The biggest turnout anywhere in Canada

MARTY KLINKENBERG

FREDERICTON - They clutched movie posters and DVDs and videos and old vinyl record albums, and waited in lines that snaked around a liquor store and poured out into the supermarket next door, threatening to topple a mountain of Swiss Cake rolls, obscuring a Jos. Louis display.

Hundreds upon hundreds of fans turned out on Sunday to meet Dan Aykroyd as he introduced his signature line of Chardonnay and Cabernet Merlot to Atlantic Canadians. A planned 90-minute appearance at NB Liquor's Outlet on Prospect Street in Fredericton stretched into three and a half hours as the actor and comedian signed bottle after bottle of his $17 vintages and posed, smiling broadly, for picture after picture.

By the time he was done, 1,200 bottles had been sold to people who waited for two hours or more, with music from The Blues Brothers and Dragnet as a backdrop. The crowd was so large that the store actually closed its doors early to make sure that everyone inside could get their bottles signed.

"This is absolutely unprecedented,'' Dana Clendenning, the CEO of NB Liquor, said as he surveyed the scene. "We were expecting maybe 300 people to turn out, and there are almost 500 here right now, with more than an hour still to go.

"This is beyond our wildest expectations. According to the guys travelling with him, this is the biggest turnout he has had anywhere in Canada."

A wine connoisseur, Aykroyd launched his label in Ontario earlier this summer and has already done promotional tours in Alberta and British Columbia. He will remain in Fredericton on Monday, moving across town to the NB Liquor store at Devon Park from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., will be in Saint John on Tuesday at Parkway Mall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will be in Dieppe on Wednesday, also from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The star of Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Trading Places and Driving Miss Daisy, among other television shows and movies, rolled into Fredericton on Saturday. Within a few hours, he was belting out the blues, and finished the night performing at the Musicplex with Premier Shawn Graham and his wife, Roxanne Reeves, singing backup on Who Do You Love?

"The bands here are really tight," Aykroyd said. "I'd take them on the road with me. And the premier and his wife acquitted themselves very well.

"I think New Brunswickers should be proud of their young premier."

Aykroyd came to New Brunswick at the invitation of Clendenning, who met him at a wine forum in the Niagara Region earlier this year.

"He immediately turned to one of his people and said, 'I'd love to do that.' '' Clendenning said. "A lot of people say that, and then it falls through, but he called back a couple of months later and said, 'I really want to make this trip.' ''

And there he was getting mobbed on Saturday night, and again on Sunday.

Clearly, it wasn't a good day in Fredericton for Ernest and Julio Gallo. Shoppers likewise were turning up their noses at Naked Grape Chardonnay and ignoring the Menage a Trois red table wine in favour of Canadian Bacon. Along with his wine, Aykroyd sold about 75 750-milileter bottles of Patron Tequila at $62.20 a piece, and a handful of bottles of potent chocolate liqueur.

"Canadians do like their beverages,'' Aykroyd said as he sat in a motorcoach in the mall's parking lot. "That helps us in our cause."

Aykroyd hammed it up with photographers and cozied up to fans. He grabbed one woman's cellphone as she spoke excitedly with a friend.

"What are you doing?" Aykroyd demanded. "Why aren't you down here with the rest of these fine people?"

People lugged bottles in their arms, filled baskets and even shopping carts. Melissa Friedman of Moncton and her brother, James, left with 22 bottles.

"I swear, it's not all for me,'' Friedman said. "Some of these are gifts."

Fans carried Aykroyd souvenirs dating back a few decades - the records, movie stills, posters. Others, who appeared to think their stepmother was, indeed, an alien, came with UFO paraphernalia.

The creator of Coneheads is the Hollywood consultant to the Mutual UFO network.

"Every record and movie has a memory for me, and takes me back,'' Aykroyd said.

Aykroyd sipped shots of Patron as he signed tequila bottles and bottles of wine. He is a distributor of Patron, a premium brand that is Oprah's favourite.

He exchanged friendly chat with fans the whole time.

"You're spreading the cheer around, huh?"

"Thank you for coming out today, sir. It's worth it, I promise."

And, "Do you like them in shots or margaritas?"

At the end of the day he talked appreciatively about his career, and marveled at the mayhem that occurs whenever he hits the road.

"One guy in Vancouver showed up in full Ghostbusters regalia,'' he said. "He had a Proton Pack and a wand, everything. He was about 30.

"Ghostbusters was his life."