TO175: Toronto Timeline Part 3: The City Comes Of Age
Posted March 6, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto celebrates its 175th birthday on March 6, and leading up to the big event, CityNews.ca has been posting stories, photos, and video about this city, past and present. While we don’t claim to cover every major event in this series, we’re looking at incidents or people that have made a lasting impression on the city. Here’s the final installment of our Toronto Timeline, about T.O. in the 60s and beyond.
How did a group of university students influence a huge change in one of the most famous buildings in the city? Who hit the first home run at the SkyDome? What Toronto sports team almost played its games near the Eaton Centre?
What continuing multi-million dollar event originally began as a way to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday? What local TV show once featured a then unknown Dan Aykroyd as its announcer? What’s under the Metro Toronto Zoo that you’ve never been allowed to see? And what tragedy made Toronto infamous and a place to be shunned around the world?
The answers come as the city enters the 1960s and its modern era begins. While Sundays are still pretty quiet, with no stores open, at least you can play and see a sporting event on the final day of your weekend. As the sleepy 50s end, the city you knew is about undergo a huge change.
Sept. 13, 1965: What The New City Hall Might Have Looked Like
You might say it was typical of politicians – they knew they need a new place to meet and run the city’s businesses, but they just couldn’t think of anything but a square box. That’s what Toronto’s famed New City Hall might have looked like if not for the intervention of some university students.
When council revealed plans for the new building in 1955, designed to take Toronto into a modern future, a mini-revolt broke out at the U. of T., where architectural students derided the proposal as flat and hardly innovative.
The original planned look of New City Hall, City of Toronto Archives, PT 344-C-5
That sparked a hue and cry that eventually defeated plans for the building and started an open competition for something better.
See some of the proposals here
Some 510 plans came in from 42 countries, before they picked the winner in September 1958: it was from a team of Finnish architects lead by a man named Viljo Revell. Their vision of City Hall stands at Nathan Phillips Square today – a pie shaped circular building that looked like nothing else that had ever been put up anywhere before. But Revell never lived to see it finished. He died in 1964, about a year before the completion and official opening.
New City Hall under construction, 1964, Fonds 1268, Item 462 (Slight Crop)
Toronto’s distinctive government office tower is arguably as famous as the CN Tower as a symbol of the city and has been seen in countless photographs and movies.
Perhaps its most far out use came in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was briefly glimpsed as a portal to a foreign world in the episode “Contagion.” It was also flashed in the original series in 1969 in a segment called “All Our Yesterdays,” again as part of a time portal.
Some would say what goes on there is still out of this world and often very alien-ating.
February 26, 1966: A Newcomer Down The Line
For years, those heading downtown could only take the subway in a direction along Yonge or around University. Those going east and west got their chance to go a different route when the Bloor-Danforth line finally got going. It had been a dozen years from the first subway opening to this one, and it was immediately busy. It ran from Keele to Woodbine.
The first car on the Bloor-Danforth Line heads to Woodbine Station, Fonds 567, series B, file 193
Additional subway lines would follow in later years and if the promised money holds out, there will be more expansion in the coming decade, including for the first time to York Region.
Mid 1960s: It had originally been simply a suburb of downtown Toronto and with the ritzy and expensive stores there now, it’s hard to imagine what it looked like during the heyday of the Flower Power Generation. But Yorkville became world famous as the home of the 60s counter culture in Canada, with local coffee houses giving new artists their first exposure to a willing young audience.
Among the names that got their first creative sparks in those sometime dingy basements: Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young. The infamous Rochdale College, part of the U. of T., saw the light of day in 1968 and quickly became infamous for its drug use.
But when the Bloor-Danforth subway line started in 1966, the end was near for the hangout haven and as the value of land there soared, barefoot hippies eventually gave way to well shod yuppies, and there are no real traces of the creative community that once made this neighbourhood the Haight-Ashbury of the Great White North.
Opening ceremonies of construction for Bloor-Danforth line, 1959, Fonds 567, series B, file 59
May 2, 1967: The Last Stanley Cup
They’d won hockey’s most coveted prize ten times before, and fans had come to expect greatness from their Toronto Maple Leafs. So few would have dreamt that their final Cup victory on a May day in 1967 would be their last for more than 40 years – and counting.
That final winning squad consisted of legendary names like Dave Keon, George Armstrong, Red Kelly, Bob Pulford, Frank Mahovlich, Eddie Shack, Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower.
When they defeated the hated Montreal Canadiens in 6 games, eking out a 3-1 win in the final match, the city predictably went crazy. On May 8th, there was a ticker tape parade up to City Hall, complete with marching bands and captain Armstrong riding in an open convertible holding the Stanley Cup.
It’s a sight an entire generation has grown up without ever getting to witness.
Summer 1967: Marching Down The Isles
It was supposed to be a one time only tribute to Canada’s Centennial year. It wound up becoming an annual tradition, despite financial troubles and differing organizations running it. It now attracts more than a million tourists from around the world every year and generates millions of dollars for local businesses. Its name: Caribana.
September 28, 1972: The Little Station That Did
Citytv signs on the air and changes the face of a rather staid Toronto TV landscape. The “little station that could” originally put out a weak signal on Channel 79, and specialized in the cheapest programming imaginable, the kind of material that would later be satirized on SCTV (which is where some of the inspiration originated.)
An early promotional announcement tried to explain the station’s raison d’etre
“Help,” it read. “You’ll need all of it you can get to survive the Toronto of the Seventies.” It goes on to explain how people feel “powerless” when confronted by large governments and institutions and promises a channel that will sort it all out.
And then it outlines the kinds of shows “you’ll be looking at on City-tv starting September 28th.”
“Our City Show with Ron Haggart will try to speak clearly on those issues that confront you and your immediate world.
