The Past Whispers

Who are you the past whispered? I wasn't sure. Born in Montreal to French - Irish parents and moved to America at age 4, I wasn't able to connect with my roots. The past whispered again and I began my search. The search for my elusive great-grandparents took me to County Cavan, Ireland, northern France and Belgium. The Past Whispers...

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Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Winter is Franco - American Country


Mon pays, c’est l’hiver (my country is the winter), sang Gilles Vigneault, in what quickly became a Quebecois classic after its 1965 release. The tune, with its haunting melody and wistful lyrics has been seen by many as a nationalist anthem, capturing both the cultural isolation of Quebec within Canada, as well as French Canadians’ affinity for the landscape they inhabit, even during its long winter months. The association of French Canadians, and Franco Americans with this season begins long before Vigneault, and has resonated through the centuries.

In the very first years of French settlement at Quebec, in 1616, the French Jesuit Father Pierre Biard noted that they had been taken aback by the ferocity of the Canadian winter. Knowing that Canada and France lie at roughly the same degree of latitude, the early settlers had assumed the climate would be similar: more…


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Labels: Historical, Immigration, Lewiston, Music

Friday, July 21, 2017

Gayety Theatre


gayety1The building which housed the Gayety Theatre, was designed by the architects firm of Ross and MacFarlane, for the Canadian Amusement Company. The building with its balcony and gallery gallery, featured seating for 1600 guests. It became one of Montreal’s first landmarks of public entertainment. Opening its doors on in 1912, the Gayety offered American Vaudeville, a popular form of entertainment at the time of the Great Depression. It saw packed crowds of not only men but women and children. Vaudeville disappeared around 1929 and the theatre became a movie house for a number of years, before becoming one of the most popular cabarets iin Montreal.


During Prohibition in the USA, Montreal businessman Samuel Bronfman, founder of Distillers Corporation Limited was the importer of Seagram’s Canadian Whiskey, and Montreal became the destination for Americans looking for a drink and other pleasures. Burlesque houses, variety theatres and jazz clubs thrived during this era. Gambling and prostitution, unrivaled in North America, earned Montreal the nickname “Sin City”. The Gayety Theatre featured burlesque artists like Gypsy Rose and exotic dancer Lily St-Cyr, considered the “Queen of Strippers” in the 1940s and 1950s. She often performed topless, and was one of Montreal’s main cultural attractions, taking in an average of $5000 a week, an amount unheard of at the time. Her performances included erotic versions of classical stories, oriental fantasies of harems and sex slaves, and scenarios set in bathrooms and bedrooms. She performed her last show in March 1957. By the late 1940s, the Gayety Theatre along with other clubs of Montreal’s red light district, became associated with organized crime and corruption.

In 1950, lawyer (and later Montreal mayor) Jean Drapeau and former police chief and lawyer Pax Plante along with other political and religious individuals formed “La Comite de Moralite Publique”, a morality squad that promised to rid Montreal of gambling, prostitution and corruption, much of which was centered around the red light district. They imposed harsh curfews and closing times, which caused many of the cabarets to shut down, including the Gayety Theatre which closed its doors in 1953. From 1953 to 1956, it was known as Radio City.

In 1956, Canadian author, playwright, actor, director, and producer Gratien Gélinas, who is considered one of the founders of modern Canadian theatre and film. bought the theater. It became the Comédie Canadienne, a French theater that featured shows with performers like Gilles Vigneault, Monique Leyrac, Claude Léveillée, Jacques Brel, Barbara and Serge Reggiani. In 1972, the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, bought the building and is the current owner. The TNM is a theatre company and venue, featuring national and international classic plays.

The building is located at 84 rue Sainte-Catherine West in Montreal.

courtesy – Montreal Times


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Labels: Historical, Landmark, Montreal, Music, Theatre

Monday, February 20, 2017

The dean of Franco-American fiddling keeps the tradition alive in Maine

 

GORHAM — Don Roy began playing the fiddle as a teenager at house parties, where fiddles and guitars were passed around and songs exchanged deep into the night. He quickly became better than the older and more experienced people he was playing with, including the uncle who taught him, Lucien Mathieu of Westbrook.

Roy won his first fiddle contest six months after he started playing, and racked up so many titles that some of his peers stopped competing when they saw his name on the roster of entrants. “Don’s playing. No sense in bothering to sign up,” said one…more

 

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Labels: Immigration, Music

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Silent Night

 

 

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Silent Night Chapel at Oberndorf, Austria

The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a co-adjutor.

The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve mass. Together they performed the new carol during the mass on the night of December 24.

The original manuscript has been lost. However, a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers as c. 1820. It states that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. 

