The Vinyl Cafe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Vinyl Cafe is an hour-long radio variety show hosted by Stuart McLean and broadcast on CBC radio and on several U.S. public radio stations. It airs Sunday at noon on Radio One and Saturday at 10 a.m. on Radio Two. The show features essays, fiction and music, and while frequently humorous, the weekly programs are also often wistfully nostalgic. The show also endeavours to introduce listeners to new Canadian musical talent.
The show is independently produced by McLean and sold to the CBC. Each season has approximately 22 new episodes. Half of those are recorded in the studio and the other half are done with live audiences in theatres across Canada.
A major feature of many of McLean's shows are the "Dave and Morley Stories," featuring a fictional Toronto family. The name "Vinyl Cafe" refers both to the show's musical content, and the fictional record shop owned by McLean's character Dave. This aspect of the show has spawned a number of books of short stories, as well as audio recordings.
Every episode ends with McLean's signature signoff, "I'm Stuart McLean, so long for now," followed by the show's folksy guitar theme song, "Happy Meeting In Glory" (as performed by Ry Cooder). The show is produced by Jess Milton. Meg Masters is the story editor and the show's founding producer is Dave Amer.
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[edit] Dave and Morley Stories
Although they are not featured in every episode of The Vinyl Cafe, the "Dave and Morley Stories" are by far the show's most famous segment. The stories, written by McLean himself, describe the zany misadventures of a fictional family whose last name is never given (although in one story, Dave's mother's name is given as Margaret McNeal). The family consists of Dave, his wife Morley, their children Stephanie and Sam, as well as several pets which figure prominently in many stories. They live in contemporary Toronto, and they keep a jukebox in the living room.
The major characters in the stories are Dave, Morley, their family, and assorted friends and neighbours:
- Dave is in his late forties to early fifties. He runs an independent record store, called "The Vinyl Cafe", whose slogan is "We may not be big, but we're small". He grew up in Big Narrows, on Cape Breton Island, where his mother Margaret still resides. Dave is frequently neurotic and prone to small accidents and mishaps that he usually inadvertently escalates into major ones, as well as being somewhat of a hypochondriac. These attributes motivate many of the stories. Dave worked as a roadie before meeting Morley.
- Morley was a stay-at-home mom until re-entering the workforce. She is currently employed at a local theater. She loves to figure-skate. She and Dave first met at an ice-rink in Providence, Rhode Island when they were in their twenties. She is often more level-headed than Dave.
- Stephanie is a jaded Toronto teenager. In more recent stories, she attends university in another city and dates a young man named Tommy Nowlan.
- Sam, who is a number of years younger than Stephanie, plays hockey and likes to knit. Several of his friends have been minor characters in several stories.
- Arthur is the family dog. He likes soft ice-cream, and considers himself dominant to Dave (much to Dave's surprise) and steals socks and potatoes. He was once a sheep in a Christmas pageant.
- Galway is the devilish family cat, who came from Dave's sister Annie, and is named for American poet Galway Kinnell. She was briefly toilet-trained (until she almost flushed herself down the toilet), but still enjoys flushing the toilet when the bathroom door is left open.
The stories often include various neighbors and friends of the principal characters:
- Jim Scoffield is Dave's closest friend and neighbour, although he has a tendency to be present at Dave's most awkward moments.
- Bert and Mary Turlington live next door to Dave and Morley. They have 3 children, Adam, who is younger than Stephanie, and "the twins" (one of whom is a girl), who are older than Sam. Bert is a talkative criminal lawyer, while Mary is a chartered accountant and one of Dave's few enemies. Mary resents that Dave loves his job, considering him sanctimonious and phony, while Dave thinks Mary is stiff and intimidating.
- Ted and Polly Anderson are an elegant upper-class couple who throw an annual Christmas house-party. Polly is the neighbourhood's "Martha Stewart" figure and "perfect home-maker". Morley often feels inadequate around Polly.
- Carl and Gerta Lowbeer are neighbours of Morley and Dave. They are somewhat older, Carl having recently retired from his job as an engineer. Carl once asked Dave to "babysit" his sourdough bread starter while he and Gerta were on holiday. Gerta has been revealed to be a keen birdwatcher.
- Morty and Irene Zuckerman live on Brock Avenue, a five-minute walk away. Not particularly close friends, Morty's surprise invitation to dinner one night is the subject of the story "Late Date".
- Eugene and Maria Conte are an elderly couple who live next-door. Eugene loves to garden. His famous fig tree is the focus of a story. Maria loves to dote on the children. They have a son, Anthony Thomas, who lives in London. They have always called Anthony Thomas "Tony" but he has been going by his middle name ever since moving to England. Eugene is originally from a village in Calabria called Rendi in Fiori. Sam and Eugene are friends, and Sam helps with the emails that Tony sends them. Eugene makes home-made wine, and has offered it to Sam on several occasions.
- Kenny Wong runs Wong's Scottish Meat Pies, a shop located near the Vinyl Cafe. It is largely referred to as a Chinese restaurant, but has once supplied meat pies to Sam's birthday party. Kenny is from the town of Burnt Creek. While he was living there, he and his family were excluded by most of the town's citizens because they were the only Chinese family living there.
- Emil is a homeless man who likes to hang around the Vinyl Cafe.
[edit] Collections of Stories in Book Form
Canadian Editions
- Stories from the Vinyl Cafe ( Penguin Books Canada, 1995, updated and revised edition, 2005)
- Home from the Vinyl Cafe (Penguin Books, 1998)
- Vinyl Cafe Unplugged (Penguin Books, 2001)
- Vinyl Cafe Diaries (Penguin Books, 2003)
- Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe (Penguin Books, 2006)
U.S. Editions
Home from the Vinyl Cafe (Simon & Schuster, 2005) *
UK Editions
Home from the Vinyl Cafe (Granta, 2005) * Vinyl Cafe Unplugged (Granta, 2006)
- The U.S. and UK editions of Home from the Vinyl Cafe are a compilation of stories from the Canadian editions, Stories from the Vinyl Cafe and Home from the Vinyl Cafe.
[edit] Collections of Stories in Audio Form
- Stories from the Vinyl Cafe
- The Vinyl Cafe - Odd Jobs
- The Vinyl Cafe on Tour
- The Vinyl Cafe Coast to Coast Story Service
- A Story-Gram from the Vinyl Cafe Inc.
- Vinyl Cafe: A Christmas Collection
The covers of the Canadian editions of Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe, The Vinyl Cafe Coast to Coast Story Service and A Story-gram from the Vinyl Cafe were designed and illustrated by noted writer, artist and cartoonist Seth.