“Leon Weinstein will provide a forum for consumer criticism.
“We’ll be accessible and entertaining with shows like “Casanova” and personalities like Mel Profit.
“Being new the one thing we can be sure of is that we’ll make mistakes along the way. Hopefully, they’ll be fruitful ones.”
Some of those early mistakes came in the form of cheesy programs, like “Greed,” hosted by Joey Bishop-relative Rummy Bishop and featuring an unknown Dan Aykroyd as its announcer; Saturday Night Fights, a remote of some extreme amateurs from local gyms; the Shulman File (hosted by former coroner Morton Shulman and later spoofed as Murray’s File on the Second City TV show) and of course, the Baby Blue Movie, which became notorious and attracted tourists from as far away as Buffalo.
But slowly things changed. Advertising improved, investors came in and the station took on a more professional sheen. Innovations like a newsroom with no anchor desk, a yearly New Year’s Eve bash at Nathan Phillips Square, closed circuit cameras that kept an Eye on Toronto roads, the idea of putting the common person and people from different backgrounds on TV, and of most of all a dedicated commitment to local coverage that remains to this day, have now been copied by stations around the world.
Citytv was purchased by Rogers Communications on September 28, 2007 – exactly 30 years to the day of that famous first sign on.
1974: The longest TTC strike in Toronto history paralyzes the city for a staggering 23 days.
August 15, 1974: It had actually been in the planning stages since 1969 but five years and $28 million later, it was finally ready for the public. The Metro Toronto Zoo officially opened in the late summer.
There’s an entire area of the famous locale most of us never get to see. It consists of 16 kilometres of sewers, 11 more of water mains, and an endless array of gas conduits, electrical cables and phone lines, enough to run a small city. And in a way, that’s just what the zoo is – except most of those who live there walk on all fours.
Unlike the ancient concept of animals in cages that had been the hallmark of the old Riverdale Zoo (below), which had been in operation since 1887, the new facility provided wide open spaces where its ‘tenants’ could roam freely, making them – and the millions of visitors since – a lot more satisfied.
Monkey cage at Riverdale Zoo, September 1913, Fonds 1231, Item 567
March 26, 1976: Major League Baseball Finally Accepts Toronto’s Pitch
It was a first for Toronto but not for Canada or the game. When Major League Baseball decided to expand again in 1977, there already was an existing team in the Great White North. The Montreal Expos had even come tantalizingly close to reaching the World Series, before labour disruptions and Rick Monday of the L.A. Dodgers destroyed that dream.
So when then local councillor Paul Godfrey began wondering in 1969 why Toronto couldn’t duplicate its Quebec rivals, the seeds were sown for what would happen seven years later.
It was almost a relocation of the San Francisco Giants. But when that deal fell through in 1975, the league – which can move as slowly as some complain the sport itself does – waited two years before finally giving Toronto a chance.
The new team name would be named the Blue Jays, continuing the tradition of calling franchises after birds – and a not so subtle reminder of one of then-owner Labatt’s best selling brands. They played their first game in the snow and to this day, hundreds of thousands of people insist they were there, even though Exhibition Stadium only held a little over 44,000 fans.
The sellout crowd watched and shivered on April 7, 1977 when the Jays played for the very first time and Doug Ault hit two homers to lead the franchise to its first win – 9-5 over the White Sox. There would not be a lot more W’s that year, but the game had come to T.O. and there were far better things ahead.
June 26, 1976: A Tall Tale And The Tower Of Power
The skyline of Toronto has seen a lot of different buildings over the years, soaring from the ground into the air for hundreds of feet. But there’s only one you can see from dozens and dozens of kilometers away. And it started as a tribute to the strength of Canadian industry and the need for better TV and radio signals.
It took 40 months to build and $63 million to construct, with workers toiling five days a week non-stop beginning in February 1973, to turn an empty plot of railway land near the lakeshore into a local and national icon. It would be called the CN Tower, a building so unique it’s still the most enduring symbol of Toronto to the rest of the world.
It’s now one of the top tourist attractions in Canada, with a revolving restaurant on top, a staircase that many consider a challenge to get up and down, and most of all that breathtaking view that lets visitors see all the way to Buffalo. As many as two million a year make that journey to the top.
At 1,815 feet and five inches, it stood for years as the tallest free standing structure in the world. It finally lost that title to a building in Dubai in 2007, but remains the biggest entity of its kind in all of North America.
Read more about the Tower’s history here
September 1976: In the beginning, it wasn’t thought of as anything more than just a few hundred film buffs getting together to watch a few otherwise hard-to-see flicks. But it kept getting more sponsors, better product, more premieres and eventually Hollywood and the stars all took notice.
What caused the shift? A decision made early on to keep the annual event non-competitive and leave politics out of it. The result: what had once been called The Festival of Festivals morphed into the Toronto International Film Festival – now one of the biggest and most respected movie gatherings in the world and one that the biggest players in filmdom take very seriously every year after Labour Day.
June 3, 1989: Dome On The Range
Let’s face it: the place where the Toronto Blue Jays played their home games was for the birds. The benches at Exhibition Stadium were hard and uncomfortable, the sightlines were mostly terrible, and don’t even ask about the weather. Baseball in Toronto in April or (dared we hope) October? Forget it.
There were rainouts, snow-outs and on at least one memorable occasion in the Mistake by the Lake, a game called on account of wind. Jim Clancy threw just a few pitches that bent wildly off the plate before everyone realized it wasn’t going to work.
It didn’t take long for the city to understand that in a larger sense, too. If baseball was to make it in T.O., we needed to head for cover.
Queen Elizabeth visits Exhibition stadium 1959, Fonds 1257, Series 1057
But it may not have been the Jays that actually put the final nail in the old Bandstand’s coffin. Legend has it miserable conditions at the 1982 Grey Cup game that were seen around the country were so embarrassing to the government, it decided to finally seriously consider the need for something else.