In 1859, the Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church, New York City, wrote and published the English translation that is most frequently sung today, translated from three of Mohr's original six verses. The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditative lullaby or pastorale, differing slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a "moderato" tune in 6
8
time and siciliana rhythm. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

The carol has been translated into about 140 languages.

Mohr's German lyrics

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,


Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!


Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Halleluja,
Tönt es laut von fern und nah:


Christ, der Retter ist da!
Christ, der Retter ist da!


Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.


Christ, in deiner Geburt!
Christ, in deiner Geburt!

Young’s English lyrics

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,


Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.


Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!


Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!


Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light;
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,


Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Posted by Linda Sullivan-Simpson at 6:56:00 AM No comments:
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Labels: Christmas, Family, Historical, Holiday, Music

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

100 years of Ouimetoscope

 

On 1 st  January 1906, Montrealers flock to the entry of a new institution of "moving pictures", the Ouimetoscope. Located in the Poiré room, on the corner of Montcalm and Saint-Catherine streets, the new attraction brings home a hundred dollars to its owner, Léo-Ernest Ouimet, in the first week.

 

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Born in Saint-Martin on Île Jésus (today Laval) in 1877, Ouimet leaves the family farm to move to Montreal. He learned the trade of electrician and became a theater lighting designer. Strongly interested in the new medium of cinema, he takes care of projections at Sohmer Park, produces short films and creates a company, the Ouimet Film Exchange. The projection device he conceives, the Ouimetoscope, even influences the work realized by Thomas Edison. As part of his documentary achievements, Ouimet will appeal to Lactance Giroux as a cameraman. The latter became, in 1920, the first photographer hired by the City of Montreal.

In 1907, Léo-Ernest Ouimet demolished the building he occupied and began construction of the "Grand Ouimetoscope" which opens these doors in August. The following year, several cinemas opened their doors and the competition became more fierce. The American film distribution monopoly created Canadian branches and thus eliminated Ouimet from this market. At the same time, the Montreal Church began its campaign against Sunday cinematographic performances. At the end of the summer of 1908, Mayor Louis Payette, yielding to the pressure of the League for the observance of Sunday, caused contraventions to the various cinemas. Due to lung problems in two of his children, the Ouimet family settled in California each winter from 1913.

During the First World War, Ouimet withdrew from the projection to redo the distribution again and especially the realization. Among other things, he was given a film about the opening of the Bibliothèque de Montréal by Marshal Joffre in May 1917.

Following the death of two of his children, Ouimet settled down in Los Angeles in 1921, Produced the feature film Why get married that will have little success. His financial situation degraded, he accepted a position for a distribution company in Toronto but returned to Hollywood in 1930. Ruined, he returned to Quebec in 1933 to become a year later manager of the Imperial cinema. Since his financial situation had not improved, he accepted a position as manager of a branch of the Commission des liqueurs. At the time of his retirement in 1956, he was a store clerk. He died on 2 March 1972 at the age of 94 years.

 

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In 1978, Léon H. Bélanger's nephew, Léon H. Bélanger, published a book on the life of his uncle and the beginnings of the Quebec cinema, Les Ouimetoscopes. In May 1979, the author handed over his manuscript to the city's archives. This document and its printed version constituted the Fonds Léon H. Bélanger ( P55).

 

- courtesy Archives of Montreal

©2016 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

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Labels: Cinema, French, Landmark, Montreal, Music, Photography, Theatre

Friday, December 2, 2016

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

 

Now in its 18th year, Canadian Pacific's annual Holiday Train will travel across Canada and the northern United States to raise money, food and awareness for food banks and hunger issues while hosting free concerts along the way.
Since its launch in 1999, the program has raised more than C$12 million and nearly 4 million pounds of food for communities along CP's routes.

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There will be two trains under the Holiday Train banner, each approximately 1,000 feet in length with 14 rail cars decorated with thousands of LED lights and a boxcar that has been converted into a traveling stage.

 

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"For nearly 20 years, CP has watched communities turn out to enjoy a wonderful event while taking a stand against hunger," E. Hunter Harrison, CP's CEO, said. "We are proud of the role the Holiday Train plays, but more importantly, we're proud of the people and families that come out year after year to help their neighbors. They're the reason we keep bringing the train back."

One train will launch on Nov. 25 and the other launches a day later - both out of Montreal. The final shows of the U.S. train will be in Saskatchewan on Dec. 15 and the final show of the tour will be in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, on Dec. 17.
Every pound of food and dollar raised at each stop stays with the local food back to help those in need in that community.

The Canadian train will feature musical guests Dallas Smith and Odds, while the U.S. train will feature Kelly Prescott and Doc Walker between Montreal and Windsor, Ontario and Colin James covering the Midwest and Great Plains shows. Jonathan Roy will perform at the Quebec locations.


