A Toronto Album 2

More Glimpses of the City That Was

Mike Filey

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781554880591
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

Winner of the 2013 Heritage Toronto Award of Merit A Toronto Album 2, companion edition to Mike Filey's immensely popular original album, is a photographic journey through bustling Toronto from the late 1930s to the early 1970s. Among the 100-plus photographs is a quartet that shows the remarkable changes to Toronto's skyline over a half-century. Others capture the 1939 royal visit, steam trains in their twilight years, the evolution of the Hospital for Sick Children, a look at Christmas past, and glimpses of a few landmark buildings we weren't smart enough to keep. A Toronto Album 2 is a keepsake Torontonians will treasure.

Introduction

When the original A Toronto Album was published in 1970 it consisted of 109 black-and-white photographs, each of which was accompanied by a few lines of descriptive text. There were also a few nice words from the mayor of the day, William Dennison.

The photos in the book were laid out in a sort of chronological sequence starting soon after the introduction of photography to Torontonians in the 1860s and following through to the 1940s and the years of the Second World War; the final view in the book showed preliminary work underway on the new Yonge Street subway. The opening of the subway in March 1954 was unquestionably the defining event in the city’s maturation process.

Other subjects included in the book were a few old buildings, some quaint street scenes, the harbour, and lots of “ancient” streetcars. Each view was selected from old photographs I had started collecting in 1967, Canada’s Centennial Year. I well remember John Fisher, the Centennial Commission’s spokesman, suggesting that citizens could get in on the spirit of the year-long party by involving themselves in some aspect of Canada’s past. I chose to collect old photos that portrayed my hometown’s remarkable growth, and in 1970, 109 of them appeared in my first book.

Since then I’ve written a dozen or more books, including a reprint of my first. Like the first edition, this reprint sold remarkably well, especially for a book that’s both Canadian and of local interest. In fact, the popularity of the first A Toronto Album prompted Hounslow Press, an imprint of Dundurn Press, which has published many of my books, to give it another try with A Toronto Album 2, More Glimpses of the City That Was.

In this book the subject matter is just as diverse as in the first, although with the popularity of the automobile soaring after the conclusion of the Great War and climbing steadily through the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, photos of cars and trucks slowly choking Toronto streets are, of necessity, a major ingredient. In addition, some seventy-five years of changes to Toronto’s skyline are highlighted, as is the unfortunate harm the city has suffered with the loss of many of its fine old buildings.

MIKE FILEY

A special thanks to Julie Kirsh and the ladies of the Toronto Sun News Research Centre.

In some cases there are only brief captions for photos. In others, captions are followed by more descriptive text about the subject in the photo.

A quartet of views showing the remarkable changes in

1 Circa 1925

From left to right: Union Station (ready for trains but still two years away from opening), the Toronto Harbour Commission Building (on the water’s edge), the Temple Building (Toronto’s first true skyscraper), the clock and bell tower of City Hall (now referred to as Old City Hall), the ferry docks, the Dominion and Royal Bank buildings and the Canadian Pacific Railway Building (all at King and Yonge intersection and all still standing), the Traders Bank Building (still standing at Yonge and Colborne street; at one time, it was the British Empire’s tallest building), wharves for the lake boats, and the King Edward Hotel (celebrating its centennial in 2003).

2 1932

From left to right: the new Yardley Building (demolished), smoke stacks at the heating plant for the Royal York Hotel and Union Station (demolished), old Union Station, ferry boat docks, Canada Life Building, Royal York Hotel, Toronto Harbour Commission Building (no longer on the waterfront), Toronto Star Building (on King Street West, now demolished), City Hall clock and bell tower, Bank of Commerce Building (for many years the tallest building in the British Commonwealth), the trio of “ancient” skyscrapers at the Yonge and King intersection, the Metropolitan Building, King Edward Hotel and its 1920 addition, lake boat wharves, and St. James Cathedral.

Toronto’s skyline and waterfront over seven decades.

3 1970

From left to right: Royal York Hotel, Canada Life Building, T-D Centre, Toronto Star Building (peering out from behind T-D Centre), Bank of Montreal Building, Bank of Commerce, Mackenzie Building (recently converted to condominiums and offices), and, on the water’s edge, the Redpath Sugar refinery.

4 2002

From left to right on skyline: SkyDome, CN Tower, First Canadian Place, Scotia Plaza, Commerce Court, Royal Bank Plaza, BCE Place, Queen’s Quay Terminal, One York Quay.

Presenting some Toronto ladies . . .