So after plans to put a dome on the Ex fell through, a new stadium was readied, one that would be a wonder of the world – a place where the roof could retract, giving Toronto the option of having both an indoor and an outdoor facility. The Jays would play there. So would the Argos. And it could be used for shows, concerts and conventions in the off seasons or during away games.
The next question: where to put it? They thought about York University, Downsview Airport or any place uptown that would have better parking. But like most things in the city, the powers-that-be eventually decided to leave it downtown, and the final site chosen was the railway lands near the CN Tower.
A contest was held to name it and SkyDome was a logical choice – and the winner.
It eventually cost $571 million of public and private money and opened with a flourish and a huge gala on June 3, 1989.
Two days, later the Jays faced their first opponent on the artificial turf. The questions at the time: who would get the first hit and who would slam the first home run out of the new ballpark? It didn’t take long to answer them both.
Slugging great Paul Molitor of the Brewers, the very first hitter to officially stand at home plate, made it a double early on.
Local hero Fred McGriff later smashed a two run dinger with George Bell on base in the fourth, starting a legacy that still continues.
Unfortunately for the home side, it was another dinger that decided things, as Glen Braggs’ two run shot helped the Brewers spoil the party with a 5-3 Milwaukee win.
There have been many other memorable moments at the dome since then, including infamous cases of couples getting frisky in the hotel rooms that look out onto the field, with fans watching open mouthed.
The SkyDome ran into financial troubles and was eventually taken over by Rogers Communications, which also bought the Jays. It’s now known as Rogers Centre, but the hits just keep on coming.
October 25, 1992: Jays Win First World Series
In a city starved for winners – the Leafs have been Cupless since 1967 – the hopes of Toronto sports fans turned to the Blue Jays, who were having a phenomenal season and were on the cusp of another first – in the storied history of the baseball, no Canadian team had ever won the World Series.
That changed on a Sunday night at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta that few will forget, as a bunt down the first base line was fielded by reliever Mike Timlin and shoveled over to Joe Carter covering first for the final out, leading to a thrilling 4-3 extra innings win at 12:50am.
Few in Toronto were sleeping that night when the moment finally came. After years of frustration and being the league doormat, the Jays had become baseball’s best and more than 45,000 who watched it on the Jumbotron spilled deliriously into the streets, joining thousands more as the party raged on Yonge St. and across the city into the night.
Some wondered if they could ever top it. They only had to wait a year before finding out the answer was ‘yes.’
October 23, 1993: Second Verse, Same As The First: Blue Jays Do It Again
The odds of getting to the World Series are huge to begin with. The chances of winning it back-to-back are even less. But that’s what Toronto’s beloved Blue Jays did in one of the most dramatic World Series wins in history.
Trailing 6-5 against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 at SkyDome, Joe Carter faced the Wild Thing, Philly’s Mitch Williams, in a tense do-or-die bottom of the ninth, with two on and one out. On a 2-2 pitch, he swatted a three run homer, a walk off World Series dinger that drove the emotional and exhausted Toronto fans into a frenzy.
“Touch em all Joe!” screamed an excited play-by-play man Tom Cheek in a now legendary radio call. “You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!”
Photo credit: Chris Wilkins/AFP/Getty Images
The ovations and celebrations inside the stadium went on for hours, with many refusing to go home and savouring the incredible win. Those not lucky enough to have tickets were partying outside and the scenes that turned Yonge St. in party central a year earlier began again, as the entire city celebrated a second historic win for the ages.
The Jays have not been able to return to that Promised Land since, although every year, spring training renews the hope that one day, the swat team will repeat those two magical moments that left the city temporary Kings of the Baseball World.
November 3, 1995: A New Old Game In Town Tips Off
The last time an NBA game that really counted was played by a Toronto team was in 1946, when the Huskies lost to the New York Knicks 68-66, and the local squad folded after only a year in existence.
So when an application for a new T.O. entity was made to the National Basketball Association in 1993, at least there was a tradition to fall back on. After proving they had a viable business plan, the group led by John Bitove Jr. and a host of other rich backers wowed the expansion committee with the promise of a new centrally located downtown stadium.
The NBA solons considered all the expansion applications and awarded two – one to Vancouver and the other to Toronto. They were the first additions since the Timberwolves and the Magic came into existence in 1989.
But where would the promised new stadium go? It was originally planned for land near the Eaton Centre, but the acreage in that part of the city was considered too small to house a decent sized facility. So they wound up acquiring the historic Canada Post Delivery Building and began work there.
The squad would play at the SkyDome until the new facility – to be called the Air Canada Centre – was ready.
The team was named the Raptors, after a contest was held that included such questionable monikers as the Beavers, the Dragons and yes, the Hogs (after Hogtown.) Even the Grizzlies was rejected (although not in B.C.) and the dinosaur theme – Jurassic Park was a hit movie in 1993 – was adopted.
The draft was held and rookie Damon Stoudamire came to T.O. His 10 points and 10 assists helped the Raptors to win their very first game on November 3, 1995, 94-79 against the New Jersey Nets.
Jan. 1, 1998: Amalgamation Arrives
It was an idea imposed by the Mike Harris government and it was supposed to save money: amalgamating Toronto from seven different cities in the old Metro, like Etobicoke and North York, into one giant whole. Instead many have argued it’s left us in one giant hole.
The sea-change created challenges and troubles that exist to this day, with some benefits and some drawbacks that are still playing themselves out.
It was supposed to save taxpayers some $300 million a year. It didn’t.
The size of City Hall was supposed to be reduced. But there are more civil servants now than ever before, over 4,000 of them.
