Bohemian Embassy

Last updated

The Bohemian Embassy was a coffeehouse and cultural venue in Toronto, Canada, that opened in June 1960 and operated continually in different sites and formats until the early 1990s. Comedian and actor Don Cullen was associated with the establishment throughout its existence. Various aspects of culture were showcased, including jazz and folk music, poetry and theatre. The venue hosted performances by artists such as Milton Acorn, Margaret Atwood, sean o huigan, Sylvia Tyson, Gwendolyn MacEwen, David Essig, Martin Bronstein, Michael Boncoeur and Paul K. Willis. The legacy of the venue was examined in Bravo!'s 2010 documentary Behind the Bohemian Embassy. [1] The "Bohemian Embassy" name has been appropriated by a condominium building in the Queen Street West area of Toronto, [2] [3] and a new wave rock group. [4]

Contents

Origins and St. Nicholas Street, 1960–1966

Don Cullen, founder of the Bohemian Embassy Don Cullen 2008.jpg
Don Cullen, founder of the Bohemian Embassy

The venture began when some junior CBC employees sought an alternative to the Celebrity Club, a gathering place across the street from the broadcaster's production centre on Jarvis Street. Five each put up one hundred dollars: Don Cullen, David Harriman, Ted Morris, Peter Oomen, and Steven Thomas Quance. Another, "Larry," had offered to match any contributions, but pulled out when his ideas for the venue did not match the plans for a cultural salon that Cullen proposed. [5]

The partners rented a third-floor loft, in the 1907 William Wilson Livery Storage Building, at 7 St. Nicholas Street, a laneway running north of Wellesley Street and one short block west of Yonge Street. [6] It was near the University of Toronto and on the edge of Toronto's bohemian enclave and art district, the Gerrard Street Village. The name, the Bohemian Embassy, had previously been given a flat that three young writers, Harriman, Warren Wilson, and Michael John Nimchuk, occupied nearby, at 590 Yonge. The venue walls were whitewashed, and the floor painted dark red, and the club was first equipped with two large coffee percolators, later leasing a Gaggia espresso machine, reputedly one of the first in Toronto. Membership cost twenty-five cents, and admission one dollar, and within one year the Bohemian Embassy reported a membership numbering about 3,000. [7] [8] [9]

The Bohemian Embassy opened on June 1, 1960, the performers including folk singers Karen James [10] and Bob Wowk, and a jazz duo, drummer Paul Neary, and reed player Brian Westwood. [11]  The two players then led groups in residence that played midnight sets on alternating Saturdays. [12]

In its early years, the club at times attracted controversy. Less than a year after opening, it made headlines when Bell Telephone included the Bohemian Embassy in its Yellow Pages among "Consulates & Other Foreign Government Representatives". [13] [14] Over the first two and a half years, the Toronto police charged proprietors Cullen and Oomen four times with operating a public hall without a license. On the second occasion, in June 1961, poet John Higgins, writing for the organization, appealed to Queen Elizabeth II and Ontario premier Leslie Frost "for support, moral and otherwise ... to halt what now appears obvious and unwarranted persecution", and received a letter from the premier promising to "look into this matter and see what your problem is". [9] After three previous acquittals, on November 29, 1962, charges were dismissed when it was determined that the facilities seated fewer than 100—the police said they counted 100–115 chairs; the owners maintained that there were 75, and benches that seated "18 people if they were all fat and 24 people if they were thin"—and thus that the public-hall law did not apply. [15] [16]

The Bohemian Embassy quickly became a key venue for Toronto's younger poets, musicians—principally folk, jazz, and blues—alternative theatre, and satirical revues. Generally, poetry was programmed on Thursday evenings, folk music on Fridays, jazz on Saturdays, including a midnight set, and a hootenanny on Sunday nights. [17]

Margaret Atwood read her poetry at the Bohemian Embassy. Margaret Atwood 2015.jpg
Margaret Atwood read her poetry at the Bohemian Embassy.

