愛污传媒

Canada

    • How gloves belonging to Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe wound up in Newfoundland

    Tammy Fudge, seen here on Sept. 5, 2024, holds up a glove that belonged to Marilyn Monroe at The Canadian Glove Museum in Point Leamington, N.L. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Elling Lien Tammy Fudge, seen here on Sept. 5, 2024, holds up a glove that belonged to Marilyn Monroe at The Canadian Glove Museum in Point Leamington, N.L. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Elling Lien
    Share

    A five-hour drive from St. John's, N.L., and well off the beaten path, Point Leamington seems an unlikely spot for a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction.

    But this is where the owner of an Ontario-based glove manufacturer has opened what is billed as the country's first museum devoted entirely to gloves, hoping to draw visitors to the seaside Newfoundland community of about 575 people.

    There are dainty gloves worn by Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn alongside a pair of worn-looking leather mitts that belonged to Elvis Presley. The mere sight of the hand coverings, a museum guide said, has been enough to prompt goosebumps and, in the case of the Elvis mitts, even requests to take a whiff.

    "It's just such a beautiful place," Superior Glove president Tony Geng said of Point Leamington in a recent interview.

    He said the town feels like a "second home."

    "Anything that we can do to keep it more alive and attract other people to it, I think is a cool thing."

    Inside the sunny, single-room museum, gloves sit upright in clear plastic cases, looking like they're ready for a high-five. There's a bright blue fishing glove with the tip of its pinky finger missing that belonged to David Suzuki, and a thick white glove with segmented fingers that was worn by astronaut Chris Hadfield as he somersaulted through space.

    Presley's mitts were part of his uniform in the late 1950s when he was in the U.S. army. Later, in Graceland, a "freak snowstorm" hit Memphis and he gave them to his private nurse's daughter after he saw her playing in the snow in rubber dishwashing gloves, Geng said.

    Marilyn Monroe's tiny white gloves have a single pearl fastener on the wrist. Audrey Hepburn's black leather Ralph Lauren gloves are longer, with three buttons gleaming in succession down the extended cuff.

    They came from the collection of Sydney Guilaroff, the famed Hollywood hairstylist who created Vivien Leigh's looks in "Gone With the Wind," Tammy Fudge explained as she provided a tour last month.

    The elegant gloves have been particularly popular with female visitors and plant workers, said Fudge, the research and development coordinator at the plant.

    鈥淭here was one lady who had goosebumps,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut then again, you'll have a few who will have goosebumps with Elvis Presley's gloves as well.鈥 Nobody has been permitted to smell Presley's gloves, despite several requests.

    Most of the items were bought through auctions or were given to Geng by his wife, who knows very well that he's been fascinated by gloves his entire life. His late father, Frank Geng, bought the company in 1961, and Tony Geng began working there when he was just a boy.

    Headquartered in Acton, Ont., Superior Glove specializes in industrial gloves and sleeves, built to protect workers from blades, fire and cold. They make a glove for SpaceX. At one point, the company furnished the Canadian Army with trigger mitts like the one worn by Presley, Geng said.

    The glove museum is part of the sprawling Point Leamington factory, where machines spin, sew, stamp and sort as employees watch and calibrate. The plant produces more than 3,000 types of gloves and the yarn to make them 鈥 enough yarn in one day to go around the world one and a half times, Fudge said.

    Some machines spin threads of tungsten steel so thin they're nearly impossible to see. The threads will be combined into yarn and knitted into cut-resistant gloves.

    Point Leamington has a library, a post office, a few stores and not much else. Superior Glove began operations in the town hall in 1988, and it now employs nearly a quarter of the community's population.

    "We have husbands and wives, we have a mom and two sons, we have a husband and wife and son," Fudge said of some of the plant's employees.

    Rural Newfoundland has a long history of young people moving away to mainland Canada for work. The Point Leamington plant is managed by one such person, Frazer Stuckless, who had worked at Superior Glove in Ontario. He planned to move home and start a taxi business, but Frank Geng asked Stuckless to help get a plant up and running in Point Leamington instead, Fudge said.

