Guess Who will get a stamp? City rock icons

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This article was published 09/11/2012 (4764 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GUESS WHO STAMP COMING: “The powers that be have determined there’s going to be a postal stamp for the Guess Who and it’s very gratifying,” says guitar player Jim Kale, who plays in the current Guess Who band that he reckons “has had 907,000 players over the years.” Kale, 69, and Garry Peterson, 67, are the two original members of the internationally famous Guess Who band that used to have Burton Cummings as frontman. Leonard Shaw, Derek Sharp and Laurie MacKenzie are also in the Guess Who presently. Kale says Cummings “signed off on ownership of the band in 1977.”

“The stamp is expected to be coming out in a few months, but the exact design has yet to be determined. Kale explains their logo is a Canadian flag. (That may have caught the attention of the postal powers.) Kale says he “doesn’t believe there will be facial images” on the stamp and thinks it may just be a written design of the Guess Who. After all, there are five guys in the band at present. Is Kale excited? Well, in a Canadian sort of way. “I didn’t know what to make about the Diamond Jubilee Medal either. I’m just a blue-collar guy from St. Vital.”

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FUNDRAISERS’ DREAM: Trying to sell tickets for your cause? A waiting list is what you dream about. And, Wednesday night, lucky Winnipeggers on a waiting list got shoehorned into the 280 seats at Imax for the AKA Doc Pomus film showing as a fundraiser for G.R.O.W. (Gaining Resources Our Way) Wednesday night. The film, directed by Winnipeg-born Will Hechter, is about physically handicapped songwriter Jerome (Doc) Pomus, born in 1930, who churned out hit after heart-melting hit such as Save the Last Dance For Me, This Magic Moment and Surrender. “The director Will Hechter, who was born in Winnipeg, gave it to us to show as a gift to raise money. He came in with his wife from Toronto,” says event co-chairwoman Lori Gilfix. Money raised goes to G.R.O.W., a non-denominational program for adults with special needs. Sandy Sheegl is manager. of the program run out of the Rady Centre JCC, which teaches adults how to work and live on their own.

What a warm-up party! Jim Ingebrigtsen MCed while endless Doc Pomus hits floated through the air. Attendees noshed on Myers Deli sandwiches, coleslaw and pickles in cardboard cartons, New York-style. Plus, they got to wear casual clothes for a movie — lots of denim and comfortable shoes. “I’ve never seen so many happy people, not one complaint,” said Gilfix of the people tapping their toes and singing along with lines they remembered. SPOTTED: the Bell Media Radio gang including Chris Brooke and Mark Maheu; Gray Academy teacher Lindsey Leipsic; the city’s film commissioner Kenny Boyce, University of Manitoba occupational therapy professor Pam Wener and Winnipeg Free Press co-owner Bob Silver, who stayed to the very end.

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STRANGELY AMUSING: Just ask Bill Clinton or Stephen Harper. Well-known people, doing something completely different from their day job — such as playing a sax or tickling the ivories — tend to charm the big-ticket money out of people. That notion is the basis of the Virtuosi’s Got Talent fundraiser next Thursday night (produced by Virtuosi Concerts at the Fort Garry Hotel’s grand ballroom, where people you see in the news or in your medical or legal offices perform onstage before judges.

For instance, there’s the dapper Jim Carr. The head of the Business Council of Manitoba who was once a long-haired oboe prodigy. “I started playing in Grade 7 at Grant Park High School. I went to Leonard Takoski and said I wanted to play in the orchestra, and he said all he had was this broken-down old oboe and I said, I’ll take it! Three years later I was playing in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. “

Director Kayla Gordon has snagged philanthropist Gail Asper and performance coach Brenda Gorlick dancing the Charleston that night, plus a long roster of music and comedy numbers by well-known Winnipeggers such as dentists Dr. Joel Antel and Dr. Tricia Barnabe, endodontist Dr. Drew Brueckner, Merlyn Productions’ John Chase, lawyers Danny Gunn and Evan Roitenberg, and docs such as Dr. Brendan MacDougall, Dr. Amarjit Rihal and Dr. Dan Rosin. That’s just a taste of the multi-talented Winnipeg who’s-who on hand to entertain. Oh what a night! Tickets 204-786-9000

Got tips, events, sightings, unusual things going on? Call Maureen’s tip line at 474-1116, email to Maureen.Scurfield@Winnipegfreepress.com, or send letters to Maureen Scurfield, c/o The Insider, 1355 Mountain Ave., R2X 3B6