she isn't ruling out applying for a post at the National Ballet of Canada, where artistic director Karen Kain has allowed her to take classes with the company, a courtesy typically offered to visiting dancers. She added that she is also entertaining offers from other companies, though declined to say which ones.

This is where home is, Lunkina told reporters.

The dancer said she's a permanent resident in Canada, where she and her family have spent much time over the past decade and both her 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter were born here.

Most recently, she has been in Canada for about six months and has joined Toronto's Dance Teq studio for a teaching stint. Lunkina and her husband have also registered a dance company under her name in Kleinberg, Ont., where the family lives.

With files from Zulekha Nathoo, Sian Jones and Deana Sumanac

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Canadians get cheques in Ticketmaster class action

Canadians who bought tickets for concerts or other events on Ticketmaster's TicketsNow resale site are getting cheques in the mail as a result of a class action lawsuit.

A court order in 2012 demanded Ticketmaster pay an $850,000 settlement.

In 2009, lawyers in four provinces – Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba – filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of consumers who had bought tickets on the TicketsNow site.

The suit claimed Ticketmaster diverted tickets to popular events away from its lower-priced portal to its ticket brokering website TicketsNow, which demanded a premium price for the same tickets.

The settlement, completed late last year, provides $36, less some deductions for legal costs, for each ticket bought on the site over a period of two to five years, depending where consumers bought their tickets.

Canadians who are receiving refunds bought tickets:

• Between Feb. 19, 2006 and Sept. 25, 2012, for events in Quebec.
• Between Feb. 9, 2007 and Sept. 25, 2012, for events in Ontario.
• Between Feb. 17, 2007 and Oct. 31, 2009, for events in Alberta.
• Between Feb. 17, 2007 and Sept. 25, 2012, for events in Manitoba.

Cheques were mailed between Dec. 28, 2012 and Jan. 25 of this year. But anyone who has moved since buying a TicketsNow ticket has to get their new address to the settlement agency.

In addition, Ontario and Manitoba have enacted anti-scalping legislation that makes it illegal to divert regularly priced tickets to a site that demands a premium price.

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6 bone-crushing football movies

Actors Al Pacino, left, and Jamie Foxx appear in a scene from Any Given Sunday. (Getty Images)

Gridiron athletes grappling with personal challenges, embattled coaches bellowing victory-inspiring speeches or blistering rebukes and behind-the-scenes depictions of backroom politics and hedonistic partying -- football films have definitely carved out a distinctive niche in the history of cinema.

As National Football League fans gear up for this weekend's Super Bowl, CBC News offers a quick look at 6 noteworthy films of the bone-crushing genre. (Note language in some clips).

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The Longest Yard (1974)

A retro favourite among football aficionados, The Longest Yard is pure, politically incorrect fun (or ridiculousness, depending on who you ask), starring good 'ole boy Burt Reynolds in his heyday. Playing an incarcerated former pro quarterback, Reynolds leads the Mean Machine, a motley crew of prison inmates, in a match against the guards. The mustachioed one returned for a cameo role in the 2005 remake.

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Friday Night Lights (2004)

For many in the southern U.S., attending the local high school football games on Friday evenings are as mandatory as going to church on Sunday morning. The acclaimed film Friday Night Lights (and the later TV series it spawned) spread the weekly tradition to a much wider audiences with its layered portrait of a Texan high school football team's players, coaches and fans during a run for the state championship.

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Any Given Sunday (1999)

Oliver Stone's star-packed (Al Pacino! Cameron Diaz! Jamie Foxx! Charlton Heston! LL Cool J!) ensemble drama, Any Given Sunday depicts the clashing egos both on and off the field of a once-great, now struggling professional football team. Worth it for the incredible speechifying of Pacino's head coach character alone.

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Undefeated (2011)

Like Friday Night Lights, the Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated follows a high school football team over the course of a key season. But where FNL's Panthers are much-loved, much-watched favourites, the Manassas Tigers of Undefeated are a largely unsupported, long-losing team that undergoes a shocking turnaround. Even non-football fans will be won over by the filmmakers' sensitive treatment of race, poverty, family discord and other tough issues facing the players and head coach, as well as the intimate access to their lives.

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Rudy (1993)

Especially loved by fans of the Fighting Irish, the admittedly sappy but still inspirational Rudy dramatizes the true story of Daniel (Rudy) Ruettiger, a dyslexic aspiring footballer who achieves his unlikely dream of playing for the University of Notre Dame.