Poetry readings were frequently punctuated by musical performances. A November 1960 story in the Toronto Daily Star reported, in addition to a reading by Milton Acorn, "There were readings by two other poets, John Higgins and M. E. Atwood, barely out of their teens, and a copious and very Celtic bout of folk singing by Sylvia Fricker", referring to Margaret Atwood, the future sean o huigan, and, after she married her musical collaborator in the duo Ian and Sylvia, Sylvia Tyson. [18]  That evening also included poetry from Gwendolyn MacEwen, [18] a talk on commercialism and art by Libby Jones, a stripper then also appearing at the Lux burlesque house. [19] [20]

Gwendolyn MacEwen began reading her poetry at the Bohemian Embassy while she too was still a teenager. Other younger poets associated with the club included George Miller, Dennis Lee, and John Robert Colombo, who organized the poetry reading series. [21] As well, the venue attracted poets of earlier generations, including James Reaney, Phyllis Webb, Margaret Avison, Al Purdy, and Jay Macpherson, and Raymond Souster ran poetry workshops at the club. [22] [23]

Folk music was a mainstay of the Bohemian Embassy, and, as a popular trend of the moment, a money-maker. [24] Mary Jane and Winston Young had a Friday-night residency for several years. In addition to Sylvia Fricker's regular appearances, Ian and Sylvia later performed regularly, once bringing their manager-to-be Albert Grossman to hear them play a set. [25] [26] Gordon Lightfoot appeared when playing in a duo called the Two Tones. [27]  While still a student, Amos Garrett accompanied Embassy regular, folk singer Chick Roberts, and they soon joined with Carol Robinson, who appeared in revues at the club, and Jim McCarthy to form a band, the Dirty Shames. [28] [26] The Halifax Three, featuring Denny Doherty, played the club, while in Toronto adding guitarist Zal Yanovsky to the lineup. They later joined forces with Cass Elliot in a group called the Mugwumps, which led Doherty into the Mamas and the Papas and Yanovsky to the Lovin' Spoonful. [28]  A few years into the coffeehouse's life on St. Nicholas, responsibility for booking folk music was given to Mitch Podolak, later co-founder of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and he signed Joni Mitchell to perform at the Embassy. [25]

In addition to burgeoning, homegrown Canadian talent, the Bohemian Embassy was a Toronto venue for higher-profile performers, often booked to play Wednesdays through Sundays, among them, from the United States, the Rev. Gary Davis, [29] Mike Seeger, [30] Len Chandler, [31] as well as Canadian Bonnie Dobson. [32] One night, Bob Dylan dropped in for a poetry evening and offered to perform, but the organizer of the evening declined. [33]

On January 10, 1963, a "happening" took place at the Bohemian Embassy. Reputedly Toronto's first, its novelty attracted CBC television, for a feature broadcast on the local program, Close-Up. [34] [35] A later account reported that the event had been suggested by the CBC producers, who "had heard Happenings were the thing in New York's Village and wanted one to photograph closer to home". [36]  A bathtub served as a motif for the performance, which featured "folk singing, poets reading works that were inspired by the bathtub and humorous skits", according to a Toronto Star reviewer. [37]  He found the evening "an amateur show" and "not a success", also reporting that co-proprietor Don Cullen, who arranged the program, agreed. [37]

The Bohemian Embassy served as a venue for a wide variety of small-scale, limited-budget theatre. A November 1960 evening included a "world premiere" reading of Charles Sangster's 1856 play, Bertram and Lorenzo, [38] [24] while a March 1961 program included Ionesco's Jack, or the Submission . [39] [40] And a 1964 production of Look Back in Anger staged there cost a reported eight dollars. [41]  Other productions, by local writers, included a pair of one-act plays by John Herbert, Private Club and A Household God, scheduled to be staged in autumn 1962, [42] and an early play by David French, A Ring for Florrie, presented in November 1963, on a bill with David, a three-scene piece by, and featuring, comedian Eve Law. [43] About both the latter shows, influential critic Nathan Cohen wrote, "The ideas are interesting, but the plays and their production are disasters". [44] [26] Earlier that year, in May 1963, it had been the venue for an ill-attended chamber opera, Balloon, by composer Henry Papale and librettist and featured tenor Daniel Pociernicki, about which critic John Kraglund judged "there was much to admire". [45] Late in 1963, in December, while also playing across town at the Crest theatre, Jackie Burroughs was scheduled to appear in a program of the Theatre of the Absurd. [46]

