Thursday, March 14, 2024

Dianne Lawrence

 Dianne was a regular good looking and engaging. She moved to L.A. about the sametime I moved to the movie biz.
She Edits and Publishes  an online magazine there

Thursday, March 7, 2024

ALAN MACRAE



ALAN MACRAE

Alan McRae, Ont.: Born in the British Isles, the son of a highland piper, Alan was a gold miner and with ...? was instrumental in organizing Canada's first folk club in Vancouver, BC. He moved to Toronto and became the resident singer at Toronto's first "folk bar" the Steeles' Tavern. he played the Horseshoe Tavern most of the summer of 1975. He was a mentor and friend to many Toronto folk musicians through the 60s and 70s before he passed away. T.C. played the Horseshoe the summer of 75 and hung out at my bar. I admired his drive a real folk star in spite of the lack of natural talent he could entertain.
comments:
Anonymous said...
I remember persuading Basil Steele to book Gordon Lightfoot, give him a try for a week. Gordon was at home there for a long time. Hard to be precise about the year in the 1960s but Brita, Gord's first wife brought their first child to Steeles one night, the first night the child was out of the house. During this period Alan's professional home was The Mousehole on Yorkville. I have no memory of Alan singing at Steele's but we lost contact. His personal home was a coach house in the back of a house at the bottom of Poplar Plains where much fun was had. "Leaping, and ballooning and steaming" was Alan's prediction of a good time there. We took him at his word without having any clear sense of his words' meaning. Everybody knew Alan's place. A couple of songs that everybody knows today were at least partially written there but those are not my tales to tell. I would love to know more about what happened to him after my path made a sharp turn in an altogether different direction.
September 2, 2022 at 9:29 PM
Anonymous said...
I remember when my wife and I used to go to Steele’s Tavern in the later 60’s and listen to Alan MacRae. One song I remember was the Ski Song of what happened to a hapless skier as he hit everything on the way down the slope. It was done to the hymn Glory glory hallelujah.
Don
September 9, 2022 at 9:22 PM
Anonymous said...
Alan called the song "Super Skier". The words glory hallelujah were replaced with " gory gory, what a hell of a way to die". I sang it for years. Probably still remember the lyrics.
February 14, 2023 at 6:46 PM
Anonymous said...
I knew him only at the Mousehole. Yes, that coach house! A lot of hanging out there after the Mousehole closed, intobthe wee hours. ΔΉ
February 14, 2023 at 6:49 PM
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Wednesday, March 6, 2024

KEN DANBY



I hung out with Ken for a while at his coffee house in Toronto. The New Gate of Cleve. I was hanging out with him one afternoon. He was working on a poster for Mariposa 63. Ed Cowan came by and through him I ended up with a job at the festival. Somewhere along the way Ken broke a leg and was hobbling along with a cast.
A couple of weeks after Mariposa, Goodwood Go track had a big due with concerts and a tent city. I was duty bootlegger. I had a tent filled booze. Ken stayed in the tent with me. When suddenly we were raided by the provincial police. Ken and sneaked away and sat up on a hill and watched the police check every tent except for mine. Ken was pretty much a wild guy to hang with. I think this was his last hurrah. It was the last I saw of him as he suddenly cleaned up his act and concentrated on his painting.
Ken Danby (1940-2007) was one of Canada's foremost practitioners of contemporary realism. Rooted in the Canadian psyche, nourished by his Ontario rural roots, Danby's subject matter was broad and expansive, yet it was the images of Canadian landscapes and life that captured the public's attention. At the Crease, a 1972 egg tempera painting depicting a nameless hockey goalie viewed from ice-level, was his best-known work, and for many, it defined him as an artist.