    Since then, many more from the area have been able to return home and find a job at the factory, including Fudge.

    The museum has attracted roughly 1,000 visitors since its grand opening in the spring of 2023, and Fudge led many of them on tours through the displays and the massive plant.

    "Most people are surprised it's even here," she said. "Why wouldn't we have a glove museum? We make gloves, and we make things that make gloves."

    This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2024.

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    Police have confirmed the body of an employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax over the weekend was found in a walk-in oven.

    A father and his two children who suffered severe burns in a Springfield, Ont. house fire have undergone surgery.

    • British Columbia's highest court has weighed in on a dispute over an inflatable hot tub a couple set up on their condo's patio 鈥 potentially bringing a close to the years-long conflict.

    • A Vancouver couple who live across the street from McBride Park on the city's west side say they repeatedly told the city a tree on the southern edge of the park posed a danger 鈥 but nothing was done.

    • The search for a man who went missing amid last weekend鈥檚 atmospheric river in Coquitlam, B.C., has entered its third day.

    • TTC staff are recommending that the transit service ban lithium-ion-powered mobility devices like e-scooters and e-bikes through the winter months due to the risk of fire in adverse conditions such as salty roads.

    • Police have released video footage of a recent home invasion in Richmond Hill as they search for three outstanding suspects who they say may have returned to the residence the following day to take another vehicle.

    • A driver has been seriously injured in a multi-vehicle crash on the QEW that led to the closure of all but one eastbound lane of traffic during rush hour on Tuesday.

    • Police have identified the victim of a deadly shooting late last week in northeast Calgary.

    • Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she's waiting for NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi to declare where he intends to run for office before she calls a byelection in Lethbridge.

    • A new study suggests the Government of Alberta purposely pushed false narratives around public safety to scale down safe supply in the province.

    • Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.

    • Former volunteers with Eastern Ontario Cats (EOC) are working to track cats they say are either dead or missing after allegations of abuse, neglect and falsified medical records surfaced in recent months.

    • Quebec Premier Francois Legault promised on Tuesday to toughen secularism measures in schools, saying he was 'shocked' by revelations about a Montreal public school where a group of teachers had tried to introduce what the premier described as 'Islamist' beliefs.

    • The Quebec government wants to hear Quebecers' thoughts about scrapping the twice-yearly time change, but it isn't promising to act on them.

    • A Montreal borough and Muslim leader are pushing back against the head of the Parti Qu茅b茅cois after he accused a local library of promoting a "religious invasion" by posting a photo of a young girl wearing a hijab for a storytime event.

    • Police are looking for a man and a woman who robbed an Edmonton jewelry store earlier this month.

    • Edmonton Public Schools (EPS) custodians have voted 97 per cent in favour of going on strike.

    • Homeowners may have to choose tricks over treats this year, as the price of candy leaves some Edmonton residents feeling the pinch.

    • Police have confirmed the body of an employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax over the weekend was found in a walk-in oven.

    • A member of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party is crossing the floor and joining the Progressive Conservatives.

    • Crews responded to a propane leak in Upper Tantallon, N.S., on Tuesday night.

    • Folks making the trek to and from Thompson along Highway 6 are once again without a bathroom break鈥 at least for now.

    • The Manitoba government is restoring the 1:1 apprentice-to-journeyperson ratio.

    • A number of Manitoba communities kicked off the week by breaking decades-old heat records.

    • Saskatchewan's Conflict of Interest Commissioner (COIC) has found that former Saskatchewan Party MLA Gary Grewal violated legislative rules by profiting from hotels while they were party to government contracts.

    • Saturday's matchup between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Stampeders could determine if they clinch the West Division title, however the results from Winnipeg's game earlier in the day could make their matchup meaningless.

    • Two holes found in the window of a Saskatchewan Party campaign office were not caused by a gun, Regina police have reported.

    • No one was hurt after playground equipment went up in flames at a Kitchener, Ont. park.

