Mysterious Stay Puft goes missing

 

My day seems to be ending as it started, on a fairly low note.

The film Ghostbusters has always held a special place in my heart. I can't really explain why except that it is so dramatic, so funny, with a majestic mise en scene, to use an old film studies term -- which simply means everything in the film is majestic.

This might make me a little corny, I guess, but when I spotted a toy Stay Puft in a window as I walked along Shaftesbury Avenue almost exactly two months ago on Nov 20, I immediately took a picture of him for myself and to share with other fans of Stay Puft.

I didn't want to take him home, but remained somewhat haunted by him, and thought from time to time I must return.

So, today after seeing the old Howard Hawks film Ball of Fire starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck at the British Film Institute, a random walk into the West End led me to seek him out.

It was windy after I got out of the cinema, so I didn't want to spend time on the river. 

I walked from the south bank across Hungerford Foot Bridge, through Charing Cross station, behind St Martin-in-the-Fields and up Charing Cross Road to Shaftesbury Avenue.

Once there, I decided to check for Stay Puft again. I wanted to go into the shop this time, but I walked all the way up Shaftesbury to Piccaddilly Circus, took a look at Eros, and then back down beyond where I started at Charing Cross Road with no luck.

I tried again. Dug out the picture on my BlackBerry by trolling all the way back to November 20 through a gazillion pictures. The pictures there, of a night-time post-robbery scene on Shaftesbury and some pretty iced cakes in a window, gave no clue as to where exactly the shop was or what it was called.

I walked back up almost to Piccadilly circus again.

I don't even think the shop, which I think was a film shop, is there anymore. 

Somewhat dejected, I unusually retraced my steps back to the strand. 

Most often, I try to vary the route I take to and from a place for variety. 

When I noticed the Savoy Hotel, which reopened a few months ago after being under renovation for at least two years, since before I moved to London in September 2008, I decided to take a detour through it to the Embankment.

It is very grand and i looked in some of the dining rooms and what must be a ballroom. I didn't feel like going into the bar to see what it was like.

I walked up the steps and across Waterloo Bridge and into Lambeth and over to Southwark and home.

Now recovering from the trauma of missing Stay Puft with a glass of red wine.