Monday, January 29, 2024

Jay and the Majestics

I met Jay (Eugene)Smith and the Majestics on a cold rainy fall night at Goodwood Go-Kart Track in 64. It was supposed to be the Last night of a Gala Weekend of racing and a tent city and a hootnanny etc. but they had got raided by the police for selling liquor illegally which was mostly me. (I was never caught) Nobody showed up. They were huddled on the porch when I met them trying to decide what to do. I gave Eugen a bottle of whisky to warm them up before I left.
I met Jay (Eugene)Smith and the Majestics on a cold rainy fall night at Goodwood Go-Kart Track in 64. It was supposed to be the Last night of a Gala Weekend of racing and a tent city and a hootnanny etc. but they had got raided by the police for selling liquor illegally which was mostly me. (I was never caught) Nobody showed up. They were huddled on the porch when I met them trying to decide what to do. I gave Eugen a bottle of whisky to warm them up before I left.

Sunday, December 24, 2023

GERRY MULLIGAN

I was introduced to him
at the Filmores Hotel in Toronto when they tried a Jazz format
He sat down with me between sets

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Brian Orser


Shared with Public
I was Captain of a Charter Sailboat in Orillia in 1984. Brian chartered us for a night cruise for a couple dozen people. I partied with them afterward.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

JOHN ALLAN CAMERON


JOHN ALLAN CAMERON
I met John Allan when he played the Horseshoe in 1975 and he came to my after-hours club one night.
We hit it off as fellow Cape Bretoners. As I was usually hanging out in the music scene in Toronto, I ran in John Allan
a few times and always had a decent yarn. As it happened I moved back to Uxbridge in the nineties John Allan was playing the Uxbridge Highland Games.
So yearly for a few years, we would meet up and quaff a few beers and talk old times and old friends.
When I moved back to Cape Breton in 2004 didn't i meet John Allan's brother Alex at the French Club Alex was noted to be a pretty good piano player. At least once a week for a while there I would have a good yarn with Alex. One of his stories I remember: while proud of John Allan's success there is still a bit of sibling rivalry.
Alex said "I was teasing John Allan that John Donald had Darryl Sittler's autograph. He asked him"Do you have Darryl Sittler's autograph, John Allan?"
"No," he said but Daryll Sittler has my autograph."

Friday, June 30, 2023

Gordon Tootoosis




The rule for my after-hours bar was either I knew you personally or you were famous or you didn't get into the bar.
There was a knock on my door one night and there stood Gordon. You don't know me he says I am Gordon Tootoosis. I look blank. Johnny Yesno told me about your place. I still look askance. "I am an actor," he says "and a good actor too." "I can play ANY tribe." I had to let him in after that.
Gordon and were drinking buddies for quite a while after that. He was a good actor too. He played some seminal roles. I was out on the town with his sister too.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

MICHAEL SNOW

Michael Snow

SALUTE Michael Snow a Canadian Icon has passed away. Condolences to family and friends
I knew Michael personally and have been to a few openings and had a glass or two and toke or two together and seen him with the Artist Jazz band. He was a very interesting artist although I think I suffered through a couple of his films. This story is more about a party than Michael but the fact I was there indicates my great respect for him.
I went to a Michael Snow respective at the AGO and was invited to the after-party in a mansion in Rosedale (Toronto) I was practically a stranger in a strange land in this one. it had the prerequisites of good food and lots of booze but a seeming absence of the usual gang. I even gave up trying to talk to Michael, there was a line up
. Needing a washroom I wandered upstairs. After as I headed back for stairs. A door opened and a head said "Like to smoke a joint" Didn't have to ask twice and in I go.
I admit I was a bit surprised as this young man did one of the joint mouth flips where he has the joint in his mouth and blows it into my mouth almost kissing me. only once and then we passed it back and forth and made introductions. George was his name. it finally dawned on me it was George Eaton himself. In a minute his brother Thor and his wife joined us and we smoked another doobie.
After this, we floated down the stairs. it was very good cannabis. and picked up some drinks and not really knowing anybody else followed them to a refuge under the stairs. They were not mixers, we stood in this hidey-hole. Where we could talk and drink and watch the party undisturbed. Then this older lady showed up and brought us drinks and sandwiches etc. for the rest of the night. Yep, it was Mrs Eaton. (their mother) I really have had one of those lives. lol. 