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North Dallas Forty (1979)

Finally, we have a cult sports film many consider the granddaddy of gridiron flicks and which continues to inspire sports films made today. Based on former Dallas Cowboys player Peter Gent's semi-autobiographical novel, North Dallas Forty (incidentally directed by Canadian Ted Kotcheff) is a drama, satire and comedy all rolled into one. Starring Nick Nolte as a cynical professional football player at the end of his career, the film depicts the sex, drugs and all-around misbehaviour by players, coaches and team management between games.

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Still hungry for more? Check these out for further viewing: Brian's Song, We Are Marshall, Remember the Titans, All The Right Moves, The Last Boy Scout, The Blind Side. Share your favourites in the comments below.

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Beyoncé answers lip-sync critics at Super Bowl presser

Beyoncé faced the media on Thursday, her first time speaking publicly since she was accused of lip-syncing at the U.S. presidental inauguration, and delivered an unmistakably live rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Entering a news conference to discuss her halftime performance at Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans, the singer began by asking the packed room of reporters to rise and immediately launched into the U.S. national anthem. She then quipped afterward: "Any questions?"

More seriously, she clarified to reporters that her inauguration day performance was indeed sung to a pre-recorded track of her own voice and that it had been an intentional decision.

Beyoncé opened Thursday's news conference with a live rendition of the U.S. national anthem before asking, with a laugh, "Any questions?" (Morry Gash/Associated Press)

"I am a perfectionist and one thing about me: I practice until my feet bleed. I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra," she said.

"Due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. It was about the president and the inauguration, and I wanted to make him and my country proud, so I decided to sing along with my pre-recorded track."

Pressed on the issue of lip-syncing, the Grammy-winner emphasized that for her Jan. 21 performance in Washington, she was indeed singing into the microphone that day.

"I decided to sing along with my pre-recorded track, which is common in the industry. I am very proud of my performance."

Looking ahead to Sunday's halftime show, "I will absolutely be singing live," Beyoncé said emphatically.

"This is what I was born to do, what I was born for," she said, adding "I've had a 16-year career. All the things I've done have prepared me for this."

The singer was coy with details about her Super Bowl set-list and any potential surprise guests (for instance her rapper husband Jay-Z or former Destiny's Child bandmates) on Sunday, which comes just ahead of the release of her upcoming HBO documentary, Life Is but a Dream.

Beyoncé has teased photos and video of herself preparing for the Super Bowl, which will perhaps be the biggest audience of her career. Last year, Madonna's halftime performance was the most-watched ever, with an average of 114 million viewers. It garnered more viewers than the game itself, which was the most-watched U.S. TV event in history.

Organizers also said that during the Super Bowl pre-show, Jennifer Hudson will perform America the Beautiful with the Sandy Hook Elementary Choir, while Alicia Keys will sing The Star-Spangled Banner.

With files from The Associated Press

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Atlantic Lottery, Loto-Quebec taking Oscar bets

Two Canadian lottery corporations are testing out betting on the Oscars, to gauge interest in wagering on cultural events. (Chris Carlson/Associated Press)

Filmmakers aren't the only ones hoping to take home some Oscar loot when the fabled golden statues are handed out on Feb. 24.

Two Canadian lottery corporations are taking bets on the Oscars to see how much interest there is in wagering on cultural events — a potential new source of cash as revenues level off.

Jean-Pierre Roy, a spokesman for Loto-Quebec, says non-sports bettors could be a profitable untapped market.

"We expect some sports lottery players who also love movies to play but we think there's going to be lots of people who love arts," he said, noting seven per cent of Quebecers bet on sports.

"We wonder if there's a bigger market for betting on cultural events."

Both Loto-Quebec and the Atlantic Lottery Corp. will be taking bets on the Oscars until Feb. 24. Roy said they're the only two such regulated organizations in Canada taking bets on Hollywood's big night.

A Statistics Canada report on gambling published in September 2011 says net revenue from government-run lotteries, video terminals and non-casino slot machines rose steadily from $2.73 billion in 1992 before levelling off at about $13.7 billion in 2007.

That figure held steady through to 2010, the agency says.

'We're always looking for new products — or a fresh take on an existing one'—James Reilly, Atlantic Lottery

Loto-Quebec reported lottery sales of about $1.7 billion in fiscal 2011-2012, which the government agency said was almost identical to the year before.

The Atlantic Lottery Corp. was the first regulated organization out of the gate in Canada with the Oscar idea.

"We're always looking for new products — or a fresh take on an existing one," James Reilly, Atlantic Lottery's senior brand manager of sports, said in a statement.

"It was an obvious choice to offer since millions of people tune into the annual awards show. People are always casting their votes around the water cooler at work and now they have the option to make their predictions pay off.