Downtown Toronto still gets most of the attention, leaving some former boroughs waiting for their share. But it also allowed them access to a larger pool of funds to get projects they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own.
And amalgamation eventually led to the City of Toronto Act, which allows council to impose new taxes on residents – like the huge land transfer tax and the vehicle registration levy, which still rankles many who live here.
Love it or hate it, it remains in place, one Toronto united with still many divisions left in place. And what would a City Council meeting be without that?
Toronto celebrates its 175th birthday on March 6, and leading up to the big event, CityNews.ca has been posting stories, photos, and video about this city, past and present. While we don’t claim to cover every major event in this series, we’re looking at incidents or people that have made a lasting impression on the city. Here’s the final installment of our Toronto Timeline, about T.O. in the 60s and beyond.
How did a group of university students influence a huge change in one of the most famous buildings in the city? Who hit the first home run at the SkyDome? What Toronto sports team almost played its games near the Eaton Centre?
What continuing multi-million dollar event originally began as a way to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday? What local TV show once featured a then unknown Dan Aykroyd as its announcer? What’s under the Metro Toronto Zoo that you’ve never been allowed to see? And what tragedy made Toronto infamous and a place to be shunned around the world?
The answers come as the city enters the 1960s and its modern era begins. While Sundays are still pretty quiet, with no stores open, at least you can play and see a sporting event on the final day of your weekend. As the sleepy 50s end, the city you knew is about undergo a huge change.
Sept. 13, 1965: What The New City Hall Might Have Looked Like
You might say it was typical of politicians – they knew they need a new place to meet and run the city’s businesses, but they just couldn’t think of anything but a square box. That’s what Toronto’s famed New City Hall might have looked like if not for the intervention of some university students.
When council revealed plans for the new building in 1955, designed to take Toronto into a modern future, a mini-revolt broke out at the U. of T., where architectural students derided the proposal as flat and hardly innovative.
The original planned look of New City Hall, City of Toronto Archives, PT 344-C-5
That sparked a hue and cry that eventually defeated plans for the building and started an open competition for something better.
See some of the proposals here
Some 510 plans came in from 42 countries, before they picked the winner in September 1958: it was from a team of Finnish architects lead by a man named Viljo Revell. Their vision of City Hall stands at Nathan Phillips Square today – a pie shaped circular building that looked like nothing else that had ever been put up anywhere before. But Revell never lived to see it finished. He died in 1964, about a year before the completion and official opening.
New City Hall under construction, 1964, Fonds 1268, Item 462 (Slight Crop)
Toronto’s distinctive government office tower is arguably as famous as the CN Tower as a symbol of the city and has been seen in countless photographs and movies.
Perhaps its most far out use came in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was briefly glimpsed as a portal to a foreign world in the episode “Contagion.” It was also flashed in the original series in 1969 in a segment called “All Our Yesterdays,” again as part of a time portal.
Some would say what goes on there is still out of this world and often very alien-ating.
February 26, 1966: A Newcomer Down The Line
For years, those heading downtown could only take the subway in a direction along Yonge or around University. Those going east and west got their chance to go a different route when the Bloor-Danforth line finally got going. It had been a dozen years from the first subway opening to this one, and it was immediately busy. It ran from Keele to Woodbine.
The first car on the Bloor-Danforth Line heads to Woodbine Station, Fonds 567, series B, file 193
Additional subway lines would follow in later years and if the promised money holds out, there will be more expansion in the coming decade, including for the first time to York Region.
Mid 1960s: It had originally been simply a suburb of downtown Toronto and with the ritzy and expensive stores there now, it’s hard to imagine what it looked like during the heyday of the Flower Power Generation. But Yorkville became world famous as the home of the 60s counter culture in Canada, with local coffee houses giving new artists their first exposure to a willing young audience.
Among the names that got their first creative sparks in those sometime dingy basements: Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young. The infamous Rochdale College, part of the U. of T., saw the light of day in 1968 and quickly became infamous for its drug use.
But when the Bloor-Danforth subway line started in 1966, the end was near for the hangout haven and as the value of land there soared, barefoot hippies eventually gave way to well shod yuppies, and there are no real traces of the creative community that once made this neighbourhood the Haight-Ashbury of the Great White North.
Opening ceremonies of construction for Bloor-Danforth line, 1959, Fonds 567, series B, file 59
May 2, 1967: The Last Stanley Cup
They’d won hockey’s most coveted prize ten times before, and fans had come to expect greatness from their Toronto Maple Leafs. So few would have dreamt that their final Cup victory on a May day in 1967 would be their last for more than 40 years – and counting.
That final winning squad consisted of legendary names like Dave Keon, George Armstrong, Red Kelly, Bob Pulford, Frank Mahovlich, Eddie Shack, Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower.
When they defeated the hated Montreal Canadiens in 6 games, eking out a 3-1 win in the final match, the city predictably went crazy. On May 8th, there was a ticker tape parade up to City Hall, complete with marching bands and captain Armstrong riding in an open convertible holding the Stanley Cup.
It’s a sight an entire generation has grown up without ever getting to witness.
Summer 1967: Marching Down The Isles
It was supposed to be a one time only tribute to Canada’s Centennial year. It wound up becoming an annual tradition, despite financial troubles and differing organizations running it. It now attracts more than a million tourists from around the world every year and generates millions of dollars for local businesses. Its name: Caribana.
September 28, 1972: The Little Station That Did
Citytv signs on the air and changes the face of a rather staid Toronto TV landscape. The “little station that could” originally put out a weak signal on Channel 79, and specialized in the cheapest programming imaginable, the kind of material that would later be satirized on SCTV (which is where some of the inspiration originated.)