Friday, June 23, 2023

FARLEY MOWATT

I met Farley in the 60's we had the same Hair Stylist (Chris Beacom) and we had a few drinks at the Pilot and talked of Newfoundland. i remember one of his lines. I would like to go back to Newfoundland, maybe when Joey dies.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Vera Lynn

I met Vera Lynn at the start of a parade in Toronto. the parade was forming at the legislature grounds on University Ave. I was tooling around on my bicycle and chatting with some people I knew in the parade. (Elwy Yost for one) When a bus with an American marching band arrived late. This held up the parade and I peddled slowly on down by the waiting parade. And There was Vera Lynn sitting alone in the back of a huge old Bentley limo convertible. She asked me if I knew why the parade hadn't started so I told her why and she just started chatting asking questions about Toronto etc. and we chatted for about 10 minutes until the parade started. She was very natural gracious and open and I was thrilled to meet her

Monday, May 29, 2023

Roy Payne

Roy Payne does not get his due as a great Canadian songwriter. he wrote two truly great songs. 'I wouldn't take a million dollars for a single Maple Leaf' which he wrote when he was in the Canadian Army in Egypt. And 'There are no price tags on the doors of Newfoundland ' both of which can be considered anthems
No question that he was a character
I met him in Toronto in the summer of 75. The Horseshoe was still Country and Western. I had moved in across the street in June and the Horseshoe had become my local and by then I had set up an after-hours club. (booze can).
It came to pass that Roy owed Morty Star (The manager of the Horseshoe) $3,000.00. so Morty hired Roy for the whole month of August. the idea that he could get his money back. He made strict rules that Roy could have no bar privileges and that he wasn't to drink.
So I am sitting in a booth in the east half of the huge bar. Drinking jugs of drafts with a couple of friends Roy was just setting up for the gig on the stage on the west side of the bar and Morty was behind the bar on the west side front of the bar. there was a half wall down the middle and I was on the other side. I was sitting talking and drinking when something grabbed my leg. I looked down at Roy under my seat holding up a dollar."Give me a beer will you?" He had crawled under about 5 booths to get to us and that is how we became friends. He spent almost every night at my bar for the rest of the month and we hung out quite a bit
Roy was mostly drunk or whatever and crazy with a religious twist, but he knew all the country stars and introduced me to many like Billy Joe Shaver, Dick Nolan, etc. He could write a song in a minute I watched him write one about the liquor menu. 
Roy and I had tickets to the Thrilla in Manila at Maple Leaf Gardens on video. It was time to go and he had disappeared.
then I remembered I had given a room to a runaway street girl for a couple of days. sure enough, Roy was inside talking to her. Get out of there Roy we gotta go. "I think I can save this girl," says Roy.
Well Put your six inches of Salvation back in your pants, we are late for the fight." says I.
By the way at the end of the month, Roy owed Morty $6000.
Roy Payne is an icon of Canadian Country music. He was born in Trout River, Newfoundland, and was raised by his grandparents. He served 12 years in the Canadian army and was a truck driver amongst other odd jobs before making music his full-time vocation.


Dick Nolan

I saw and met Dick Nolan and had a drink or two with him 
when I was hanging out with Roy Payne at the horseshoe in Toronto.
He had one of those great voices.

CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR MUSIC

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Richard Burton


Drinking with Richard Burton 
During the filming of 'Circle of Two' I had become Richard Burton's Drinking buddy. While I wasn't on the shoot of the movie. The company I worked for UDO productions had owned the movie and we had sold it and I had worked on it. 
I would be sitting in the 22 and at the end of the day Bob Harris (Richard's Valet) came in and presented me with a brand new pressed Twenty dollar bill. My winnings from Richard, we were betting on the world series. Richard had the Phillies and I had Kansas City. I had a ritual that when I won a bet I would buy the loser a drink. I no sooner pocketed the Twenty when Richard would slip into the booth to collect his drink. When Richard won he would appear alone to collect the 20 and buy me a drink. (The series went seven games with Kansas City finally winning.)This was not about money it was an excuse for Richard to drink. Richard was technically 'On the Wagon' he only drank beer and wine , no hard stuff. Surprisingly Richard loved baseball. he even knew players averages etc. he told me he always wanted to make a movie about Hank Greenberg. Greenberg was one hit away from tying Babe Ruth's home run record. Nobody would pitch to him because he was Jewish so he never got a decent pitch to give him a chance to beat Ruth.
At least two or three nights a week Richard would come back after dinner and we would talk and drink. In the course of the shoot he told me his life story including his finances.  He professed an undying love for Elizabeth "We were just no good for each other.".(he was married to Susan Hunt at the time) Up close Richard had pockmarks, he had one on his nose that was incredibly deep and somewhat disconcerting. His voice, The Voice, was always remarkable I really had to give my head a shake every once in awhile. Some of his stories were fantastic, they were performances really, to an audience of one. Me! Wow I was so lucky. In spite of his magnificent artistry I think in his heart Richard was just one of the lads at the pub the prodigal son who had gone off and seen the world and made his fortune and wanted to go home and tell the story. 
Richard was not completely  well, he was just a bit frail he said he had a pinched nerve in his neck that he was going to get looked at when the movie was finished.
One night he was a bit quieter than usual and a bit maudlin. Out of the blue he said" I am not going to live until 60 you know." I questioned this with the usual remarks etc he was 53 at the time. but he went on. "No you know the drink I drank much too much. "Peter or Richard and I would often finish two or three bottles in a day." "It is catching up with me." It made for an early night and I never thought too much about it.
When I won the final bet Richard came in to collect his drink. Ron Berkeley his make up man and my very good friend by then was with him.
Richard went into the most fantastic story that he had made a bet with one of the other actors on the game and he had bet Ten thousand dollars on the previous game and the guy had stopped by his room to pay him. With this he finished his drink and left. I was a bit stunned it was a very silly story. "Fucking Pills" Ron said and went after him. It was more than a bit disappointing but the reality is nobody is perfect. Richard died at 58.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Keenan Wynn



Me and Keenan Wynn Spent the afternoon chatting with him in between takes of the 'Littlest Hobo shoot at my parent's place. ( The Balloonist 1980)
I wish I knew then what I know now. So many movies of 40s and fifties have Keenan in them that i watched on TCM. I had no idea he was so versatile and prolific. he did not give autographs because of Parkinsons I think. But had continuity girl take a Polaroid

Monday, May 22, 2023

Norman Depoe

I met Norman at the Club 22 at the Windsor Arms in Toronto sometime around 78 79
I forget exactly how we met but I think we were both drinking alone in a slow afternoon in the bar.
It took me a few minutes but I remember his eyes lit up a bit when I recognized him. I was very young when he was the figurehead of CBC News. I knew both of his children David from Hippie days and Suzanne from the movie biz. He had seemed a little bit sad and a bit lost but brightened to have an avid listener. He had great stories and enlightened opinions. For about six months or so I would see him once a week or so and always happy to chat. One afternoon I happened to be sitting with a couple of CTV
people when he came in I invited to our table and introduced him. I remember his smile as he received words of admiration. I was saddened to see some weeks later that he had been mugged and beaten badly. He died not long afterwards


Saturday, May 20, 2023

Gerald Gladstone


I don't remember how or where I met Gerry but it was in 1967 at one of the many Art party openings etc. Somehow i became Gerry's poor struggling artist and he liked buying me a few drinks and a chat at occasional meetings we became good friends over the years and in the eighties when he had moved to Beaverton he usually looked for me at the Club 22 for an hour or so of drinks and talk. I was also friends with his wife Sheila and I even silkscreened some material for her fashion designs.
I remember one night at the old pilot i came in a Gerry invited me to sit with his large party which included a renowned heart surgeon and Eric Nesterenko the hockey player. They were buying rounds which were fairly expensive so when it was my turn Gerry said I will pay for the poor artist. As it happened I had $6000 in my pocket for a group cannabis deal. So I couldn't help but bring out the roll and pay the round. Mostly we met at Art openings but later he would seek me out at the 22 and we became good friends. He was certainly a force in Canadian Art everything he did was big and newsworthy.
Gerald Gladstone
Canadian sculptor
Description Gerald Gladstone was a Canadian sculptor and painter. Wikipedia
Born: January 7, 1929, Toronto
Died: March 7, 2005, Toronto
Art forms: Sculpture, Painting
Education: Royal College of Art
Artworks: Female Landscape, Universal Man
Children: Brant Gladstone, Seana (Gladstone) Wohlfeil, MORE
Movements: Figurative art, Sculpture







