Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[adma]

Unless it's a variant on "Hassan"...

 

[LowPolygon]

You can, starting with the fifth photograph in this series, see the reflection of Eaton’s College Street in the glass windows.

.

 

[adma]

The rear of that Calvert Industries building is still discernable today...

 

[thecharioteer]

(Yes, this is Gloria Swanson, in Toronto about 10 years before you know what)

 

[LowPolygon]

this lady certainly 'has it going on'. especially for 1904! that hat would have made quite a statement i reckon, especially with the feather boa...
its such an odd and asymmetrical shape--that seems to be part of the point. whenever i see these enormous hats from the late 19th/early20th century, i am reminded that their 'sense of personal space' must have been so different from ours. they seem to come from a time when you could assume that there was a lot of space available for a body to move about the city. or that there was some kind of buffer available between you and the nearest pedestrian. you can't imagine the jostled masses of today wearing anything that large today--as they clamber aboard a Scarborough bus....

 

[thecharioteer]

And to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim "Does anyone still wear a hat?" (baseball caps not included)

Sammy Taft and Louis Armstrong

Sammy Taft and Bob Hope

Sammy Taft and Sam Shopsowitz (Shopsy's)

Sammy Taft and unidentified man

Soldier

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

Lots of hats;

not one pair of spats.


Regards,
J T

 

[Anna]

And to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim "Does anyone still wear a hat?" (baseball caps not included)

Sammy Taft and unidentified man

I think the 'unidentified man' is Cab Calloway, and he was probably wearing spats.
hi-de-hi-de-hi-deho

 

[adma]

Boy, Shopsy reminds me of Rob Ford...

 

[LowPolygon]

And to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim "Does anyone still wear a hat?" (baseball caps not included)

I wonder what brought on this massive expansion of ladies headwear? Certainly they were adornments that were completely ill-suited to the urban environment, which is I suspect what brought about their demise. Whatever it was, there certainly was a collective turning away from these ornamentalist architecturalist fantasias by the mid 20’s, in favour of the more streamlined, efficient and modernistic cloche hats, along with a whole range of styles that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Edwardian era, like berets, wool caps, and variations on the turban.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

And to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim "Does anyone still wear a hat?" (baseball caps not included)

Was I the only one whose first thought was

Ev'ry duke and earl and peer is here
Ev'ryone who should be here is here.
What a smashing, positively dashing
Spectacle: the Ascot op'ning day.

 

[thecharioteer]

A bit of a different social scene: Yorkville in the 60's and 70's (from the Toronto Star Archives on www.getstock.com):

And from the Rock and Roll Revival at Varsity Stadium Sept. 13, 1969:

 

[adma]

Note here

and, I *guess*, here

Yup, the very first Mr. Sub.

 

[Blovertis]

From a long-ago era when submarine sandwiches had a patina of grooviness.

I suppose today's equivalent might be charcuterie plates.

 

[adma]

I suppose today's equivalent might be charcuterie plates.

More likely Burrito Boyz/Banditos.