Garys Glimpses
Organizing My Stories of People I have met.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Dianne Lawrence
She Edits and Publishes an online magazine there
Thursday, March 7, 2024
ALAN MACRAE
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
KEN DANBY
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.
Monday, January 29, 2024
Jay and the Majestics
Sunday, December 24, 2023
GERRY MULLIGAN
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Brian Orser
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
JOHN ALLAN CAMERON
Friday, June 30, 2023
Gordon Tootoosis
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
Friday, June 23, 2023
FARLEY MOWATT
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Vera Lynn
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 anthemsNo question that he was a characterI 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 bitRoy 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
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Richard Burton
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Keenan Wynn
Monday, May 22, 2023
Norman Depoe
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
Friday, May 19, 2023
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.
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
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Catherine O'Hara
Friday, May 5, 2023
KITTY WELLS
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Thursday, May 4, 2023
Gordon Lightfoot (Footsie)
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'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.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
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
Monday, November 14, 2022
Dianne Heatherington
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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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 fe...
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RON BERKELEY Ron Berkeley, an Emmy-winning makeup artist who worked with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on such films as Who’s Afraid...