"We are very excited about this year's CP Holiday Train and are encouraging all event attendees to bring healthy, nutritious food items to the shows," Pam Jolliffee, interim executive director for Food Banks Canada, said.


Fans of the Holiday Train are encouraged to take photos capturing the train in various cities and landscapes and entering the "Capture the Spirit" photo contest on Facebook for a chance to win an exclusive ride on next year's train.

The train will make stops in Quebec, New York, Ontario, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. For a full schedule, click here.

For those not in the area of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, there are various holiday-based excursions around the country. Here is a state-by-state list we've put together.

Chasing the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

Holiday Train – 2015

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

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Labels: Canadian Pacific Railway, Christmas, French, Holiday, Montreal, Music, Quebec, Railroad

Monday, November 28, 2016

The Robillard

 

Last Thursday, a fire unfortunately destroyed The Robillard, a historic 19th-century building in Montreal's Chinatown district. As a heritage building, the Robillard certainly lived up to the designation with its historical significance: it was the birthplace of cinema in Canada.

On June 27, 1896, naval officer Louis Minier and his assistant Louis Pupier organized Canada's first public screening using a new device called the cinematograph. Developed by French filmmakers Auguste and Louis Lumière, the invention could project movies as well as record them — in direct competition with Thomas Edison's Vitascope projector.

 

robillard-building
ciurtesy – Montreal Archives 1921

Six months prior, the Lumières had revealed their world-changing motion picture technology for the first time to the public and charged for admission. Among several other films, Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon(Workers leaving the Lumière Factory) was screened in Paris on Dec. 28, 1895, at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines. Soon the Lumières licenced their creation to entrepreneurs around the world, including Minier and Pupier. In fact, the Montreal screening was not only the first screening in Canada, but the first in North America — the Lumière cinematograph made its American debut at Keith's Union Square Theater in New York, just two days after Montreal.

At that time, Robillard was used as a variety and vaudeville theatre — the idea of a movie theatre did not yet exist, of course — but Minier and Pupier's demonstration proved to be so successful that the theatre was booked for a two-month run of the cinematograph before the duo toured the new technology around Quebec.

While that historic day in June in Montreal is now proven to be the first movie screening in North America, for many years Canadian film historians reported erroneously that cinema first came to this country by Canadian entrepreneurs Andrew and George Holland, who had licensed Edison's Vitascope for a public demonstration in Ottawa. That much-discussed screening took place in the nation capital's West End Park on July 21, 1896. A magician provided a 30-minute pre-show before the event, in which the Holland brothers screened Edison films like The Kiss. The historic event was recreated in the summer of 2014 by community organizers.

It was only in the 1980s that French-Canadian scholars Andre Gaudreault and Germain Lacasse disabused the notion that Ottawa's screening preceded Montreal's. Their research revealed the discrepancies in reports from English and French media sources about Canada's first film screening. Since Minier and Pupier had publicized the event in French (their English was supposedly not very good), the Robillard screening was never mentioned in English-language publications in Montreal at the time.

Nonetheless, French-Canadian journalists were quite taken with the Lumières' novel moving-picture technology. Here's one enthusiastic report from La Presse:

"We were shown, as in some strange phantasmagoria, scenes from different places in France. First there was the arrival of a train at the Lyon-Perrache station ... you could clearly see each individual. Is [sic] was most lifelike: you really were at the station. The train left and everything disappeared ... And the sea? We saw it, not immobile, but rolling its waves. Is [sic] was most striking. 'How refreshing!' cried a jocular fellow."

Anglophone film historians researching the time and place of Canada's first film screening had entirely missed the Montreal screening by examining solely English sources. "The discrepancies in the reporting of this event are a good example of what more and more historians have come to acknowledge: history is also — is mostly — a discourse, sometimes biased, made to serve interests and ideas," wrote Gaudreault and Lacasse in "The Introduction of the Lumière Cinematograph in Canada," an account of their research in the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.

The article also questions the idea of "firsts" in history, as the Lumière cinematograph and Edison's Vitascope were two of several similar inventions displayed at the time to project moving pictures. For example, the Eidoloscope — a motion-picture projector created by Eugene Augustin Lauste, Woodville Latham and his two sons — screened publicly in the spring of the same year that the Lumière brothers' and Edison's technologies were taking off. Yet it's rarely discussed when we talk about the "birth of cinema."

