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"The Shoeshine Boy"

dt_toronto_geek

dt_toronto_geek

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dt_toronto_geek said:
That was horrible, he was Emanuel Jaques. His body was recovered from the roof of a body rub parlor on Yonge Street north of Shuter. It began the big cleanup of the Yonge Street Strip.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Jacques
Click to expand...

Back in July there was a discussion under the Aura thread about the tragic murder of Emanuel Jaques which sparked a crackdown on Yonge Street's adult entertainment venues in the latter part of the '70's. This Sunday morning on OMNI there is a one hour documentary at 11am called "The Shoeshine Boy". Not to diminish this sad story, but there is likely be some 1970's footage of downtown Yonge if anyone is curious to see how much things have changed since then or for those who weren't around to have seen it.
Given the subject, this may not be a show for younger family members, despite the odd time slot.
 
Wow, just seeing "The Shoeshine Boy" as the thread title caused my stomach to churn. A friend of mine was working at Wendy's, then located near Yonge and Dundas, and Emanuel used to come in frequently. I paid him a buck once to shine my shoes right in the restaurant while I waited for my friend to get off work. A couple of weeks later he was dead. I was 22 years old then and his murder shook me to the core. I remember seeing cops swarming over High Park, looking for his body. I remember how ugly the public response was to this ugly, ugly incident. Yeah, Yonge street got "cleaned up" but there were a lot of people back then that wanted all gay men "cleaned" off the face of the earth too. It was....ugly.

Sorry for the rant
 
No need to apologize.

It's always worth recalling how terrifying the reaction of a vengeful mob can be - and how tragic that it was incited on by the horrific murder of a child.
 
adma said:
Wouldn't that have been something like Toronto's first Wendy's?
Click to expand...


Now that you mention it, you're right; it was the first Wendy's. The "square" hamburger was such a bizarre looking thing, but quite yummy. With my memory prodded, I must add that the corner of Dundas and Yonge has never functioned, or looked better, than it does now.:)
 
30 years after the horrific crime against Emmanuel Jacques ("The Shoeshine Boy") which began the infamous "Yonge Street cleanup", 245 Yonge is coming down.

Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Jacques

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
Benc7 said:
Wow, just seeing "The Shoeshine Boy" as the thread title caused my stomach to churn. A friend of mine was working at Wendy's, then located near Yonge and Dundas, and Emanuel used to come in frequently. I paid him a buck once to shine my shoes right in the restaurant while I waited for my friend to get off work. A couple of weeks later he was dead. I was 22 years old then and his murder shook me to the core. I remember seeing cops swarming over High Park, looking for his body. I remember how ugly the public response was to this ugly, ugly incident. Yeah, Yonge street got "cleaned up" but there were a lot of people back then that wanted all gay men "cleaned" off the face of the earth too. It was....ugly.

Sorry for the rant
Click to expand...

Very touching story. I am happy you shared it. That murder had nothing to do with gay men but all to do with sadists who needed to be under lock and key. Emaneul is not forgotten.
 
They finally tore the building down in 2012, should not have taken so long. 36 years tomorrow, so sad and to this day I will never forget Emanuel. We tried so hard in our search to find him, Today as I do every year, I went to where he used to shoeshine and spent a few moments.
 
Benc7 said:
Wow, just seeing "The Shoeshine Boy" as the thread title caused my stomach to churn. A friend of mine was working at Wendy's, then located near Yonge and Dundas, and Emanuel used to come in frequently. I paid him a buck once to shine my shoes right in the restaurant while I waited for my friend to get off work. A couple of weeks later he was dead. I was 22 years old then and his murder shook me to the core. I remember seeing cops swarming over High Park, looking for his body. I remember how ugly the public response was to this ugly, ugly incident. Yeah, Yonge street got "cleaned up" but there were a lot of people back then that wanted all gay men "cleaned" off the face of the earth too. It was....ugly.

Sorry for the rant
Click to expand...

wow. brings back memories for me to . i was also a shoe shine boy at the time . i worked with emanuel on yonge a bit. but i was mainly selling newspapers. emanuel told me there was more coins to be earned in the shoe shine so i did. after his death police didnt like us working on the street any more. i was younger than emanuel . i think i was 7 or 8 at the time. i really looked up to him and admired his ambition. He was a great kid. and i still remember him to this day and what happened to him. no need to apologize and thanks for sharing that.
 
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