Montreal's first SATM

That's no bank! A local first, it was a ... revolutionary Semi-Automatic Teller Machine and it opened at the Galeries d'Anjou in August, 1968. The tellers were, um, robots. Okay, okay, they were real people and it was called the Mini Bank, but the shrunk-down concept suggests that the writing was already on the wall for many bricks-and-mortar branches -- more than a decade before bank machines got their foothold in town and real tellers started dropping like midway ducks.

Speaking of banking and BMo and Montreal and 1968 and tellers and firsts, here's an obviously unposed picture from -- get this -- the Bank of Montreal Ladies-only Branch! It was the country's only one of its kind (and so tragically improbable now).

It was located here at the northeast corner of Sherbrooke and Mountain Streets. Nowadays, the Bank of Montreal is still represented at that location -- by an ATM.

Here comes the Green Beltway!

In a year or so, sidewalk joggers like this one by Cote des Neiges Road will look outlandishly out of place because all of the action will be on the other side of the fence. For now being constructed inside the gates of the Catholic Cemetery, on the left-hand side of the picture, there will soon be a new way to get around town without a motor.

That's cuz the towne is building the Mount Royal Green Beltway, a 15-foot-wide, unpaved road around the east flank of Mount Royal. It will resemble Olmstead Road in Mount Royal Park, where pedestrians and cyclists walk hand-in-hand, as long as the pedestrians walk really really fast or the cyclists pedal really really slowly. And, of course, there will be puppies. Lots of puppies!

As you can see by this haphazardly slapped-up snow fence, there is the impression that work is already underway. (Aah! Look like zoo sorting station! -- Chimples) Never fear, simian friends, the work's being done by award-winning PLA/planex Consultants.

Hacking and slashing on the $2.8-million project, which sort of looks like Jacques Parizeau's profile, will wrap up in two years, with the blue section (Parizeau's chin and face) proceeding in 2010 and 2011. The yellow stripe's scheduled to be finished this year. The red section already exists.

Q-whate doe they have in commone?

Yes we have a winner. Etienne has banged a gong. This gives us a chance to give an informal history of the island of Bizard, which we shall post later in the day.

Self-slaughter, 1888-style

Rene Levesque's referendum road knee slappers

Back in 1980 the pre-referendum Rene Levesque was slayin' 'em up in Ste. Agathe at a press conference. A reporter asked him about federal MP Paul Dick's proposal that the Canadian House of Commons sit in Montreal for a few days prior to the referendum. Levesque: let 'em sit in the construction site of the Guy Favreau Complex and use the Olympic Stadium roof in case it rains and let people stare through the fence at the proceedings. Hey-oh!

Levesque also roasted Charles Bronfman who suggested he'd split if Quebec separates. Levesque laughed that the Seagram heir called to have his Expos lease at the Big O renewed after his previous such threat in 1976. Jeepers, the Expos leaving Montreal - what a laugh! Impossible!

Levesque also basked in the support of 1,200 of the 1,700 workers at GM's Ste. Therese plant, pointing out that Ontario has far more car-building jobs.

Angrignon Park, the goods and bads

These paddle boat pirates shot by Aussie Whiting in 1971 appreciated Angrignon Park (pronounced Angry-nun). The park was souped up with big money about 50 years ago and aimed to become the world's biggest zoo. The early 1970s saw people increasingly appreciating it for its leisure value. Sadly some kids didn't really get such good results out of the Lasalle area green space as shown below.

That's Rejean Gauthier of 876 Second Avenue in Verdun being carried away on the stretcher. He drowned in Braves Lake at Angrignon Park. He was with friend Denis Demers June 4, 1974. The two 15 year olds swam out 70 feet even though the lake is off-bounds for swimmers. Demers saw that Gauthier was in distress but couldn't save him so he went to shore for help but it was too late. In 1973 three others drowned in the same spot. According to authorities about 75 people still drown every year in Quebec, which is down from about 120 a few years ago. The typical drowning victim is a 45 year old man who thinks he can swim better than he actually can.

40-years ago - 5 bombs rock city overnight, ho hum.

Who got the giant nickel when it was returned?

The red scooters in this picture indicate the approximate site where one of Montreal's more curious landmarks stood for years: the big brandy-bottle kiosk.

Admittedly, the sight of an intoxicant -- although it was really just a newsstand -- between the stately halls of justice to the the west, and the seat of municipal authority to the east, could have bothered supporters of temperance -- in those days a hot ticket. So the French wine firm that owned the structure were ordered to remove it in the spring of 1912. Here's a bit of a close-up (above), and a view from the west (below).


And we wouldn't cheat ya out of the news item:

BRANDY BOTTLE LANDMARK WILL DISAPPEAR SOON
Montreal Herald, 27 April 1912

A famous landmark will disappear when the "brandy bottle kiosk" which for years has stood between the Court House and the City Hall on Notre Dame street east, is removed next Thursday.

City attorney Archambault informed the Board of Control yesterday that the Montreal agents for the French firm of wine merchants who owned the bottle kiosk had agreed to have the steel bottle removed by May 1.

A more temperate looking structure may be erected on the site at present occupied by the bottle, but the bottle has to go.

When Lenny met Annie

The fabulous Ann Diamond has written a charming, disarming piece dealing with her chance meetings with Montreal muse Leonard Cohen throughout the ages. It comes complete with a map of the proceedings. Read on!

