'Indiana Jones', Collector, Les J. David

0:07Jawad MirI came across your profile, I think it was CTV that did a feature on you a couple of years ago.

0:12Les J. DavidYeah, they've run... A couple times. I broke my cardinal rule, which is normally I don't let the outside world in here with video or photography. And the reason is, it has nothing to do... Everyone thinks it's, you know, I'm worried about being robbed or whatever, and certainly that's a tiny element of it.

0:27Jawad MirSure.

0:28Les J. DavidBut the bigger part is, then it's not as much of a surprise…

0:32Jawad MirYeah

0:32Les J. David... When the people that do visit, 'cause there are surprises. I'm, I'm on the second floor of a building right now. There's a pre-show that gets you up here, and I'm not gonna ruin it, and that's why I wouldn't let CTV cover that part either, is that I needed that when people got here, it was worth their time to come here. I mean, obviously the collection speaks for itself.

0:51Jawad MirYeah.

0:51Les J. DavidBut I wanted people to see just how much fun I've been having playing in my little sandbox for, you know, 15 plus years. So I broke the rule during COVID, because the world was full of such unhappy news and uncertainty, and every time we turned on the news, it w… it wasn't good news. So I decided I would break the rule and let them come in here, and if even that three-minute story made someone feel a bit happier about their own situation of collecting or... And they stopped thinking about that we were in lockdown, and what's this COVID, then I, then I, that's... I was willing to help to do that. So that's how that came about.

1:31Jawad MirGot it. Fantastic. Man, no, that's good to know. I just sort of wanted to start, from the be… very beginning. How did you come to be a fan of Indiana Jones, so much so that now you have your own, museum, per se? So just start from the very beginning, how it all began.

1:50Les J. DavidIt's... I mean, I've told this story many times, and everyone gets a good giggle out of it, so let's go through it. It's fun.

1:57Jawad MirGreat.

1:57Les J. DavidSo let's go back, let's go back to 1981, a week before the premiere, of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which would've been June. And I had a friend win a movie ticket on the radio. I had no idea when he called me to say, "Did you wanna come to this premiere of Raiders of the Lost Ark?" I didn't know what a premiere was. And but more importantly, I said, "No, thank you. I've seen the commercials. It's a World War II movie, and that's not my genre. It's not my thing." I never diss somebody else's thing, but I was a sci-fi guy. Star Trek. Of course, Star Wars. He's like, "No, but it's George Lucas and, you know, Steven Spielberg. Close Encounters." I'm like, "I understand that. I know, but it's not my thing." He's like, "Well, the ticket's gonna go to waste." I went, "Well, just get a refund." And then he explained to me what this premiere ticket was. We get to see it early, you know, a couple days before it opens, et cetera. And I went, "Tell you what, if you cannot find anyone, you're right, it would be silly for it to go to waste, then sure, I will, I will come as your plus one."

2:57Les J. DavidSo all week, come down to the wire, nobody wants to take him up on it, and I agree. So we get there, and you could not have a person that was more disinterested in a film, but I sort of took the attitude of, well, it's free, so okay. Sure, why not?

3:14Jawad MirRight.

3:14Les J. DavidSo, it was at an old theater here, it's long since gone, called the North Star. And it was unique that it was in the Delta Hotel, and you had to take an escalator down. The entire, if you wanna call it, basement of the Delta was the movie theater.

3:28Jawad MirRight.

3:28Les J. DavidSo as we're coming down this escalator, you know, and there's a reveal, here's this monster sort of four or five feet across by eight, nine foot tall, replica in 3D of the, Amzel, one-sheet movie poster. And I was like, "Oh, that's... Wow, that's, that's cool." but I mean, that's my only opinion of it was... 'Cause I dabbled in collecting movie collectibles from the theaters, and that I'd never seen one of those. They're referred to as standees. I'd, I'd never seen one that large.

4:00Jawad MirRight.

4:01Les J. DavidSo I get my popcorn and my Jujubes and whatever it was I got, and we sat down. Well, if you'd had a camera, or video that two hours later, as I'm coming out of the theater and my jaw is on the ground…... Because I'm the biggest hard sell there ever would've been. And I was like, "What was this?" Like, oh my God, who cares about Star Wars? This is, this is the jim-jam right here.

4:27Jawad MirRight.

4:28Les J. DavidAnd you know, and I saw it multiple times, you know, over the next coming weeks after it opened and you could buy tickets. And that's, that's where it began. And my first collectible was that theater standup, because I went to the theater manager... And you're gonna think this has a happy ending. It doesn't. And he absolutely blew me off, like some 16-year-old kid, and he gives me the usual story they used to give certainly in those days. "Oh, this has to go back to the film company. They... We have to give these back." Which I don't know if you're aware, is absolute crap.

5:00Jawad MirYeah. Yeah.

5:01Les J. DavidTheater companies do not want them back.

5:02Jawad MirThey do not. Yeah.

5:03Les J. DavidNo, they do not. So I actually ended up working in the film industry for 10 y… 10 years at Technicolor. I can promise you, the moment we open a movie, it's in our rear view mirror, we do not care, and we're on to the next one that's in front of us, never behind us.

5:19Jawad MirExactly.

5:20Les J. DavidSo I'm not a good person that no's. That doesn't mean that... You know, I understand when they have their time and place, but when someone's rude to me and I know they're obviously lying, I'm gonna go for the workaround. So it was in the back of my head, and I discovered, which isn't the case anymore, that all the film companies had representation in Winnipeg. They had satellite offices, including Paramount Pictures.

5:46Jawad MirYep.

5:46Les J. DavidSo I went up there and introduced myself to the guy, and we were just chatting, and discovered we were kindred spirits. He was six, seven years my senior. You know, he was in his early 20s. And we discovered we had a love of movies and comic books, and that's... And we struck up a friendship. And it was months later, 'cause of course Raiders is doing booming business. Those were in the days when we didn't have multiplexes.

6:10Jawad MirRight.

6:10Les J. DavidYou know, there were still line-ups two months later. And we're out for lunch and I, and I just happened to say off the cuff of, "Hey, you know, what happens to that stuff? 'Cause the manager told me that, you know, that you guys have to send that back." He's like, "Why in God's name would we want those back?" He's like, "Why? You want it?" I'm like, "Well, I already asked. He told me no." He goes, "Oh, he did he?" Picks up the phone, calls over and says, you know, "Hey, it's, Blaine from Paramount, and I'm gonna need that packed up, we need that to go somewhere else." He hangs up the phone and goes, "All right, go get it." So I'm like, "Oh, boy, this is not gonna go well." I mean, I'm gonna get it, but I don't think that manager is gonna be pleased to see who he's giving it to.

6:49Jawad MirFor sure.

6:49Les J. DavidSo I got a f… I, you know, I didn't drive. I had a friend. I asked, "Could you please come with, you know, your car? It's fairly big." We get over there, we come in, the manager's there, and I'm like, "Blaine sent me over for that standup." And he gives me the most laser beam stare ever and goes, "You're on your own. We're not helping you." And walks away from me. I'm like, "I don't need your help." And that was my first collectible. It sits outside the museum. It greets people as they come up the stairs, but that was my v… excuse me, my very first piece. And, yeah, here we are 42 years later.

7:21Jawad MirWow. That's, that's an incredible story. I mean, that's like a true hardcore movie fan story, and thank you for sharing that, man. You mentioned you worked in Technicolor in the film industry. Just tell me about, a little bit about that, too. I'm quite fascinated by that.

7:36Les J. DavidIn 1998, my job ceased to exist, downsizing, and they closed. So I guess more of the closing part.

7:44Jawad MirRight.

7:44Les J. DavidAnd I'd been friends with a gentleman named Benny Adelman. He had been in the industry for 50 years. We had been introduced a decade earlier, and I loved going for... I would take Benny to breakfast on Saturdays just to hear his stories of all that time in the film industry, back when there was silver nitrate film. He was around when that was still around.

8:09Jawad MirWow.

8:09Les J. DavidAnd, you know, and telling me all the stories of, you know, the old vaudevillian theaters as they were converted to, you know, modern theater, motion picture theaters. And so it was fascinating. Well worth the price of buying him some Salisbury house, you know, for breakfast…

8:26Jawad MirI bet. Yeah

8:26Les J. David... Just to hear his stories. And so we, you know, I was now unemployed. We were, you know, just having our usual Saturday breakfast. You know, and I said, "You know, I'm gonna have to start figuring out what I'm gonna do, you know, in the next phase of my life." And he goes, "You wanna be a film ri… reviser?" And he was a very gruff man. He had a heart of gold, but hi… his people skills might be, you know, considered a bit lacking, but he was a giant teddy bear of a man. And I said, "I don't know what a film reviser is." I said, "I don't know if I could do it." And it, and he, you know, he used a tiny expletive and said, "A monkey could do it." I'm like, "Well, okay then. I guess the gauntlet is thrown down." "If a monkey can do it, show up Monday." "O… okay." I went, "Well, I guess I have a job." So I get there Monday, and the lady who had been doing it for almost 40 years was retiring. She had started in her 20s. Had no... Benny being Benny, did not tell her he'd hired someone and that she'd be training the new person, et cetera, and she sort of did a, "Who the hell are you?"