An early promotional announcement tried to explain the station’s raison d’etre
“Help,” it read. “You’ll need all of it you can get to survive the Toronto of the Seventies.” It goes on to explain how people feel “powerless” when confronted by large governments and institutions and promises a channel that will sort it all out.
And then it outlines the kinds of shows “you’ll be looking at on City-tv starting September 28th.”
“Our City Show with Ron Haggart will try to speak clearly on those issues that confront you and your immediate world.
“Leon Weinstein will provide a forum for consumer criticism.
“We’ll be accessible and entertaining with shows like “Casanova” and personalities like Mel Profit.
“Being new the one thing we can be sure of is that we’ll make mistakes along the way. Hopefully, they’ll be fruitful ones.”
Some of those early mistakes came in the form of cheesy programs, like “Greed,” hosted by Joey Bishop-relative Rummy Bishop and featuring an unknown Dan Aykroyd as its announcer; Saturday Night Fights, a remote of some extreme amateurs from local gyms; the Shulman File (hosted by former coroner Morton Shulman and later spoofed as Murray’s File on the Second City TV show) and of course, the Baby Blue Movie, which became notorious and attracted tourists from as far away as Buffalo.
But slowly things changed. Advertising improved, investors came in and the station took on a more professional sheen. Innovations like a newsroom with no anchor desk, a yearly New Year’s Eve bash at Nathan Phillips Square, closed circuit cameras that kept an Eye on Toronto roads, the idea of putting the common person and people from different backgrounds on TV, and of most of all a dedicated commitment to local coverage that remains to this day, have now been copied by stations around the world.
Citytv was purchased by Rogers Communications on September 28, 2007 – exactly 30 years to the day of that famous first sign on.
1974: The longest TTC strike in Toronto history paralyzes the city for a staggering 23 days.
August 15, 1974: It had actually been in the planning stages since 1969 but five years and $28 million later, it was finally ready for the public. The Metro Toronto Zoo officially opened in the late summer.
There’s an entire area of the famous locale most of us never get to see. It consists of 16 kilometres of sewers, 11 more of water mains, and an endless array of gas conduits, electrical cables and phone lines, enough to run a small city. And in a way, that’s just what the zoo is – except most of those who live there walk on all fours.
Unlike the ancient concept of animals in cages that had been the hallmark of the old Riverdale Zoo (below), which had been in operation since 1887, the new facility provided wide open spaces where its ‘tenants’ could roam freely, making them – and the millions of visitors since – a lot more satisfied.
Monkey cage at Riverdale Zoo, September 1913, Fonds 1231, Item 567
March 26, 1976: Major League Baseball Finally Accepts Toronto’s Pitch
It was a first for Toronto but not for Canada or the game. When Major League Baseball decided to expand again in 1977, there already was an existing team in the Great White North. The Montreal Expos had even come tantalizingly close to reaching the World Series, before labour disruptions and Rick Monday of the L.A. Dodgers destroyed that dream.
So when then local councillor Paul Godfrey began wondering in 1969 why Toronto couldn’t duplicate its Quebec rivals, the seeds were sown for what would happen seven years later.
It was almost a relocation of the San Francisco Giants. But when that deal fell through in 1975, the league – which can move as slowly as some complain the sport itself does – waited two years before finally giving Toronto a chance.
The new team name would be named the Blue Jays, continuing the tradition of calling franchises after birds – and a not so subtle reminder of one of then-owner Labatt’s best selling brands. They played their first game in the snow and to this day, hundreds of thousands of people insist they were there, even though Exhibition Stadium only held a little over 44,000 fans.
The sellout crowd watched and shivered on April 7, 1977 when the Jays played for the very first time and Doug Ault hit two homers to lead the franchise to its first win – 9-5 over the White Sox. There would not be a lot more W’s that year, but the game had come to T.O. and there were far better things ahead.
June 26, 1976: A Tall Tale And The Tower Of Power
The skyline of Toronto has seen a lot of different buildings over the years, soaring from the ground into the air for hundreds of feet. But there’s only one you can see from dozens and dozens of kilometers away. And it started as a tribute to the strength of Canadian industry and the need for better TV and radio signals.
It took 40 months to build and $63 million to construct, with workers toiling five days a week non-stop beginning in February 1973, to turn an empty plot of railway land near the lakeshore into a local and national icon. It would be called the CN Tower, a building so unique it’s still the most enduring symbol of Toronto to the rest of the world.
It’s now one of the top tourist attractions in Canada, with a revolving restaurant on top, a staircase that many consider a challenge to get up and down, and most of all that breathtaking view that lets visitors see all the way to Buffalo. As many as two million a year make that journey to the top.
At 1,815 feet and five inches, it stood for years as the tallest free standing structure in the world. It finally lost that title to a building in Dubai in 2007, but remains the biggest entity of its kind in all of North America.
Read more about the Tower’s history here
September 1976: In the beginning, it wasn’t thought of as anything more than just a few hundred film buffs getting together to watch a few otherwise hard-to-see flicks. But it kept getting more sponsors, better product, more premieres and eventually Hollywood and the stars all took notice.
What caused the shift? A decision made early on to keep the annual event non-competitive and leave politics out of it. The result: what had once been called The Festival of Festivals morphed into the Toronto International Film Festival – now one of the biggest and most respected movie gatherings in the world and one that the biggest players in filmdom take very seriously every year after Labour Day.
June 3, 1989: Dome On The Range
Let’s face it: the place where the Toronto Blue Jays played their home games was for the birds. The benches at Exhibition Stadium were hard and uncomfortable, the sightlines were mostly terrible, and don’t even ask about the weather. Baseball in Toronto in April or (dared we hope) October? Forget it.
There were rainouts, snow-outs and on at least one memorable occasion in the Mistake by the Lake, a game called on account of wind. Jim Clancy threw just a few pitches that bent wildly off the plate before everyone realized it wasn’t going to work.
