Heritage: Films from the Archives of Ontario

Stewart Boden (right) of the Archives of Ontario received recognition from the West Toronto Junction Historical Society after a presentation in Toronto, Ontario on 4-November-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In April 2009, the Archives of Ontario moved to a new location on the Keele campus of York University. As the new purpose-built facility is less accessible to many than the previous location in the core of Toronto, the archives have tried to do more outreach, and Stewart Boden of the archives provided one such experience with a talk at the West Toronto Junction Historical Society on Thursday night.

The presentation focused on some of the films from the archives, and they were quite a cultural tour. The first clip came from an early provincial production called "Her Own Fault" which showed two independent women, one of which was a very proper and good employee with hygienic habits and the other who did everything wrong. The latter ended up with tuberculosis (though was well cared for by the provincial health care system, of course)--can one imagine such a message being delivered by the government even a generation ago?

Probably my favorite public health clip from the presentation, though, featured a borrowed character. Apparently "Murphy the Molar" was the mascot of the Ontario Dental Association, and the province adopted him for a series of spots on dental hygiene. A particularly amusing example showed Murphy recommending the use of a mask when playing hockey, complete with music from the famous Canadian folk group The Travellers.

Another great set of ads, somewhat more modern in origin, warned motorists to respect snow plows that moved slowly with their blue beacon lights on while removing snow. While the sample shown on Thursday was rather amusing, featuring a sports car snow plow, there was apparently a spot produced that featured a snow plow that fired upon any cars approaching too close. That one apparently didn't last very long on the air.

Of course, no summary of Ontario government-produced films could be complete without the only one that actually won an Academy Award. I had heard many things about "A Place to Stand," used as a promotional film by the province at Expo '67 in Montreal, Quebec (a short clip is here). However, I had never actually seen more than a brief snippet of the film with its famous lyrics, "A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow, Ontari-ari-ari-o" and then-innovative split-screen visuals. That wasn't the case for the rest of the audience on Thursday. Once it started, everyone else started to sing along.

I can't think of a reason why I will need to go to the Archives of Ontario in the future, but with 15,000 feet of year of new documents being added, maybe someday I will. After the presentation on Thursday, I certainly view it as more than a repository of genealogical information for the province of Ontari-ari-air-o.

Heritage: Boom Times in Swansea

The cast of Boom Times Cabaret stood after their performance at the Swansea Historical Society on 4-March-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - No, Swansea hasn't escaped the worldwide recession. Instead, for one evening during the meeting of the Swansea Historical Society on 4-March-2009, the boom times of the neighbouring onetime city of West Toronto were re-lived through the "Boom Times Cabaret: Heart of the Junction Talk Show" presented by the West Toronto Junction Historical Society (WTJHS).

The show, which has been performed since the celebration of the centennial of West Toronto becoming a city in 2008, features conversations with historical figures from the early 1900's, played by modern residents. Neil Ross plays journalist A.B. Rice as host, and interviews the other cast members, portraying a variety of figures from Chief of Police Josiah Royce to principal Mary Cherry to coroner and mayor G.W. Clendenan. I was especially pleased to see local historian Madeleine McDowell playing the Junction's first librarian, Elizabeth MacCallum--an arm in a sling wasn't enough to keep her away.

The amount of historical information--both large things and small details--that one picks up from events like this always amazes. I actually didn't know the origin of the name of Clendenan Avenue--it turns out it was named after D.W. Clendenan, who had purchased much of the land around the Junction before the boom. It wasn't named after G.W. Clendenan, but I learned that the historical figure in the show had lived at the location on Dundas Street that now features the "Junction Stage" that looks like a train station.

Between McDowell's portrayal of librarian MacCallum and Kristen Buckley's portrayal of Cherry, there was a definite feminist theme to the show. To modern audiences, it is shocking to learn how little MacCallum was paid, but heartening to learn that she was chosen as the first librarian when she believed they would find a man instead. Cherry had to go through a period as "acting" principal since the job was expected to go to a man, but became so locally popular that the woman who held the key to local playgrounds and opened them up for the public was eventually given the job outright.

The performance also included the poem Last Call (Before the Junction Goes Dry), a fitting tribute to an area well known for its historic aversion to alcohol.

For those interested in more historical re-enactments from the same team that prepared Boom Times, there will be a repeat of Amalgamation Night 1909 on its 100th anniversary on Friday, 1-May-2009. Watch the WTJHS web site for further details as the time approaches.

Heritage: Neil Ross on Canadian Humour

Neil Ross presented the history of Canadian Humour to the West Toronto Junction Historical Society on 5-February-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Few things are held more dearly in the Canadian psyche than the distinct Canadian sense of humour. Yet, few people seem to know how it developed. Neil Ross tried to rectify this with his presentation "Nation of Irony Mongers: Roots of the Canadian Sense of Humour", made in front of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society last Thursday as a preview of a series of two-minute radio features that will be airing on the CBC in the coming weeks.

I was pleased to find Ross start with native humour. He pointed out that most First Nations and other native peoples in Canada had much of their humour based on the trickster, often the coyote, but sometimes embodied in other animals, most notably the raven on the west coast. The notion of the trickster made its way into European-Canadian humor straight-away, and still lives on to this day even on the Rick Mercer Report.

Many comic devices that have made their way to the rest of the world through the United States actually originated in Canada. Most notably, the "pie in the face" gag originated in Newfoundland; Ross recounted how Doc Kelley originally improvised food dripping off someone's face, and seeing what laughter it brought, followed it up in a subsequent act with the first true pie-in-the-face routine to a riotous response.

This being a local historical society meeting, Ross emphasized local comedians Greg Clark and Jimmy Frise, both of whom lived in the Bâby Point neighbourhood just to the west. An audience member actually knew the exact houses that they lived in, and Clark had apparently moved during his time there. The columnist (Clark) and cartoonist (Frise) duo made the Toronto Star incredibly popular between 1920 and 1947 through a strip named Birdseye Center.

My favorite story about Clark and Frise told by Ross, though, was that they once decided to invoke the trickster heritage and purchased a bench exactly like the park benches in High Park in Toronto. They brought their bench to the park, sat on it, and waited for a police officer that they had an issue with to walk by. They then proceeded to walk off with the bench, prompting the officer to confront them. Only when they were about to be arrested did they pull out their sales receipt from the purchase of the bench.

The first three episodes of the "Nation of Irony Mongers" have been posted to the West Toronto Junction Historical Society web site. They will air during the local morning programs on CBC Radio One; the time locally here in Toronto on 99.1 FM is not yet known, but should start next week during Metro Morning.