Back Lane Studios is a not-for-profit film incubator and was formed in 2015 in Roncesvalles Village, Toronto, Canada. Through our City Shorts programs we provide mentorship, equipment and production services to students. The objective for each City Shorts documentary is to preserve and share neighbourhood culture and history through video and to connect us to our community. Back Lane also offers workshops and production services for seniors. For more information on our services and our workshops, goto backlanestudios.ca
A recording has been found from one evening at the Bohemian Embassy. The singers are unknow possibly Doug Brown doing a variety of folk song. The unknown blues singer gives a great rendition of Black Betty. He once played with Alexandria Quartet. Chick Roberts ends the evening with a sing along. Check out the Prociw Archives to hear them and recordings from early Mariposa Festivals.
Oh so many memories! Thanks Lois - this brought it all back to me. One of the boys in kindergarten with me used to throw frozen horse balls at me! 🤣 It wasn’t until we were celebrating his 75th birthday that I realized it was because he liked me. Have you ever read the novel “The Shacklands” by Judi Coburn? It’s a novel about a family in the Junction area (and north up Old Weston Road) in the early 1900s. Judi was a teacher at Humberside Collegiate.
I went to the Saturday matinees at the Major St. Clair theatre near St. Clair and Old Weston Road in those days. I’m a bit younger than Lois, and I recall that we had to pay 11 cents (inflation, don’t you know!) for that amount of money we got several cartoons, at least one main picture, and a serial in order to make us want to come back next week. If the projectionist was a little bit late, we would all chant, “We want the show! We want the show!” My daughter, who lives in Italy, is still using some of the dishes my parents got during the depression when they went to the show in the evenings.
we had a site in the park from 1972 til 1984 thank you so much for sharing 💜 Elwood and jean left an impression on me my whole life THEY WHERE GREAT PEOPLE ! love them and the great memories xo
It makes me sick to be houseless, and be hated for it. Nothing I did shouldve led me here. I wish my wife hadnt died in 2010. I wish hadnt been injured at work last year, losing a job I loved. Taking the lights out seems a better choice as every day goes by. Thanks for the documentary.
9:06 You simply don't know and cannot make blanket statements like that. For all you know, many of those people who can afford $5000 handbags make very large charity donations. Don't judge a person by their handbag ;-)
Bit for the Grace of God go I. Those are probably THEE most Profound words to ever be spoken..this could have happened to us. This CAN happen to us. Most of the people you see in her photos, have no families to speak of. I'm here on my own also.
What a lovely, lovely man. My career in music was launched at the Bohemian Embassy and without that welcoming space and Don's generosity and enthusiasm, I may never gone on my journey at all. When I played in Toronto in 2002, Don, whom I hadn't seen in decades, came out to see me. What a joy it was to see him. So talented and such a pillar of support for so many. Simply one of the most important cultural figures in the history of Canada.
So wonderful to see Don looking and sounding great after all of these years. I too, can honestly say that I would not be where I am today if it were not for Don's influence. The day when Don walked into our "office" in the mid-80's and saw me reading a copy of Garner Ted Armstrong's "The Plain Truth" magazine is indelibly imprinted in my mind. Politely asking what it was that I found interesting reading the conservative Christian magazine Don came back a few days later with a paperback copy of Robert Ardreys "African Genisis" (which I still have) and the die was cast...I never looked back at religion as an arbiter of the natural world. Godspeed Mr. Cullen, Sir!😊
I’ll say something here ~~ having Don Cullen in your corner is a wonderful thing. And he will let you use his typewriter to write your book. And he will feed you. And he will let you make your own mistakes, and see that you get another chance, once you figure out where you went awry. And he laughs at the parts hardly anyone else notices. And one of these days, I am going to buy HIM dinner for a change. Good old Don.
An interesting clip and fascinating reference to the fishing Weirs. I draw your attention to the ROM's work on the site in the summer of 1965 under the direction of Walter Kenyon and his group of volunteer divers (of which I was one). We made a number of sketches of the well-preserved remains of the Weirs and took hundreds of photos. See ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWSLETTER, No8, 1966.
Hey Gil! Worked with you at Coca-Cola for a couple of years, and we shared a couple of breakfasts and caught up years later at Johnny's lunch counter at the Bloor-Jane Restaurant.. Great story! Hope you're doing well, Gil, and Happy Trails to you, good sir.
Gotta love technology today, so much knowledge can be shared, helping clear up family history and mystery. Surprised to find so many books published about a relative, especially a self-proclaimed King. Growing up, my mother bombarded anyone she could about her quirky relative, but it was hard to prove anything to my friends. I just knew that my great (x ??) grandfather and Brigham Young split the Mormon church after Joseph Smith's death, and the LDS Church members in the West followed Young here, not the LDS members believing Strang was the true successor. Gotta love modern information sharing, as others in my family have tried Ancestry links to trees, and other sources but we cannot find a link to Beaver Island, just to Prince Edward Island. Unfortunately as we get in contact with sources, since we don't know enough of the correct history and probably ask the wrong questions, those sources stop responding. We did not grow up with organized religion, there is a lot to learn but there is also a palatable resistance from the different segments as soon as we identify with the Strang name lineage. In the last few years we have become unsure, since only my mother said that James Jesse was my great (x ??) grandfather, she is not a credible source for information. Her facts were fluid when that was a better story, and I've believed for 50+ years. Like I said various family members have tried, but get frustrated long before finding out and stop researching it. More than likely it was a brother or cousin to James that is our distant relative, strange since this history isn't that old, plus there are so many articles, videos and books out there, seems it should be easier to find answers. My grandfather was Lyle Strang, hailed from Montana and both Dakota areas. I enjoyed Pat's story, glad I found it, and hope to find out more.