9:31Les J. DavidAnd I'm like, "I'm, I'm here to be the reviser." And then she was having, you know, poking good fun, "Well, I'm the reviser. Are you taking my job?" I was like, "" And then she, you know, said, "I'm just messing with you." so I started at the bottom. That is the lowest position in a Technicolor... I mean, we jokingly refer to them as vaults. They don't exist anymore. But we stored all the 35 millimeter, 70 millimeter, and I started just at the tail end while we were destroying the old 16 millimeter film, 'cause the schools didn't use it anymore. It was obsolete. So that's where I started. And eventually, by the end of my career there, I was the manager for the prairies for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Northwestern Ontario. So it was my responsibility every Friday to make sure the film was where it needed to be on time, so that the couple hundred theaters under my umbrella would have their new feature to show. And then it would come back, and we would store it until we do, were given instructions to either send it again or that it would be up for destruction and we would have to, you know, get rid of it.

10:36Jawad MirWow. That's, that's cool. So pretty much anything that, myself and a lot of other people saw, at least in Canada or the regions that you were in terms of Technicolor, came under your supervision. That's, that's really cool. Yeah, a… a… a… and it's, it's fascinating that you were telling me about your story of how you would take... Sorry, what was the name of the gentleman, doing breakfast?

10:58Les J. DavidOh, Benny Adelman. He's since passed, but yeah, Benny Adelman.

11:01Jawad MirYeah.

11:02Les J. DavidYeah.

11:02Jawad MirLate, Mr. Benny. And he would tell you these fascinating stories, right? And it's kinda like we're coming back a full circle now, where if I was to take, if somebody was to take, let's say, you know, yourself or myself or somebody else, 15, 16 years old, and just to hear back about the VHS days, about the early '90s days, how Hollywood was just, you know... It's, it's, it's, it's amazing that how technology evolves every, you know, few generations. Every few decades, sorry. And, I feel movies... I don't know what you think about movies nowadays. I'm not much of a superhero fan, any… at all. And, if I watch anything now, with these some exceptions, like, you know, Avatar, went to see The Fabelmans, Dune, and all those type of films. Other than that, most of the stuff that I watch, I just rewatch '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s films. I d… I don't know how... What do you think about the stuff that's coming out nowadays?

12:04Jawad MirAre we getting old, or is it really not as good as it used to be?

12:09Les J. DavidYes. Not as good as it used to be. And it's not 'cause we're getting old. As Benny pointed out to me as he was retiring, one of the problems, and I agree with him, is the number of films we now release.

12:26Jawad MirYeah.

12:26Les J. DavidAnd of course, we have more platforms, but that also means we're out of original ideas.

12:31Jawad MirYeah.

12:31Les J. DavidOr at least certainly no one's willing to put in the... I mean, let's go back in time. When they announced Temple of Doom, it did not have a date. They said, "We are now filming a new Indiana Jones adventure."

12:43Jawad MirYeah.

12:43Les J. DavidAnd as they progressed, they eventually said, "Coming 1984," and then it was, "Coming summer of 1984."

12:51Jawad MirRight.

12:52Les J. DavidBut as the director and everyone involved kept reporting back of, "We're getting close. We're… we've got quite a bit in the can. I think we're… we're… we're getting there," then they built a date around that information. And now when they announce a movie, the first thing they do is give you the date, and the pressure on new filmmakers…

13:12Jawad MirYeah

13:12Les J. David... Must be absolutely ridiculous. And of course what's gonna happen is compromise. The true vision of that film perhaps isn't going to come to the, 'cause there's not the time or the resources. You know, we're hearing right now, to go back to what you said about superheroes, everyone's complaining that the superhero movies are full-time taking up all of the VFX studios.

13:35Jawad MirYeah.

13:35Les J. DavidThere's nothing left for someone that's a small filmmaker, that every film to some degree has visual effects in it now. Everything. That… it's next to impossible to not have even just a little bit in there.

13:47Jawad MirYeah.

13:47Les J. DavidI'm not saying it's impossible, but a good chunk of the film, certainly Hollywood, you know, films rely on it, and they're being told, "Yeah. We'd love to do your film. We can slot you in four years." And they're like, "Pardon me?" They're like, "Yeah, sorry. We're busy on the next eight Marvel and DC and whatevers, and we..." "Well, we'll take your B team." "Oh, no. They're taken, too." "Well, how about your C or D team?" "Oh, no. They're, they're gone, too." and I mean, even this new Ant-Man I've heard, I haven't seen it yet, but 'cause, like you, I have superhero fatigue. I enjoyed them a decade ago when they were fresh and new and it was something we hadn't seen. We've seen it to death. I'm not saying they're repeating themselves, it's just a formula. How many times can we see either the goody two-shoe superhero, you know, old-style Superman, or things as absurd as The Boys or Umbrella Academy on television where, you know, it's dark and it's whatever, and they've done everything in between and they just throw a new coat of paint on it. I tell people, "If your favorite cereal is Cheerios and I feed you Cheerios three meals a day for…

14:46Jawad MirYeah

14:46Les J. David... 30 days, I promise you don't want Cheerios next month." You're, you're tired of it.

14:51Jawad Mir100%. Yeah, go on, sorry.

14:53Les J. DavidAnd that, and that's where films have gone, and just like you, I tend to, when I feel like I'm in a movie-watching mood, I go down to my library of almost 2,000 Blu-ray and DVDs and choose something old. 'Cause even though I've seen it a zillion times, it's still fresh and it's new and it entertains me, whereas a lot of the new stuff I stop buying because I went, "This was a one-time watch." It wasn't a terrible film. It was just meh. And I'm good. I saw it. I don't need to ever see it again. And you know, and, or there are the ones where, oh my gosh, that was a tremendous waste of my time. But I used to go to the theater, in 52 weeks I probably went to the movie probably 40 times.

15:34Jawad MirWow.

15:34Les J. DavidAnd now I go, I go to the cinema maybe six times a year.

15:39Jawad MirYeah.

15:39Les J. DavidAnd it ha… and it has nothing to do with I'm afraid of COVID, it has nothing to do with money or finances. It's most of them I look and go, "That doesn't look like anything special to me. You know what? I'll just wait for one of the streamers to get it," you know. And I love the movie-going experience. I spent my teens, 20s, and 30s living in the theaters. That was my best perk about working in the film industry. Guess what? As many movies as I wanted to go to the theater for free, and I took advantage of it. But as, especially as we've gone through this last, I don't know, maybe in the 2000s really, I hate to sum up like the last 22 years, but there's a couple gems. Like, I applauded Everything Everywhere All at Once. It's a bit weird in some places, but bravo. Fresh, new, trying…

16:23Jawad MirYeah

16:23Les J. David... Something out of the box. Full kudos to those people, and I'm glad it's getting recognition, 'cause most of those films, and I'm sure there's many more like it, can't even get the big chains to probably agree to put it on the screen. A… and they're not getting a fair shake, and that's unfortunate. So I hope that answers your question.

16:41Jawad MirNo, 100%, man. I had this conversation with my friends. He's, my friend and he's my cinematographer as well. And you know, he said it bang on that Disney, ever since Disney acquired Marvel, you know... I've seen Batman trilogy, the old one. Well, I didn't see all the old Batman movies, like just the first two Tim Burton ones. And then the, Christopher Nolan ones. I don't even classify all of them as superhero movies, right? They're just in a different part of the world, the way they were done, the way they were executed. But Disney acquiring Marvel and then just putting out immense amount of stuff, and now same thing with the Star Wars, ha… has ruined the film industry. And I, Matt Damon also said, something along the lines of that in the old days what would happen is if there was a film that studios thought that was not gonna do well, they would still green-light it, but because they would, they would have this time to make the money back on the VHS or DVD releases.

17:43Jawad MirBut now everything is on stream.

17:45Les J. DavidYeah.

17:45Jawad MirAnd studios can't make that money back. But I hope with that new movie that you're talking about, Everything, what was it called? Everything Everywhere…

17:54Les J. DavidEverything Everywhere All at Once.