5 Sunnyside Senior Ladies Softball champions for 1930. (facing top)

The Maple Leaf team defeated the Parksides, champions for the previous two years, at the old Sunnyside Baseball Stadium, which was located just east of the Parkdale Canoe Club (now Boulevard Club). Members of the Maple Leaf team were: (back row, left to right) Leo Goldsmith, coach; Sylvia Katzman, right field; Doris Moffatt, second base; Margaret Devere, pitcher; Bobby Rosenfeld, manager and first base; “Babs” Lopponen, right field; Audrey Dufton, third base; Al Haake, assistant coach; (front row, left to right) Jo Haake, left field; Eva Hickey, centre field; Thelma Lamb, catcher; Lily Hardy, pitcher; and Annie Miller, shortstop.

6 Sunday Morning Class Ladies Softball team, 1943.

From left to right: Verne McCormick, third base; Theresa Capalbo, pitcher; Marie Genereux, left field; Shirley Smith, second base; Isobel Denault, pitcher; Thelma McRae, short stop; Eva Burkitt, centre field; Kay Doughty, catcher; Bea Sanderson, right field; Evelyn Enright, first base and pitcher.

7 The Tip Tops Ladies Softball Team, 1941.

Recognize any of these ladies?

8 Marilyn Bell, the first person to swim Lake Ontario.

Many remember with great fondness and pride the exploits of a sixteen-year-old, Torontoborn schoolgirl whose unexpected triumph over Lake Ontario back in September 1954 turned the entire nation on its ear. Loretta College student Marilyn Bell was an unwelcome participant in a CNE-sponsored cross-lake solo swim offering American distance swimmer Florence Chadwick $10,000 if she was able to complete the gruelling thirty-two-mile challenge, and nothing if she was not. Chadwick was full of confidence as she entered the water at the Coast Guard Station not far from the pretty little community of Youngstown, New York, her goggle-covered eyes firmly set on the finish line miles away at the CNE waterfront. Without question, this swim would be tough — probably the toughest the American had ever faced. Nevertheless, just about everyone, including Florence, was convinced the prize-winning distance swimmer could do it. And when she did, Florence would become the first person ever to swim Lake Ontario. As for the CNE management, $10,000 was little enough to pay for the incredible exposure the Exhibition would get. And there was no doubt that the huge chunk of prize money would be quickly replaced by the thousands who would hand over the fifty-cent admission (a dime for kids) to witness Florence’s historic arrival at the Ex’s waterfront. Well, as they say, the best laid plans . . . About seven hours into the swim Chadwick was forced out of the water, complaining of nausea and cramps. The highly touted swim was over — or was it? There in the distance, well behind where Florence’s handlers were busy hauling the very sick American swimmer from the lake, young Marilyn Bell was being encouraged by her coach, Gus Ryder, to keep swimming.

Actually, Marilyn’s appearance in the lake was a surprise to just about everybody. There was nothing in it for her except the chance to conquer the lake “for Canada and for the kids at Ryder’s Lakeshore Swimming Club.” For more than twenty hours the youngster fought with the lake. In fact, in the later stages of the swim, that fight was carried on with Marilyn virtually out of it. Then, at precisely 8:04 P.M. on the evening of September 9, nearly twenty-one hours after she started, the exhausted youngster finally touched the breakwall in front of the Boulevard Club, her course altered by the high winds and unpredictable currents. Nevertheless, Marilyn Bell had done it; she had become the first person to swim Lake Ontario. And in doing so, she had actually covered a distance of sixty-four kilometres (forty miles), not the anticipated fifty-one kilometres (thirty-two miles). The management sheepishly acknowledged the youngster, and the prize money was hers, along with a huge assortment of gifts given to Marilyn by adoring Canadians from coast to coast. Her hometown awarded both Marilyn and her coach the first of the newly established Civic Awards of Merit. And as the fiftieth anniversary of this momentous event approaches, we still await decisions by the senior levels of government as to whether Marilyn Bell Dilascio deserves the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada.

9 Sixteen-year-old Marilyn Bell waves to her fans from one of her many gifts, a brand new baby blue Austin A-40 convertible.

This car was donated by the Austin Motor Company, whose Canadian office was at the corner of Yonge and Church streets. The car was a spontaneous gift, which subsequent research reveals was worth almost $2,200.

10 Marilyn Bell, surrounded by some of the many gifts she received from admirers.

Among the presents were a two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation at any summer resort she chose, a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a year’s supply of nylons, two steak dinners in a Toronto restaurant, a five-dollar box of chocolates and one hundred dollars cash from the Laura Secord company, a twenty-one-inch television (black and white, of course), and an assortment of pets.

11 Marilyn Bell and her coach, Gus Ryder, acknowledge the cheering crowds during her second motorcade up Bay Street, August 19, 1955.

In this photograph, Marilyn, now sevent...