Chimples redesign Shiner Towne

Idiots sleep zzz. Coolopolis mine! Me redesign Shiner Towne. Why are no windows there? City blind? City hammer St. Urban Street wider, made big frigid wall. Ugly -- like Place Bonaventure. City anybody home? No pawblem -- Chimples fix. -- Chimples.

Whu-wha? Chimples!!!!! Hey, not bad, Chimpz! (But you need an editor! Two bananas. To your room!)

Signs Mom (+ Bill 101erz) wouldn't approve of

On a quiet West End road, south of Notre Dame Street.
It's on the right-hand tree, if you wanna fine the birds.

'Flash mob' pays tribute to Michael Jackson

Carla Beauvais at Groupe Style Communications tipped us just in time to catch today's "flash mob" tribute to Michael Jackson. As you can see (but unfortunately can't hear) the MJ hits were pounding, the inner crowd was sweating, and this photographer left his questionable talent at home. The head count was 350, including such movers and shakers as Quebec government cabinet minister Yolande James.

Answering the call of international Michael Jackson Tributes held in Stockholm, Taipei, Amsterdam and Paris, a local group called Armistice worked secretly behind the scenes (And maybe got flash permit! -- Chimples) to prepare an elite set of dancers to pay tribute to the song, Beat It. The group, joined by hundreds of good sports and media types who were in the loop, assembled at 1:45 p.m. today, and -- true to flash mob principles -- was dispersing barely 15 minutes later (see above), after a few bonus tunes. (And here's some video.)

Montreal's must-have privy of 1883

Back in 1859, a British vicar named Rev. Henry Moule invented a toilet that was intended to avoid polluting water, which he considered a sacred gift from God. It was patented as the Moule's Dry Earth Closet Commode. They were available in this privileged corner of the British Empire and beyond.

The idea was to fill a bucket below the seat with sifted dirt (no sand!) and when the job was done, another scoop of soil was dumped on top in order to help speed the decaying process. Everything was supposed to convert into rich soil that could be used in the garden (yum yum!).

It was also practical for cottages, as this ad from the Montreal Daily Witness points out. Because, without a supply of running water or cesspit to maintain, you could have had one of these things handy whenever nature calls. Supposedly, Queen Victoria enjoyed the use of one at Windsor Castle.

This map indicates where you could buy one in Montreal in 1883. The buildings have long since been demolished -- replaced by the former Montreal Star/The Gazette building (now a hotel), just across from the Ville Marie Express-pit and the Convention Palace.

Q-where is this and what are the pink zones?

Yes, we have a winner. This is an image of the glorious Church Avenue gateway to what was long Quebec's third largest city - proud Verdun Quebec - which brings passersby over the delightful sparkling waters of Montreal's aqueduct.

And yet the architecture that lines this route is not - as one might expect - lined with buttery-sugar'n'spice cottages and steeplejack beanstalk coddlehouses, but instead, this hallowed road towards the dreamy urban riverside suburb of Verdun has descended into a hellish gasoline alley where decades of carburetor drippings and air conditioner spray fluid goes to fall and infect and soil god's green earth.

The pink zone on the map above displays the troubling over-concentration of gas stations that line that begrimed byway. The map doesn't even include the other waterside garage perched on the bike path (top of the image, just right of center) which would make an alluring terrace for creative class wannabes.

Recent hopeful signs that the car repair shop was being demolished were premature. It is, in fact being rebuilt bigger and greasier than ever.

Gas stations have diminished from the local landscape over the last few decades. For example over the last 8 or so years, at the corner of Bannantyne and Sixth Avenue, three of the gassy lots have been transformed into attractive housing.

Caught red-handed & where she lived

From the Daily Witness, 16 Sept. 1879. Arrow below indicates her residence, according to Lovell's.

Laurentian Baths, then and now

Ad from an 1893 edition of Montreal's The Daily Witness. X below marks the spot. Nothing there now, but a highway exit and, sometimes, some guy with a paper cup.


And here's a little uh-oh from 22 Aug. of the same year:

Q-this not-so-beautiful row of houses on Prince Albert in Westmount was once home to the world's biggest what?

According to this photographic literature (click it to see it a bit bigger) this land housed a bakery which had the world's largest oven. Yorkshire immigrant Dent Harrison started selling crumpets door to door with a buddy in 1889 in the Point and then moved onto St. Antoine behind what's now the Chateau Champlain and then moved to Prince Albert just south of Sherbrooke. They built the massive POM factory at the Glen in 1930. Those were transformed into condos a few years back and the factory is on Pie IX, east side, just south of Sherbrooke. Dent's great grandson Peter Harrison sometimes gives speeches about the history of the bakery, so perhaps we can find him to enlighten us on some of the finer details of this narrative.

Sex gimmicks from the 90s

The 90s was a fertile time for the sex industry, apparently. Every small timer who ever had a poutine next to a naked woman's crotch at a sexy-serveuse restaurant had an idea on how to make cash through some sorta ridiculous semi-legal scheme in Montreal. Here are a few.

This one allowed you to take photos of a nude women.

Here you could pay to dance real slow with a woman of your choice.

This one allowed you to hire strippers who'd do their little act for you at your convenience.

This one allows you to sit around fondle yourself in front of a nude woman.
This sexy serveuse restaurant also had semi-nude waiters.

Alas all but a couple of these concepts have left the local landscape.