"It gives them a safe and regulated way to have some fun."

Roy acknowledged the Oscar betting is a departure for Loto-Quebec, which has offered sports betting since the early 1990s.

Both lottery corporations are offering choices in the top six categories — best film, best director, best actor and actress and best supporting actor and actress. Loto-Quebec is also accepting bets on best foreign film, which is being contested by Montreal director Kim Nguyen and his movie War Witch (also known by its French-language name Rebelle).

Bettors can also take a chance on a Quebec entry in the best-short-film category but that's in the form of a yes or no question on whether Yan England's Henry will win.

Minimum bets in each category in both lotteries are $2.

Roy said the lottery corporation didn't do any market research before taking the plunge. It's not costing anything since it's being added to the Mise-o-jeu games — in Atlantic Canada it will be part of Pro-Line Futures — and Loto-Quebec isn't marketing it aggressively.

The two corporations also came up with their own odds.

British betting tradition

Roy laughed when he was asked if Loto-Quebec considered going to the lengths of some of the British online betting sites.

"We're not there," he said. "We'll start with the main categories and go from there."

Paddypower.com, an Irish company that is one of the United Kingdom's biggest betting websites, was taking bets on whether James Bond actor Daniel Craig would parachute into the ceremonies or whether host Seth MacFarlane would dress up as a Bond girl. The Bond speculation comes as the super-spy character marks the 60th year since he first saw print, in the novel Casino Royale.

Roy said sometimes the corporation might offer an exotic bet during the Super Bowl, like whether the coin toss to start the game will come up heads or tails.

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Patty Andrews of singing Andrews Sisters dies

Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B and the poignant I Can Dream, Can't I? captured the home-front spirit of the Second World War, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Andrews died of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, said family spokesman Alan Eichler in a statement.

Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home.

'There were just three girls in the family. LaVerne had a very low voice. Maxene's was kind of high, and I was between. It was like God had given us voices to fit our parts'—Patty Andrews

She could also deliver sentimental ballads like I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

From the late 1930s through the 1940s, the Andrews Sisters produced one hit record after another, beginning with Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen in 1937 and continuing with Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar, Rum and Coca-Cola and more. They recorded more than 400 songs and sold over 80 million records, several of them gold (over a million copies).

Other sisters, notably the Boswells, had become famous as singing acts, but mostly they huddled before a microphone in close harmony. The Andrews Sisters — LaVerne, Maxene and Patty — added a new dimension. During breaks in their singing, they cavorted about the stage in rhythm to the music.

Their voices combined with perfect synergy. As Patty remarked in 1971: "There were just three girls in the family. LaVerne had a very low voice. Maxene's was kind of high, and I was between. It was like God had given us voices to fit our parts."

Rise of swing music

The Andrews's rise coincided with the advent of swing music, and their style fit perfectly into the new craze. They aimed at reproducing the sound of three harmonizing trumpets.

The Andrews Sisters, from left, Maxene, Patty and Laverne, were known for wartime hits like Boogie Woogie Bugel Boy of Company B. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

"I was listening to Benny Goodman and to all the bands," Patty once remarked. "I was into the feel, so that would go into my own musical ability. I was into swing. I loved the brass section."

Unlike other singing acts, the sisters recorded with popular bands of the '40s, fitting neatly into the styles of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, Guy Lombardo, Desi Arnaz and Russ Morgan.

They sang dozens of songs on records with Bing Crosby, including the million-seller Don't Fence Me In. They also recorded with Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Danny Kaye, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante and Red Foley.

Road to Rio with Bing Crosby

The Andrews' popularity led to a contract with Universal Pictures, where they made a dozen low-budget musical comedies between 1940 and 1944. In 1947, they appeared in The Road to Rio with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

The trio continued until LaVerne's death in 1967. By that time the close harmony had turned to discord, and the sisters had been openly feuding.

Bette Midler's 1973 cover of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy revived interest in the trio. The two survivors joined in 1974 for a Broadway show, Over Here! It ran for more than a year, but disputes with the producers led to the cancellation of the national tour of the show, and the sisters did not perform together again.

Patty, left, and Maxine Andrews are shown in 1987 after accepting a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Reed Saxon/Associated Press)

Patty continued as a single, finding success in Las Vegas and on TV variety shows. Her sister also toured as a single until her death in 1995.

Her father, Peter Andrews, was a Greek immigrant who anglicized his name of Andreus when he arrived in America; his wife, Olga, was a Norwegian with a love of music. LaVerne was born in 1911, Maxine (later Maxene) in 1916, Patricia (later Patty, sometimes Patti) in 1918, though some sources say 1920.