Friday, May 19, 2023



I was soon good friends with Jerry Santbergen who was at least a bit of a media star. He had moved to Toronto with his girlfriend Kaaren Blatchford. Jerry rented the former Bohemian Embassy as his studio. I worked with Jerry a lot of the time and we moved a little dope to pay the bills

One of the more fun things was The Electro-Magnetic Spectrum Band also known as the silicon control or the Solid State Waste Removal Company orchestra and chorus. the rule was you weren't allowed to have ever played a musical instrument So Tom Sinew was kicked out and I took his place.
Bart Scoales. Ziggy Blazer, Jerry Santbergen, Moses Smith, and me had an avant-garde band in 1967

We played Tape recorders, movie and slide projectors, and strobe lights and a wind machine and incense, etc. Sam The Record Man let Jerry and I use any of his records we wanted to tape. We had Philips 2 track tape recorders and taped different music on each track and blended it.
We played one gig at McGill University in Hamilton and got paid $2000.
Most people actually stayed to the end.
I was stoned turned on my tape and got caught up in the strobes and wandered away for a whileWe even got reviewed in Arts Canada.

I made great contact from Kitchener. who brought me 10 lbs of grass every week for $500.00 it was half homegrown and half Mexican and pretty decent stuff.I had a buyer who bought 5 lbs off me for $500.00 so I had 5 lbs to fool with. I cut Jerry in as a full partner just because we were friends.
it certainly made life easier and getting laid a lot easier. Around this time Jerry and Kaaren broke up.
Jerry also got caught up big time with acid.
We had the high park sculpture symposium and had a few parties with them. with all our pot we handed it out easily. At one party at Gynts Skudra's place Gynts and Rossa nailed themselves into their bedroom.
 Jerry was invited to give a lecture at the New School of Art so we showed up with a slide projector and slides of all his work and a large trunk. When we had the projector set up. We opened the trunk which was filled with beer. We handed out beer and joints to all the students who seemed to enjoy the show. The staff was not so happy and we were banned from the New school for life.
I get a phone call from Jerry at 8 am one morning. I can hardly hear him but he wanted me to come over right away. I get over expecting the worst. He tells me he dropped acid only he had a lecture to give at the Ontario Teacher's College. Then he pleads with me to do the lecture for him basically to show his slides and talk about his art. I decline but he says he will split the $300.00 fee with me so what the hell do I care. Off we go I introduce ourselves and set up the projector and start showing the slides
to a large room full of students and teachers. jerry sat behind me with a big stoned smile and never said a word. When people asked him questions he would just nod to me and I would answer them.
Somehow We got through it. I was sure we were not going to get paid.
Lo and behold it was a huge success they mentioned Andy Warhol said it was like a modern Art show totally impressed. We grabbed the cheque laughed and ran to the bank.

Jerry somehow got a Canada Council Grant to make laser art or something he was starting to get a bit weird and was dropping acid more frequently.  he had a show coming up at Carmen Lamanna Gallery and was sketching madly He ordered a dozen or so really fancy expensive folding stretchers about 6 ft by 6 ft.. he was not happy with his sketches and suddenly he just disappeared for a week. He had gone to New York and he came back with a load of new sketches. he bought a couple of rolls of canvas and we started stretching and taping the hard-edge designs. Jerry did the actual painting following his sketches. I helped Jerry design these invitations to his show. The show was not received well.  I discovered later he had gone to New York and hung out with Frank Stella who he knew. he had copied Stella's show and that is pretty well what we had made.




