Toronto Sketches 10: "The Way We Were"

by Mike Filey, Mike Fillon

Overview

Mike Filey’s column "The Way We Were" first appeared in the Toronto Sunday Sun not long after the first edition of the paper hit the newsstands on September 16, 1973. Now, almost four decades later, Filey’s column has enjoyed an uninterrupted stretch as one of the newspaper’s most popular features. In 1992 a number of his columns were reprinted in Toronto Sketches: "The Way We Were." Since then another eight volumes of Toronto Sketches have been published, each of which has attained great success.

This 10th volume highlights some of Toronto’s greatest landmarks such as the Don Jail and its graves and Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Island. Mike also steps back in time to revisit the Avrocar, the flying saucer of the Great White North; takes a peek at Miss Toronto of 1926; conjures up The Hollywood, the city’s first "talkie" theatre; and recalls historic snow days Canada’s largest city has experienced.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554887804
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	12/01/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mike Filey was born in Toronto in 1941. He has written more than two dozen books on various facets of Toronto's past and for more than 35 years has contributed a popular column, "The Way We Were," to the Toronto Sunday Sun. His Toronto Sketches series is more popular now than ever before.

Table of Contents

A Watery Commute 11

Cronyism Has Always Existed Here 14

Toronto Under Siege 17

Touring Motel Alley 21

What's in a Name? 25

Safety Back in the Day 28

Swimmingly Good Times 31

Gas Price Wars Revisited 34

Babe a Hit in Toronto 37

Rose by Any Other Name 40

A Shining Example 44

Gooderham, Worts, and All 48

Lights, Action, Drive! 51

Our Changing Skyline 55

On the Waterfront 58

Hooray, Simcoe Day 62

TTC Testing LRT Bidders 66

Ex Marks the Spot 69

Red Rockets of Yesteryear 72

Taking a Flight Back in Time 76

She's the Belle of Lake Ontario 79

A Grave Story Indeed 83

Stagnant Gardens 87

When Joy Came to Town 90

Goodbye Dominion, Hello Metro 92

New, Old Electric Railway 95

Landmark of Learning 98

Lest We Forget 101

Toronto in Transition 103

A Toronto Kingpin 106

Tracking the Past 109

Bag to the Future 112

Oh, How We've Grown 114

A Surprise Demolition 117

Birth of Sunday Sports 121

Historic Snow Days 124

Bridging the Gap 127

Historic "Snow Fight" 130

Yorkville - the First 'Burb 133

Postcards from the Edge 136

Casa de Toronto 139

Street Smart? 142

Big Time in History 145

Central Prison of Horrors 148

Motor Ride Back in History 151

A Time for Talkies 154

Original "Mr. Fix-It" 158

Tough Act to Follow 161

Night Toronto Burned 164

Full Steam Ahead 167

John Lyle's Vision Shaped in T.O. 170

Royal Reception 173

The Dating Game 176

Ahead of its Time 179

Sky's the Limit 183

Pomp and Pageantry 186

Keeping Us Amused 189

Streetcar City 192

Toronto in the Dumps 195

Here She Is, Miss Toronto (1926) 198

University's Magnificent Beacon 200

The Day Noronic Went Up in Smoke 203

The Word on the Street Is ... 206

Island Tunnel that Would Never Be 209

A Revolutionary Condo Concept 212

Home Sweet Home Aboard Red Rocket 215

Let's Set the Record Straight 218

Let's Head Back in Time 221

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry ... 225

Flying Saucer of the Great White North 228

Shedding Light on Queen's Wharf Lighthouse 231

Toronto's Ever-Changing Skyline 234

The Rise of the Big Smoke 237

Rolling Billboards of the Past 240

They Were a Cut Above 243