The Pope of Broadway
(my photograph of the mural from 1987)

This was the very first mural I ever saw and it blew me away.  Back in the 1980’s, nobody was making murals up in Canada.  Nowadays we do have murals here, as I know well, because my brother Lance Russwurm sometimes paints murals, among other things.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Anthony Quinn mural was only a couple of years old when I photographed it.   With my Pentax K1000 camera. On film.   No one had even heard of pixels back then.

If you look closely, you can see the bottom of my photograph is framed by the roofs of cars, and at the right, the head of a man who has just parked in the parking lot Anthony Quinn dances above. That gives a little perspective of just how huge this mural is.

The mural had deteriorated by 2005.   Back when I took my photograph, there was no Internet, no Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, Jamendo, Flickr or Tumblr.    So there is little chance of finding a creative commons licensed photograph of the mural in its prime online.  Which prompted me to search for my own so I could share it with you, here on Tumblr.

The Anthony Quinn mural will continue to deteriorate unless it is restored. And I have to tell you, standing underneath this amazing work of art was purely awesome.   So I hope they do restore it.