Montreal's failed attempt to ban erotic signage

Lea Cousineau was a sort of amateur semiotician, a former teacher, PQ aide, spinster, when she was elected at 44 for city council as a member of the Jean Dore-led MCM in November 1986. She was a big time feminist who railed against stuff like obscene sex signs on downtown streets, which were left little to the imagination in the mid 80.

So Cousineau came

in promising allies like Charlotte Thibault of the Federation des

Femmes de Quebec that she'd get those male chauvinist pigs to remove their sexist signage. The 45 pages of rules on signage dealt with issues such as lettring and lighting but no mention was made of content, which was within the domain of self-expression, not something to be approached lightly, even in a province famous for attempting to repressing signage.

In March 1987 she promised to have a bylaw drawn up within one year. But when it came to

drawing up a bylaw the lawyers nixed every proposal, as they knew that there was no federal definition for obscenity. She kept backpeddling and making excuses and after two and a half years her erstwhile allies were grumbling about her inability to smutty images cleared off the streets. And by 1990 someone named Louise Hebert organized and handed her a petition with 4,500 signatures begging her to do something. Some pointed out that cities like Vancouver had a bylaw against obscene signs that had never been challenged and as a result there were no naughty signs to be seen anywhere out there.

However in Montreal things are different. In 1986, for example, an art gallery won the right to display a picture of a woman holding an erect penis.

By 1991 when the Dore administration was ready to finally pass a bylaw restricting the use of erotic imagery, it didn't help that the Supreme Court had sided with the right of freedom of expression in the Ford v. Quebec case, in which Valerie Ford's wool shop, Brown's Shoes, Masson Cleaners and Tailors of Rosemount and National Cheese of Lasalle won against Bill 101's language restriction. This of course resulted in the evocation of the notwithstanding clause in Quebec and Bill 178 which currently forces English to be half the size of French on signs.

So in March 1991 they passed the law but by June they were already backpeddling as the strip club owners had hired Julius Grey to fight for their right to put up naughty pictures. The city, fearing that it would get its ass flayed in court, softened the law. Cousineau told reporters:"We found that the complete prohibition against using the human body could be abusive," she said.

Once again the idea of what is erotic came into play. Julius Grey was quoted by the Gazette's Elizabeth Thomson: "One of the definitions of what is erotic is `tending to arouse your sexual instinct. In my case Chopin does. Does that mean they plan to prohibit him too?"

In September 1992 Quebec Superior Court Justice Ginette Piche threw out the bylaw.

Loew's is a sneaker store now

Forget MJ. It's CC!

75 years and who else remembers?

Q-which Montreal male VIP sported this hair? (ie: not an athlete)

We have a winner. Kate from the excellent Montreal Weblog named former PQ aide-turned Montreal mayor Jean "The Forgettable" Dore. And that was even before I amended the photo to include the trademark moustake which he later tried to make into a gimmick thing by shaving it off. Dore became mayor based on his beautiful speaking voice which had a certain hypnotic appeal but the public soured on him pretty fast during the economic doldrums of the early nineties where he hiked taxes and chose tax revenue vaporwar development projets over protecting existing neighbourhoods. Kate tells Coolopolis that she will be giving a portion of her prize money to her favourite charity Coats for City Birds, set to launch this fall.

Our Hurt Locker

Published on May 18, 1963. Click to blow up.

More Edgar Trottier memories

This is a photo re-enactment of the day separatist Premier Rene Levesque - the same one who eliminated freedom of choice of language of education in Quebec - killed a Canadian war veteran on Cote des Neiges. That's George Wilson flailing his hands begging the Premier to stop his car rather than run over Edgar Trottier, an honored Canadian war veteran who had found himself lying on the road. Levesque did not stop his car.

No breathalyzer test was administered to Premier Levesque after he dragged Trottier 140 feet at 4:15 am that February night in 1977. Levesque was released after radical separatist Yves Michaud, who had helped Levesque design the language restrictions in Quebec and remained a close friend of the premier, told police that Levesque had not been drinking that evening.

Presumably top Journal de Montreal journalist Jean-Denis Lamoureux went light on the premier in his coverage. Lamoureux had also killed a Canadian military man. He planted a bomb that killed Walter Leja, although it took 29 1/2 years of pain and suffering for Leja to finally die after being maimed by the terrorist/separatist bomb Lamoureux set in 1963. Levesque later hired Lamoureux as his chief of communications, in August 1984 to be precise.

From front pages around the world, 7 Feb. 1977

That front-page item's from Florida. The story had global legs, everywhere but here.

At Montreal's La Patrie ("at the service of the French fact") -- that week's edition featured not even a word about Levesque's deadly driving abilities. (Click the picture and search for yourself!)


On the other hand, that same edition of La Patrie ran a huge, flattering spread on why their Quebec readers should flock to and spend plenty of money supporting Apartheid South Africa!

And the author of that article probably did O.K. Within four years, someone by that name was writing for the Government of Quebec. Even more recently, someone by that same name was directing a documentary (see clips) about black Montreal "gang" members for the public-sector broadcater Radio-Canada, i.e., the French CBC. That name -- Christine Gautrin -- sure gets around.

Coolopolis sets you straight again

Nice old picture, from the National Archives, and credited to the Department of National Defense (copyright expired). The caption is interesting, too -- and dead wrong!

British tank "Britannia" taking part in the Victory Loan Parade on Sherbrooke Street, Montreal, Canada, 1917.

