Filey - Toronto sketches: the way we were

Toronto Sketches

The Way We Were

The Way We Were

MIKE FILEY

Copyright Mike Filey, 1992

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Reprography Collective.

Editing: Nadine Stoikoff
Design and Production: Green Graphics
Cover design: Andy Tong
Printing and Binding: Gagn Printing Ltd., Louiseville, Quebec, Canada

The publisher wishes to acknowledge the generous assistance and ongoing support of The Canada Council, The Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of Communications, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Ontario Publishing Centre of the Ministry of Culture and Communications.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in the text (including the illustrations). Credit for each quotation is given at the end of the selection. The author and publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any reference or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, Publisher

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Filey, Mike, 1941

Toronto sketches

ISBN 978-1-55002-176-9

1. Toronto (Ont.) History. 2. Toronto (Ont.) Pictorial works.
I. Title.

FC3097.4.F55 1992 971.3541 C92-095288-7
F1059.5.T6857F55 1992

Dundurn Press Limited
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Suite 301
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M4E 1E5

Dundurn Distribution Limited
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, by Paul V. Godfrey

STORIES

Toronto has changed dramatically in the last half-century from a reserved provincial city that was more concerned with Sunday activities and liquor laws than about its position in the world community. The 1970s and 80s have changed all that and vaulted Toronto into the major league.

We have managed to maintain our solid image of being a livable community while at the same time providing our citizens the excitement, pizzazz and flair that is so necessary to attract tourism, industry and commerce. Toronto is an exciting world centre with big league sports (including home to the World Series champions, the Toronto Blue Jays), first-rate entertainment and sophisticated cultural activities that compete with the best anywhere.

Toronto will never forget its yesterday because it is important to build ones future on the solid foundation of our past. Positive traditions and wonderful memories will always be an important keepsake.

Mike Filey, our great historian, reminds us every week in the Sunday Sun of the way we were. He brings the positive past back to us and reminds us of how deep our roots really are. This book is not only a tribute to Toronto, but a reminder that where we come from can only help us with where we are going. Mike Filey is very much the human chain that links the dreams of the future with the memories of the past.

Paul V. Godfrey
Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Sun

Several months prior to the October 30, 1971, demise of the Toronto Telegram newspaper, I was approached by the editor of the papers real estate section and asked whether I might be able to provide copy and photos for a Toronto history column that would run if and when space was available.

I said I could and over the next few weeks, my material ran on a few occasions before all columns, and the paper itself, came to an untimely end.

While the termination of the 95-year-old Tely was unquestionably a sad event in our citys history, there was one positive side-effect. Just two days after the last Telegram was published, the city witnessed the birth of a new city paper, the Toronto Sun.

Many of the former Telegram people threw their lot in with the Sun, and before long I was again asked to provide historical photos and cutlines that would run on an irregular basis. This time, however, the uncertainty as to whether my material would appear wasnt predicated just on the availability of space, but on the uncertainty as to whether the paper would be around long enough to run the column. The so-called experts didnt give the Sun much hope of survival.

But survive it did and in 1973 a Sunday edition appeared. Two years after the arrival of the Sunday Sun I was asked if Id like to be a regular contributor to this edition of the paper. I accepted, and since then I have contributed more then 800 columns on subjects as diverse as the origins of Toronto street names to the history of the citys streetcars, prominent sports personalities to little-known morsels of Toronto trivia.

Unless otherwise stated, photographs are from my private collection. The dates under each storeys headline is the date the article first appeared in the Toronto Sun.

What follows is a selection of columns each of which has received some sort of special feedback from my readers. I hope you enjoy them the second time around.

Mike Filey

In preparing a newspaper column such as The Way We Were, its always helpful to have nice people on whom I can call in my search for hard-to-find historical data and/or photographs. With some trepidation that Ive forgotten the names of a few such individuals, listed below are those who I can remember:

Julie Kirsh, Catherine Webb Nelson, Glenna Tapscott, Joyce Wagler, Sue Dugas and Robert Smith (Toronto Sun Library), Marilyn Linton, Vena Eaton and Linda Fox (Sunday Suns Life section), Eric Leverton and Don MacPhail (out back in the Sun composing room), Paul Godfrey (we all know who he is), Victor Russel and his staff (City of Toronto Archives), Michael Moir (Toronto Harbour Commission Archives), Ted Wickson (Toronto Transit Commission Archives), Catherine Webb (Toronto Historical Board), Linda Coban (Canadian National Exhibition Archives), Linda Heath (House of Providence), Margaret Bowser, Bruce Croft, Paul Culliton, Andy Donato, Warren Evans, Douglas Servage, Rand Sparling, and Jack Webster. To those Ive forgotten, sorry, but thanks anyway.

To my wife, Yarmila, thanks also, especially for putting me onto WordPerfect.

This book is dedicated to all the Sunday Sun readers who make putting together a column such as The Way We Were a lot of fun.

While the origins of a great number of Metro Torontos street names are relatively easy to deduce (pretty words, catchy words, simple words), there are a few names that well probably never discover the reasons for since the story behind the selection years ago was never documented. I can think of several that seem so obvious yet, so far, the reasons remain obscure; Pharmacy, Martin Grove, McNicoll and Robina, to name just a few.