A stage production to emerge from the Bohemian Embassy that had a sustained history was the Village Revue, a satirical program originated by Barrie Baldaro and Ralph Hicklin. The first edition opened February 27, 1961. [47] It featured a cast of eleven, including Baldaro and Hicklin, fellow writers Eve Law and Wayne McLaren, and Kathy Greenwood, Eliza Creighton, Gabrielle Thibault, folk singer Klaas Van Graft, Michael Farnell, Embassy regular George Miller, and the club's co-owner Don Cullen, who was asked to join the cast because he could do a Russian accent. [48] Scheduled to run three nights, and with two enthusiastic notices in the Toronto Daily Star , including Cohen's, the first Village Revue was held over, transferring to another coffeehouse, the House of Hambourg, late in March and running until April 8. [40] [49] [50] [51]

A second edition opened September 1, 1961, with many of the same cast members, though now including Carol Robinson and without Ralph Hicklin's participation, and was presented at Centre Stage, a proper theatrical venue, not at the coffeehouse. It met with disappointed critical reception, Wendy Michener stating that the virtues of its original makeshift production and intimate setting had been lost. [52] [53] The Revue returned to St. Nicholas Street for its third edition, in April 1962, with a smaller cast, playing four weeks, and earning positive notices from top-rung critics Cohen and Herbert Whittaker of the Globe and Mail . [54] [55] [56] Except for a summer 1963 edition presented at the Theatre at the Dell, the upstairs lounge of the Dell Tavern, the Village Revue was largely based at the Bohemian Embassy. [57] [58] A 1965 edition, devised and starring only Baldaro and Cullen, opened there, and then transferred to the Colonnade Theatre in October, when the club was in its last year of operation in the St. Nicholas loft. [59]

In 1964, Don Cullen was cast in a revival of the British satirical revue, Beyond the Fringe , and in other ventures that took him away from Toronto. He and Peter Oomen had been left to run the club, the other three original investors having departed within the first year of operation. When Cullen returned in 1965, they attracted eight new investors, who subsequently determined that the Bohemian Embassy should have a manager, and another former CBC editor, Peter Churchill, was given the job. The venue, however, continued to operate for only two more months, a victim of changing times and tastes. [60] According to a contemporary report, "the Bohemian Embassy changed from being off-beat and far out to being square and passé. [61] It was conceived in the Kingston Trio era; it began to fade with the dawning of the Beatles", and the growing hippie subculture supplanted the Beat ethos of the club, which closed at the St. Nicholas Street location in June 1966, six years to the day from its opening. [8] [62]

Rochdale College, December 1969 – January 1970

The former Rochdale College building Former Rochdale College.JPG
The former Rochdale College building

Cullen, with partner Don Black, revived the Bohemian Embassy in December 1969, in the former premises of the Same restaurant, at Rochdale College, 341 Bloor Street West, at Huron Street. They planned to run a pilot program of two weeks, and then decide whether to re-open on a more permanent basis. Presentations included open poetry readings, a sitar performance, New Orleans jazz, a hootenanny with the Travellers, and a chamber-music performance that Cullen remembered as receiving a "terrible response". [26] He also recalled receiving, on New Year's Eve, "gifts ... in the form of pills, of varying colours and dimensions", more consistent with Rochdale as a Toronto drug centre. [26] Never wishing the venue to be associated with that part of the counterculture, this confirmed their decision to end the pilot and close this version of the Bohemian Embassy. [63] [64] [26]

Harbourfront Centre, July 1974 – March 1976

The Bohemian Embassy returned as a venue within Harbourfront Centre, a cultural and recreational site on the Toronto waterfront. Established as Harbourfront Passage, a pedestrian walkway, by the Government of Canada in 1972, in 1974, billed as Harbourfront '74, it started to offer programs of entertainment and recreation. Don Cullen had been invited to revive the Bohemian Embassy, accepting the offer on condition that it include Roy Wordsworth, a fellow performer in Beyond the Fringe, for his management skills. [65]

Harbourfront Centre Harbourfront-Centre.jpg
Harbourfront Centre

Located in the York Quay building, the first operational area of the development, the Bohemian Embassy was to open on June 15, 1974, with a performance by Gordon Lightfoot. Construction was delayed, however, and he could not reschedule for the new opening date of July 1. Programming was similar to the plan for the original club, with different types of performance each night of the week—Tuesdays, poetry; Wednesdays, theatre and dance; Thursdays, chamber music; Fridays, rock, with late-night jazz; Saturday folk music and hootenannys; and Sundays, comedy—but capacity was considerably greater, seating 500. [66] [67]  Among the performers on the first weekend July 5–7: jazz musician Cathy Moses, folk musicians David Essig, Ginger Graham, and Tom Gallant, and a comedy revue featuring Martin Bronstein, Carol Robinson, and Don Cullen and the Accents. [68]  A mid-July advertisement let nightowls know about after-hours jazz, every Friday night (meaning Saturday morning), 1:15–4:00 am. [69]