Nice try, DND, but there's no place on Sherbrooke wut looks like that. This street is way too skinny. So where is it? McGill St.? Craig? Still doesn't click. There are no easy clues among the buildings. Turns out they're all gone now, anyway. But wait! The text on the water tank gives it away (click and read). Just a peek at a handy Lovell's directory for that year pinpoints the site of the parade as St. Antoine St. (West), looking east towards St. David's Lane and beyond.

(Listing by address above, and by name below.)

Here's a little corroboration from five years before in the Witness, preserved by none other than that brilliant scrapbook maniac, E.Z. Massicotte himself. It's obviously the same site, photographed from almost the same vantage point.


Here's the site today. A really nice place, if you happen to be a car. Tanks again, Mr. Drapeau. As for DND's sense of direction: we just hope our soldiers in action receive better coordinates than this.

Horse falls in editor's lap

It's a newspaperman's dream come true when something newsworthy happens right across the street -- a real pass-the-gin moment. It wasn't front-page news, but it was thrilling enough: readers of the day knew very well that a runaway horse is potentially deadly, and actually terrifying if one's bearing (horsing?) down on you and yours.

To sum it up, in December, 1884, a working horse (not many of those left these days) broke free of its owner in Chaboillez Square (now demolished -- it's an eastbound highway entrance now) and bolted north on St. David's Lane (long since erased; it's now a parking lot and highway off-ramp), turned right on St. James (defaced in name and calling) and then cornered itself in a vacant lot (more of those than ever) across the street from the Daily Witness (gone but not forgotten).

That's where a hack stepped outside, got a few names, returned and went tap, tap, tap - bing! And the news was on the street before the day was out.

Tram 2053

This top photo - poached by a Coolopolis intern who has since been dismissed for stealing sunflower seeds - is listed as Tram 2053 at Rachel and Davidson, 1956. If that's accurate, the lovely billboard and sturdy old building is gone, along with - of course - the sweet old tram.

Hobo couture- the cutting edge of style hits St. Lawrence Main Street

These men are dedicated leaders of the hobo chic movement that has been tearing across the western world and they're right there at the corner of St. Lawrence and Dorchester for all to witness and imitate. Note the yellow tin fire truck with the Oriental fishing rod lantern. The Coolopolis photographic intern would have approached but he says he just recovered from a case of Spiraling Viral Cooties and didn't want to risk a return to that hell.

Bye, stander

Getting your name in the newspaper isn't always a good thing. Especially if you're the victim of a freak accident.

The friends and loved ones of young William Lemaine probably weren't thrilled to see him in the news after fate played a cruel joke on him April 14, 1931. Here's how he ended up in the paper -- and in a tomb.

Lemaine was being a typical bystander, minding his own business, keeping a "safe distance" from a certain Constable Cote, who was about to kill a horse (a typical policeman's duty back then).

But the distance wasn't safe enough, because the policeman's bullet went clean through the horse's head, bounced off a brick wall, deflected off of a door, and ended up in Lemaine's mouth, severing an artery.

Before long, Lemaine was as dead as the horse.

Scene from a Montreal streetcar, 1893

From the Daily Witness, Montreal, 11 July 1893 (above). And below, four months later.

Prehistory of a strip mall

You've probably seen this strip mall on St. James at Mountain streets, and thought to yourself, "That is a strip mall."

But back in the day when Montrealers haggled for live chickens and told the butcher to keep his blood-and-feathered thumb off the scale, and took their kumquats and green onions home in yesterday's papers, and made sure to count their change while guarding their pocketbooks from barefoot street urchins (Shut up! - Chimples), the St. Antoine Market was the place -- er, one of the places -- to go.

Erected in 1861, at the foot of Mountain and Aqueduct and between Torrance and St. James (conveniently across the street from the produce wholesalers working the Grand Trunk railway depots), the St. Antoine Market was the destination of choice for humble West Enders as well as the most discriminating chefs from the palaces of the Golden Square Mile just a few blocks up the hill.

You can just sort of barely make it out in the centre of this picture, taken by a Notman studios employee with guts enough to scale a smokestack of the Street Railway Company's powerhouse (demolished) near St. Anne's Church (also demolished).

Here it is from the Aqueduct St. side on the west. The market closed in 1933, when it was replaced by the Atwater Market -- which was also by the tracks at that time (and until the '70s). You can buy thumb by the kilogram there.

!Q-how is this part of the profound dumbness of how things are dun in Montreal?

Answer: Brodie Farm Park at Convent and St. James in St. Henry is 2.4 kilometers away from where the Brodie farm actually was, which is Oxford Park, at Upper Lachine and Oxford. Somewhere in my notes I have a 12 page family memoir of the Brodie family which I will one day post. I've already posted a little bit of it here.

When night was right: St. Kate '54

A nice found shot of St. Catherine, looking southwest across Peel Street, circa 1954. From Shorpy.com.

Bnai Jacob then and now

Nowadays, it's a private French school on Fairmount Street in Mile End. But back in the day, it was the bustling B'Nai Jacob Synagogue at the very heart of Jewish life in Montreal. Here are a couple of old pictures from May of 1940, when 20 Jewish servicemen were granted a religious rest day to pay a holiday visit.

"In Synagogue when Prayer for the King is being read."


Here's what the building looks like now. And this is the original story, from the Canadian Jewish Chronicle, May 31, 1940.

Men in Uniform at Shevouth Service At B'nai Jacob Synagogue
Jewish Soldiers Guests At B'Nai Jacob Synagogue

A number of Jewish soldiers were the guests of the B'nai Jacob Congregation at the services held there Thursday (Feast of Weeks).

