An Open Letter to Toronto from 1913
Plus, the old island airport's connection to the first Billboard #1, and more...
As I was researching last week’s post, I stumbled across a fascinating letter published on this day 111 years ago. It came at a time when the city was growing into a modern metropolis — home to about 400,000 people — but was still an incredibly British place, run by a deeply conservative establishment. Prohibition was just a few years away. The Toronto Police Morality Squad still prowled the streets. Sundays were dead quiet. The old “Toronto The Good” was in full force. It was, in a lot of ways, a very different place from the Toronto we know today, and yet…
So for this week’s newsletter, I thought I would share the letter in full, just as it was published in The Toronto Daily Star back in September 1913:
Editor of the Star: It is doubtful whether the regime of dry and narrow Puritanism which now dominates Toronto will survive the larger demands of a bigger population. Our city will need something more imaginative in the way of administration than we have to-day; our elected representatives will have to be the servants — not the schoolteachers — of the people.
Municipal Puritanism has been tried and found wanting. They aesthetic needs of the people have been forced into strictly limited channels, and propriety and inanity have been made to go hand in hand. The poor artistic quality of the amusements of this city indicates the blighting influence of the kill-joy regime. This year Puritanism has captured the Exhibition, so that no nude pictures have been exhibited [I suspect he means paintings at the CNE’s art gallery] to a public whose main idea of the human form is gathered from the indecencies of musical comedy. Although fashioned after the image of the Creator, beauty unadorned is quite intolerable to the Mrs. Grundys of Toronto.
And when we were given a dramatic production based on the problems of maternity — a welcome respite to “motion-pictures” and musical comedies — the play-going public were treated as though they had no moral judgment of their own, and every effort was made to prevent their forming an opinion on the merits or demerits of the play.
The most recent manifestation of the Puritan spirit was the scream of indignation which greeted the very moderate criticisms made by a Toronto coroner upon the city’s method of dealing with the social evil [sex work] — a method which consists of a fanatical endeavor to uproot the said evil with the policeman’s truncheon.
Enforced virtues are worth nothing. Nobody can admire the man who steals nothing because his hands are tied.
If democracy is ever to come into its own, Puritanism must go. The people must have liberty, culture, pleasure, recreation. They must have facilities to choose between the good and bad, for only by such means can character be formed and citizenship be developed. The soul of the people must not be stunted by petty restrictions and dry-as-dust regulations, for “where there is no vision the people perish.”
— OLIVER DOWNY
Toronto, Sept. 8
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My Scandalous New Course Is Just Eight Days Away!
I’m offering another brand new online course! Toronto has a lot of skeletons in its closet. The city's history is filled with stories of infamous love affairs, disgraced politicians and outrageous movie stars. Tales of vice, sin and impropriety have made headlines, shocked the public, and deeply shaped the place we call home. In this online course, we'll explore what those spicy stories can teach us about our city and its past by illuminating the boundaries of Torontonian morality — and we'll meet those who have challenged its limits, for better and for worse.
Format: The course will include four weekly lectures on Zoom with a chance to interact and ask questions, as well as a list of recommended readings. Each week's lecture will last approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.
Dates: September 16 to October 7, 2024.
Time: 8pm every Monday night.
Recordings: Every lecture will be available to stream online later for anyone who can't make that week's class. All the recordings will remain available for the foreseeable future.
Cost: $75 + tax.
Paid subscribers to the newsletter also get 10% off!
Next Weekend: A Scandalous Tour of Old Toronto!
If you’d like a sneak peak of some of the stories we’ll be exploring in A Downright Scandalous History of Toronto, I’ll also be sharing a few of them during a walking tour — just a couple of days before the online course kicks off!
Toronto's history is filled with tales of dishonour, disgrace and disrepute. On this walk through the city's oldest neighbourhoods, we'll uncover some of those notorious scandals. From deadly duels to lustful brothels, from bribery and corruption to incest and infidelity… there are shocking tales to be told about the history of Toronto.