Like its earlier version, the new Bohemian Embassy helped launch talent, some featured regularly at Harbourfront. Comedy nights regularly programmed a troupe called Comedy Crisis, including Ben Gordon, [70] and the innovative double act of Michael Boncoeur and Paul K. Willis, known as La Troupe Grotesque. Folk musicians Patricia Watson and Alison Reynolds, [71] who came from Sudbury, Ontario, appeared regularly, [72] as did singer-songwriters Nancy White, who soon started to perform her satirical songs weekly on CBC radio's Sunday Morning, and Raffi Cavoukian, soon to be well known, by his first name, as a children's performer. [73]

Robert Priest read his poetry at the Bohemian Embassy. Robert Priest.jpg
Robert Priest read his poetry at the Bohemian Embassy.

Poetry nights, again initially programmed by John Robert Colombo, provided a venue for younger writers, such as Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, who was later named Toronto's Poet Laureate, and Robert Priest. Another distinctive poetic voice was Hans Jewinski, a Toronto police officer who published his first collection in 1975, with an accompanying reading at the Embassy. [74] [75]

As well, some who started as programmers became more notable as impresarios in their own right. Because of other commitments, Colombo decided to step back, and Greg Gatenby was hired as a replacement, later to expand his portfolio by starting the Toronto International Festival of Authors. [76]  Similarly, Mark Breslin started as an announcer and host for open-talent nights, and he soon took on other programming responsibilities, and shortly established the nightclub Yuk Yuk's, the foundation for a Canadian comedy regime. [77] [75]

Funded by federal money, the Bohemian Embassy offered its programs free of charge, and was the most popular of Harbourfront's operations. Program director Cullen estimated that it attracted about 500 each weekend night, and 150 to 200 on Wednesdays and Thursdays. By spring 1975, however, with administrative changes at Harbourfront, cuts in funding and in programming followed. Having started with an annual budget of $100,000, Cullen reported that by 1976 he was having to operate on $500 a week, but the venue stayed open until spring 1976. Discussions about alternative funding included paid admissions and sponsorships by tobacco or beer companies, but the Harbourfront board ruled out the former, and Cullen resisted the latter, seeing the ironies in that type of support for a coffeehouse. Saturday, March 27, 1976, on the venue's final weekend, featured a twelve-hour concert of folk, country, and bluegrass music, to benefit the radio station CJRT-FM, that attracted a total audience of about 1,000. Staff contracts expired on March 31, 1976, and were not renewed, and this incarnation of the Bohemian Embassy closed that Wednesday night. [78] [79] [80]

On the air, 1976 and 1979

A few months after the Harbourfront venue closed, Don Cullen hosted a television edition of the Bohemian Embassy, as an episode of the Global Television variety series, Caught in the Act. (In 1974, Cullen had worked for Global, as a writer on another variety show, Everything Goes .) The network advertised it as "free-spirited entertainment", [81] and the Toronto Star found it "low-key with spots of dry humor from Cullen as host", adding, "The players are all clean and neat and professionally good, and except for poet Irving Layton's preoccupation with fornication in his readings near the end, they're all conventional, too. No wild-eyed hippies here". [82] Airing on Friday, November 26, 1976, at 9:30 pm, with a repeat on Sunday at 9:00, it evidently served as a pilot for a series that did not result. [82]

The Bohemian Embassy returned to the air on April 7, 1979, with a CBC radio series, The Bohemian Embassy. [83]  The one-hour program was recorded on Mondays, with an audience, at the CBC's Cabbagetown studio, 509 Parliament Street, and broadcast on CBL, the Toronto AM station, Saturdays at 8:00 pm. Mary MacFadyen produced the program, which Cullen hosted, with announcer John O'Leary, and music by jazz trombonist Rob McConnell and his quartet. [84] [85] Guests including familiar voices, such as writers John Robert Colombo, George Miller, and Margaret Atwood, as well as an array of musicians over the weeks, but also an eclectic selection of other entertainment, announcing itself at one point as a program of "folk music, comedy and magicians", [86] and, on the November 17 edition, featuring the National Tap Dance Company's rendition of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto . [87] [85]  A regular notice in the Toronto Star calling for audience members to attend tapings appeared as late as February 1980, [88] but according to published radio listings, the last broadcast was December 29, 1979, and the time slot was ceded to Jazz After Eight. [89] [90]