It didn’t take long for the city to understand that in a larger sense, too. If baseball was to make it in T.O., we needed to head for cover.
Queen Elizabeth visits Exhibition stadium 1959, Fonds 1257, Series 1057
But it may not have been the Jays that actually put the final nail in the old Bandstand’s coffin. Legend has it miserable conditions at the 1982 Grey Cup game that were seen around the country were so embarrassing to the government, it decided to finally seriously consider the need for something else.
So after plans to put a dome on the Ex fell through, a new stadium was readied, one that would be a wonder of the world – a place where the roof could retract, giving Toronto the option of having both an indoor and an outdoor facility. The Jays would play there. So would the Argos. And it could be used for shows, concerts and conventions in the off seasons or during away games.
The next question: where to put it? They thought about York University, Downsview Airport or any place uptown that would have better parking. But like most things in the city, the powers-that-be eventually decided to leave it downtown, and the final site chosen was the railway lands near the CN Tower.
A contest was held to name it and SkyDome was a logical choice – and the winner.
It eventually cost $571 million of public and private money and opened with a flourish and a huge gala on June 3, 1989.
Two days, later the Jays faced their first opponent on the artificial turf. The questions at the time: who would get the first hit and who would slam the first home run out of the new ballpark? It didn’t take long to answer them both.
Slugging great Paul Molitor of the Brewers, the very first hitter to officially stand at home plate, made it a double early on.
Local hero Fred McGriff later smashed a two run dinger with George Bell on base in the fourth, starting a legacy that still continues.
Unfortunately for the home side, it was another dinger that decided things, as Glen Braggs’ two run shot helped the Brewers spoil the party with a 5-3 Milwaukee win.
There have been many other memorable moments at the dome since then, including infamous cases of couples getting frisky in the hotel rooms that look out onto the field, with fans watching open mouthed.
The SkyDome ran into financial troubles and was eventually taken over by Rogers Communications, which also bought the Jays. It’s now known as Rogers Centre, but the hits just keep on coming.
October 25, 1992: Jays Win First World Series
In a city starved for winners – the Leafs have been Cupless since 1967 – the hopes of Toronto sports fans turned to the Blue Jays, who were having a phenomenal season and were on the cusp of another first – in the storied history of the baseball, no Canadian team had ever won the World Series.
That changed on a Sunday night at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta that few will forget, as a bunt down the first base line was fielded by reliever Mike Timlin and shoveled over to Joe Carter covering first for the final out, leading to a thrilling 4-3 extra innings win at 12:50am.
Few in Toronto were sleeping that night when the moment finally came. After years of frustration and being the league doormat, the Jays had become baseball’s best and more than 45,000 who watched it on the Jumbotron spilled deliriously into the streets, joining thousands more as the party raged on Yonge St. and across the city into the night.
Some wondered if they could ever top it. They only had to wait a year before finding out the answer was ‘yes.’
October 23, 1993: Second Verse, Same As The First: Blue Jays Do It Again
The odds of getting to the World Series are huge to begin with. The chances of winning it back-to-back are even less. But that’s what Toronto’s beloved Blue Jays did in one of the most dramatic World Series wins in history.
Trailing 6-5 against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 at SkyDome, Joe Carter faced the Wild Thing, Philly’s Mitch Williams, in a tense do-or-die bottom of the ninth, with two on and one out. On a 2-2 pitch, he swatted a three run homer, a walk off World Series dinger that drove the emotional and exhausted Toronto fans into a frenzy.
“Touch em all Joe!” screamed an excited play-by-play man Tom Cheek in a now legendary radio call. “You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!”
Photo credit: Chris Wilkins/AFP/Getty Images
The ovations and celebrations inside the stadium went on for hours, with many refusing to go home and savouring the incredible win. Those not lucky enough to have tickets were partying outside and the scenes that turned Yonge St. in party central a year earlier began again, as the entire city celebrated a second historic win for the ages.
The Jays have not been able to return to that Promised Land since, although every year, spring training renews the hope that one day, the swat team will repeat those two magical moments that left the city temporary Kings of the Baseball World.
November 3, 1995: A New Old Game In Town Tips Off
The last time an NBA game that really counted was played by a Toronto team was in 1946, when the Huskies lost to the New York Knicks 68-66, and the local squad folded after only a year in existence.
So when an application for a new T.O. entity was made to the National Basketball Association in 1993, at least there was a tradition to fall back on. After proving they had a viable business plan, the group led by John Bitove Jr. and a host of other rich backers wowed the expansion committee with the promise of a new centrally located downtown stadium.
The NBA solons considered all the expansion applications and awarded two – one to Vancouver and the other to Toronto. They were the first additions since the Timberwolves and the Magic came into existence in 1989.
But where would the promised new stadium go? It was originally planned for land near the Eaton Centre, but the acreage in that part of the city was considered too small to house a decent sized facility. So they wound up acquiring the historic Canada Post Delivery Building and began work there.
The squad would play at the SkyDome until the new facility – to be called the Air Canada Centre – was ready.
The team was named the Raptors, after a contest was held that included such questionable monikers as the Beavers, the Dragons and yes, the Hogs (after Hogtown.) Even the Grizzlies was rejected (although not in B.C.) and the dinosaur theme – Jurassic Park was a hit movie in 1993 – was adopted.
The draft was held and rookie Damon Stoudamire came to T.O. His 10 points and 10 assists helped the Raptors to win their very first game on November 3, 1995, 94-79 against the New Jersey Nets.
Jan. 1, 1998: Amalgamation Arrives
It was an idea imposed by the Mike Harris government and it was supposed to save money: amalgamating Toronto from seven different cities in the old Metro, like Etobicoke and North York, into one giant whole. Instead many have argued it’s left us in one giant hole.