Permission for a Religious rest day has been obtained through the efforts of Colonel Abbey. Because the request had come rather late, instructions had been given to only one unit, and therefore only 20 men of the known 100 on the lst were able to take advantage of the rest day.

Seating accommodation and talithim was provided by Mr. A. Raginsky, Sr., president of the congregation. After the services, the soldiers were provided with Kiddush. Cantor Kapoff-Kagen and his choir officiated at the services.

Rabbi Jesse Schwartz, executive director of the Zionist Organization of Canada, delivered the sermon, which was concluded with a victory prayer for the Allied armies.

Accompanying the unit of soldiers were Col. Philip Abbey, Captain Vineberg H.M. Caiserman, and H. Wolofsky.

For those to whom "you never forget how to ride a bike" doesn't apply

From the defunct Montreal broadsheet, The Metropolitan, July, 1897

Remember Jean Pierre Favreau

This sign - assuming it's still there, this photo was taken 4 or 5 years ago - reminds hikers of that narrow strip on the river to be careful not to get washed away down the St. Lawrence river. Attempts to find out more about Jean-Pierre Favreau have not borne fruit as of yet however. We'll keep y'all posted.

!Q-Again - who is it and what'd she do?

In the early 70s this BC woman rocked Canada's viral iconography with a big smile and a bit of customized macrame couture in support of a heart-throb Montreal politician. Anybody?

Her name is Sarina Sandana and she's a lifelong supporter of the Liberal Party and, of course, Pierre Trudeau. Her T-shirt which read "Vote P.E.T. or BUST" caught the eye of a newspaper photographer sometime during a campaign in the 70s and ran in papers across the country.

?!?Q-Who is it? (bonus points for where is it & anonymous respondents get no prize.)

Robbin' and Hood

Ah, the Golden Days of Montreal newspapers, when tipsy deskers knew what we were willing to pay for. For example, unedited FBI posters like this one, published here 75 years ago, showing Clyde Barrow on the left, and Pretty Boy Floyd there on the right. But we still have lots to look forward to in our daily paper, like 4:1 ad ratios, skinny crime coverage, stuff like Next Hot Neighbourhood: Lavaltrie! and the Bouchard-Taylor Commission.

Papineau and Dorchester - the ol' Mount Royal Dairies

If you were to walk out of the local CTV affiliate building - and what an uhh interesting building it is - you would have spotted the iconic logo of the Mount Royal Diaries that stood at 1200 Papineau for decades as seen in the top photo. It has been replaced at the north eastern corner of Papineau and Dorchester with more recent construction.

New Method Cleaners apparently no more

When we sought to bring some soiled gabardines and sunhats to the cleaners recently we learned that the New Method Washing (above) at 6425 Christopher Colombus has been demolished and replaced by housing. We asked a loiterer about the New Method. He misheard, thinking that we were asking for a substance called 'meth' which we purchased from him (when in Rome...) and greatly enjoyed it although it is not recommended for primates as our taxicab driver ruefully attests. Certainly much sadness and gnashing of teeth must have accompanied the demise of the New Method Cleaners.

Yummy, yummy yum!

Nov. 4, 1905 ad from the Montreal Standard.

Kids, try this at home

No it's not an outtake from that '80s A-Ha video. The illustration depicts a stunt by motorcyclist Charles Lajoie, who revved his hog up to "75 miles per hour" and crashed through "two walls of flaming, inch-thick wood." It happened at Belmont Park, a local amusement park, back in 1934.

All gone now: Clark and St. Kate '40

Rainy July 16, 1940. Clark and St. Catherine Streets. All gone now. On the other hand, there's a sensational vacant lot there. Thanks again, Jean!

Bootleggers loot beggared

Prohibition separated the men rum runners from the boys, back in May, 1925. That's when the Canadian cops started phoning in the whereabouts of Canadian bootleggers to their U.S. American counterparts. End of an era. Death of an export market. But then again, the crackdown probably didn't hurt the let's-go-to-Canada-and-booze-it-up tourist industry.

!Q!-Whose the only Montrealer to have a burger named after him?

Coolopolis couldn't find a real photo of the short-lived food, so to compensate we offer this bonus photo of tennis great Boris Becker enjoying the said repast.

FINAL CLUE - The burger guy is the first of four adopted children in a family that grew up in Beaconsfield. He moved from the West Island to the States at age 16 when his parents divorced. He was an accomplished athlete but also rode a ton of pine in his day. He is now a microphone doctor, of sorts.

Real final clue: he's English, has a beard, is 7 feet tall and the burger named after him sounds like Beef Wellington.

Answer time. Yes after quite a bunch of clues somebody finally got it. It's Bill Wennington. He would really have stuck out at

the orphange as a seven foot tall kid if the Wenningtons hadn't scooped him up. It was a good deal cuz he did quite well, riding the coattails of Michael Jordan in Chicago from 85-00, once almost being allowed to play a full 20 minutes per game (MJ would get twice as much ice time as that). Nowadays Wennington does colour commentary for the Chicago Bulls. There's not much trace of the Montreal Wenningtons these days. Dad moved to Ontario and mom to New York when the couple splitzvilled. The Chicago McDonald's apparently briefly offered a Beef Wennington sandwich in 1988, according to the respected minds at Wikipedia.

