Monthly Archives: January 2018

01.30.18
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MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST PHILIP HARE’S HAND-STITCHED “FACELESS FACES” EXHIBIT FOCUSES ON TERRORISM

 These days terrorism looms high above the world, and sex, religion, money and other manipulative devices are what drives it. In every office, home and social media group someone is being terrorized. It’s only a matter of scale, says Mr. Hare.

Working with the terrorism theme, PHILIP HARE created an imposing trio of large, hand-stitched textile works. Hare says this is the first time he’s seen all three of them, top-to-bottom, together on one wall. (10-foot-high ceilings are at a premium in Leslieville houses.)

01.29.18
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TORONTO PLAYS BALTIMORE IN GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S NEW MOVIE “THE SHAPE OF WATER”

GUILLERMO DEL TORO, a big fan of our city, has made three feature films here. His latest, ‘The Shape of Water’, nominated for 13 Oscars, is set in Baltimore in 1962. In the film both TORONTO and neighbouring HAMILTON disguise themselves as, you guessed it, ‘the birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner’ (BALTIMORE).  Photos are all courtesy of Fox Searchlight; info from The Daily Hive & Atlas of Wonders.com. <ABOVE – KEATING CHANNEL, with Lakeshore Boulevard East on the right. The CN Tower was digitally removed.><The water man goes to the movies at TORONTO’s Elgin Theatre, where the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.>

<Exteriors of the theatre were filmed outside TORONTO’s Massey Hall on Shuter Street;  the deco Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas Street West played a role in several scenes, all involving pie.>

01.27.18
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THE FIRST IMAGE ON CBC ENGLISH TELEVISION IN CANADA WAS AN UPSIDE DOWN STATION ID-SLIDE

The ID slide above is part of Canadian television history. When CBLT, the local TORONTO channel went on the air for the first time, viewers were greeted by a back-to-front, upside down slide, put there by an overly-fastidious technician.

EMIL ZVARICH got his 15 minutes of fame by cleaning the slide one last time, and then popping it into the projector and up it went to air.  Making things worse, all the CBC brass were in the control room at the time. Then a film jammed in the projector gate. It was September 8, 1952 – and CBLT was born.

01.27.18
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THE GLOBE & MAIL’S CARTOONISTS SUM UP THE TRUMPSTER’S PAST WEEK & WHAT MAY BE UPCOMING

<“Happy Hour at the Davos Economic Forum – Make America Great Again” by BRIAN GABLE, Globe and Mail, January 26/2018>

<“COME INTO MY PARLOUR” . . . “Looking forward to it . . . “ by DAVID PARKINS, Globe and Mail, January 25/2018>

01.23.18
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A PART OF TORONTO’S THEATRICAL HISTORY IS ON THE MARKET FOR $9-MILLION

A unique feature of TORONTO neighbourhoods are its cinemas.  One of them, The REGENT on Mount Pleasant Road, is facing an uncertain future.

Opened in 1927 as the BELSIZE, it became The CREST in 1953, and in 1971 the REGENT.

The CREST Theatre Company was founded in 1953, and a year later opened its first eleven-play season. This was the beginning of indigenous, commercial theatre in TORONTO. Up until then there had been mostly touring productions from the West End and the US.  Many of TORONTO’s (and Canada’s) best-known actors and actresses performed at The Crest. These included Kate Reid, Richard Monette, Jackie Burroughs, Frances Hyland, Eric House and Martha Henry. Most went on to Stratford, the Shaw, television and movie careers.

Among the directors – Douglas Campbell, Barry Morse, Mavor Moore, Leon Major, John Hirsch, Herbert Whittaker and Allan Lund.  The CREST closed its doors on April 30, 1966 after mounting 140 productions. This was the beginning of commercially viable home-grown theatre in TORONTO.  Soon after, the Crest became the Regent, and began showing movies.  Recently it functioned as a sound mixing studio by day, and a cinema at night. The building is now up-for-sale, and hopes are to raise the funds to keep it as a theatre.  TORONTO neighbourhoods have managed this before.  The Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles Avenue is a good example.  An extensive archive on the historical Crest Theatre and its company can be found at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street.