The sea-change created challenges and troubles that exist to this day, with some benefits and some drawbacks that are still playing themselves out.
It was supposed to save taxpayers some $300 million a year. It didn’t.
The size of City Hall was supposed to be reduced. But there are more civil servants now than ever before, over 4,000 of them.
Downtown Toronto still gets most of the attention, leaving some former boroughs waiting for their share. But it also allowed them access to a larger pool of funds to get projects they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own.
And amalgamation eventually led to the City of Toronto Act, which allows council to impose new taxes on residents – like the huge land transfer tax and the vehicle registration levy, which still rankles many who live here.
Love it or hate it, it remains in place, one Toronto united with still many divisions left in place. And what would a City Council meeting be without that?
July 2002: Attest Of Faith
It’s not often the Pope makes a visit to Toronto. But in July 2002, an ailing John Paul II attended World Youth Day at Downsview Park, making the city the temporary religious capital of the planet.
You didn’t have to be a member of the Catholic Church to admire the head of it. Pope John Paul II was one of the most popular pontiffs in history and certainly its most travelled. A crowd estimated at 400,000-500,000 showed up from across the world to hear him speak at what would be his final World Youth Day.
Photo credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
By the time he conducted a concluding Sunday mass, it’s estimated at least 850,000 people had come to some or all of the week-long events. That’s larger than the population of many Canadian cities.
Feb. 23, 2003: SARS Plagues Toronto
It arrived here without warning, sneaking past customs agents with ease and making its way into Toronto without any notice. Before it was over, the city’s reputation as a sort of Typhoid Mary of the world would spread across the planet.
It was called severe acute respiratory syndrome but we came to know it better by its initials: SARS. It’s a deadly form of pneumonia and it’s believed to have originated in the Far East. And it’s thought that it came to the GTA through a Hong Kong tourist who got off a plane at Pearson International Airport on that fateful day in February.
She may have been Patient Zero but the numbers kept going up. The disease was highly contagious and life threatening, spread by a simple cough or contact with droplets of the mucous or saliva of an infected person.
It spread quickly, forcing an unprecedented health emergency as hundreds of people got sick. The worst hit places were hospitals, and many were put under quarantine, with patients isolated from contact with the outside world, sometimes for weeks.
Health care workers were especially at risk and many who contracted it got sick or died.
Photo credit: David Lucas/Getty Images
Officials would hold daily briefings on the latest number of infections, a startling statistic that just kept soaring. And just when experts thought they had it contained and declared the emergency over, it reappeared, the so-called second wave, taking even more lives.
Things were so bad and the attention so focused, that the World Health Organization issued an alert advising against travel to Toronto. Tourism became the other victim of SARS, as fearful would-be visitors stayed away in droves.
It lasted until September but the scars would linger for years, with 438 probable or suspected cases (remember that term?) and 43 deaths directly related to the mysterious ailment.
It would take a concert featuring The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake and more to reassure the world Toronto was safe again.
SARS is thankfully long gone now, but its legacy continues to be felt in the GTA. Just last month, many of the survivors or their families went to court asking for compensation, arguing the various levels of governments didn’t adequately warn or do enough to protect the public once they learned of the hazard that was spreading.
And it forever changed the way hospitals operate. Masks, gloves and gowns are now required in many sensitive areas like the ICU, and even visitors have to wear them.
And hand sanitizers are spread everywhere in health care facilities as a precaution against spreading anything.
There have been many lessons learned from the year Toronto became an international pariah. Officials here are hoping they never have to put them to the test again.
August 14, 2003: Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?
It was a day when Toronto the Busy stopped and for just a moment, became Toronto the Good one more time. The date was a blisteringly hot day in August 2003, a Thursday afternoon. The city was just going home, when the clock struck 4:09pm. If it was powered by electricity, those hands wouldn’t move from that position again for the next 24 hours or more.
Toronto, Southern Ontario and a large number of U.S. states were all plunged into darkness as the biggest blackout in North American history left Toronto residents feeling powerless.
A lucky few got their juice back on in just a few hours. Others were without it for days. Some 50 million people were affected across two countries. And the results back home were immediate.
Traffic lights blinked out in Toronto. The subway stopped running. Food in restaurants and homes spoiled as refrigeration died.
People who hadn’t left work yet were forced to walk down dozens of flights of stairs in some office towers because the elevators were out. Cars running on empty quit altogether, because there was no power to the gas pumps. The roads after sundown were hazardous without street lamps, as stranded pedestrians walked all over the place, narrowly avoiding cars and drivers who couldn’t see them.
Even the C.N.E. was temporarily shut down for a time, without hydro to run the rides and keep the buildings open. And it was incredibly hot, but there was no air conditioning.
But despite the inconvenience and the trauma, the true spirit of the city came through. People jumped into intersections, trying to direct traffic that had no guidance from lights.
As the sun went down, neighbours stuck without A.C., TV or the Internet came wandering out of their stifling homes and spent the night staring at the suddenly clear stars, without any light pollution to obscure them.
Many had large barbeques and invited whoever wanted to come and feast, using up defrosting food before it went bad. The city went from cold and detached to a feeling of camaraderie that has rarely been seen since.
The power gradually came back on, and even then the emergency wasn’t over. Officials asked residents to conserve to avoid putting a strain on the already overtaxed system.
And what caused all this? It was traced back to a tree falling on a hydro line in Ohio that caused a cascade effect felt by millions.
CityNews was on the air that night, but most people never saw the show. We’ve since posted it online and you can relive that amazing day here.
November 10, 2003: Lastman Standing
Love him or hate him – and sometimes, it was possible to do both at once – Mel Lastman was arguably the most famous mayor this city has ever had. He gave Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion a run for her money as the longest serving person in that post in history, ruling the roost in North York starting in 1972 and ascending to the Toronto throne in January 1998, after amalgamation.