Over a century later, the memory of the now-destroyed Robillard Building should serve as a reminder that history isn't always as neatly squared away as textbooks might want us to believe — and that in the realm of Canadian cinema, Quebec has always been ahead of the curve.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Posted by Linda Sullivan-Simpson at 5:57:00 AM No comments:
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Labels: Cinema, Montreal, Music

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Rue Rufus Rockhead


Rockhead’s Paradise was founded in 1928 at Mountain and St. Antoine Streets by Rufus Rockhead. Rockhead was a former railway porter from Jamaica who was able to draw the biggest jazz and blues names in the business during Montreal’s Sin City heyday from the 1930s to ’50s.

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Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Leadbelly, Nina Simone, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie and Sammy Davis Jr., among countless others, were drawn to the hot spot. While the aforementioned legends played upstairs at Rockhead’s Paradise, Rufus Rockhead and, later, his son Kenny gave then largely unknown local talent like the late Oscar Peterson, Charlie Biddle, Nelson Symonds, Andy Shorter and his dad, Andy Shorter Sr., as well as Jones, Georgette, Mason, Parris and Villeneuve their big breaks downstairs.
Some of these players would later form the Paradise Band, which became the house ensemble at Rockhead’s. In 1980, it was sold and then shortly thereafter was demolished. In the 1990's, this street was named after him in his honor.

Chicago Cubs - 0
Cleveland Indians - 1


©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved
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Labels: Jazz, Montreal, Music, Rue Rufus Rockhead

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Rialto Theatre


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The building was built in 1923 according to the plans of architect Raoul Gariépy. Gariépy also designed the Verdun Theater in 1912-1915, the Théâtre de la Lune Rousse in 1913 and the Maisonneuve Theater in 1921.
The Rialto Theatre was designed in the Beaux-Arts style and was inspired by the Paris Opéra. The theatre’s richly decorated neo-Baroque interior was designed by the famous theatre designer Emmanuel Briffa. Briffa created the decoration of most of the movie theaters that were built in Montreal before 1940, such as the Empress Theater (1927), the Outremont Theater (1928), the cinema Le Château (1831), and the York.

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Initially, the building included a projection room, a dance hall, shops on the ground floor, and a garden on the roof. There was also a space for bowling and billard in the basement. The projection room served not only for movies, but also for theatrical plays and music shows, as it was also the case in the other theaters in Montreal at that time.


The Rialto was managed by United Amusement Corporation Limited. This company was founded in 1908 by George Nicholas Ganetakos, an immigrant of Greek origin. His company grew rapidly, and managed several theaters, such as the Regent, the Papineau, the Rivoli, the Séville, the York, and of course the Rialto. At the end of the 1930s, United Amusement was acquired by Famous Players Canadian Corporation, a company from Toronto.

The Rialto Theatre was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1993. The façade and the interior of the Rialto are still very well preserved today.

http://theatrerialto.ca/

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
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Labels: French, Landmark, Montreal, Music, Province, Rialto Theatre

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Jitterbug Nation – The Clash of ‘39

 

Hey Boy? Oh, boy! Panama, Shanama, Swanee shore, let me dig that jive some more.

CALLOWAY-AD-MAY-1940


It was the spring of ’39, a time when the world around us was talking of another great war. Just as in pre-war 1914, the threat of war was changing the way we lived, the way we dressed, and the way we danced. Once known as a “product of mad times”, the Jitterbug was on its way, bringing us a wild new way of free-style dancing. Here in Verdun, we were already in the midst of another conflict, as Verdun’s Anti-Jitterbug Society was taking actions to literally stomp-out the menace that was already swinging its way north.


The “bugs” had arrived, flailing their arms and legs, and throwing their bodies across the dance floor, and brushing the “naturally-flowing” dancers off to the side. It was only the beginning of what was to come, as the small corners of our world began to converge into a Jitterbug nation.


The jim-jam-jump with the jumpin' jive, makes you get your kicks on the mellow side. Hep! Hep!


“Bug” news came from around the world with stories of young girls dying instantly of heart attacks and of people collapsing of exhaustion after uncontrollably “jitterbugging”. Many school dance committees, dance halls and music clubs dealt with this new craze by imposing outright bans on jitterbug dancing.

 

CALLOWAY-PIC-MAY-1940


In that year, a pair of Jitterbug shoes sold for an expensive $3.95, with rubber soles and every inch covered with “swing-lingo inscriptions” for the coolest cats. It seemed that our local world had also gone C-U-R-AAA-ZY, as the jitterbugs took over all the “jam-joints” in town. The Seville Theater announced “Jitterbugs Attention – the Greatest Jam Session Ever! – See and hear from our screen – 2 solid hours of swing! – Admission 20-cents – Everything goes including Dancing in the Aisles!”. Everyone was getting bitten by the bug, and they just couldn’t get enough of it.
The jim-jam-jump with the solid jive, makes you nine foot tall when you're four foot five, Hep! hep!


