REEL LIFE / FILM AND VIDEO FILE : Warner Bros. Studio Store to Make Its Debut : The shop, one of 60 launched since 1991, will be open for business Friday at The Oaks shopping center.
Looney Tune locals who want a Sylvester and Tweety letterman’s jacket or a Road Runner golf shirt no longer have to cross the county line.
On Friday, Warner Bros. will open a studio store at The Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks, one of 60 such stores launched since the first opened in Beverly Center in 1991.
The store at The Oaks will have some stuffed animals and about a couple dozen Looney Tunes titles on videocassette for the kids, but like the sly and ironic cartoons themselves, much of the store’s merchandise has been created for adults.
Animation graces everything from coffee mugs to golf bags to sequined jackets that sell for several hundred dollars.
For around $10,000, you can even get original animation cels from such greats as Tex Avery, Friz Freleng and Wile E. Coyote creator Chuck Jones.
Warner execs say that the overall response has been tremendous and that they expect to open 50 more stores this year as they heat up the challenge to steal a piece of the entertainment merchandising pie from Disney.
The enterprise is not without pitfalls. How long can it be before Warner is named in product liability suits for its ACME line of rocket-powered roller skates, hang gliders, etc?
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Construction starts Wednesday on the Edwards Camarillo Movie Palace, a huge 12-plex cinema slated to open on Thanksgiving.
The theater is touted as having “state-of-the-art everything” from Dolby Stereo Surround Sound to cup-holder armrests. One innovation leaves us puzzled, though. A press release promises that the popcorn stand will feature “Real Butter” topping.
We’re not sure how this differs from real butter (without capitals or quotation marks), and the Edwards spokesman was unavailable to explain whether the distinction is chemical or simply typographical.
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The Ventura College Theater wraps up its Travel Film Series today with a presentation of Hal McClure’s “Istanbul.”
McClure was a reporter for the Associated Press and spent almost five years in Istanbul as the correspondent there.
McClure shows Turkey’s strong links to its biblical past. The film visits Tarsus, hometown of St. Paul, early Christianity’s leading publicist, and Ephesus, where the Virgin Mary is believed to be buried.
Also on the tour is Myra, hometown of St. Nicholas, who was elected bishop there in the 4th Century before he was tapped as the folk legend Santa Claus.
Ventura College is at 4667 Telegraph Road. Show time is 7:30 p.m. Admission is $7.50 in advance, $9 at the door. For information, call 654-6459.
