Cinerama Holiday

Lowell Thomas's movie "Cinerama Holiday" and aftermath was an exciting and eye opening event in my life at the time, around 1955, and turned out to be quite a blast. Cinerama Holiday was actually a travelogue filmed in 3D where you didn't need the funny glasses. The movie was showing at the Tech theater in Buffalo, which was the place to go at the time for Torontonians, Buffalo, not the Tech theater, wanting to kick up their heels.
John B. my brother Max and I being movie buffs, decided to drive to Buffalo and see this movie, and when we got there found out that the movie never started for 3 or 4 hours, so decided to walk around and see what we could see. We came upon a store dealing in magic tricks, and a wide variety of other novel items. I bought 3 or 4 Bombs that you would attach to the spark plug of some poor victims car which would emit a loud scream and bang, with a big puff of smoke. After walking around for a little we decided we had enough time to see another film that was showing close by. It was an uninspiring WW11 movie, and I use the term uninspiring loosely, the reason for which will be ultimately clear.
The film I believe Starred Mickey Rooney as an inveterate gambler, there always is one, and a young Hugh O'Brian. I can not remember the name of the movie.
We none the less enjoyed the movie and were taking our time exiting the theater, and much to our surprise there was a Tank in the Lobby with a Recruiting Station, with young men lining up to join, and we, perhaps being a bit paranoid, thought we were getting dirty looks from the Sargent when we walked right on by. Was this not exploitation in the extreme.
It was around this time it should be said, that the USA were starting to get into Vietnam in a big way, and one has to wonder how many of these young men never made it home.
Anyway, we went and saw Cinerama Holiday and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the part where the fighter jet is catapulted off the Aircraft Carrier.
On the way home I said that I would have to put the first bomb on my own car so I would see what it would do before I could put it on anyone Else's. I had a Chev Sedan Delivery at the time with only a front seat, and would drive Bobby M who lived the next block over to work when we worked together as well as the Brute [John B]. I told John to make Bobby M. sit in the middle and when I got to the Loblaw's parking lot which we had to go through I would stall the car and hook up the bomb. Bobby knew nothing of cars so he would not understand, and when I started the car and the bomb went off we would both jump out of the car on to the ground, in fact bail out. Well that's exactly what we did, the thing started to scream, then blew up, and emitted a big puff of smoke with us laying on the ground, and when we looked at Bobby M. he was sitting in the middle of the seat with his lunch pail on his knees, shaking like a leaf, and when we began to laugh he figured out what happened and then started to curse a blue streak.
After we stopped laughing and Bobby M stopped cursing we continued on to work and told everyone about it who also had a laugh. Ken D. asks if we have another one of the bombs which we do and give it to him. He then goes outside and attaches one to the car of Bob G. General Yardmaster who is now at the Wharf scales weighing cars. Bob G. returns, turns in the scale tickets, and goes out to his car to go home,which happens to be a brand new 1955 Pontiac, the first brand new car anyone had around this place, ever as far as I new. Everyone in the office is aware of what is going to happen so they are all looking out the windows. Bob G. starts up his car to a screeming whistle, a loud band, and a great puff of smoke, and is shaking inside his car. He finally looks up and sees everone looking out the windows and wondered what happend. He starts to gingerly open the hood of the car to see what hasppened, and when he sees the bomb attached to the spark plug, he figures it out, and is so mad he slams down the hood so hard that he springs it and it won't close properly now. He comes in the office red faced cursing and swearing saying if I fgind out the son of a bitch who did that I will fire him, while everyone turns and stifles a giggle.It is funny how that little trip to Buffalo picked up so many lives if only for the hour.