The early jitterbug was believed to be a mix of various swing dances, including the Lindy hop and the East Coast Swing. Using fast six-count steps, the man would lead on his left foot as a left-right-left-right-right-left, with his partner copying on the opposite foot. With multiple turns, lifts and spins, jitterbug partners often danced side by side, instead of face-to-face. After the basic steps, the “bugs” could then add complicated maneuvers, like through-the-leg swings! The more moves you knew, the more hep you were!

Bandleader, Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club Orchestra were the first “name band” to play at our Verdun Auditorium - admission was 75-cent to a dollar. On the night of May 28th, 1940, he introduced a new dance called the “Boog-it” to an enthusiastic crowd of 3,000 Verdun jitterbuggers, performing his ever-popular “Minnie the Moocher”, and his latest hit the “Jumpin’ Jive”. Calloway, known as the chief of Hi-de-ho, was the first to use the term “jitterbug” in his 1934 recording "Call of the Jitter Bug". Adding that the dancers looked as if they had the “jitters”, a prohibition term describing the hangover effects of alcohol or moonshine, then frequently referred to as “jitter sauce”.
The jim-jam-jump with the jumpin' jive, makes you like your eggs on the Jersey side, Hep! hep!


In 1939, "The Jitterbug" was also a number written for “The Wizard of Oz”. Although not in the final cut, the Wicked Witch of the West would release flying jitter “bugs" to compel the heroes into doing a jitterbug-style dance, quoting to the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song by Judy Garland, and some of the dialogue, made it to B-side of the Over the Rainbow.


With the arrival of August, the young “Hep-cats” were dropping their numbered practice dance steps on to the floor. While Verdun Mayor, Herve Ferland, was pictured laying the cornerstone of the great Verdun Bandstand being erected near the corner of Woodland and LaSalle. As the stone was being lowered, the daily headlines of that time were ablaze with Jitterbug news, drawing fire from traditionalists, outright disgust from the clergy and severe health warnings from the establishment.
Don't be that ickeroo, get hep and follow through; and make the joint jump like the gators do.


Rex Billings Jr., president of Verdun’s Anti-Jitterbug Society, quoted in the local “Verdun Guardian” that a majority of folks have been forced from the floors through embarrassment or for the fear of being permanently disabled by the maniacal antics of the thoughtless “bugs”, who throw themselves in all directions. He blamed the guys more than the gals, as most girls assumed their popularity depended on their “jitterability”, and so they “jittered”. Adding that he has seen “healthy girls pass out after just one number”, and that jitterbugging is more like a marathon six-day bicycle race (held at the Montreal Forum) than a dance. For this reason, the Anti-Jitterbug Society organized its own “Dance-and-Frolic” evenings at Wood Hall, for persons who believed in “natural” dancing, strictly outlawing the jitterbug. Their ads would quote, “For those who like to Dance not Prance”, admission 40-cents. Bandleader Jimmy Laing, known for his “disappearing” fingers on the piano, would lead his orchestra as a local favorite.

 

ANTIJITTERBUG-DANCE-AD-24NOV1939


As ’39 progressed, Verdun, still known as the third largest city in Quebec, was about to change its slang, as the new hepster lingo hit the streets. A “Hepcat” was “solid”, one who knew the latest jive words and who could really “cut a rug”, while an “Ickeroo” was the opposite. People were urged to shag on down to “slide in their jib” (dance) and get Hep. Hepcats spoke fluidly, as if rhyming their words to music and creating new ones in the process. Swing styles also had their own hep names, like the “Peckin’ Neckin’”, “Swing the Wing”, the “Rusty-Dusty”, the “Shorty-George”, and “Whip the Hip”. Even with this smooth new language, those times remained simple.


Until, on September 10th, Canada finally declared war on Germany. Suddenly we would all be dancing for a different reason. As the reality of another World War crept in, we were comforted by the enjoyment of the few remaining moments of peace we had left, before being sent off to war.
The Jitterbug craze would go on throughout the War and continue into the late fifties. As the wave finally crested, it was slowly replaced in our dance halls with the new sounds and steps of the early sixties.