17:55Jawad MirYeah. I always forget the title. I mean, I love that film, too. I hope that changes the trend, because I have been fatigued with superhero movies for literally last 10 years. I mean, way before probably you did, and a lot of other people. But because it, to me it doesn't… It doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't make me remember anything. Like, I remember Jurassic Park. I remember Beverly Hills Cop. I remember A Few Good Men, The Firm. You know, all those films that came in the '90s and the '80s, even '70s, like The Godfather trilogy, the original Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark. You don't remember those characters anymore or those lines. Like, you know the ones that, the lines that you remember…

18:35Les J. DavidThat…

18:35Jawad Mir... You're in a movie…

18:35Les J. DavidThat's one of the, I said, I said that to a friend, that do you realize that in the last 15 or so years there are really no movies with quotable lines? Yet if you grab into the '80s…

18:44Jawad MirYeah

18:44Les J. David... There are so many with lines you just... You know, Army of Darkness, cheesy as it is, with Bruce Campbell, "Give me some sugar, baby." I mean, that…

18:50Jawad MirYeah

18:50Les J. David... It's become a pop culture, you know, and a meme to death. Name me anything from the last 15 years where people are running around... I mean, there's the momentary in the moment, and then it fades. Yet 40 years later, we're still quoting stuff from the '80s.

19:05Jawad MirYeah. I think, I think after 2005, 2006, things started going downwards. But anyways, I mean, we're kinda going off topic.

19:13Les J. DavidYep.

19:13Jawad MirAnd, tell me,.. And this, tell me about your museum, your collection. And, you can talk about how it sort of started, and then whenever you feel right, you can just get up and give me a little tour of what you have. And one thing that I saw that in CTV, piece that really caught my eye was your collection of the, all the different formats, like, you know, VHS and even the…

19:41Les J. DavidOh, yeah

19:42Jawad Mir... The little, the, was it the eight millimeters, or...?

19:45Les J. DavidYeah, they came pre…

19:45Jawad MirYeah

19:46Les J. David... Recorded eight-millimeter, yeah.

19:47Jawad MirI didn't even know that such thing existed from studios, but yeah, that really caught my eye. And, but yeah, it's, tell me about the stud…, your museum, how it started, and just whenever you feel, just give me a tour.

19:58Les J. DavidSo in 2000, 2001, after I left Technicolor, my friend Steve Sansweet in Petaluma, California, just outside San Francisco, he worked for Lucasfilm at the time, and he is the Guinness Book record holding for largest Star Wars collection in the world. They estimate that he has over half a million items and 9,000 square feet.

20:23Jawad MirHoly moly.

20:24Les J. DavidSo I said, "I've got nothing to do. I'm on sabbatical, really." I'd s… been saving up my money. And so I went there for a year to help him get it set up. So I got my teeth, you know, you know, good and, chomped on of how do you... You know, what's the proper presentation? Not necessarily museum quality, but you know, what kind of shelving should you use? 'Cause I al… I always give this advice to collectors, and it's not me being elitist, but make sure that if you're gonna invest your money in your collectibles and you wanna display them, for goodness sakes, please put some of that money aside on good shelving. Do not buy rickety, you know, Canadian Tire. No diss on Canadian Tire. I mean, it serves its purpose in a shed or something.

21:13Jawad MirYeah.

21:13Les J. DavidBut they're rickety, and if you put weight on them, you know, they'll, they'll do the sway. You don't wanna have multi-thousand dollar items on a shelf that could give out on you. So I tell people, as much as, you know, you ooh and ah over the museum, its contents, there's tens of thousands of dollars spent on the shelving and the presentation and everything else to make sure that it didn't look like some teenager's closet with a bunch of stuff crammed into it.

21:39Jawad MirRight.

21:39Les J. DavidSo the museum came about that when I came home, and obviously I'd had contacts down there. I made friends at Lucasfilm, more than ever. You know, I was getting indie stuff, 'cause of course being in San Francisco in the heart of, you know, where so many Lucasfilm people…

21:55Jawad MirRight

21:55Les J. David... Currently work or have retired but of course have mementos, and they were aware of me. You know, the best thing that ever happened for me as a collector was the internet. I don't like using the word fame, but there really isn't any other. As I became more famous, more people found me, like you did.

22:12Jawad MirYeah.

22:13Les J. DavidAnd they reach out for whatever. They're looking to sell me something. They wanna interview me. They, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So when I came home armed with all of this knowledge of... And an idea in my head of what I wanted my area to now look like, the next trick was to make that happen, and I couldn't make it happen within the city limits of Winnipeg. So I don't live in Winnipeg. I live, from my doorstep to the edge of Winnipeg is 20 minutes probably on the, on the freeway.

22:42Jawad MirSure.

22:43Les J. DavidBecause there was no way that... I mean, I tried when I lived in the city. I put in zoning variants to double the height of my garage, to double the width of my garage, you know, and everything was turned down. And I understand we have to have, you know, zoning and everything. You can't have people going crazy on their property. That could affect the neighbor's resale. But I mean, everything I proposed was from an architect and, you know, done proper, and still. And I finally went then, "You know what? I'm gonna go somewhere where I can do whatever I want."

23:11Jawad MirSure.

23:12Les J. DavidSo just like so many of the American collectors, including Steve, we bought, my wife and I, a former farm. So I'm on eight acres with a large house, with a 3,600 square foot outbuilding that used to be, in the '40s when it was built, it was a functioning farm, and it was, it's a barn. So we took the second floor and built a building inside of a building. So we built a cottage package on the second floor. So it has its own walls, its own roof structure with joists. It has its own floor that sits on top of, so there's joists that are on the floor to raise the whole museum up so that we could insulate it from underneath. 'Cause again, with the minus 30s and 40s, this room needs to be effectively weatherproof. I can't have it get super hot and super cold in here. And so that was a year, well, 10 months of every weekend, friends who were in the industry, friends who were just willing to swing a hammer or swing a paintbrush or whatever, and we built this thing through the dead of winter.

24:19Les J. DavidI honestly thought I was gonna have people stop showing up. And yet every weekend the crew would show up even though it was minus 30. I mean, and remember, we weren't in a heated room yet. We were building said room. So everybody was, you know, bundled up and trying to work with gloves and we got through it. And then once it was done, it was okay interior, and we were very specific about colors, the type of carpet, everything. None of it was by accident. None of it was done as remnants or anything like that. It was... And if we need to pause while we catch our breath on money, then we do that. We don't settle. Then we pause till, you know, another paycheck is available or a couple of paychecks and we can now order the whatever it was, carpet or whatever. And then, of course, once that was done, then we started taking everything out of storage, 'cause most of it was in storage with a small, area in our house in Winnipeg in the basement, which is usually where collectors end up, and it all was then brought. And I was actually pretty proud of us.

25:22Les J. DavidWe didn't have to move things around. We'd planned it pretty well that everything that we dropped into place went, "Yep, that's exactly how I thought it was gonna be in my head," and we moved on until it was done. And then we had to sit down, my wife and I, and decide who's gonna be allowed to see this. Because I wanted... It would be very selfish to build this wonderful playground and then not share it with others, and it has nothing to do with bragging or whatever. Again, I love... My favorite part now of the collection is watching people like you and others when they visit and the look on their face, and I watch a 60-year-old man and I can see the six-year-old in him on his face. That to me is worth more than anything in the world, is bringing smiles to people's faces. Even when I have a spouse that comes with... You know, usually it's the husband that wants to see, but not always, and the wife tags along. And at the end of it, th… they will say to me almost always, "You know what?

26:22Les J. DavidI'm not really so into this. You know, my husband is and whatever, but oh, my gosh, what you and your wife have done here, I had a delightful time. I felt like, you know, a youngster again. You know, it was a wonderful afternoon, and I now realize jokingly that I've gotten off easy 'cause my husband's a lightweight compared to you and I've always been complaining about his, you know, excessive purchases. And now he's... I feel so much better," and, you know, and we have a good laugh over it, of course. Right. And people have pretty much decided that my wife is a saint, and I cannot dispute that. She has been with me every step of the way. She is very supportive, and I'm aware this is not her jimjam. She has her own thing. She does high-end, Barbies, you know, from 30… Oh... 40 years ago to current. That's her thing. And when I support her in her hobby. When we're somewhere and she wants to go to some shop that has vintage Barbies, I of course say, "Well, give me the directions. Let's Google it. Let's get you there. Let's see if there's treasures for you."

27:23Les J. DavidYou know, so... And, you know, and that's probably explains why we're coming up on, you know, we're approaching 20 years of marriage. We're not there yet, but we're pretty close. So that's how the museum came about. And so the rule was friends and family could attend the museum or someone recommended by friends or family, and that we ask that the two rules are when they visit is that please don't say where I live, 'cause that is for security reasons. Sure. And please don't post excessive amounts of photos on social media because it will ruin it for the next people that might have been invited to come, and what's the point of coming if you could just watch some video that showed you… Right... Every nook and cranny of the place? Yeah. A… and I made an exception, and I'm g… I'm doing it again shortly on... I'm gonna do is an open Zoom call and allow a certain number of people, with my priority being overseas people. You know, the, it's unlikely they're going to spend airfare to come to Winnipeg… Right... Manitoba to come here.