So one Friday I go to pick up the money to buy my 10 lbs of grass and I find Jerry already got it and I found he got the grass and said I would pay for it. I found he had sold it and flown to England.
He really left me in a bind. nd those deals were no more.
He returned about a month later very spaced out he promised. to pay me back. I don't remember exactly but I started to keep away.  Jerry started going with a new girlfriend (can't remember her name)
she was kind of beat looking black hair black turtleneck and skirt and leotards etc. They did a lot of acid and would call me over as they thought they were moving ashtrays with their minds. Jerry told me they were going to do STP that weekend he called me aside and said he wanted the ultimate trip but if he got too high would I bring him down. Jerry was not really the same and I kept right away from him. He got into a whole thing where he set fire to one of his paintings at the AGO (see Photos by Krash John Radcliffe)


Thursday, May 18, 2023

RON BERKELEY

RON BERKELEY
Ron Berkeley, an Emmy-winning makeup artist who worked with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on such films as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Taming of the Shrew, has died. He was 86.
Ron and I became friends during the shooting of 'Circle of Two" He was Richard Burton's personal Makeup Man.
Ron and I hung out together for most of the movie too and stayed in touch for some years. he had great stories and he wrote me great letters 
He told me He first worked for his father who was also a make-up man when he was 15. His father gave him the job of shaving Marlene Detriche's legs
I became Richard Burton's Drinking buddy during the shooting of Circle Of Two. (1979)I also became friends with Richard's make-up man Ron Berkely.
They had a script Ron had been working on for a project they wanted to do. I made a few suggestions during one of the discussions and they asked me to write a scene for them
The scene involved Billy Connelly in Paris. so I wrote it and they liked it and invited me to write the script.
They got Warner Brothers to advance me $25,000 dollars
Ron offered me 3 months at his castle-like mansion in Normandy and the use of his Maserati plus Nights in Paris where he lived, he was married to famed dress designer Viki Teal. 
Ron arranged backstage passes to Massey Hall for me to meet Billy Connelly. (This was way back in his banana shoes days)o I was a special guest and after the others left.  we talked a bit about the script I was to rewrite and  Ron Berkely and Richard Burton that Billy was going to be in. It would have been his first major movie. We quaffed a couple of beers and had a few laughs. He would have been great, 
Just as negotiations were finalizing along comes the Writer's strike. Warner Brothers canceled and everything disappeared.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Catherine O'Hara




Catherine was a good friend she loved the after-hours scene. her brother Marcus ran the 505 another After Hours spot on Eastern Queen Street. But she often came to my place and always brought interesting people. So there I was at the Club 22 at the Windsor Arms. With my then-buddy Michael Ironside. Michael and I were trying to break our record of drinking about 80 margaritas. When Johnny Hart and Jack Caprio the cartoonists showed up and we were really throwing the drinks back and having a great time. When I saw Katherine waving at me. She had just come from the Courtyard Cafe where she had treated her parents to dinner. She waved me over and I gave her a peck and she says Gary I want you to meet my mother and father. 'Really How nice"I said trying to be polite and bent over with a little bow and extended my hand when: from out of nowhere Ironside bit my ass really hard. I don't know how he did it, but I screamed and jumped and kicked. He hung on like a pit bull. I writhed around hit him while the stunned O'Haras wondered what was going on. I finally shook him off and everything settles down but I am sure Katherine's parents wondered what kind of friends she had. Everyone else was laughing but I was limping. Ironside could be a really crazy asshole sometimes.]

Friday, May 5, 2023

KITTY WELLS


I spent a couple of afternoons chatting with Kitty Wells. This was in the country heyday of the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. She would have been in her fifties then. Her touring band was run like a tight ship. Everybody in the band or on the bus had like 3 jobs. It was eye-opening to watch an old pro in action. She had every money-making gimmick in the bag. The act was slick and tight, She had a thin voice and a bit off-key but she knew how to use it and people loved it.
CLICK ON PHOTO FOR MUSIC

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot (Footsie)



I went to a couple of parties at Footsies thanks to Cathy. I knew Gord well enough to have a couple of drinks. I met him on the street one day and we went to a bar. I ordered a beer and he ordered a pitcher of martinis. I had backstage passes to one of his shows at Massey hall. for some reason he always called me Mike. lol
Time is catching up with all of so sad to see him go.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

