Salem becoming movie capital of North Shore

By Tom Dalton and Chris Cassidy
Staff writers

May 30, 2008 12:51 am

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SALEM — They shot another film in Salem this week — this time without Kate Hudson.

Van Ness Creative Group of Beverly filmed a commercial for a Rhode Island bank, NewportFed, inside CinemaSalem, the movie theater in Museum Place Mall. Conveniently, the head of Van Ness Creative Group, Paul Van Ness of Beverly, also owns CinemaSalem.

They had real actors inside the theater — Erik Rodenhiser of Salem and Bob Murphy of Beverly — who were dressed in tuxedoes and standing at a microphone at an imaginary Oscar-like awards ceremony.

The fun part was all the extras, who were recruited to sit in the audience and applaud just like fans at a real awards ceremony.

"I loved every minute of it," said Christina Long, 89, of Salem. "I had a ringside seat."

When it was all over, the 30 extras all got paid — $10 each.

Hudson, in case you missed it, was here last week for the filming of "Bride Wars" at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Looking at Jim McAllister

It was quite a night for Salem historian and Salem News columnist Jim McAllister at the Hawthorne Hotel on Wednesday, where he was given the first Essex Heritage Hero award.

Patricia Zaido said he was "a truly Renaissance man." Longtime friend Frank Kulik credited McAllister with igniting his passion for history. Mayor Kim Driscoll called him every (nice) name in the book, adding, "hopefully not mayoral candidate."

Rep. John Keenan made the ultimate sacrifice, passing up Celtics playoff tickets so he could make it to the awards ceremony. "And it gets worse," Keenan added. "I had to drive by the Garden" on the way to the hotel.

But it was Neil Chayet, the radio lawyer of "Looking at the Law" fame, who brought down the house with his witty tale about the historical figures that McAllister has featured in his classes, tours and columns filing suit against him, seeking "untold damages for being brought back to life without their permission." With Daniel Webster representing them, their cry was, "Live free or die ... or live free and die."

"The trial, along with the renovation of the Salem courthouse, took a very long time," Chayet said, but in the end, McAllister was acquitted, when the jury found that in fact, those historical figures "have never died ... and are alive and well and living in the public domain."

Which is all another way of saying: Thanks, Jim.

Here today ...

In case you were searching for the Registry of Deeds this week, it moved.

On Tuesday, the Registry officially vacated the old Probate Court building on Federal Street and moved over to Shetland Park.

There are signs up around the city pointing the way to the new location.

Bencal vs. trolley

Retired air traffic controller Mike Bencal — a former city councilor — is no stranger to coordinating an orderly arrival of large commercial aircraft.

But buses and trolleys seem to be a different story.

Bencal was driving a tour bus not far from the pedestrian mall when he noticed a CityView trolley parked in what he believed was a drop-off spot for buses only, according to a police report.

This touched off a parking dispute between Bencal and the trolley operator, which required the assistance of a ground traffic controller — Salem police.

Police let the trolley stay in its parking spot and allowed Bencal to park his bus behind it.

Moments later, CityView General Manager Eric Fraize told police that Bencal kept arguing with one of his drivers over the parking spot and was even making threats, according to the police report.

Bencal said yesterday the whole thing was blown out of proportion, and he denied making any threats.

"It'd be foolish to do so — over what, a parking space?" he said.

When police returned, Bencal had left, and Fraize was told to stay away from Bencal.

Have grave, will move

Not everyone wants a new senior center. Some are sentimental for the old building on Broad Street, and at least one resident suggested that crews simply extend the building.

That's impossible, city officials say, because it's surrounded by an old cemetery.

But one resident had a solution: Dig them up and move the graves.

"I don't think it would be a huge imposition on our ancestors," resident Linda Locke said.

Meticulous Matt

In terms of thoroughness, the senior center search committee's presentation Wednesday rivaled the Mitchell Report.

George Mitchell's findings on baseball's steroids controversy stretched to 409 pages.

Matt Veno's PowerPoint presentation on possible sites for a new senior center included 54 slides, 121 bulleted facts, three overhead satellite images and several maps with 25 place markers plotting every potential site.

It took between seven and eight hours to put together, and Veno spoke for a combined hour and 45 minutes during two public hearings.

Mr. Kerry comes to town

Sen. John Kerry trekked up to the Witch City yesterday, meeting with Mayor Kim Driscoll around 11:30 a.m.

The two talked about the proposed $24 million Salem Wharf project, enhancements to Winter Island and plans for garages at the MBTA parking lot and Church Street lot.

Kerry and Driscoll met at City Hall. Last year, they were joined by Congressman John Tierney and state Rep. John Keenan for breakfast at Red's.

Discover America

If you're up early tomorrow, go over to Pickering Wharf for the send-off of Aaron Tester and Raymond Boutin, two young men who plan to ride their bikes 5,000 miles in a fundraising effort to help rebuild New Orleans, where thousands were left homeless after Hurricane Katrina.

The journey starts at 9:30 a.m. For more information, go to www.discoveramericaproject.org.

Now for more travel news.

On Sunday, several classic Cadillacs will stop at Salem Common at 9 a.m. at the start of a tour of the North Shore led by Salem Witch Museum owner Biff Michaud, owner of a 1956 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special.

A sign raising

There was a nice little ceremony yesterday at the Greenhouse School.

They unveiled the restored, hand-carved school sign, which had blown down in a storm a few years ago. It was fixed by a former school parent, Erroll Fraser.

The sign has special meaning because it was erected in 1997 in memory of Frank Welch — or Mr. Frank, as he was known to the schoolchildren. He was the husband of the school's founder, Patricia Jennings-Welch, and father of Danny Welch, the current director.

As the restored sign was unveiled, the children at the K-8 independent school sang "You Raise Me Up," the inspirational song popularized by Josh Groban. They were accompanied by Danny Welch on the saxophone.

Mrs. Jennings-Welch, who turned 80 recently, attended the ceremony. A survivor of two heart attacks and two bouts with cancer, she rode over from her home on her little red scooter — the four-wheeled variety.

"She'll keep coming," Danny Welch told the children, "as long as she can get here on her scooter."

Managing Editor Helen Gifford contributed to this notebook.

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