28:24Les J. DavidAlthough we did have someone stop in from Australia, so that was pretty cool. Wow. Yeah. And they were delightful, husband and wife. They spent the whole afternoon. We chatted about, you know, similarities and differences in collecting and things culturally between Australia. It was, it was a wonderful... I was so glad to meet them. And that's my favorite part, is meeting fellow fans. That's why I love the movies. That's why I love collecting, is it creates connection to other people. I've always said that movies can never go away because it's the, it is the only thing you are guaranteed that is safe to shyly and riskily ask someone out on a date for the first time, because it isn't a big give. If I ask you to a supper a… and I'm looking to get to know you might say no because, well, what are we gonna talk about? Exactly, yeah. What if it turns out, you really don't care for me at all, and now you're trapped because you don't want to be rude, presumably. Whereas a movie, you say, "Hello," "Hello," "Thanks for..."

29:28Les J. DavidYou know, and you get the trade treats, and now you watch the film, and when it's done, you have something to talk about. "Let's go for coffee," which isn't a big ask. That obviously if the person was interested in you enough of let's see where this goes, then you're gonna go for that coffee and, you know, a donut and chat. And if all of that went well, as you then segue from talking about the movie to similar taste, then perhaps that leads to, "Would you like to go out again?" And so, you know, and it will, it will run its natural course, whatever. Yeah. I tell people, what o… what other thing do we have that is the safe... You know, back in the, you know, the '50s, I guess it was, you know, my mom said, you know, one of the things you would do is ask someone to go bowling. Well, we don't really do... I'm not saying bowling is gone, but I don't think it's quite the social situation it was 60, 70 years ago. Right. So I love that about the film. You know, I own a toy store that we run part-time now from, Wednesdays to Sundays. Sure. And I tell everybody my only rule is when you come through the doors… I don't wanna talk about the news, I don't wanna talk about where you stand on politics or COVID or anything.

30:37Les J. DavidWe are here for nerd talk.

30:38Jawad MirYeah.

30:38Les J. DavidTalk about Last of Us that you just watched, talk about movies you just saw, talk about comic books. This is a pla… a happy space, 'cause the bad stuff's waiting for us on the other side of the door. Let's take a, let's take a break from that.

30:51Jawad MirAnd that's so true, right? Because in the last four or five years, I mean, pretty much everything that people talk about is where you stand on COVID, where you stand on the political side. And people fail to realize, even though it's a very common, it's a common knowledge thing and it's a cliche, that the idea... If you talk to somebody about arts, it doesn't have to be movie, it could be, Broadway, it could be book, it could be music. Th… you can disagree on that, but at the same time, it's something that's very creative and it doesn't drive you to that passion, you know, a… as let's say you're political or you're religious or whatever beliefs that you may have. And we lacked that and I wish that came back. And I'm so glad you mentioned you have that rule in the store because I, you know, I think COVID really messed up all of us, where every time we would constantly talk about all these, you know, where do we stand on, COVID, where do we stand on, you know, politics, left, right or whatnot.

31:52Jawad MirBut I'm glad now people are realizing it's gone away because, you know, y… it actually is detrimental to your own health when you start talking about these things all the time. And movies are one thing, and entertainment and art, is that it just takes you into another dimension. That's how I like to put it. Like, you're in a completely different world, and you are completely... And people like us, like, who love movies, we are just totally at our 100%, our, 100% how we are, how we're supposed to be, as opposed to be if we're talking about politics or something, we're not truly ourselves. So it's, it's awesome that you have that rule. And I really like your story about your wife having a whi… a Barbie collection. It's so i… interesting, obviously you know this, that Barbie has a movie coming out this year, right?

32:39Les J. DavidYep. Yep.

32:40Jawad MirAnd there's an Indiana Jones movie coming out this year as well.

32:43Les J. DavidYep. No, we're well represented in the cinema in 2023.

32:47Jawad MirYeah. So how is that journey for your, you know, for your wife, and obviously for yourself as well with the, with both these films coming out as a, as a couple and as movie fans and collectibles items?

33:00Les J. DavidUnfortunately, it goes back to where we began our conversation of, you know, and I've told people, "Of course I'll go see the new Indiana Jones," but I'm gonna be the unpopular guy that says, "I don't know that we need one." you know, it ended…

33:13Jawad MirOkay

33:13Les J. David... Perfectly at number four. Whether you like number four or not, that's an entirely, a whole different…

33:19Jawad MirYeah

33:19Les J. David... Video thing we could do. But

33:23Jawad MirYeah, I actually…

33:24Les J. David... And, I mean, Hollywood doesn't make movies 'cause it's, "We had a good idea, let's do it." It's, "We need to make another Indiana Jones. Quick, hire a whole bunch of people. We need a story." It's like, how about you had the story first and then you announce, "We think we've got a really good, you know, nut to crack here, and here it is." And then they get the funding and the whatever. And instead it's the, you know, the horse before the cart trick once again, with horrible pressure on the filmmakers and everyone involved. I hope I like it. I hope it's good. I hope it isn't embarrassing that, you know, Harrison Ford is 80 years old but going on an adventure. That we're once again retreading and recycling instead of something fresh or new. Why couldn't we have a fresh, new adventure st… I mean, serials were around where George and Steven borrowed from the '40s and '50s from their youth.

34:16Jawad MirYeah.

34:17Les J. DavidAnd they invented a new character, swashbuckling, you know, roguish sort of fellow that lives in a gray area sometime. You're telling me someone, you know, couldn't have a new spin without it having to be Indiana? They're, they're so fixated on the only thing we can tell stories about is already existing pop culture. Barbie, Indiana Jones, Super Mario. They're, they're all pr… Last of Us, which I love the video game, and I am enjoying the show, and at least the show took chances, and I don't know what's coming even though I've played the game so many times, because they made enough original content that it's interesting. But…

34:58Jawad MirWell, it's, it's because that it's original stuff takes time and effort to make as opposed to established franchise, right? And I... And you mentioned about Indiana Jones 4 being, for you, it was a great closure. For me, the third one was a great closure. How…

35:14Les J. DavidA… and it was, I agree with you. He rode off literally into the sunset.

35:18Jawad MirYeah. That, and Spielberg has been quoted to saying that, "I literally had that shot for the purpose that's it." And I, and I believe, there's no official confirmation to this, it took them 19 years to make the fourth one. Because I remember when I used to run DreamWorks fan site and, Giles and I started the raider.net, we would speculate that, "When is it gonna come out? When is it gonna come out?" And I believe that Spielberg never wanted to do the fourth one. And I think Lucas, being his friend, kind of just kind of pushed him and pushed him, and he finally gave in. Hey, I don't know, I could be dead wrong a… about that, and I also think that's the reason that he's not doing the fifth one, because I'm not excited about it as I was for the first three, but, you know, I'll give it a chance. I'll give it a chance.

36:04Les J. DavidYeah. I mean, and the only reason I'm willing... I mean, originally when everything was just announced that there was one coming, I wasn't negative, I was just sort of rolled my eyes of, "Well, here's the Hollywood machine cranking out something that probably shouldn't get made." And it was only when they said who the director was that I went, "All right. Now I'm interested." I'm curious because I've, I don't even like racing car movies and I loved Ford v Ferrari. Loved it.

36:30Jawad MirThat was a great film.

36:32Les J. DavidIt, yeah, it, fantastic performances, great cinematography. Everything about it kept me engaged, that I forgot that I don't even like those kind of movies. A… a… and became fully immersed in it and couldn't stop talking about it. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that was amazing."

36:47Jawad MirAnd you know…

36:48Les J. DavidI love Lo… Logan.

36:49Jawad MirYeah, I was gonna say, I mean, that's another superhero movie that's not a superhero movie that I really enjoyed, because it had nothing to do with X-Men, right? It was just…

36:56Les J. DavidYeah

36:56Jawad Mir... A one-off film and I…

36:57Les J. DavidIt was char… it was, it was character-driven.

36:59Jawad MirYeah

37:00Les J. DavidInstead of the big explosions and the world-threatening aliens and buildings and everything's falling into the big crack in the earth, it was just characters. It was, you know, and they had to get by on their performance a… a… and their, a… and their dialogue more than anything. There's really not oodles of action in Logan. It's a lot of…

37:19Jawad MirNo. It's a relationship film

37:20Les J. David... You know, this sad, what happens to a superhero when they get to the end of their superheroing. A… a… and I, and I love that film as dark as it is, and, you know, doesn't paint a rosy ending for poor Wolverine, it's a fantastic film. Again, well shot, well directed, well acted. Everything about it is... So I went, "You know what? If this guy's doing an Indiana Jones, you've got my interest. Let's..." You know, and then they started announcing the cast and I went, "Okay, yeah, I like Mads Mikkelsen. Yep, those are good people. All right, let's see what they're gonna do." And maybe the fresh eyes is what we need that, you know, that maybe George and Steven had gotten a little too close to the subject matter and…

38:00Jawad MirYeah

38:01Les J. David... And they're now doomed to just repeat themselves. So let's see what someone new can do with the character, and I guess we'll find out in a few months whether, I, be careful what I wish for or not, I guess.