Just as our own elegant Verdun Dance Pavillion bandshell began to erode, we could feel the times of the Jitterbug slipping away, and with them our fondest memories.
The Verdun Bandstand was demolished in the late 1960’s, and not so long after, the Verdun Dance Pavillion was also torn down. Those ever-smiling dancers swaying, bopping, and twisting into the twilight of the night skies, are but just a memory now. Yet, whenever we hear that fast swing music, we are reminded of our once beautiful dance halls, with their flickering lights and their polished floors, awaiting our return. Giving us a reason to smile, knowing that we were all once part of a Jitterbug Nation…which had danced its way through our Southwest Corners. - Hep! hep!


courtesy- Rohinton Ghandhi

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

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Labels: Cab Calloway, French, Jitterbug, Montreal, Music, Seville Theater, Verdun, Verdun Dance Pavillion

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Berliner Gramaphone Company/RCA Victor

 

 

Victrola1 (1)
This was home of Berliner Gramophone Company. Note the sign showing Nipper the dog, the Berliner logo, followed by The Home of the Victrola.
(photo dated approx 1912)

The building now known as the RCA Victor building on Lenoir Street was originally built by the Berliner Gramaphone Company between 1908 and 1921 for the production of gramaphone equipment. Emile Berliner was born in Germany, moved to Washington, and finally settled in Montreal. He invented the telephone microphone, the gramophone and the flat record. When construction was completed in 1921, Berliner Gramophone possessed one of the most modern factories in Montreal. The 50,000 sq. ft. plant made both players and records.

 

nipper

The Gramaphone Company bought the now-famous painting of Nipper the Dog from the English painter Francis Barraud in 1896.  Barraud had first offered the painting to representatives of the Edison-Bell Company who turned him down telling him that "dogs don't listen to phonographs".  

This trademark first appeared in 1900 in Montréal on the back of record # 402 - "Hello My Baby", by Frank Banta.   This classic logo has adorned millions of Gramaphone, RCA, and RCA Victor recordings over the last 100 years.

 

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©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Posted by Linda Sullivan-Simpson at 7:13:00 AM No comments:
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Labels: French, Historical, Landmark, Montreal, Music, St. Henri, Whispers

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Life On The Home Front: Montreal 1939 - 1945


Life On The Homefront

The Second World War came hard on the heels of a devastating Depression in which families struggled to survive. Life on the Home Front paints a poignant portrait of a city coping with the demands of war. Montrealers, along with other Canadians, were being asked for more sacrifice but this time it would include sending their sons,brothers, fathers and husbands off to war.
Montrealers had to "Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, and Do Without" as one slogan cautioned, and this they did. Many women went to work for the first time and often enjoyed the heady success of doing "a man's job"and earning a regular salary.


Life on the Home Front describes how dissent was also an ever-present reality. Montreal was often awash with anti-war banners and angry speeches which kept the police and journalists busy. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had to walk a fine line in keeping the country together and united at a time of grave crisis.


All was not gloom and doom, however. Servicemen passing through Montreal as well as locals could enjoy the most vibrant nightlife in Canada. The cozy relationship between city officials, the police and the owners of "disorderly houses" as well as the shady characters who ran gambling establishments gave the name "Sin City "to Canada's metropolis.

(c)2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved



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Labels: Family, French, Historical, Montreal, Music, Whispers, World War II

They Were So Young: Montrealers Remembering WWII


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These gripping stories of young men and women who served in the army, navy, and air force during World War II are a testament to the raw courage, youthful bravado, camaraderie, and sacrifice needed to defeat a powerful enemy. Many who returned from the theatre of war were never the same again. Moving accounts by family members relate the impact the war had on their lives - the pain of losing a son, father, brother, or husband, and the welcoming of war brides into the family.

This is history that must never be forgotten.


©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved
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Labels: Ancestors, Cemeteries, Churches, Family, Historical, Immigration, Montreal, Music, Whispers, World War II

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Little Burgundy

 

In 1887, Sainte-Cunegonde (now familiarly referred to as Little Burgundy) started playing host to the majority of Montreal’s black community. This working class neighbourhood generated as a result of nearby industry along the Lachine Canal. Important railway lines also ran close to the municipality and recruited the American black community to serve as porters on its trains. Immigrants were mostly attracted from New York and Washington.

Gradually, the neighbourhood welcomed Afro-Canadians (from Ontario and the Maritimes) and those from the Caribbean, too. Women were mostly hired to perform domestic work. After two waves of immigration - at the end of the nineteenth century and during the First World War - Caribbeans represented close to 40% of Montreal’s black community and most of them chose to live in Little Burgundy.

Human rights movements characterize the history of Little Burgundy. In 1902, a social club was founded to create a sense of mutual responsibility between its members; this Women’s Coloured Club of Montreal helped to resolve lodging problems and encouraged exchange and donation to provide for those less fortunate.

Betterment of social conditions again spawned two other groups: Union United Congrational Church in 1907 and Negro Community Center in 1927. In 1919, a final organization, Universal Negro Improvement Association, adopted the mandate of restoring dignity, ending social isolation, and helping with the material needs of families.