When: Saturday, September 14 at 3pm.
Where: Meet in the Distillery District — at the little clock tower outside 7 Trinity Street. The tour will last about 2 hours and end near Yonge & King.
Price: Pay what you like.
If you’ve registered for the course, you can feel very free to come on the tour for free!
The Old Island Airport’s Connection To The First Billboard #1
The old island airport terminal is one of our city’s best-kept secrets. It’s a National Historic Site that first opened all the way back in 1939, but it’s also hard to find, having been moved to a relatively quiet part of the airport property. Today, it’s up on blocks, hidden behind a maintenance building and a fence near the Hanlan’s Point ferry docks. (You can find it on Google Maps here.)
Patty Winsa wrote about the terminal for The Toronto Star this week, looking at why the building has been left to rot while a plan to save it and refurbish it as a restaurant and event space still hasn’t come to fruition. It feels like the question of the terminal’s future is becoming ever more urgent as it falls into disrepair.
In her piece, Winsa also mentions an extraordinary historical tidbit I hadn’t come across before. The first commercial flight to land at the terminal was a charted plane carrying jazz legend Tommy Dorsey and his band. They were in town to play at that year’s CNE — a visit that would make music history.
I’ve already written about that part of the story — both in The Toronto Book of the Dead and in The Toronto History Weekly earlier this year. While Dorsey was in town, a local songwriter named Ruth Lowe saw her opportunity to pitch a new song she’d written. It was a heartbreaking ballad about the recent death of her husband called “I’ll Never Smile Again.”
Lowe headed down to the Exhibition Grounds with an early recording of the tune, which she gave to a friend who played in the band who then passed it along to Dorsey himself. Dorsey loved it so much he decided to use the tune to launch the career of the band’s up-and-coming young singer: a crooner named Frank Sinatra.
The timing was perfect. By the end of the CNE that year, the Second World War had begun. “I’ll Never Smile Again” quickly became an anthem for people grieving the loss of their own loved ones, making it an international smash hit and the first ever Billboard #1 best-selling single.
And it all started with that plane touching down at the old island airport terminal in the fading days of the summer of 1939.
READ THE TORONTO STAR ARTICLE.
I’ll Be Talking About The Toronto Book of the Dead at a 175-Year-Old Schoolhouse
The Enoch Turner Schoolhouse has been standing on Trinity Street since the middle of the 1800s, so what better place to share some of the most fascinating stories from The Toronto Book of the Dead? The historic site’s pub night tradition returns this month and I’m delighted to take part as a speaker for the night:
“Enoch Turner on Tap! returns as a celebratory pub night to toast 175 years of free schooling at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse. Enjoy storytelling, snacks, Victorian games, and even sip on a custom brewed beer good enough to impress Enoch Turner himself!”
When: Wednesday, September 25 at 6:30pm.
Where: Enoch Turner Schoolhouse (106 Trinity Street).
Price: $33.28.
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AT THE EX NEWS — Arthur Milnes took a look back at this week in 1951, when Eleanor Roosevelt paid a visit to the CNE. He shared a long excerpt from her newspaper column, in which she wrote about that trip to the Ex:
It is really a remarkable show. It is, in effect, the show windows of Canada, and people come in the millions to see and enjoy the exceptional features that fill the days during the two-weeks period that the exhibition lasts. I was told on every side that those responsible for the exhibition volunteered their time and worked harder than they did at their own business, but they loved it.
I could well see that one could spend days without really taking in all that there was to see. … I was particularly glad to go into one hall where I met a number of school children, who were all from the same school but had come from many countries all over the world. A little United Nations exists in that school.
WAVE NEWS — Matt English (@matttomic on Twitter) tracked down the moment Jays fans first started doing the wave, back in 1984 at Exhibition Stadium:
(Click to read the full thread.)
LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS NEWS — At TVO, Jamie Bradburn looks back at the rocky opening days of the Toronto Zoo, which includes the fact the zoo “discovered the lions could jump over the protective moat, posing a threat to visitors.” It would be years before the lions were finally put on public display. Read more.
FIVE MISSES FOR FIVE RINGS NEWS — Jamie also recently wrote about the five times Toronto has made a bid to host the Olympic Games and the five times the city has failed. (Though we did host the Paralympics in 1976, the year Montreal had the Olympics.) Read more.
CHAIN OF OFFICE NEWS — Mark Maloney appeared on The Champlain Society’s Witness to History podcast to chat about his new book, Toronto Mayors: A History of the City’s Leaders (which I just started reading myself this week). Listen to it.
DOLLHOUSE NEWS — Phoebe Knight writes that you’ve missed your chance to own a strange piece of kitschy Toronto history. The Leslieville Dollhouse has been sold. Read more.
MAGIC EYE WALLPAPER NEWS — Misha Gajewski takes us inside 71 Darnborough Way, a house in Scarborough that has just been put on the market, and which “is like a psychedelic 1970s time capsule.” Read more.
ANARCHIST HAUNTING NEWS — I shared the story of the notorious anarchist Emma Goldman in the newsletter a few months ago. And it turns out there’s actually a song that seems to be about her connection to Toronto by the British band Fit & The Conniptions. Thanks to Sharoni Sibony for passing it along! Listen to it.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
MOUNT PLEASANT CEMETERY FALL HISTORY WALK
September 14 — 1pm — Mount Pleasant Cemetery (meet near the Cemetery Office) — Toronto Cemetery Tours
“Once again, Chantal Morris from Toronto Cemetery Tours is working with Mount Pleasant Group to give a FREE Fall History Tour of Mount Pleasant Cemetery - but this time we're exploring the EAST SIDE of the cemetery! Join us at 1pm on Saturday, September 14th to hear some of the lesser known (but equally as exciting) stories on the "other side" of the cemetery.”
Free!
YONGE STREET’S INCREDIBLE MUSIC & POP CULTURE HISTORY
September 19 — 7:30pm — Online & Montgomery’s Inn
“Did you know... That Gordon Lightfoot once sang for $25 a day at a Yonge Street dinner theatre? That a chance meeting in Toronto determined the direction of The Beatles greatest album? That the most decisive event in Rock N Roll history occurred at Yonge and Dundas? (In what is now a drugstore.) Yonge Street's connection to music, theatre and pop culture is literally second to none. Having been described as a musical/theatre mecca equal or better than Times Square or Hollywood Blvd. From Jazz and Motown to Hip Hop. Rock N Roll and Metal to Alternative. This 40 minute talk will show you a side of ‘The Strip’ you never knew existed.”
Free for members of the Etobicoke Historical Society; annual memberships are $25.
MONEY TALKS: TRANSLATING VALUE OVER TIME
September 23 — 7:30pm — In person & online — Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society
“Drew von Hasselbach’s great-great-granduncle bought a property in Ontario for 17 pounds and 10 shillings in 1837. But how much is that in today’s money? Drew was a reporter at the Financial Post for 20 years, and he’ll show you how to figure that out. Speaker Drew von Hasselbach is a lawyer and journalist who has been doing genealogical research for more than 30 years. He received a Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies from the National Institute of Genealogical Studies in October 2022. He has experience researching records in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Germany and Eastern Europe. He reads English, French, German and Latin. Since 2017, Drew has been with Global news, where he is currently head of the copy desk, supervising a team of editors who review stories before publication on the web, and training reporters on news writing techniques. Outside of work, you might find him playing guitar with other journalists in the band Conrad Black Sabbath.”
Free, I believe!
