MIDNIGHT, a weekly tabloid launched in the mid-1950s, was one of the most unique publications in the city's history. as it dutifully attempted to fill its pages with gritty tales of street prostitutes and morality busts.
Midway through 1963, the paper changed its focus from Montreal to instead report on celebrities and aliens, making Egyptian-born owner Joe Azaria a rags-to-riches success and allowing him to relocate to a ranch in Costa Rica.
The early-years editions of the paper, which focused on the underbelly of Montreal, were all destroyed in a library fire so its actual content remains stuff of rumour - until now, that is.
After decades of trying to track down copies, Coolopolis finally got access to a private collection of a couple of years of bound editions. Here's a taste below.
The death of Dora Blackburn, who was dumped in an alleyway after a botched backroom abortion, is discussed in this article.
**
The staff of WEEKEND heaved a sigh of relief. Another issue was “to the printers”, and soon the giant presses in the Town of Mount Royal would be roaring and huge bundles would be shipped all across Canada.
The editors lolled late in bed at home, the photographers puttered in their dark rooms, the proof readers took the day off, and the office staff relaxed ass the mountain tension of another edition was over.
Few in the business office of Weekend gave it a second thought when Dora Blackburn, who worked there, failed to pause on her way to the door that Friday afternoon.
Usually the English-born girl walked to the door, chatted with her fellow employees, and then took the streetcar for Lachine. She did not believe in getting lifts from male employees, and some said that she was “off men for life.”
But Dora was a nice, highly-respected decent girl. Even in death no one can take that away from her.
No one dreamed that her nude body would be found in an alley, and that the medico-legal masterminds of the police department would state that her death came from shock apparently induced by an attempted abortion.
The fact hat some people seem to think that the abortion racket does not go in is ridiculous. However, there are the organized, skilled, protected medical experts, and there are the clumsy, filthy amateur slogs who ply this black art.
The people that Dora Blackburn met on her death trail would look like caricatures if they were on a Broadway stage.
Mrs. Benny Cahanna, who admits to 47 summers and some cold winters, looks like her name. She pocketed $100 from Dora. She was, apparently, a booking agent in the death trail of the girl from WEEKEND. How many similar hundred dollar bills Mrs. Benny has collected is not reported. This could have been the first and the last.
Moses Pellat and Myer Nachfolger are not to be found in the Blue Book of Society. They were in on the last walk of Dora. What Nachfolger did with the $100 that Jack “The Bagel” Seligman handed to him when he took Dora to him has not been known. But that money was close to blood money.
The blood trail of Dora went from one person to another, according to their evidence. And it lead in court to Jack “The Bagel” Selgiman, a 45-year-old man who lives at 3955 St. Lawrence when he is not visiting the residence of his “girl friend” on Colonial.
However it apparently came to a dead end when Seligman swore that he had never seen Mrs. Blackburn, that he had not seen Nachfolger that day,l and that he had five eye witnesses. The alibi included George Legault, operator of a garage at 911 Duluth, taxi driver Abe Kravitz, cabbie Abie Goldberg, all of whom remember distinctly where the “Bagel” was to be found during certain hours under question
STILL SEEKING JUSTICE
So the “bagel was acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to procure an illicit operation for the #3-year-old woman who went to her death as a result of some horrible experience.
But the law is still seeking justice.
The “Bagel” is out on $2,00 bail,l on two other charges. He is delivering the tasty cooked creations and down at they are still hoping that justice will be done and lovely Dora's death will be avenged.
***
This one, a strangely trivial story about a prostitute who has been picked up repeatedly by police, appeared March 31, 1956.
MONTREAL (Special) – Being herself has been almost punishment enough for the harlot who has one of the longest police dossiers in Montreal. This feeling apparently is shared by four magistrates who, the past five weeks, have seen Florence Farr in the Prisoner's Dock more than seven times. During that period, she was ordered twice to leave town and twice solemnly promised to do so.
The woman, possessing one of the mos prodigious records in the hands of the local gendarmerie, appeared once more in Municipal court recently, less than a week after she had been ordered by Mr. Justice Emmett McManamy (for the second time in 10 days) to leave town.
Her adders listed as 4584 Boyer street, Florence Farr, 46, a big, well-dressed woman whose plump face and flashing black eyes carry a challenging expression, was charged this time, as she has been more often than not during the past few years, with “Loitering Drunk” in front of 454 Jacques Cartier.
She pleaded, as usual (unless she is given the cooling treatment of time int eh cells without bail) “Not Guilty”!
This particular time, bail was allowed and set at $200. Thus, the time before the trial was once more spent in the cells because she obviously was unable to raise the money “
OUTSIDE COURT
Because it seemed strange that, in such a short time on e person could keep bobbing up so frequently in Court and because Florence Farr's dossier was of such vast length, a few questions were put by this reporter to authoritative sources and the following facts were established:
Florence has been in and out of Fullum Jail for many years. She has been there for harlotry, drunkenness, dealing in and using narcotics.
NO TREATMENT
Because Fullum Jail is not equipped to treat drug addiction, Florence has never taken the cure. Each time it simply has been “cold turkey” for her: sudden withdrawal.