People came to this area in hopes of a better future and yet had to be patient for three decades before certain rights were guaranteed. The general misery of factory work, the poor working and living conditions and the poverty affected the black community more given very present racism and discrimination.

Fortunately, those social groups and the subsequent closeness of the community overcame the threat of overwhelming hopelessness. Instead, their hope was often manifested in the form of music. Jazz was introduced to Canada through the influence of gospel singing and the importance of native songs to the Afro-Americans.

 

market

Atwater Market was the border between Saint-Henri and Little Burgundy.

The neighbourhood gave the world jazz legends Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones.

Grave_of_Oscar_Peterson_-_St._Peter's_Anglican_Church

Peterson was born to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century.

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Oliver Theophilus Jones OC,CQ (born September 11, 1934 in Little Burgundy, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian jazz pianist, organist, composer and arranger.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

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Labels: Historical, Immigration, Landmark, Montreal, Music

Friday, July 1, 2016

Happy Canada Day!

On July 1, 1867, the nation was officially born when the Constitution Act joined three provinces into one country: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province, which then split into Ontario and Quebec. However, Canada was not completely independent of England until 1982. 

The holiday called Dominion Day was officially established in 1879, but it wasn't observed by many Canadians, who considered themselves to be British citizens. Dominion Day started to catch on when the 50th anniversary of the confederation rolled around in 1917. In 1946, a bill was put forth to rename Dominion Day, but arguments in the House of Commons over what to call the holiday stalled the bill.

The 100th anniversary in 1967 saw the growth of the spirit of Canadian patriotism and Dominion Day celebrations really began to take off. Although quite a few Canadians already called the holiday Canada Day (Fête du Canada), the new name wasn't formally adopted until October of 1982. 

Canada's national anthem, as proclaimed in 1980, is a slightly modified version of the first verse of a poem written by Judge R. Stanley Weir in 1908.


O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.


Refrain
O Canada, glorious and free!
We stand on guard, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow.
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western Sea,
Thou land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North, strong and free!


Refrain
O Canada, glorious and free! etc.

O Canada! Beneth thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,
To keep thee steadfast through the years
From East to Western Sea,
Our own beloved native land!
Our True North, strong and free!


Refrain
O Canada, glorious and free! etc.

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

Refrain
O Canada, glorious and free! 


Original Poem by Judge, R. Stanley Weir, 1908

Music by: Calixa Lavallée
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Labels: Ancestors, French, Historical, Immigration, Music, Poetry, Quebec City, Whispers

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Raoul Donat Gadbois

Raoul Donat Gadbois, was my 1st cousin, 2 X removed and younger brother to Father Charles Emile Gadbois and was born in Saint-Barnabé 29 March 1912. He is the son of Prosper Gadbois, merchant, and Celina Germain. 

After classical studies at the Seminary of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1924 to 1932 and accounting at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, he was appointed chief accountant of the National Electrical Union in 1939.

 He is founder Secretary, with the father Albert Roger, Boscoville in 1940. on 13 August 1945, he founded the Society Inc. brokerage., a corporation of which he is the current president. He was elected in 1947, Councillor of the City of Montreal and set a record of motions presented to the City Council (1947 to 1950). 

1940: Secretary/founder Boscoville, an institution for troubled youth.
1949: Organized the first Trade Fair in Montreal.
1950: Organized the first flower parade in Montreal.
1960: Founded the Federation of Nautical Clubs of Quebec, and in 1961, the Water Security Council of Quebec.
1963: Member/founder of the Federation of campgraounds in Quebec and organizes the Ball of Flowers on the occasion of the Floralies of Montreal.

In 1953 he founded, with the collaboration of his brother Father Charles-Émile Gadbois, himself a founder of La Bonne Chanson, the radio CJMS (Canada, I Remember) he sold in 1955. The Federation yacht clubs in Quebec and the Water security Council of Quebec, based successively in 1960 and 1961, are the work of Raoul Gadbois. 

In 1962, he passed the Real Estate Brokerage Act of Quebec. He founded in 1968 Spiritex inc., Company importing French wine, and the Commanderie des Vinophiles Canada wine brotherhood which marks its 25th anniversary in 1994. He created, in 1986, the Fondation Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois that allocates singing scholarships for youth 16 to 29 years wishing to sing in French and contributes to the survival of the French Canadian culture. Until 1996, the latest annual concert of the Foundation, it will have 407 candidates auditioned and paid $ 151,712 in scholarship. 

October 13, 1993 Raoul Gadbois is decorated by the President of the French Republic, François Mitterand, through the Consul General of France in Montreal, Mr. Jean-Pierre Beauchataud, for his contribution to the French culture in Canada. 

Raoul Donat Gadbois died in July 2002.