318 Queen Street West, June 1991 – May 1992

The Bohemian Embassy returned as a physical venue in 1991, in a second-floor loft on Queen Street West, then a hub of Toronto's art and music scene. Cullen collaborated with Embassy habitué George Miller, singer-songwriter Michal Hasek, classical musician Eun-Jung Yoo, and stage manager Dan O'Reilly to start the new enterprise. "Sometimes it's necessary to go back to square one and community in the arts", Cullen explained. [91] "Arts funding is down so I did something positive and reopened the Bohemian Embassy to have an outlet for a gentler and more vulnerable form of artistic expression that doesn't compete with alcohol." [91] When John Robert Colombo declined to participate due to other commitments, Cullen engaged librarian Anita Keller as literary curator of Thursday readings, which usually featured a known author and a set with unpublished writers. [91] [92]

The performance space, which seated a reported 275, opened on June 20, 1991, with a cover charge of five dollars, for a reading by Al Purdy. [93] [94] Other veteran writers read there, including an evening in August 1991, when Margaret Atwood launched her book Wilderness Tips , that turned away about 150, but programming overall stressed younger and newer talent. [95] [96]

Spadina Hotel Spadina Hotel.JPG
Spadina Hotel

When the lease expired, after less than a year of operation, the Embassy closed, on May 9, 1992. Keller moved the reading series to the Spadina Hotel, and, optimistically, Cullen claimed that he was seeking a new location, but this turned out to be the final edition of the Bohemian Embassy as a coffeehouse and site of cultural production. [97] [98]

The Bohemian Embassy condominium controversy, 2006–07

In 2006, Baywood Homes began developing a condominium complex to be called the Bohemian Embassy, on Queen Street West, at Gladstone Avenue. The district, known as West Queen West, had evolved to contain art galleries, trendy shops and restaurants, and renovated establishments, such as the Gladstone Hotel and the Drake Hotel, that marked the area as culturally rich. The condominium was to comprise 345 residential units in a nine-storey building on the street and a nineteen-storey structure set behind the lower one, back from Queen Street. [3] The project attracted controversy for its appropriation of the name, which the developers used to market properties to what they described as "first-time buyers and well established people who work in the financial district", [99] but which was also branded as "a condominium so stylish and cool, it promises to redefine the way this city's hipsters live". [100]  Michael Toke, an artist in the neighborhood, protested against the development with an installation and video project that parodied the developers' advertising, called Bohemian Embarrassment. [101] The project attracted criticism from at least two prominent critics of architecture and planning in Toronto, John Bentley Mays of the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star's Christopher Hume, for the design of the buildings and their scale, in that area of the city, as well as for the marketing approach. [3] [102]

Don Cullen, claiming the Bohemian Embassy brand, offered the developers the use of the name in return for $1,400 per month for five years, with $1,000 to go toward musical and literary events, which he would organize, keeping "$100 a week for my troubles". [103]  He added, "the developer's lawyer claimed I didn't have a leg to stand on". [103] Recounting the achievements of his coffeehouse, he concluded, "the Bohemian Embassy was a lot of things, launched a lot of careers, but it never had much of anything to do with condos". [103]

The Bohemian Embassy condominium stands at 1169 and 1171 Queen Street West. [2]

Later activities and legacy

Hugh's Room Hugh's Room Toronto.jpg
Hugh's Room

Since the Queen Street location closed, there have been a number of reunions and other events honoring the Bohemian Embassy, often hosted by Don Cullen. He presented evenings remembering the venue on June 22, 2001, at the Rhino Bar, in West Queen West, [104] and on July 10, 2002, at the Victory Café, on Markham Street, in Mirvish Village. [105] [106] Another followed the next year, on September 13, 2003, at Hugh's Room, on Dundas Street West. The earlier events had presented younger talent, but this was more of an actual reunion, with George Miller, John Robert Colombo, Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison, and Peter Kastner joining Cullen on stage. [107] Several years later, in 2009, Lit City, a literary festival marking Toronto's 175th birthday, included the "Bohemian Embassy Revival", a program at the City Hall library that presented, in addition to Cullen, Colombo, Greg Gatenby, Rosemary Sullivan, Dennis Lee, and Sylvia Tyson. [108]