A couple of swingers

She's got a pretty throat, that Doris Palmer. Not even a rope could make this 20-year-old's neck look ugly. And Montreal's local hangman was told to get ready to fit her with a noose, so the theory could have been put to the test. But nice neck or not, good looks don't sway good executioners. And if anyone was going to sway on March 23, 1928, it was this pretty American -- described as as a cabaret entertainer, Broadway ballerina and movie actress -- and her husband, George McDonald (inset). Both were found guilty of the murder of Adelard Bouchard, a Lachine taxicab driver, in July of 1927.

The couple hired Bouchard to drive them to Canada from the United States, robbed him and took his life, leaving his body in a ditch, according to evidence at the trial. They were caught in Butte, Montana, and extradited to Quebec for their trial.

So she was sentenced to swing. Still, just three weeks before she was scheduled to be transported from the women's prison on Fullum Street in Montreal (where she had converted to Roman Catholicism in January) to Valleyfield, where she would be allowed to spend her last living moments with her husband before being hanged together, she appeared in this wire photo (probably taken some weeks earlier), looking cool as a cucumber.

Waiting for the hangman

Montreal, March 2, 1928-Public sentiment insists that Doris McDonald, 21-year-old American flapper, pay with her life for part in murder of Montreal taxi driver and little hope remains for commutation. She's show in her cell. (Press photo and caption.)

As this drama was playing out in the press, Doris's mother, Mrs. Michael Greco was busy behind the scenes, fighting for her estranged daughter's life. Not that there was a lot of love lost between them -- they hadn't been in contact for years. Nevertheless, Mrs. Greco approached a women's organization who worked with Chicago lawyer James O'Brien.

By mid-March, O'Brien petitioned Quebec to treat Doris with leniency on the grounds that witnesses had signed affadavits describing Palmer as being "irresponsible," that she had always suffered from delusions of grandeur, and that she often assumed the names of celebrities she admired, and so on.

Meanwhile, her lawyer, J.A. Legault, lobbied for his client in Ottawa. He claimed that the confession that she made to detective Bert Clark had been forced, after Clark allegedly threatened to break her neck if she didn't "come across."

In the end, Mr. and Mrs. McDonald went their separate ways -- he towards the gallows, while her sentence was commuted to life just three days before the big drop. Last we heard about her was in April, 1928, when about 80 of her friends and relatives signed a petition in Mount Vernon, N.Y., for a retrial. That didn't seem to go anywhere, though.

Q? 4 pictures = 1 scandalous story

These picture clues add up to a scandalous, front-page kind of story that broke right here in town. Any idea?

Answer: The pictures show: members of the Ku Klux Clan at work or play, Henry Ford's yacht -- Siali, Henry Ford (rich and powerful industrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company), and the Lachine Canal.

Ford was known for his extreme views on morals and society. While passing through Montreal aboard his yacht on the Lachine Canal, he shot his mouth off with a reporter, and his loose did everything but sink the ship. The quotes made the rounds all over the continent. Here are a couple of news stories from the day:


HENRY FORD PUTS O.K. ON KU KLUX KLAN
(By United Press)
Montreal, Aug. 27, 1924--"If the truth were known about the Ku Klux Klan, it would be looked upon as a patriotic body, concerned about nothing but further development of the country in which it was born and the preservation of the supremacy of the true American in his own land."

That, according to an interview published in the Montreal Star today, is Henry Ford's opinion of the hooded order.

The Star interviewed Ford as his yacht passed through the Lachine canal carrying its owner to his home in Dearborn, Mich., and quotes him as saying:

"The klan is the victim of a mass of lying propaganda and therefore is looked upon with disfavor in many quarters."

Ford, according to the Star, denied he is a member of the hooded society but praised its ideals without stint.

The next day, this news report circulated in countless newspapers.

FORD'S PILOT SAYS HE SAID IT; WHO LIES?
(By United Press)
Montreal, Aug. 28--The Montreal Star prints the following statement today:

"The fact of the interview which Henry Ford so positively denies is substantiated by Captain George P. Fleming, pilot aboard Mr. Ford's yacht. The interview took place just before Mr. Ford's yacht left the harbor and was participated in by two staff reporters of the Montreal Star, which today reiterates their version of what Mr. Ford said, which they transcribed in the Star within an hour of the time of utterance.

Nick Auf Der Maur- Montreal ghost?

According to this column by Nick Auf Der Maur (click on it, it should grow readably large on your screen), as a young adult he was thought be a ghost. In the late 1950s he was haunting what was eventually to become Peter Lonergan's Phoenix theatre at 1858 Demaisonneuve West, near St. Matthew.

The Revue Theatre was a longtime home to anglo drama notably under the reign of Ruth Thomas (nee Ruth Hirshorn 1921-1986). In 1979 the venue became home to the Phoenix theatre, which had been set in a north end suburban barber shop home since its inception in 1974, as founded by Greg Peterson and Maxim Mazumdar (1952-1988 - moved to Mtl in 1969 from Bombay eventually died of AIDS).

But before all that, in 1959 Auf der Maur got a role in a play at the Revue Theatre called Doctor in the House which featured comfier furniture than the place he was staying so he'd sneak in at night with stage director Fred Sporley and both would drink until they fell asleep. They'd leave early in the AM and when the rest of the cast arrived and noticed stuff akilter and started to believe that the place was haunted. Details in the story.

Now that Nick could actually qualify as a ghost in his afterlife years, this might be the place to find him.