Copyright (c)2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson 


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Labels: Ancestors, Family, Historical, Music

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Father Charles-Emile Gadbois In The News


3a







Seminary de St. Hyacinthe

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In 1937 Father Gadbois bought an electric printer machine that could pull 1000 copies per hour. Ten songs had been published and Le Bonne Chanson was on its way.


05








Father Gadbois older sister, Rose Alma who became Sister Saint Charles de Jesus with the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal.


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Father Gadbois with the Dionne Quintuplets, Emilie, Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, and Marie.


Copyright ©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
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Labels: Ancestors, Family, Historical, Music

Friday, June 10, 2016

La Bonne Chanson

In my last post I introduced you to an accomplished cousin, Father Charles-Emile Gadbois who founded La Bonne Chanson. I have one of the little song books called Les 100 plus belles Chansons.






It contains 100 songs, in the French language, some are folk songs, children's songs, ballads, such as Canada terre de nos aieux, Le Petit Mousse, Les Cloches Du Hameau, Partons La Mer Est Belle, La Feuille D'erable and more.







My little song book featuring two songs, Le Lac des Amours and Le Soir sur l'eau that Father Gadbois wrote music and lyrics, there were many, many more.



Copyright (C)2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson


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Labels: Ancestors, Family, French, Music

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Charles-Emile Gadbois

Father Charles-Emile Gadbois
1906 - 1981

Father Charles-Emile Gadbois was a publisher, composer born in St-Barnabe-Sud, near St-Hyacinthe, Quebec on 1 June 1906 and died in Montreal 24 May 1981.

He studied piano with Telesphore Urbain ( organist at St-Hyacinthe Cathederal),
violin with Maurice Onderet, and harp with Juliette Drouin.

After his orination as a priest in 1930 Father Gadbois began teaching, and for five years was the director of the band at the St-Hyacinthe Seminary.

In 1937, influenced by the Congres de la langue francaise held in Quebec City, Gadbois established La Bonne Chanson to assemble and publish the best French and French-Canadian songs. A tireless promoter of 'la bonne chanson,' he organized festivals, contests, and congresses, including those at the Montreal Forum in 1942 and the Quebec Coliseum in 1943 and in Lewiston, Maine in 1944.

La Bonne Chanson is a publishing company dedicated to the dissemination of French and French-Canadian songs of quality. It was founded in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec after the 1937 French Language Congress in Quebec City, which emphasized the value of song as a vehicle for the preservation of culture and language.

Father Charles-Emile Gadbois, the company's founder began publishing the words and music of songs of France and Quebec in albums. Eleven albums (550 songs) were published in this manner. La Bonne Chanson also prepared the series Madeleine et Pierre for young people and adapted several programs of solfege and singing for the schools: La Bonne Chanson a l'ecole, a collection of 50 sacred and secular songs for Christmas; Chants pour le temps des Fetes; and finally Cent plus belles chansons. A collection entitled Vingt choeurs a voix egales, enjoyed considerable success, as did books of accompaniments for many songs.

In 1939, for the Bluebird label of RCA Victor, Father Gadbois produced some 50 78's for the record series issued under the name La Bonne Chason. Performers for the series included Francois Brunet, P.-E. Corbeil, Jeanne Desjardins, Jules Jacob, Marthe Letourneau, the Alouette Vocal Quartet, the Bonne Chanson Vocal Quartet, David Rochette, and Albert Viau.

The radio program 'Le quart d'heure de la Bonne Chanson,' on CBC and CKAC in Montreal 1939 - 1952, contributed to the popularity of the heritage of song. 

Les Amis de la Bonne Chanson founded in 1942, also assisted in the promotion and distribution of the published songs.
He composed some 60 songs and wrote about 20 folk song arrangements. In collaboration with Conrad Letendre, he launched Musique et Musiciens, a review which appreared monthly 1952 - 54. He received the golden cross of St-Jean-de-Latran in May 1943 for his dedication to 'la bonne chasson'.

His papers are held at the St-Hyacinthe Seminary. The Foundation Abbe-Charles-Emile-Gadbois, established to 'perpetuate his heartfelt wish to instill a love of song in all levels of society,' awarded its first scholarships in 1988.

Finding out Father Charles-Emile Gadbois is my 1st cousin twice removed is attributed to a cousin I met through Wiki Tree that shared a photograph of Father Gadbois with me. We knew he was related to the Gadbois' of St. Hyacinthe but we didn't know how, a little sleuthing has turned up a heartwarming history of a kind and generous man who we are both very proud to call our cousin.

  

Posted by Linda Sullivan-Simpson at 11:03:00 PM No comments:
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Labels: Ancestors, Churches, Family, Music
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