Despite advancing year, and he lessening of actual concupiscence, Florence Farr is still showing up in Court. Now it I drinking in and out of one club after another. On the way, she picks up boon companions and then (what with her various indulgences ) she begins to show signs of “being the worse for wear.” Arrest is inevitable she is so well known!
PUNISHED SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
Apparently the Justice of the Municipal Court felt that Florence Farr has long since walked through “the valley of the shadow of death” and so they curry her along from week to week – a week in and a week out!
Each time she returns Florence acts as though it were a visit to old, interested friends. Each time, she enters the Dock with the smile of a saucy child spreading completely over her fat jowls as shelooks up and acknowledges the court.
Perhaps these regular encounter with the Crown represent the only solid continuity Florence Farr has in her life – and so perhaps, in the end, just being herself has been punishment enough through it all.
Midway through 1963, the paper changed its focus from Montreal to instead report on celebrities and aliens, making Egyptian-born owner Joe Azaria a rags-to-riches success and allowing him to relocate to a ranch in Costa Rica.
The early-years editions of the paper, which focused on the underbelly of Montreal, were all destroyed in a library fire so its actual content remains stuff of rumour - until now, that is.
After decades of trying to track down copies, Coolopolis finally got access to a private collection of a couple of years of bound editions. Here's a taste below.
The death of Dora Blackburn, who was dumped in an alleyway after a botched backroom abortion, is discussed in this article.
**
The staff of WEEKEND heaved a sigh of relief. Another issue was “to the printers”, and soon the giant presses in the Town of Mount Royal would be roaring and huge bundles would be shipped all across Canada.
The editors lolled late in bed at home, the photographers puttered in their dark rooms, the proof readers took the day off, and the office staff relaxed ass the mountain tension of another edition was over.Few in the business office of Weekend gave it a second thought when Dora Blackburn, who worked there, failed to pause on her way to the door that Friday afternoon.
Usually the English-born girl walked to the door, chatted with her fellow employees, and then took the streetcar for Lachine. She did not believe in getting lifts from male employees, and some said that she was “off men for life.”
But Dora was a nice, highly-respected decent girl. Even in death no one can take that away from her.
No one dreamed that her nude body would be found in an alley, and that the medico-legal masterminds of the police department would state that her death came from shock apparently induced by an attempted abortion.
The fact hat some people seem to think that the abortion racket does not go in is ridiculous. However, there are the organized, skilled, protected medical experts, and there are the clumsy, filthy amateur slogs who ply this black art.
The people that Dora Blackburn met on her death trail would look like caricatures if they were on a Broadway stage.
Mrs. Benny Cahanna, who admits to 47 summers and some cold winters, looks like her name. She pocketed $100 from Dora. She was, apparently, a booking agent in the death trail of the girl from WEEKEND. How many similar hundred dollar bills Mrs. Benny has collected is not reported. This could have been the first and the last.
Moses Pellat and Myer Nachfolger are not to be found in the Blue Book of Society. They were in on the last walk of Dora. What Nachfolger did with the $100 that Jack “The Bagel” Seligman handed to him when he took Dora to him has not been known. But that money was close to blood money.
The blood trail of Dora went from one person to another, according to their evidence. And it lead in court to Jack “The Bagel” Selgiman, a 45-year-old man who lives at 3955 St. Lawrence when he is not visiting the residence of his “girl friend” on Colonial.
However it apparently came to a dead end when Seligman swore that he had never seen Mrs. Blackburn, that he had not seen Nachfolger that day,l and that he had five eye witnesses. The alibi included George Legault, operator of a garage at 911 Duluth, taxi driver Abe Kravitz, cabbie Abie Goldberg, all of whom remember distinctly where the “Bagel” was to be found during certain hours under question
STILL SEEKING JUSTICE
So the “bagel was acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to procure an illicit operation for the #3-year-old woman who went to her death as a result of some horrible experience.
But the law is still seeking justice.
The “Bagel” is out on $2,00 bail,l on two other charges. He is delivering the tasty cooked creations and down at they are still hoping that justice will be done and lovely Dora's death will be avenged.
***
This one, a strangely trivial story about a prostitute who has been picked up repeatedly by police, appeared March 31, 1956.
MONTREAL (Special) – Being herself has been almost punishment enough for the harlot who has one of the longest police dossiers in Montreal. This feeling apparently is shared by four magistrates who, the past five weeks, have seen Florence Farr in the Prisoner's Dock more than seven times. During that period, she was ordered twice to leave town and twice solemnly promised to do so.
The woman, possessing one of the mos prodigious records in the hands of the local gendarmerie, appeared once more in Municipal court recently, less than a week after she had been ordered by Mr. Justice Emmett McManamy (for the second time in 10 days) to leave town.
Her adders listed as 4584 Boyer street, Florence Farr, 46, a big, well-dressed woman whose plump face and flashing black eyes carry a challenging expression, was charged this time, as she has been more often than not during the past few years, with “Loitering Drunk” in front of 454 Jacques Cartier.She pleaded, as usual (unless she is given the cooling treatment of time int eh cells without bail) “Not Guilty”!