Q-err..actually screw it, I'll just tell youze

This is Sheldon Kagan, who is a Montreal concert promoter. A name I've heard a lot but I know nothing about the guy, other than the fact that he - according to the caption of this newspaper photo - always drove around with his dog in his motorcycle sidecar 30 years ago when this photo appeared as - presumably - an attention-getting scheme of endearment. Not sure about the legalities of this.

Back then such guys needed animal sidekicks. I saw a similar sorta photo of George Durst, who opened some of the earliest discos in the city, as well as House of Jazz (formerly Biddles) and Cage au Sports. On the wall of Durst's studio prop joint on Notre Dame E. (since closed) Durst kept a framed newspaper photo from the late 60s/early 70s of himself as a younger scenester walking around with an ocelot on his shoulder, a real live one, not sure if it was chained or diapered or whatever.

Q - what did it say on this sign?

This commercially defaced 1983 image depicts a Montreal landmark showing the lettering removed from its sign. It had been a cinema, but those days were over when the shutter snapped on this frame. Two-part question: 1) Exactly what had been inscribed on that landmark sign? 2) What is inscribed on it today?

Later: Right enough. As you can see if you look carefully, the sign used to say SNOWDON. It was the Snowdon Theatre. But after the place shut down, never again to be a theatre, in '83, the lettering was removed and somebody bizarrely added the word "Théâtre" to the sign -- even though the place wasn't a theatre anymore.

As if nobody was looking (That's because nobody was. - Chimples), they added the old word "Snowdon" below that, but in smaller, ill-formed lettering. Weird.


The second picture is from about '89. So who cares? It's just another oddity. The whole strip is an eyesore today. The convenient expressway had a negative effect on much of the old entertainment strip that was Decarie Street. Now, the zone is pretty run down and low-rent.

But if you like to celebrate this kind of thing, it is one of Montreal's most hilarious acts of historical revisionism. (Revisionism -- is that like watching a TV show twice? - Chimples) The beauty is: only the new owners knew exactly why the sign was "revised", but perhaps a nudge of encouragement -- who knows, even funding? -- had been received.

Why? Hmm. Maybe because hundreds of thousands of Decarie Expressway motorists can see the sign, which indicated a largely Jewish, anglophone, neighbourhood-in-decline that does not officially exist. In certain circles, including defunct-theatre-buying governments, those are not always the most positive attributes in a Quebec neighbourhood.

Toponomy Commissioners can soundly tonight.

Why July 8 is a bad time to go swimming near La Ronde

On July 8, 1979 - that's 30 years ago now - Concetta Di Micco, 47, hopped on the Mississippi, a little boat that was part of the Man and his world (aka La Ronde) attractions in the adjacent Dolphin Lake. Amazingly the ship went down and Concetta died trying to save her daughter Assunta Di Micco, 6. Son Robert Di Micco was also aboard but he managed to hang onto a woman who had managed to snag a life preserver before the ship went down.

Sisters Anna Di Rocco, 14 and Amelia Di Rocco, 16, were not on board, as they waited at the wharf for the 15 minute ride to end.

Amelia had even warned the authorities that there was water in the boat as it took off, and they told her it was normal, but she noted that it was going very slowly right from the start. Father Francesco Di Rocco, a gardener, became a single parent of 4 that day. The Mississippi was grounded from then on. There were about 55 others on the boat in the 15 foot waters of the man-made lake. Performers from a water-skiing show saved several people from drowning.

Maurice Catavolo, 6, died in front of his mother's eyes.

Georgetta Farah, 51, also drowned.

Six years earlier to the date - July 8, 1973 - two police officers drowned trying to save a woman who found herself in the water in Dolphin Lake. The two had climbed onto a ski jump to help a woman who was drowning. They fell off and neither knew how to swim, which is an extremely difficult task while fully clothed. The woman survived but both officers drowned on that day.

Andre Desilets, 25 (left) and Claude Sarrazin, also 25, (below) both died tragically on that day.

Photoshop from the early 1900s

Alfonso Ponzi was a barber from an Italian sheepherding clan who moved to Montreal and became a bit of a high-living bon vivant. He also spent time in Pittsburgh where he posed for that fabulous pic on the left here. He wanted a family portrait so he brought a shot from his Pittsburgh photo shoot to a special photo lab on St. Lawrence Main Street (International Photo Studio Registered 202 St. Lawrence) where the photo geniuses added him in, with the results as seen above.

Up until the early 90s at least such stores still thrived on the Main, you'd see photos advertised in the windows - before showed a woman with a sailor and after, poof he was gone.

Alfonso become a bit of a drunk but he is still remembered lovingly and stylishly in his grandson Peter Ponzi's photo collection, many of which can be seen on his facebook page.

Alfonso and Peter and the rest of their crew are unrelated to the Montreal banker Charles Ponzi, who pioneered the pyramid scheme that still bears his name.

Q-Replacement Quiz, last one was too easy apparently

Juno, 29 & Jacki, 33 - as they were known in Montreal nightclub circles when this photo was shot 40 years ago - became notable enough for a movie to be made about 'em. Anybody?

Q-How was Montreal the first on the moon?

In spite of what the Yanks tell you, Montreal - Longueuil, to be exact - was the first on the moon. The above photo demonstrates how. Can somebody guess?

Car surfing - it was a problem in 1937 too

Car surfing is in the news again as a guy died hanging onto a moving car in Montreal just a few days ago. Well apparently the problem was large and widespread in 1937, perhaps we could learn something from these streeters with Montrealers asked about what should be done about kids getting hurt from hanging off of cars.