38:14Jawad MirYeah, 100% man. If you are ready right now to give us a little tour…

38:17Les J. DavidYeah

38:18Jawad Mir... Whenever you see fit, we're all set to go.

38:21Les J. DavidI'm sitting at the desk, so I'll go to the entrance and then start walking my way as if I had just come through the door.

38:29Jawad MirSure.

38:29Les J. DavidSo when someone comes through the door, this is what they would see.

38:35Jawad MirHoly moly. Look at those games.

38:38Les J. DavidSo those are... Let's, we'll go that way. So these are all standup VLTs from Britain that I bought from different, pubs, and then had them crated and shipped over. The one on the far left has stopped working 'cause it needs 240 volts, so I gotta find someone that knows something about that. But the, obviously the other two are working just fine. This is all the crew hats and commercial hats you can buy or anything that's sort of clothing related. There's the Sankara Stones. You can see they're busy blinking away.

39:14Jawad MirAh.

39:16Les J. DavidYeah, and if I remove one, then they go dead.

39:20Jawad MirOh, wow.

39:21Les J. DavidAnd then as soon as you put them back in their base, they'll come back to life again.

39:26Jawad MirWere they used in the film or are these replicas?

39:28Les J. DavidThey're replicas. Down here is a massive display, so that would be four feet left to right. I can't even know. I guess I can…

39:35Jawad MirI can see it. I can see it.

39:37Les J. DavidYeah. So that's all the Lego sets, and these were placed into Toys R Us's with the pre-builds in them so that obviously the kid would, you know, see 'em. There's the little placards that then tell you what set number that is, and the mom would just look for the, you know, the proper set on the shelf and grab it.

39:55Jawad MirWow.

39:55Les J. DavidSo we'll go down this wall. Artwork up on the walls. That's another Lego display from Germany, so it requires 240. That's a plaster cast off the Indiana Jones, I guess you call it, animatronic at the Disney rides, and I just threw a fedora on his head. Replica of course, the Grail tablet. Replica of the Grail knight's shield. The book…

40:20Jawad MirDude, you're, you know, you're insane, but it's really good.

40:24Les J. DavidThe book. My wife, she just found a really cool knight helmet and gifted me that for Christmas, 'cause sometimes we'll throw things in here. They have nothing to do with Indiana Jones…

40:31Jawad MirYeah. Yeah

40:32Les J. David... But they're sort of things we think he would, like, find or wanna preserve. The painting in his dad's house that shows the Grail knight going for the walk. That is, if I turn this sideways, will that work? Let's see. Yeah, I guess so. That is a screen-used, uniform from, Crystal Skull.

40:54Jawad MirOkay.

40:54Les J. DavidThat's a screen-used uniform from Last Crusade in the scene where Indy goes to Berlin.

41:01Jawad MirRight. Right. Can you actually just go back the other way just because it's…

41:04Les J. DavidYeah

41:04Jawad Mir... Gonna be hard. Yeah, but yeah. Wow. Look at that. So is this…

41:12Les J. DavidDon't go…

41:13Jawad MirSorry, go on.

41:14Les J. DavidNope. A beautiful, well, I should start with, I guess, this one. So a fellow named Ron Hembling from Australia does these custom dioramas, and this one he put in a crate of Indy running from the boulder.

41:28Jawad MirOh my God.

41:28Les J. DavidAnd that's, and that's a 3/4 inch figure. Hopefully we're getting some of that. Oh, where are we? Here. Oh, there we go.

41:40Jawad MirLook at that.

41:41Les J. DavidAnd he's running from the boulder. And so I joked with Ron for years of, "Oh my God, I love that. It's one of my favorite pieces. All I would need it is in Barbie size," meaning 12 inch instead of 3/4, and one day this showed up. So that's a 12-inch Indiana Jones running in the crate from a boulder. The thing is ma… it cost me a small fortune in shipping to get it from Australia.

42:07Jawad MirRight, I bet.

42:09Les J. DavidPrototype of a VHS, or sorry, DVD display for Walmart that never went into production. This was the prototype to, it would've been made and then Walmart changed their mind. More Lego displays from Target and Walmart in the States, the pre-builds. All the Lego, of course, up above. Everything in here to give you an idea is 10-foot ceiling, so all these shelving units that you see go to the ceiling means that's 10 foot worth of stuff. That's all the food product… Meaning one of every package I could ever find from any brand of food that had Indiana Jones on it. So as we go down back to this wall again, it's a VLT from Japan, on the right, and then the next two are pachinko machines from Japan, one in demonstration mode that you can see the little video playing on it.

42:58Jawad MirYeah.

42:59Les J. DavidAnd then one, the one on the left is actually a functioning one. The one on the right, because they had different backgrounds, so of course I had to have them both, is playable, and then the other one is just in demonstration mode. Another proposed DVD display that wasn't made, that the, you and I, the customer, would walk between the arches there, and you could see the fake little…

43:21Jawad MirYeah

43:21Les J. David... DVDs on the shelf. And here is, this is everything. It's the only area that got its own spot, is that the Japanese love Indiana Jones, and it never went away the way it did over here for a long time.

43:37Jawad MirWell…

43:37Les J. DavidThere was always new merch, and especially at the Disney parks, so it ended up with its own area that just, that's just Japanese items from the different Disney parks on those shelves.

43:48Jawad MirWell, the Japanese are actually huge fans of Steven Spielberg. Like, they have a…

43:52Les J. DavidYeah

43:52Jawad Mir... Huge fan base over there.

43:54Les J. DavidYep. This one is, all the way up at the top, there's sleeping bags and some figures, toys, and then it's puzzles. A… and then miscellaneous concession and whatever. Over here was just some fun different pieces I liked, either mini busts or things like that. Down here is all the magazines, comics. I can back up. And trading cards and everything in their boxes and binders, et cetera. Just the sketch cards alone, I think I own some words upwards of 500 original sketch cards from the trading cards. Of course, the part that people love is the Williams pinball machine. It's currently got artwork being flattened on it, but it's fully functional. An original 1984 Atari arcade machine.

44:44Jawad MirWow.

44:44Les J. DavidI just didn't turn it on 'cause it's very loud. Over here are the map files, or otherwise known as architect map drawers. So there are 10 drawers with well over 500 posters. This is all new stuff that's come in that... In here it tends to get messy in the winter because I don't have a lot of visitors for good reason. So that gives me time to really start organizing and whatever. You know, I cleaned up as quick as I could for you today so it wouldn't have things, like, literally everywhere. But that's all new posters and whatever. My one Star Wars item that I allowed in here is there's a life-size R2-D2.

45:18Jawad MirNice.

45:20Les J. DavidBooks, and then my other sub-collection is Uncharted, which of course was inspired by Indiana Jones. So there's shelves of that or Tomb Raider. Sort of Tomb Ra… sort of Uncharted ended up over here.

45:35Jawad MirCrazy. Wow, man, I'm impressed. I'm, I'm…

45:38Les J. DavidThere's a piece, there's a piece on the wall there, if you can see. That's George sitting at his desk…

45:43Jawad MirYeah

45:43Les J. David... And he's absolutely surrounded by tons of his characters and creations. And originally the art didn't sell well, but he loves the artists, so the little change they made is George decided he'd sign them all, and they sold out in, like, two minutes.

45:56Jawad MirOh, wow.

45:57Les J. DavidSo that is George's signature there.

45:59Jawad MirNice.

46:00Les J. DavidThat's a poster for the pachinko machine sitting on top of R2. So then if we come back the way we came, there is all of every figure, toy, and play set in every variation from every year from '82. The only thing I don't have are these sets right here are from Spain, that the figure is the same, but they did a pack-in with different accessories, and they're so expensive that I made the decision that I just didn't need them all to effectively replicate, other than they were just changing some of the pack-ins. Down there is things like lunch boxes, wallets, knick-knacks like that, and then that's all the figures. When we come around this way, that's every single video game to my knowledge ever made, in every format, in every size, 'cause they're buried behind each other in every different language that I've ever been able to get each one in.

47:00Les J. DavidOr if it was a reviewer's promo copy or anything like that. Most of the Disney high-end and limited edition statues from either Japan, Walt Disney World, or California Anaheim. As we come around the corner, we're back to the Japanese area again. And then the area that you were very enthusiastic about. 'Cause it'd be mean of me if I didn't show it to you. There we go. Let's open it wide. I don't think they covered it wide. And there is every format of media that it's been released on, including VCD, the eight millimeters, beta, Super VHS, which was a format that only existed briefly for, like, six months…

47:57Jawad MirYeah

47:58Les J. David... And went bye. Beta's sitting next to it. Promo copies, ones with pack-ins that, you know, from Blu-ray or 4K or steel books or whatever. I don't even know where the eight millimeter... Oh, there they are. Sorry.