Sang in harmony

Listening to the Boswell Sisters on radio, LaVerne played the piano and taught her sisters to sing in harmony; neither Maxene nor Patty ever learned to read music. All three studied singers at the vaudeville house near their father's restaurant. As their skills developed, they moved from amateur shows to vaudeville and singing with bands.

After Peter Andrews moved the family to New York in 1937, his wife, Olga, sought singing dates for the girls. They were often turned down with comments such as: "They sing too loud and they move too much." Olga persisted, and the sisters sang on radio with a hotel band at $15 a week. The broadcasts landed them a contract with Decca Records.

They recorded a few songs, and then came Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, an old Yiddish song for which Sammy Cahn and Saul Kaplan wrote English lyrics. (The title means, "To Me You Are Beautiful.") It was a smash hit, and the Andrews Sisters were launched into the bigtime.

Their only disappointment was the movies. Universal was a penny-pinching studio that ground out product to fit the lower half of a double bill. The sisters were seldom involved in the plots, being used for musical interludes in film with titles such as Private Buckaroo, Swingtime Johnny and Moonlight and Cactus.

Buck Privates with Abbott and Costello

Their only hit was Buck Privates, which made stars of Abbott and Costello and included the trio's blockbuster Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B.

In 1947, Patty married Martin Melcher, an agent who represented the sisters as well as Doris Day, then at the beginning of her film career. Patty divorced Melcher in 1949 and soon he became Day's husband, manager and producer.

Patty married Walter Weschler, pianist for the sisters, in 1952. He became their manager and demanded more pay for himself and for Patty. The two other sisters rebelled, and their differences with Patty became public. Lawsuits were filed between the two camps.

"We had been together nearly all our lives," Patty explained in 1971. "Then in one year our dream world ended. Our mother died and then our father. All three of us were upset, and we were at each other's throats all the time."

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Downton Abbey fan creates cookbook from on-screen food

A Downton Abbey fan has taken her interest in the show to a new level, creating a cookbook based on recipes mentioned in the Edwardian-set melodrama.

Pamela Foster, of Burlington, Ont., combined her love of the show and her own interest in culinary history to created the e-book Abbey Cooks Entertain.

Culinary historian Pamela Foster of Burlington, Ont., author of Abbey Cooks Entertain, a cookbook featuring food from the show Downton Abbey. (Pamela Powered Inc./Canadian Press)

"I'm a big fan of the show and, as a result of a marathon session my husband and I had, watching episode after episode without eating anything, it inspired me to find out what the food was like and learn how to cook it," Foster said in an interview with CBC News.

Foster was already blogging regularly about the show, which focuses on a British noble family, the Crawleys, living in Downton Abbey and their friends and servants.

One of the regular features of her blog is "Tea Tuesday," which focuses on the pastries and finger sandwiches eaten at afternoon tea.

"Since food follows fashion, to literally take all the food that was eaten in those days and bring it forward might not be the best experience," Foster said.

Instead she has reduced the fat content and amended the cooking methods so today's cooks can replicate the recipe.

"A lot of those rich pastries I've been able to lighten up by taking some of the butter out. I'm a big fan of unsweetened apple sauce. We can have the same taste and experience without all the badness to it," she said, adding that she likes to keep the recipes as a healthy as possible.

Abbey Cooks Entertain is an e-book of recipes. (Pamela Powered Inc.)

The Edwardian fashion was a lot of meat and fish in the upstairs dining room, as well as French sauces. Vegetables weren't popular — except for the servants downstairs. A family like that of Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, followed the king's lead in what they served.

"Edward VII loved food with a passion, loved French food in particular, so you do what the king does and everyone picked up that passion for volumes of food, especially French food," Foster said.

Fortunately many of the recipes were simple, because the French chef Escoffier had simplified them at the end of the 19th century.

Her Abbey Cooks Entertain e-book includes recipes such as the roast chicken dropped on the floor by the cook Mrs. Patmore and the asparagus salad served to servants for a special occasion in season three.

"As I followed the show, I started to take an interest in the famous Downton dishes, for example the Apple Charlotte Mrs. Patmore refused to make. We don't see it on camera but that inspired me to go researching that dish, which is a traditional British dish — it's basically bread and apples," Foster said.

But she avoided foods such as the kidney soufflé that was less likely to appeal to a modern fan.

"My husband loves the fact that there's decorum and there's manners, and there's a time and place for everything, and everyone has a certain way of behaving that we often don't see," Foster said.

With files from Metro Morning, Canadian Press

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