SHEILA WHITE PRESENTS “THE LETTERS: POSTMARK PREJUDICE IN BLACK AND WHITE”
September 25 — 7pm — Toronto's First Post Office — Town of York Historical Society
“Shelia White will present on her 2023 debut novel, ‘The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White;’ a biographical story about her parents’ interracial marriage in 1940s Toronto. White chronicles her parents' courtship which transcends deeply rooted taboos in this friends to lovers narrative uncovering the social injustices and perceptions that were apparent in Toronto in the 20th century.”
$17.31 for members; $22.63 for non-members
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SUN… LET THERE BE LIGHT!
September 25 — 7pm — Northern District Library — North Toronto Historical Society
“Discover the history of the stained glass windows of the Church of St. Clement (50 St. Clements Ave. at Duplex). In this illustrated presentation, St. Clement's archivist, Donald E. Holmes, will describe the history and religious significance of the 27 windows made by six Canadian manufacturing companies.”
Free, I believe!
HOW ARCHAEOLOGY IS REWRITING THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS
September 26 — 6:30pm — Royal Ontario Museum
“From the Canadian Arctic to the mountains of central Mexico, new research is shifting the long-standing western scientific narrative that human populations arrived in the Americas only 13,000 years ago. Join us for an evening event that includes the Canadian premiere screening of Walking with Ancients, a full-length documentary that challenges viewers to rethink the history of humans in the Americas based on new and emerging archaeological research. Following the screening, archaeologists Paulette Steeves, Ciprian Ardelean, Justin Jennings, and filmmakers Elizabeth Trojian and Robin Bicknell will discuss the archaeological evidence that is currently challenging how earlier generations of scientists framed the peopling of the Americas. Through their expert insights, we learn of new work being done to decolonize the discipline and gain a better understanding of the implications for how we understand our past, present, and future.”
Free with registration!
HERITAGE TORONTO WALKING TOURS
Until October
“Through our events, including tours, community discussions, the Heritage Toronto Awards, and more, Heritage Toronto engages the public to reflect on the city’s heritage.”
Usually $9.85
THE QUEEN’S PLATE: CANADA’S OLDEST SPORTING EVENT
October 17 — 7:30pm — Montgomery’s Inn — Etobicoke Historical Society
“With Queen Victoria's approval, the first Queen's Plate was held in the West Toronto Junction in 1860 and has become Canada's oldest sporting event, as well the oldest continuously run race in North America. It has been alternately called the King's Plate as it is now in the present reign of King Charles III. John Beram will discuss the importance of the horse in mid-19th century Toronto, the evolution of thoroughbred racing in Canada and the people who brought the Queen's Plate to Canada. Former Toronto Argonaut John Beram is a retired autoworker, historic researcher and football coach. He has a passion for horses and an interest in Canadian military and industrial history. He has given many historic talks and walks on the automobile and meat-packing industries.”
Free for members; annual memberships are $25
TORONTO GONE WILD
Until November 2 — Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm to 4pm — Museum of Toronto
“Toronto Gone Wild explores the city as a multi-layered habitat — starring the animals, plants, and insects that call Toronto home. Venture through different Torontonian terrains from city streets to burrows, hives, and nests, all seamlessly woven together in our downtown exhibition space. You’ll emerge with a renewed appreciation for the interconnectedness of life in the city.”
Free!
RISE AGAIN! THE SONGS OF STAN ROGERS AT ROSEDALE CENTRE
November 15 — 7:30pm — The Rosedale Centre
“Stan Rogers is widely recognized as one of the very finest singer-songwriters that Canada has ever produced, and while it has been over forty years since he was tragically taken from us, his music lives on and is being heard around the world. Just over twenty years ago, Stan’s record producer, Paul Mills and his widow Ariel Rogers, were approached by Hugh’s Room about putting together a Stan tribute concert at the club. They put together a group of eight artists who performed a collection of Stan’s wonderful songs. The show was a huge hit with the Hugh’s Room audience to the point where they were asked to make it an annual event. The Stan tribute show became a tradition and has been presented by Hugh’s Room ever since.”
$45 in advance; $52 at the door