This particular time, bail was allowed and set at $200. Thus, the time before the trial was once more spent in the cells because she obviously was unable to raise the money “
OUTSIDE COURT
Because it seemed strange that, in such a short time on e person could keep bobbing up so frequently in Court and because Florence Farr's dossier was of such vast length, a few questions were put by this reporter to authoritative sources and the following facts were established:
Florence has been in and out of Fullum Jail for many years. She has been there for harlotry, drunkenness, dealing in and using narcotics.
NO TREATMENT
Because Fullum Jail is not equipped to treat drug addiction, Florence has never taken the cure. Each time it simply has been “cold turkey” for her: sudden withdrawal.Despite advancing year, and he lessening of actual concupiscence, Florence Farr is still showing up in Court. Now it I drinking in and out of one club after another. On the way, she picks up boon companions and then (what with her various indulgences ) she begins to show signs of “being the worse for wear.” Arrest is inevitable she is so well known!
PUNISHED SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
Apparently the Justice of the Municipal Court felt that Florence Farr has long since walked through “the valley of the shadow of death” and so they curry her along from week to week – a week in and a week out!
Each time she returns Florence acts as though it were a visit to old, interested friends. Each time, she enters the Dock with the smile of a saucy child spreading completely over her fat jowls as shelooks up and acknowledges the court.
Perhaps these regular encounter with the Crown represent the only solid continuity Florence Farr has in her life – and so perhaps, in the end, just being herself has been punishment enough through it all.
In the mid-1950s I bought my comic books at what I believe was a drug store at the north west corner of Melrose and Upper Lachine, they also sold the Midnight tabloid. I would read it until they kicked me out.
ReplyDeletethats a great find,luv these old newspapers
ReplyDeletewow I'd love to see all the pages thanks
ReplyDeleteUsed to go to the tavern after work on payday and bought the Midnight tabloid and bought 9 beers and left 10 cent tip. Total 1 dollar... beer was the small glasses and was 10 cents each. Around 1964. Those were the days! left half in the bag for only a dollar.
ReplyDeleteInteresting!
ReplyDeleteNow do an article on the Sunday Express... Lol
Where was the burned-out library with its Midnight tabloid archives? I wonder what else was lost in that inferno?
ReplyDeleteI do remember seeing Midnight's huge sleazy headlines and often gruesome cover photos at newsstands but was never morbidly curious enough to actually read the articles. In those days, I was more interested in comics (at 10 cents), later moving up to Mad Magazine (then 25 cents) as well as those ubiquitous 50 cent science fiction pocket-novels.
Mainstream newspapers were never as sensational as Midnight, to be sure, although I recall they'd frequently print stories of police raids on certain downtown bars with pinball machines on their premises--machines which would then be removed and ostentatiously smashed up as a "lesson" to would-be violators presumably due to actual or alleged incidents of machine rigging and/or illegal gambling associated with them, much the same as would occur in certain pool rooms.
Not sure exactly what municipal bylaws were on the books back in the day regarding pinball, but such police raids eventually came to an end at some point, I imagine, when the government realized it could rake in considerable amusement tax from them. Indeed, there was a huge pinball arcade at La Ronde during Expo67 and for years afterwards. This is a subject you may want to investigate and cover in a future article, Kristian.
As history has shown, what the authorities could never stamp out they simply legalized: witness the advent of legal lotteries, casinos, and most recently of course, cannabis. Will prostitution be the next tax-grab?
Incidentally, that aforementioned "drug store" on the northwest corner of Melrose and Upper Lachine Road would in fact have been Henry's Cigar Store and Soda Bar at 5801 Upper Lachine Road where currently the Salumeria Bakery & Pastry shop NDG exists.
At some point I simply stopped buying pocket books and magazines altogether when their pricing became truly outrageous after years of steady increases and used-book stores would only offer you a fraction of their original cover price--that is, if they even wanted to buy them off of you in the first place. "Take it or leave it!", they'd sneer! Might as well contribute them gratis to charities, hospitals, and senior homes.
Since the entrenchment of the Internet, it's a wonder that anyone buys paper publications anymore and you could likely get more cash for your old magazines and pocket books from dedicated collectors via eBay.
It may not even be worth the trouble to lug boxes of such books, comics, and magazines to book fairs and comicons either, with the prospect of having to haul the entire glut back home again.
Just bought a bunch off eBay. Awesome stuff
ReplyDeleteWorked in publications while a student at McGill late 1960’s. Part of the job involved proofreading a newspaper prior to publication at Montreal Offset Printers, Peladeau’s main plant where the Journal de Montréal and other papers were produced.
ReplyDeleteThe waiting room was well-stocked with copies of Midnight, mostly postdated about one month since they had to be shipped cheaply throughout North America.
Some students made pocket money writing for similar publications, since MIdnight did not have a monopoly in this sphere. They would attend an editorial “conference”, be shown a few pictures and told to produce so many words. Fact checking was completely left to the imagination.
To save on typesetting costs, the top item of the horoscope would be moved to the bottom and the others shifted up one position.
I guess it was all about the bucks and not winning the Pulitzer.