He stayed in that office until he chose not to run again due to ill health and David Miller was elected on November 10th, 2003.
Lastman presided over some of the most tumultuous years in the city’s history. But it’s his controversial escapades and shoot-from-the-lip style that will never be forgotten.
-Perhaps his famous moment was the one seen round the world: Lastman with his index finger extended, sitting in a tank. It happened after the city was paralyzed by a 48-hour, 118-centimetre snowstorm that led to the Mayor calling in the army to help dig us out in January 1999.
It made the city a laughing stock all over the world, but Lastman was certain he’d done the right thing, saying he couldn’t allow Toronto to come to a standstill.
-He passed a law later that same year banning squeegee kids on city streets, using the famous line “who the hell needs a squeegee kid?”
-In November 2000, he was hit by a major scandal when a former employee of his Bad Boy furniture chain sued him for allegedly fathering two children. He acknowledged the affair but won a court case that tried to squeeze $6 million out of him for lost child support.
-Many people blame Lastman for costing the city a shot at the Olympic Games in 2001, when he famously talked about being boiled in a pot before leaving on a trip to Kenya to try and bolster our bid for the five-ring circus. The Olympic Committee would later say that had no effect, but many didn’t believe it.
-Shaking hands with a Hell’s Angel. A front page newspaper photo of Mayor Mel glad handing a motorcycle gang member in January 2002 prompted his now famous explanation that he’s willing to meet anyone who puts out their hand in friendship. He would later claim he didn’t know about their ties to drug dealing and other criminal behaviour.
-He shepherded the city through a garbage strike in 2002, when people started dumping their trash in city parks.
-He told an international audience on CNN that he had no idea who the World Health Organization was, after it slapped a tourist advisory on the city during the SARS crisis in 2003.
Lastman opted not to run again that year, when the hepatitis he’d acquired after a blood transfusion made him too ill to continue. He recovered and has gone back to the Bad Boy franchise that gave him his fame and fortune. But many believe it’s his years as the ‘bad boy’ of City Hall that has forever enshrined him in this city’s history.
May 29, 2006: The TTC walks out on a wildcat strike that leaves hundreds of thousands stranded with little notice. Issues include safety and compensation but the city insists it’s simply a union power play, angry over a change in shifts for some janitors. Whatever the reason, it takes ten hours and two tries as the city’s goes to the Ontario Labour Board to force the union back.
Riders holding a Metropass are compensated by getting back the $2 they lost that day. But some vow they’ll never return to the system that left them stranded. Those that do are outraged anew just two years later.
July 11, 2007: An “Honest” Man Departs
For a man who became such a big part of Toronto, perhaps the most amazing thing about Ed Mirvish was that he didn’t actually come from here. The man we knew as “Honest” was actually born in West Virginia and arrived in T.O. with his family back in 1923.
He was forced to drop out of school at age 15 when his father died and he had to take over the family’s grocery store. The lessons he learned there allowed him to try several other businesses until he borrowed some money from his wife’s insurance and opened an outlet at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst in 1948, a place that was not only furnished with products at cheap prices but a good dollop of show biz and common sense.
His was the earliest example of a no-frill’s shop – no fancy packaging, no returns and no deliveries. The pay-off: prices that were a lot cheaper than more established stores like Eaton’s or Simpson’s.
The “Honest” Ed image was as much a character as the man himself, a merchant who far exceeded the goals he set out to achieve. By the end of his life, he owned theatres in London and Toronto (including saving the Royal Alex), was well known as a generous philanthropist who contributed to a wide variety of causes, earned the Order of Canada and was knighted by the Queen.
When he died on July 11, the entire city felt a loss that almost no other single person in Toronto could engender. Everyone seemed to feel his absence, as they contemplated the man who truly did seem to be the very personification of the city.
His iconic store still exists, and many of the traditions he created continue, too – including the annual free turkey handout that still draws huge crowds every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
He was once asked how he would like to be remembered. He answered with the panache that only added to his legend. “What I would like is to have a throne set up in the centre of Honest Ed’s. Have a man sitting on that throne. Then have my body cremated and put in an hourglass, and he keeps turning that hourglass up and down. And my employees said “There’s Ed. He’s still running.”
April 26, 2008: Bitter talks continued and while there were warnings, no one was prepared when the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 walked out on strike without any notice late on a Friday night. Their actions left thousands of surprised people – many of them teenagers and young women – stranded downtown in the dark with no way to get home.
The strike outraged commuters and politicians alike who called it irresponsible and unforgivable. A rare Sunday sitting was hastily put together at Queen’s Park and service resumed once back to work legislation was passed. But the lingering resentment of the union’s actions still smolders in some to this day.
February 20, 2008: The Great Queen St. Fire
It seems only appropriate to end this lengthy timeline where it began: marking the finale of a piece of Toronto history. But it’s not a happy ending. Early that Wednesday morning, something sparked a blaze in the National Sound store near Queen and Portland Sts. It spread quickly and before it was over, an entire block of the historic street, including buildings that had stood since the 1850’s, was claimed by the rare 6-alarm fire.
An open field of rubble is all that remains a year later, and because of insurance disputes, there are no signs that anything will be rebuilt there anytime soon. Despite an extensive probe by the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office, the cause will never be known.
Black and white photos except Yorkville courtesy: Toronto Archives
See our other feature stories:
TO175 Timeline Part 1 : The Early Years
TO175 Timeline Part 2: The 1900s Arrive
TO175: Mike Filey on the Changing Face of Toronto
TO175: Mayor Feels Toronto Will Be A Model To The World In Years To Come
TO175: New Media Artist Faisal Anwar Wants Your Toronto Stories For My City Project
