More Lost Toronto in colour

[adma]

here's a later one of the Broadway, back in the early 70's. in its last incarnation it was an adult cinema...

Was that early 70s? Looks like it might incline more mid-60s, i.e. around the time NPS was being completed--I guess the "adult theatre" part can make one think otherwise.

I'm also wondering about those chevron-shaped banners on the street light poles...

 

[LowPolygon]

Was that early 70s? Looks like it might incline more mid-60s, i.e. around the time NPS was being completed--I guess the "adult theatre" part can make one think otherwise.

I'm also wondering about those chevron-shaped banners on the street light poles...

on second look i don't think it is early 70's. the black and white 'restricted' sign on the window dates it as post 1968--the year the rating system began, but on the other hand there's not a car on the road later than 1965/66, so its probably not much later than 68/69. that would mean that the 'adult' fare on offer is likely to be more of the 'exploitation' or very soft core variety rather than the hard core that started in the early 70's.

 

[adma]

Thanks for noticing the "RESTRICTED" symbol--anyone know when the Sheraton Centre blockfront was cleared? (Or, for that matter, if the use of the RESTRICTED symbol even predated the "official" ratings era?) Also seems to be some Peter Lorre thing playing at the Festival (he died in 1964--then again, it could be second-run)

All in all, the photo really conveys a rare sense of the "other" Toronto, i.e. the kind you didn't get in official postcard shots--and of the kind of long-forgotten vice-ridden red-light seediness that the planning around City Hall/NPS was meant to combat. Or at least so I would assume: something about that whole block just screams out "time-travelling with Sasha" We so often forget that the old urbanism that urban renewal wiped out wasn't always exactly benign...

 

[Mustapha]

The Festival was showing Hong Kong movies to the few thousand Chinese families here in the early 60s. It was - even to a child's eyes - a dank run down place. I do not have good memories of this place - I much preferred the Capitol, Carlton or Fairlawn. The theory was that we picked up the language of the old country this way. The movies were agony to sit through.

 

[Edward Skira]

The Sheraton was built between 1970-1972. Before construction I recall seeing pictures of a grass lawn. So these buildings disappeared sometime in the 60's.

 

[smuncky]

The Sheraton was built between 1970-1972. Before construction I recall seeing pictures of a grass lawn. So these buildings disappeared sometime in the 60's.

here are two photos from thedeepend's other thread, The Birth of a New City .

 

[Urban Shocker]

Toronto had this really cool no-nonsense blue collar look to it back then, perhaps even more so than other American cities I've seen from the time. It looks like they'd throw you out of the bar for being a pansy if you would order anything above Stock Ale.

Not necessarily! Re: the unidentified building with the LETROS sign:

Letros
Opened after liquor laws changed in the late 1940s, allowing restaurants to serve booze, Letros was located across the street from the King Eddie and was Toronto’s first exclusively gay and lesbian bar. It closed in 1972. The Egyptian-themed restaurant had a basement beverage area, adorned with faux-snakeskin wallpaper, called the Nile Room, quickly renamed the “Vile Room.” Despite the gaudy surroundings, the place still drew in the jet-set homos, thanks in part to a gay bartender pilfered from the King Edward and to the visits of such celebrities as Noel Coward. Letros was also home to some of the city’s first drag queens, especially at Halloween. Hmmm… a tacky restaurant with drag queens and shifty waiters overrun by high-class homos who were there solely to drink... Sounds like Zelda’s.

( above quote taken from this link ):

http://www.fabmagazine.com/features/torewind/index.html

 

[junctionist]

Nonetheless, given the vastly greater number of factories within the city, there must of been some truth to Hipster Duck's comment.

 

[LowPolygon]

Not necessarily! Re: the unidentified building with the LETROS sign:

Letros
Opened after liquor laws changed in the late 1940s, allowing restaurants to serve booze, Letros was located across the street from the King Eddie and was Toronto’s first exclusively gay and lesbian bar. It closed in 1972. The Egyptian-themed restaurant had a basement beverage area, adorned with faux-snakeskin wallpaper, called the Nile Room, quickly renamed the “Vile Room.†Despite the gaudy surroundings, the place still drew in the jet-set homos, thanks in part to a gay bartender pilfered from the King Edward and to the visits of such celebrities as Noel Coward. Letros was also home to some of the city’s first drag queens, especially at Halloween. Hmmm… a tacky restaurant with drag queens and shifty waiters overrun by high-class homos who were there solely to drink... Sounds like Zelda’s.

fascinating! i had no idea.