Joseph Chaperon 5197 St. Ambroise - rabbit breeder - "Give them a swat and make them cry, that way their parents will see it and raise them better."








Arthur Larue driver 1421 Henri Julien - "I did it as a kid but it was less dangerous then. Parents should keep them from doing it."





Joseph Gingras - Carpenter 6425 St. Denis - Punish them and tell them every time a kid gets hurt or dies doing it, that should modify their behaviour."




John Walker 6745 Adam - mechanic - You can never really stop them but explain the dangers to them, show them education films and such stuff.




Arthur Saint-Onge 371 de Beaupre Police should stop any car with a kid hanging off the back and bring them to juvenile court. The parents would be more worried if they were getting fines.






Jean Jean Travelling Salesman Ahuntsic - build cars so that the children have nothing to grab onto.




Alfred Barrette - 6415 Jeanne Mance- Travelling salesman - it's extra work for the driver but he should really get out and shoo kids off his car whenever he sees one hanging from the back.

Drive-bys and nattering points

Time to stop whining about what a dark, wet, chilly summer it's been. You haven't seen a nice July since 2006, so get over it -- like these happy pedal-boaters captured under somber skies on Mount Royal a few days back.

Now that's a good-lookin' shack. Not all modern architecture sucks (overdue nod to Drapeau).

Ignatieff's corner: left, right or dead-end?

If you like animals, you should denounce graffiti. This 1907 fountain was dedicated to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was designed and executed by E & W.S. Maxwell Architects -- legendary firm of some of Montreal's greatest treasures. It provided a welcome pause to thirsty horses, even as their seated masters chuckled among their spoiled selves. Now it has been defaced, and the city hardly seems to care. It stands defaced still, more than a week later.
Hard labour for grafitti criminals. If they can't police each other, they will be policed nevertheless.

The second-most-boring Moving Day photograph. Stay tuned until next July!

Name the vantage point!

Don't worry, they have a net: a Battle Net!

Uninspired at Inspiration Point.

Recession shopper.

No money down. No interest. Don't pay until ever.

Dental floss will save your lawn. Really, you've got to give the people what they want: a shortcut!

Stalin lived here. (Newly demolished Drapeau-style building across from the old Union Stamp Shoes wall; too obscure?)

Scenic Montreal or Why West Is Best Part 1.

Another Montreal postcard moment.

Book your romantic Montreal getaway now!

We took this picture because a world-famous painter had set up her easel here. (Not.)

Scenic Montreal, or the recession predicted. (Don't worry, UQAM always knew we'd bail em out. Part of the plan, see? - Chimples)

Clamato and orange. (Cue the St. Denny mini-tour.)

I'm not really with Peter Gabriel, gurlz.


What happened to the bar hoppers that used to pack down this alley? Too much fun? (Too much 'asssssh, more like it. - Chimples)

The Franco American.

St. Denis -- go figure. Gems like this but a shambles still.

Motorized Bixie unveiled

With all those creeps pedaling Bixies around parts of town they don't belong, it's no surprise the city came up with something even more intrusive: the motorized Bixie. Sorry, you need a helmet for this one.

Pier into the past

Pretty, eh? But this rustic sketch of backlogged cargo on the Donaldson Line Pier at the Port of Montreal back in 1907 is the result of a strike -- bravely held when a walkout was as likely to earn you a bust head as a raise. After dropping their sacks, which met with strangely little reaction from cops, the workers were being offered by the CP Railway about 2.5 cents more an hour to keep loading, but Irishmen and Scotsmen, Joe Strummer, and some of the new village arrivals were blessedly stubborn. The whole thing was front-page news, of course. Now the port is a sirk-tent-blighted, concrete Disneyland. If you can't make it a port, make it a beach.

Housing collapse in the Griff

It might seem like yesterday that these fine old abandoned homes on Young Street near Wellington in Griffintown simply collapsed. Surely you remember it. It was just 70 years ago. There were no known human victims. There was a tiny cross street named Smith at the time which was erased with the onset of the big warehouses.

Oka beach tat Q

One row of photos is laden with beach-goers almost all needled up with tattoos, the other row has exclusively are ink virgins (at least as far as we can see). For the purposes of this quiz, we've erased the tats. Which row are the tatty women at? Click on the photo to see detail.

We have some winners. It is indeed the top row. All but one photo - the one on the right contain at least one girl with a tat, mostly on the belly, semi-hidden by the panty line.

Great parade - Montreal's Carifiesta - good time had!

Pigeons subsidized housing

To the pigeons in the readership. Here's a great place to set up shop. Over on Demaisonneuve just west of Decarie.

Q-who's this guy and what's he doing?

Watery grave for 4 local females

That's the car, and here's a panoramic, animated tour of the Kingston Mills Locks. That's right near the spot where a Parks Canada employee noticed an oil slick that led to the discovery of a submerged car containing the bodies of a middle-aged woman and three young sisters, all from Montreal. They were identified as: Zainab Shasia, 19, Sahar Shasia, 17, Geeti Shasia, 13, and Rona Amir Mohammed, 50.

It's a cool, cool summer

Michael Jackson May Get Laid ...

Here's one for your Klassik Headlinez file -- Montreal web surfers checking out Google's news aggregator would have seen this headline about a minute ago. See it? (Hint: it's on the left and it's not the top headline. If you don't know: click the picture to see full-size.)