48:16Jawad MirNice.

48:16Les J. DavidThere's the eight, there's the eight millimeters. So the idea was you of course were traveling with your camcorder. It had audio and video outs. You would plug into the hotel…

48:26Jawad MirYeah

48:26Les J. David... TV when you were there, and that way you could watch movies while you were there.

48:30Jawad MirIt's kinda like equivalent to Chromecast or Apple TV nowadays.

48:33Les J. DavidYeah. The clothing, which is plentiful, they're, and it's all organized by either... Again, Japan has its own area because it was actually a brand name in Japan. The brand was called IJ. And was inspired by Indiana Jones. So that whole area has its own section. After that they're broken up by movie or by format. Like over here is anything that's, I think that says video game there. Yeah. So that's every shirt that has something to do with video game related for Indiana Jones. All of the drinking cups, every version of every kind. Mostly commercial. Occasionally there'll be one that's a fan one and I just like it a lot and I'll get it. There's my Muppet from a friend of mine who

49:20Jawad MirOh, nice

49:21Les J. David... So I have my own Muppet of him. Prototypes and things in the glass case. That's the entrance where we came in. And then this cabinet here with the high-end stuff or original props used from the film. That thing in black next to the, that D… So that Blu-ray set doesn't exist. That was what they proposed it should look like, but it didn't. The Sean Connery next to it is actually the special effects little puppet of him when he's in the biplane in Last Crusade. That was screen used.

49:54Les J. DavidJust a, those are replicas. Very expensive replica of Harrison's statue that sits, I don't know, it's gotta be two feet tall. A diorama of Sallah throwing down, and if you come down below the shelf, and then of course there's Indy with the rest of it to get pulled up through the hole. A custom of Indy and his dad on the motorcycle in 12-inch size.

50:18Jawad MirI love that. I love that.

50:20Les J. DavidOne of the 10 models that was used to sell to the Disney executives, that is an exact replica in full three-dimensional. I can take the glass off and remove the sections. That is the entire ride at Disneyland.

50:36Jawad MirWow.

50:36Les J. DavidAnd they used this to pitch the idea to get their 30 million to build it back in the '90s. High-end stuff from the anniversary when the ride hit s… I wanna say 20 years old, I think it was. This was the stuff that was for sale that one night only. More statues and things that are availab… were available. My pride and joy, one of the prototype maquettes from ILM of the Ark of the Covenant for the scene at the end when it shoots into the sky…

51:04Jawad MirYeah

51:04Les J. David... When everyone's getting vaporized.

51:07Jawad MirYeah.

51:11Les J. DavidHarrison's hat from, Crystal Skull. It is not screen used. It was the backup hat, with provenance that I have for it. So trivia for your listeners is that when he's Professor Jones his fedora is always gray. When he is Indiana Jones the adventurer his fedora is always brown.

51:32Jawad MirRight.

51:32Les J. DavidBut if you pay attention, any time that he's in a suit and he's not adventuring, his hat is gray.

51:38Jawad MirGray. Yeah, 100%. 100%.

51:41Les J. DavidAgain, different.

51:44Jawad MirOh, are th… is that the monkey brain where…

51:46Les J. DavidYep

51:46Jawad Mir... Ah, nice.

51:47Les J. DavidYep, right there.

51:50Jawad MirSweet.

51:51Les J. DavidA wonderful painting that a guy does that I just thought was fantastic, that obviously paying homage to Norman Rockwell. Proposing the first time that Indy takes Short Round off the street and buys him a meal 'cause he's a homeless kid.

52:03Jawad MirRight.

52:03Les J. DavidI just thought it was great. Whip, machete, the Disney poster when the ride first opened. And then of course the photo moment that everybody loves is the life-size statue…

52:17Jawad MirYeah

52:17Les J. David... From Germany that was in the DVD stores. When it came to DVD for the first time there was roughly 300 of these made by a company out of Australia, and this would greet you at the entrance to tell you that, you know, they had it in stock and it was now on DVD for the first time. Everybody asked to get their picture taken with that when they'd visit. Understand. That's why I left it there. I actually only brought it in here to assemble it. It was gonna be part of the pre-show, and everybody, 'cause it was some, it was still the colder time, s… "Can I get my pic…", and they always whisper. I always find that funny, like it's a library. You know. "Would it be okay if I get my picture?" Over here, school supplies, things like that. Binders, all of that sorta stuff. Stuff I'm sorting on a chair. Replica of Mutt's sword from Crystal Skull. I always let the little five-year-old kids woosh it around and they absolutely think that's the greatest thing ever. Some prototypes of stuff that didn't get made for toys and otherwise. All the way down in that cabinet a replica of the Ark of the Covenant in, I think that's the scale to go with one-sixth.

53:24Les J. DavidAnd then my pride and joy, the library, which is the books in I can't remember, I wanna say something like 15 different languages.

53:33Jawad MirWow

53:33Les J. David... I have them in Arabic, I have them in Russian, Chinese, Korean, French, English, German, Russian. You know, this is one of my favorites is, especially when I can't even read the language.

53:48Jawad MirThat's Hebrew, right? Yeah.

53:49Les J. DavidYeah. Yep. So everything is organized by language on the shelves. Media kits, that sorta thing. All the LaserDiscs and record albums and that sorta thing are down over here. This is piles of stuff I need to organize from the last six months that I'm busy working on. And that pretty much takes you 360 degrees around…

54:15Jawad MirFantastic, man

54:17Les J. David... The whole place.

54:18Jawad MirThat is super cool. Thanks for giving us the tour. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I mean, there were some things obviously st… stuck out for me more than, others, just for personal reasons. I mean, we all have different likes. But it was really cool. I'm, I'm just baffled that the amount of obviously time that it took, not only to find... Not to just to bring it in, but just to do research and, you know, constantly adding to your collection. But also, I mean, not that I wanna know, I mean, you must have spent an immense amount of dollars on all these items just to get them in.

54:53Les J. DavidIt's funny that… It comes up more than you would think, and people are always sort of surprised, I think, that the answer is, "I have no idea." Because…

55:02Jawad MirYeah

55:02Les J. David... On any one, on any one item I probably will remember, you know, ballpark what I paid, but I never documented that part of it. 'cause it didn't matter. It's not for sale. I mean, at some point, sure, I guess if, you know, one day we have to make the announcement I, you know, I need to move to a care home or a smaller situation for health and age, I guess I will have to worry about that then. You know, but certainly, you know, individually, let me do this.

55:30Jawad MirBut I think it's great that you don't have a number, because that reflects the actual love that you have for what you're doing. Because otherwise it becomes a business, right?

55:42Les J. DavidSorry. So that is a bronze statue that weighs 75 pounds.

55:51Jawad MirWow.

55:51Les J. DavidThat they only made 10 of, and I think I have number four, I believe. I know what I paid for that, because it's God awful. But most of the time I don't really keep track.

56:03Jawad MirI bet. And has anyone, from Lucasfilm or even, you know, the powers that be, have they... A, do they know about it? I mean, you know, and when I say Lucasfilm, I mean, like, people at the top. You know, whether it's George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, or Steven Spielberg, or Harrison Ford. Do they know about the existence of this museum? And if so, have they ever shown any interest in just taking a peek at it?

56:31Les J. DavidI'll answer the second part first, which is none of them have shown an interest. They don't even care about Steve's Star Wars one. The fandom part, they, you know, they're appreciative there are fans and that they're passionate and that they love it, but to them it was, you know, it was their job and they made that film and they're, and they're ecstatic and over the moon that we loved it, and it sorta ends there.

56:52Les J. DavidAnd that's fine. Spielberg knows about it. I know that because he sent me a cease and desist for my logo being a little too close to the Indiana Jones logo, because I had written him to ask, you know, to explain what the museum was and that I was working on trying to get autographs from the key people to be able to put up here at the museum, and the response I got was a cease and desist because of the logo on the letterhead. Could have at least sent me the autographs. That would've been nice. But no, I just got a cease and desist. So we changed the logo. That's fine. That's, you know, if I was in the wrong I'm not gonna argue that.

57:36Jawad MirSure.

57:36Les J. DavidWe changed it. And then I decided, 'cause you'll remember too, at the beginning of our conversation where I'm not so good at nos. So I then decided if we're gonna do that, I'm gonna write to you every three months. And for two years, every three months I sent a new package with the new logo and the new letterhead explaining who we were and that I would really love for him and Kate Capshaw, if they could sign the enclosed photos so we could, you know, add them to the museum walls. And when three months would go by and I heard nothing, which I felt was adequate time…

58:07Jawad MirSure

58:07Les J. David... I would send again. And at the end of two years, I kid you not, I get a phone call that starts with an 818 area code. Now, and I know what that is, that's…

58:16Jawad MirLos Angeles

58:17Les J. David... Hollywood, basically. And I went, "That's odd." And I picked it up, and the lady introduced herself and said that she was the personal assistant to Steven Spielberg, and that they were calling to confirm my address so that they could return my signed photos from Mr. Spielberg and Ms. Capshaw.