 

[adma]

And really, it isn't like the "Broadway block" which Sheraton replaced wasn't pansy/freak/weirdo compatible, either--indeed, it seems to have been the effective south edge of Toronto's "Justice Weekly" heartland (I suppose the Ford Hotel was an epicentre). As cool as a lot of those Victorian and Moderne fronts may seem to modern eyes, I get cooties simply by looking at that image--when it comes to sheer, unadulterated scuzziness, nothing in modern-day Toronto compares...

 

[LowPolygon]

Toronto had this really cool no-nonsense blue collar look to it back then, perhaps even more so than other American cities I've seen from the time. It looks like they'd throw you out of the bar for being a pansy if you would order anything above Stock Ale.

I think there is little doubt that Toronto had quite a hard edge back then. As a child growing up here in the late 1960's I can attest that there was a gritty inner-city vibe downtown that is long gone. There was nothing even remotely trendy about Toronto in those days. The number of bars and public houses was amazing and displays of public drunkenness were extremely common. I remember many many times seeing drunks laying passed out in the gutter. When i was a teenager 'fag bashing' and 'paki bashing' were commonplace activities. Summer weekends on Yonge Street from College to King was a sea of muscle cars full of young men. They would slowly crawl up and down 'the strip' catcalling the ladies, with the hard rock radio blaring. The first time i saw the gay parade, there were more young boneheads throwing cans and tomatoes than there were gay people...

of course Toronto had theatre people, and social climbers, and musicians and artists of course, and there was OCA and U of T, but i think in large measure the population--being derived from working class European and Anglo stock--were kind of hard working, hard partying, no-nonsense people--unfortunately they were also somewhat intolerant...

i think the thing that really started to change Toronto for the better were the later waves of immigration that began in the late 60's. things like Caribana did immeasurable good, and started to break down the socially repressive and intolerant white working class atmosphere that had largely defined the city up to that point.

 

[Art Vandelay]

i think the thing that really started to change Toronto for the better were the later waves of immigration that began in the late 60's. things like Caribana did immeasurable good, and started to break down the socially repressive and intolerant white working class atmosphere that had largely defined the city up to that point.

Don't forget the role Quebec separatism played from the late sixties to the early eighties. If it were not for the Quiet Revolution, Toronto might still be playing second fiddle to Montreal.

 

[Dilla]

Don't forget the role Quebec separatism played from the late sixties to the early eighties. If it were not for the Quiet Revolution, Toronto might still be playing second fiddle to Montreal.

Almost certainly. The waves of money coming in from Montreal did as much to change this city as the waves of immigrants from around the world did. Prior to the "quiet revolution" Toronto was only a regional centre, of little more importance than Edmonton. Then a lot of Banks and the richest Montrealers (read: Anglos) came in, and suddenly the TSE became vastly more important nationally, and we got (almost) 1000ft buildings. I would imagine that if Quebec had never caught nationalistic fever, many of us on this board would be living there. In the early 70s city planners in Montreal were assuming the area population would be around 10 million by now. I'm sure Toronto city planners at that time weren't thinking TO would have anywhere near the 5-6 we have. It would seem the reason for the switch was the political uncertainty created by the threat of separation.

 

[Swamp Thing]

Almost certainly. The waves of money coming in from Montreal did as much to change this city as the waves of immigrants from around the world did.

I grew up in Montreal, and didn't flee the "Quiet Revolution" until '87, so I missed the rough-and-tumble '60s that Toronto went through.

But I can attest to the fact that in those days, Montrealers looked upon Toronto in much the same way Torontonians later came to look upon Hamilton.

 

[Dilla]

But I can attest to the fact that in those days, Montrealers looked upon Toronto in much the same way Torontonians later came to look upon Hamilton.

I lived in Montreal for two years around 5 years ago, and I can attest that many Montrealers still look upon Toronto in much the same way Torontonians look upon Hamilton.

On another topic, compared to the older images from Mustapha's thread, I hardly lament the changes Toronto has made from the 60s. It seems most of our mistakes were made then, and now we're heading in a better, if not perfect direction. I never realized quite how destitute Toronto looked in those days. I can't imagine living here at that time.