    • At least seven large-scale butter thefts have been reported in Guelph, Ont. over a 10-month period, including two hauls in just the last month.

    • Videos of a meteor shower seen across southwestern Ontario have been popping up across social media since Monday night.

    • A Saskatoon family is voicing concerns after paying twice as much PST as expected on a recently purchased truck.

    • Hundreds of voter information cards have landed in the wrong hands.

    • A city planning document for the Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) sparked controversy over the weekend, with three civic election candidates alleging Confederation Mall was at risk of being demolished and replaced with dense housing.

    • Now that the jury has begun deliberating in the Sudbury murder trial of Felicity Altiman, here are some of the interesting courtroom moments they didn't get to hear.

    • Greater Sudbury has ended the employment of CAO Ed Archer, Mayor Paul Lefebvre announced suddenly Tuesday evening

    • After operating for 51 years, General Motors has announced it is closing the Kapuskasing Proving Ground, a facility the automaker used to test the durability of its vehicles in cold weather.

    • A father and his two children who suffered severe burns in a Springfield, Ont. house fire have undergone surgery.

    • A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.

    • On the stand of a London courthouse on Tuesday, Rachel Johnson described how a fun bush bash birthday party on July 30, 2021 turned deadly.

    • Emergency crews rushed to the scene of a serious collision in Barrie鈥檚 south end involving a passenger vehicle and a motorcycle.

    • A 35-year-old man from Etobicoke is facing impaired driving charges after a crash involving a Ministry of Transportation vehicle parked along Highway 11 south.

    • A fire that caused $2.5 million damage at a newly constructed house in Adjala-Tosorontio early Tuesday morning is being investigated as suspicious.

    • If you live in Windsor, Ont. and get a knock at the door from a political canvasser, it might be surprising since there鈥檚 no election on the horizon at the municipal, provincial or federal level. But across the border, that's not the case.

    • 鈥榁ampire Zombies鈥rom Space!鈥 and 鈥楾hundersnake鈥, two films that are showing at the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF), were both shot across the city and in the County of Essex.

    • Before the Town of Essex adopts it's new Master Plan for Land Use, staff will work to identify best proper use for future developments across the municipality.

    • Mounties in British Columbia say a second person has been found dead after two vehicles ended up in a river on Vancouver Island when a road washed out amid torrential rains over the weekend.

    • With the B.C. election too close to call, Dr. Bonnie Henry was asked Tuesday how she feels about the possibility of a party that has repeatedly called for her firing forming government.

    • Premier and NDP Leader David Eby says he's been told by the B.C. Green Party that it's too early to begin talks about a minority government agreement after the weekend's still-undecided provincial election.

    • Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.

    • A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.

    • Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.

    • Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she's waiting for NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi to declare where he intends to run for office before she calls a byelection in Lethbridge.

    • The health of honeybees will be the focus of a presentation at the University of Lethbridge on Wednesday evening.

    • Alberta is offering infrastructure funding to help municipalities accommodate recent population growth. The province has added a little over 500,000 people over five years, putting pressure on public services.

    • The union representing the fire rangers with the Ministry of Natural Resources says money won鈥檛 fix the systemic problems in the workplace.

    • Rallies by a group called Voices Against Violence took place across the country on Monday, including Sault Ste. Marie.

    • An Indigenous group in northwestern Ontario shut down the highway for a couple of hours Monday morning in protest after ancestral remains were found at a construction site.

    N.L.

    Local Spotlight

    Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.

    A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.

    A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.

    A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.

    Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.

    Looking for a scare with good intentions this Halloween season? The ghosts and ghouls of Eganville, Ont. invite families to tour the Haunted Walk at Lekbor Manor.

    The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with 'not a lot going on' is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that 鈥 and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.

    A Moncton, N.B., home has been donated to the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation and will be transformed into a resource hub for people living with cancer.

    A Nova Scotia man crossing Canada on foot is passing through southwestern Ontario. Trevor Redmond is perhaps better known as the 鈥楩ellow in Yellow.鈥

    Politics

    Health

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    Autos

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 愛污传媒. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow 愛污传媒