58:36Jawad MirYeah

58:36Les J. David... And that they would be FedExing them. And I said, "Oh, no, you can't FedEx to that address. That's my post office box. Let me give you my home address where FedEx will bring them." Over the moon of this. And at first I thought someone was messing with me, but then I went, "I haven't told anyone I'm doing this, so none of my friends could be pulling a prank because I don't ever tell people when I'm mailing away for autographs." And went, "And how would they be faking an 818 number? So no, I think this is actually real." and I gave her the address and she said, "Fantastic. Those will be going out today. You should receive them tomorrow. And we, can we now please expect this matter to be closed?" So I guess she had been the one getting my mail four times a year for the last two years. And I guess they decided that, you know, my persistence, that maybe the best way to make me go away would just be to actually sign the two photos. And I said, "By all means, tell them thank you very much. I much appreciate it." And sure enough, FedEx came the next day with an envelope addressed from Amblin Entertainment, and there were my two signed photos.

59:41Jawad MirWhen was this?

59:43Les J. DavidWhat are we in now, '23? It's probably about 10 years ago or so.

59:49Jawad MirOkay.

59:51Les J. DavidSo in at least a peripheral way, he certainly knew about us. I don't believe George, I mean, he has nothing to do with Indiana Jones now anyway.

1:00:01Jawad MirYeah.

1:00:02Les J. DavidI don't believe he, I don't believe he knows about it. I doubt Harrison does. He just, he's not big on the fandom thing. That's why he doesn't do comic cons and that sort of thing. So I, you know, again, he's never rude about it. You know, he'd be, "I'm glad that these films brought you joy," but that's about it.

1:00:20Jawad MirAnd I think you're right about that fact too, that, you know, because you spend, sometimes you spend so much time on these films, like especially Indiana Jones, it just kind of, I don't know what the right word would be, but it just kind of wears off the novelty for them and they, like you said, they move on to the next project.

1:00:37Les J. DavidYeah.

1:00:37Jawad MirMaybe m… maybe down the road, and even at this age now, like, you know, Spielberg is in the mid-70s. I think Lucas is around the same age. Harrison For… Harrison Ford is 80. I think you have other things to think about what time I have left… and what I'm gonna... How am I gonna make it useful as opposed to what I've done? I think what they wanted to do, they've already achieved, which is, like, create something that leaves an impact. I mean, films like Star Wars, Back to the Future, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, like, these are films that ha… that will be remembered for long time if everything else is even forgotten. Not because they were great films when they came out or even when they are right now, just because of the amount of fandom it has. It's, it's…

1:01:26Les J. DavidYeah

1:01:26Jawad Mir... Just amazing.

1:01:28Les J. DavidYeah.

1:01:28Jawad MirBut yeah, man. No, this is, this is cool. What do you... I wanted to know what are your plans now that new Indiana Jones movie's coming out? I mean, there's already announcements of tons of new toys. There'll be Lego. There'll be, like, statues, obviously, you know, when the DVD comes out. Are you planning to continue to grow it, or what's your plan, if that's something you're willing to share?

1:01:54Les J. DavidI am. I've, I've soul searched and had discussions with my wife of, so I will be 60 next year, and I now need to start thinking about maybe not tomorrow, but it's certainly now on our radar of we will be at some point having to embrace the next stages of our lives, which likely, as my in-laws did recently, mean downsizing and leaving. You know, right now I'm physically capable to take care of eight acres and the grass and the snow and the maintenance.

1:02:28Jawad MirSure.

1:02:29Les J. DavidBut as I get older, that may become difficult or, you know, hopefully not, but impossible. So when I knew that I had my whole life ahead of me to enjoy the stuff, nothing stopped me from buying anything other than if it was, you know, if it's an ori… you know, one of Harrison's hats sold for 50,000. Well, I don't play in that sandbox. I don't make that kind of money. But if it was the kind of things you saw around you know, when I gave you the tour, you know, just minutes ago…

1:03:01Jawad MirRight

1:03:01Les J. David... The sky was the limit. I had no problems, you know, to acquire those because I had my whole life ahead of me to enjoy them.

1:03:09Jawad MirSure.

1:03:09Les J. DavidNow, I now have more years behind me than in front of me. And so to answer your question, if it's something that all it's really doing is replicating what came before for merchandise, I'm likely going to pass. So an example, Hasbro has announced the new figures, and they look fabulous, but they're also doing the retro figures, which they've done for Star Wars, where it's simply an exact replica…

1:03:36Jawad MirYeah

1:03:36Les J. David... With a minor modification to the package, so it can't be passed off as an original, of those figures from 1982, which by the way, didn't sell. They were a huge disappointment and financial disaster for Kenner, and ended up being cleared at a chain called KB Toys and Hobbies in the USA for, like, 99 cents a figure. They didn't sell at all. They didn't even come to Canada. So why would I buy reproductions of those when I own the originals? I own all of them.

1:04:07Jawad MirSure.

1:04:07Les J. DavidSo I'm, I'm likely going to pass. On the other hand, they're now doing, 'cause of course that's the new norm, is six-inch action figures. That's sort of the size. You know, for you and I, we grew up with three and three-quarter inch.

1:04:19Jawad MirYeah.

1:04:19Les J. DavidThat was the norm. But now for the, you know, the young people today, they're used to the six-inch figure. Six and nine. So they're doing something called the Adventure series, which of course have better paint jobs and better sculpts and more points of articulation, et cetera, et cetera. Those look fabulous. Statues, if it's just another statue of Indy running from a boulder, I will not likely partake.

1:04:44Jawad MirYeah.

1:04:44Les J. DavidIt would be a case by case basis, but when it's stuff that really it's just another representation of what I've already got and is not uniquely different enough, probably gonna pass. Clothing, you know, Crystal Skull just about bankrupted me on the number of shirts and hats and scarves and tuques and whatever. They were all the same imagery, just slightly, you know, tinkered with, as, you know, one of them was, you know, that it's a pattern that repeated on like a, like a Hawaiian style shirt, you know, as opposed to just the one image on the back, you know, and I, and I bought all of them. So I'm like, you know what? If it's a shirt and I like it and it's unique and I can wear it, I'll buy it, but I'm not gonna be all in for every hat and every shirt and every piece of clothing they do. Artwork, I tend to... I mean, those map drawers back there have 5 or $600, or 5 or 600, sorry, posters…

1:05:41Les J. David... That are either art prints, original art from the artist, et cetera. I have always... I try to whenever I can, if I can afford it, buy the original art. That's one of the things that makes me sad in this digital age, is there's been some fabulous new Indiana Jones art, and I reach out to the artist who says, "Sorry, I did that on an iPad. It's all digital. There is no original. I can make you a print." I don't want the print. I want to be able to say, "I own the original." That, you know, there's, there's only one Picasso. We can all buy a print of a Picasso.

1:06:14Jawad MirRight.

1:06:14Les J. DavidBut there's, there's something special about the bragging rights. In this case, it is about bragging to say, "I loved it so much and it spoke to me so much, a reproduction was not good enough. I needed to own the original."

1:06:26Jawad MirSure.

1:06:26Les J. DavidAnd now that's not even possible, and that's sad to me. You know, 'cause a print, you know, it never captures what the original has, no matter how much they try.

1:06:37Jawad Mir100%. Same thing goes for the book. You know, it's like that feel. I even think same thing with DVDs and VHS, and then, you know, 16 millimeters or 35 millimeter. Like, everything is digital. You don't, you don't value it. Like, you know, like you have, like, 20,000 Blu-ray DVDs. I don't have that big of a collection, but I have a fairly big size. But to know that there is a DVD sitting on a shelf or a book as opposed to it's somewhere on the cloud… You know, it's two different things

1:07:05Les J. DavidOur house, we have, it's a three-bedroom house. One of the bedrooms, 'cause it's just the two of us, is a library full of nothing but bookshelves top to bottom with books. Hardcover, soft covers…

1:07:17Jawad MirYeah

1:07:17Les J. David... You know, everything in between, coffee table books. I m… I love, which is why I love the library here in the museum. I love books. I love being able to sit down, c… warm cup of hot chocolate and flip through a book. You know, maybe that just makes me an old fart, but I'm okay with that.

1:07:34Jawad MirNo, it, I think, I think books and, DVDs and all those tangible things are completely priceless. And, so let's, just one last question for you. You mentioned that, you know, obviously down the road things you'll have to assess and, you know, when life moves forward you have to reevaluate stuff. Whatever that is, and I hope it happens whenever it's supposed to happen for you, would you prefer to pass it on to someone as a massive collection by itself, like a museum, or would you…

1:08:06Les J. DavidYes.