PETER O'TOOLE+

I met Peter and chatted a bit at the Toronto film Festival in 1977. I was host of the Hospitality suite. Donald Sutherland approached me. He knew me from the 22. He said he had Peter o'toole with him and they had never met before. Would I arrange a private place where they could talk. I opened one of the bedrooms and set up a little bar for them.a bit later he came in the Club 22 at the windsor Arms one night I was at the next booth and he nodded at me as he went by. He had his girlfriend/keeper with him. she ordered him a shirley temple like something or the other and he waited patiently until she went to the washroom. he called the waiter and ordered 2 no 4 no 6 shots of rum and finished them all before she got back to the table.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

RICK MCARTHY

Rick McCarthy

I knew Rick since 1965.
We were next-door neighbours for a year in Toronto. I had several artworks of his that were lost when I lost my house.
I knew Rick in his drinking days. He could be obnoxious and rowdy 
As it was he found my after-hours bar and drank on a never pay Tab . I didn't really care too much until one night. He drank a snoot full and vomited all over the floor. Now I ran a place for drunks and i had the equipment to clean it up which i did quickly. I didn't really get upset until he cleaned himself up sat back on the bar stool and turned to the person beside him and said" I think they put something in the drinks here."
It was then that I threw him out and barred him.
I ran into him a few years later. He had quit drinking and after spending an afternoon with him I much preferred him when he was drinking.
anyway, it seems he is still at it, and good for him.
Canadian artist Rick McCarthy was born in Montreal, Quebec in September 1941, lives in Toronto, and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art in 1963. His artwork includes multi-media figurative paintings and drawings ranging from Renaissance-like figures to figurative abstraction.

Rick McCarthy's artwork has been shown at notable places such as the Art Avenue Gallery. Rick McCarthy's artwork is in art collections throughout Canada and the United States.




Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Lou Miles



Lou Miles was a famous Toronto Tailor and a man about town. We became great friends and went out on many parties dinners and the like with his girlfriend Wendy. They also spent many nights at my bar.

Monday, January 2, 2023

Austin Clark


Austin Clarke Another old friend bit the dust. I met Austin in the pilot in 1965. We assumed he was a student he looked studious always neatly dressed in a shirt and tie and a blazer. with dark-rimmed glasses, He kept pretty much to himself usually sitting in the front with enough light to read. Somehow we got together and had many great conversations over a year or so. He had unassuming intelligence, and curiosity and was a great storyteller.  He mentioned writing a book I had never heard of. Then suddenly he wrote a piece for the Telegram or Maclean's or something entitled " I Have No White Friends".
I confronted him "Hey I thought we were friends." " ya we are friends he grinned and bought he drinks." I didn't mean it that way more political like' and we continued our friendly talks until he published a book and disappeared from the scene. A few years later I met him at the track with his wife and we had a pretty good day and went out for eats and drinks. I met him another day by himself. We had both had a terrible day and in further honest discussion discovered we had enough between us to put a $2.00 bet on the last race. We picked a horse and made enough to drive to the Pilot in his Mercedes, have a few beers, and laugh at our bad and good fortune.
Ran into him now and again at Art openings and the like and then met him at a book opening for Barry Callaghan.
and we reconnected when Barry and him used to go to Peterborough once a month for a writer's circle held by one of Barry's students who also happened to be a friend of mine. I visited him once in a while at his house but hadn't seen him for a dozen years until I called him last year he wasn't well and did not have much to say. he died soon after.

Monday, November 14, 2022

Dianne Heatherington

Dianne spent many nights at my bar and we had a close personal relationship that in another time and place could have gotten very serious.

Dianne Mae Heatherington (May 14, 1948 – October 22, 1996) was a Canadian singer of several genres, particularly rock, whose musical career spanned nearly two decades. In the latter part of her career, she became a successful businessperson in the film security industry, while at the same time enjoying modest success as a Canadian film and television actress.

She was nominated for a Juno Award in 1981 in the category of Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year. She also hosted her own national CBC Television series, Dianne, in 1971.[1]

In May 1993, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer from which she died on October 22, 1996, aged 48, in Toronto.[2]
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