1:08:06Jawad MirOkay.

1:08:07Les J. DavidOn… only because it's heartbreaking to me that 42 years later to br… I mean, I get offers already. People have said, "Well, if you're thinking about downsizing, you know, there's some pieces I would love." And I go, "I'll keep that in mind." But to spend 42 years to assemble it all together with over 9,000 items plus and counting in here, to then just cast it all into the wind again just seems a shame. And it may come to that, a… and that will be unfortunate. But I would rather that someone else, if they had deep enough pockets, would say, "You know what? Box it all up and here's the number we've agreed on, and let's get a 53-foot semi in your driveway, and let's get it on its way to its new home." That would be delightful, and I would love for that. You know, and I, and I would work with that person 150% to help them get it there. Any questions they have, any providence or stories they need behind certain items, 100% I would be on board for that. I just worry that, you know, in these economic times and otherwise, I don't know that will be a reality, but I can hope.

1:09:13Jawad MirYeah. But do you feel that now with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny coming out, which presumably would be the last Indiana Jones film for a while at least, if not at all, at least that's what Lucasfilm has said, maybe if s… because, you know, the excitement level will be there, if you do get an offer that you like, would you, would you partay with it this, even this year or next year?

1:09:37Les J. DavidYeah. My wife and I have said that if the right person knocked on the door, we... You know, there's Prop Store of London, I've let them know that if they, you know, in their portfolio of customers that have deep pockets that bid on some of their items, that if they thought they might have someone lined up and, you know, and they need to take a commission or whatever, but they could make it happen as... 'Cause I mean, I could send the whole thing to them and they'd just auction it off in pieces.

1:10:00Jawad MirYeah.

1:10:00Les J. DavidBut I would rather it stay together.

1:10:03Jawad MirYeah.

1:10:03Les J. DavidBut i… it w… I guess circumstance will dictate how it's gonna play out at the time when we finally say, "Okay, you know, these items, you know, they're going to eBay or auction sites or whatever." And I know, you know, I know that model that I showed you from the Disney ride, one sold years ago and it went for $10,000.

1:10:24Jawad MirGeez.

1:10:25Les J. DavidSo, you know, likely I'm, I sh… probably should be able to expect I'd get at least 10,000, and I have more to go with mine, including providence from the model maker that they did not have with that one that they sold at auction. So, you know, I…

1:10:41Jawad MirI…

1:10:41Les J. David... I already know the valuable items and I know the items that people will likely wanna snap up right away. It's the, well, that doesn't help me that if we have to move and I've still got, I'm gonna make up a number, you know, 500 cases packed up, where are they, where are they gonna go? Like, I'm not gonna pay to rent a storage facility to just let them sit in there where accidents happen all the time in those situations. Water, you know, rodents, bugs. You know, so if I'm out, I'd rather be all out.

1:11:13Jawad MirI think, I genuinely feel that you might get, like, an all-out offer sometime this year. Because the, it just depends how the excitement level... I mean, I think the excitement level of course among the fans is great. But d… depending on how the film does with the audience, not necessarily the box office, but just in terms of, the admiration from the fan, you probably will. Beyond this year, I don't know, unless there's more Indiana Jones stuff planned. But, I think you're at the right time at the right place, and I hope that the right thing happens.

1:11:46Les J. DavidThank you. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, I will be sad just like, you know…

1:11:50Jawad MirOh, I know

1:11:51Les J. David... A child, a child leaving off to go to college. It's… it's such a huge part of my life. But just like I watched my in-laws go through, it is what it is, that as we, you know, get older, in our situation we now have to get d… ready for a different phase of our lives. I've known all along that reality, I mean, this museum is bigger than the first house I owned as a young man. My first house was 900 square feet. This place is 1,200 square feet with 10-foot ceilings. And there's more than what's inside this museum because anything that's store displays are in storage on the other side of the, of the room here in another room because there's just no way to display those things. They're too big. That's why even the theater display isn't in here. I can actually... Here, let's... I will let you look outside the door.

1:12:41Jawad MirSure.

1:12:41Les J. DavidWe're on the second floor. People always forget that 'cause they think that... So there's the theater display as you come up the stairs.

1:12:53Jawad MirNice.

1:12:53Les J. DavidSo that thing is roughly five feet across, nine feet high, and there's other small displays in that as you're coming in. That's the only place I can show those, and this barn has a rounded ceiling for the real barn. The museum has a flat, but the real one here is that it's a curved barn. And then… I don't know if you can see.

1:13:14Jawad MirYeah, I…

1:13:14Les J. DavidThat's the Ark… that's the Ark of the Covenant life-size down there…

1:13:18Jawad MirWow

1:13:18Les J. David... On your way up the stairs.

1:13:21Jawad MirAmazing. Amazing. There was a game that came out in the late '90s that I used to play on my PC. It was an Indiana Jones game. I don't remember the name of it. You probably would.

1:13:31Les J. DavidFate of Atlanti… Fate of Atlantis probably.

1:13:34Jawad MirMaybe.

1:13:35Les J. DavidYeah, Indiana Jones and the Fate of the Atlantis is the big fan favorite that everybody still to this day says they should've turned into a movie. I actually have, oh, it's right here, from when I owned my video game stores. That's the life-size standup painting of Harrison with the MacGuffin in his hand. That's the thing you're chasing in the game is that thing right there in his hand.

1:13:59Jawad MirWow.

1:14:00Les J. DavidAnd I had somebody make me one for real. That's the thing that he's chasing, and the medallion you use to find it in the Fate of Atlantis game.

1:14:13Jawad MirWow, that's… that's… that's incredible. I think, I think, yeah, that's the, that's pretty much the one that I probably played. I'm just looking at some screenshots. And there was another one that came out after that, maybe in the early 2000s. But anyways, I mean, that's… that's fine. This is great, man.

1:14:28Les J. DavidThe last g… the last game out was called Staff of the Kings. That was it, the final entry was the... And it was out for PSP and Game Boy and all that stuff. And we haven't had a game since. And they have since announced that they are working on a new video game adventure for him.

1:14:43Jawad MirOf course they are, because it's gonna make them a killer amount of money.

1:14:46Les J. DavidWell.

1:14:48Jawad MirThey… they know there's an audience, right? So, that, they would be hoping that people sort of, jump on that. Great, man. This is awesome. Unless you have anything else to add, I really appreciate your time, and I really thoroughly enjoyed talking to you and of course the tour of your museum. It was phenomenal.

1:15:06Les J. DavidYeah. I always say that, you know, if you've got questions or you think there's something that your audience would be like, "But what about..." I… I usually leave it to you guys to decide what you wanna ask. I'm an open book and happy to share. So certainly if you have follow-up questions or whatever, by all means. The website which we brought back to life, 'cause if there's something worth talking about again with the new film, is throwmetheidol.com. So we've started posting. I don't do rumors. I do news. So if it's factual and it exists, then it ends up on the page. When it... And we don't do spoilers of any kind. When people start saying, "Well, I heard this happens," or I don't. I leave that to other websites. I just cover the facts of, here's what's happening, here's official trailers, here's official merchandise, here's where you can get that merchandise, that it's exclusive to, you know, Target or Walmart or, you know, and to help you in your search of being able to track those treasures down. And I'm always happy to answer people's questions about, "Hey, I've got this thing, and do you know the history behind it?" or whatever. I'm, I'm, I'm perfectly happy to help.

1:16:08Jawad MirNo, that's great, man. I'm glad that you are so open and upfront about it. And I would love to talk to you probably as the days get closer to the release date or maybe even after, just to have another, discussion about the film.

1:16:22Les J. DavidSure. By all means. Let's, you know, let's get together as, you know, if you want, you know, days after the film opens, and you can see whether I, have a happy face or a frowny face on.

1:16:33Jawad MirWell, I think that I will sort of dictate dec… That would be decided more so how many times you've seen the film by then.

1:16:39Les J. DavidYeah. Yeah, I mean, I always like to, you know, there's the first one where you get your first impression, and then there's that second one where it either cements it in or you start to realize that maybe it was just hype that was getting you excited or whatever. So yeah, I'll need to see it a couple times before I can know where I for sure stand on it. But I mean, certainly the trailer's making me, you know, pretty excited. Lucasfilm always cuts a good trailer that it makes you ask more questions than it answers, and that's, in my opinion, what a good trailer should be.

1:17:06Jawad MirSo yeah. So let's, let's, let's do that, man. Let's do that after the release date and…

1:17:10Les J. DavidYeah

1:17:10Jawad Mir... Let's chat and go from there.

1:17:12Les J. DavidPerfect. It was tons of fun. Glad that you reached out. And, we'll touch base, I guess, in about, four or five months.