On June 22, 2002, Mariposa in the City, a Toronto event of the Mariposa Folk Festival, included a spoken-word program, with Cullen, named for the Bohemian Embassy. [109] As well, one of the performance areas at the annual festival in Orillia, Ontario, is called the Bohemian Embassy Stage. [110]

In 2007, Cullen published a memoir, The Bohemian Embassy; Memories and Poems, [111] and in 2010 Behind the Bohemian Embassy, a feature-length documentary about "Canada's wordiest landmark", was released and broadcast on the Bravo! television service, on July 19 of that year. [112] [1] [113]

A musical group named The Bohemian Embassy, describing itself as "a psychedelic alternative rock band from the south west of England," was formed in the late 2000s. [4] [114]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Clarke (novelist)</span> Barbadian writer (1934–2016)

Austin Ardinel Chesterfield "Tom" Clarke,, was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and short story writer who was based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Among his notable books are novels such as The Polished Hoe (2002), memoirs including Membering (2015), and two collections of poetry, Where the Sun Shines Best (2013) and In Your Crib (2015).

Christopher Dewdney is a prize-winning Canadian poet and essayist. His poetry reflects his interest in natural history. His book Acquainted with the Night, an investigation into darkness was nominated for both the Charles Taylor Prize and the Governor General's Award.

The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a municipal freeway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which connects the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Highway 401. North of Highway 401, it continues as Highway 404. The parkway runs through the parklands of the Don River valley, after which it is named. It has a maximum speed limit of 90 km/h (56 mph) for its entire length of 15.0 km (9.3 mi). It is six lanes for most of its length, with eight lanes north of York Mills Road and four lanes south of Eastern Avenue. As a municipal road, it is patrolled by the Toronto Police Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbourfront, Toronto</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Toronto waterfront, Harbourfront extends from Bathurst Street in the west, along Queens Quay, with its ill-defined eastern boundary being either Yonge Street or York Street. Its northern boundary is the Gardiner Expressway. Much of the district was former water lots filled in during the early 1900s to create a larger harbour district. After shipping patterns changed and the use of the Toronto harbour declined, the area was converted from industrial uses to a mixed-use district that is mostly residential and leisure.

CKO was a Canadian radio news network which operated from 1977 to 1989. The CKO call sign was shared by twelve network-owned stations, as listed below.

William R. Allen Road, also known as Allen Road, the Allen Expressway and colloquially as the Allen, is a short expressway and arterial road in Toronto. It starts as a controlled-access expressway at Eglinton Avenue West, heading north to just south of Transit Road, then continues as an arterial road north to Kennard Avenue, where it continues as Dufferin Street. Allen Road is named after Metro Toronto chairman William R. Allen and is maintained by the City of Toronto. Landmarks along the road include the Lawrence Heights housing project, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Downsview Park, and Downsview Airport. A section of the Line 1 Yonge–University subway is located within the median of the expressway from Eglinton Avenue to north of Wilson Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariposa Folk Festival</span> Folk music festival

Mariposa Folk Festival is a Canadian music festival founded in 1961 in Orillia, Ontario. It was held in Orillia for three years before being banned because of disturbances by festival-goers. After being held in various places in Ontario for a few decades, it returned to Orillia in 2000. Ruth Jones, her husband Dr. Crawford Jones, brother David Major and Pete McGarvey organized the first Mariposa Folk Festival in August 1961. The inaugural event, covered by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, featured all Canadian performers. The festival grew in popularity, size and rowdiness until the popularity of the 1963 festival, and the lack of sufficient security, led to a backlash from town locals. The city of Orillia secured a court injunction to prevent the festival from continuing in the town limits. The first festival held in the Toronto area, in 1964, was at Maple Leaf Stadium. The subsequent three festivals were held at Innis Lake in Caledon, northwest of the city. In the 1970s it was held on the Toronto Islands before shifting to Harbourfront (Toronto) and Bathurst Street and later Molson Park in Barrie. In 2000, the Mariposa Folk Festival was invited back to Orillia by city councilors Tim Lauer and Don Evans. The festival continues to be held in Orillia. As well as folk music, the festival highlights other aspects of folk culture including dance, crafts, storytelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Francks</span> Canadian actor and jazz musician (1932–2016)

Don Harvey Francks, also known by his stage name Iron Buffalo, was a Canadian actor, musician and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club Passim</span> Folk music club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.

Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47, and changed its name to simply Passim in 1969. The Donlins who ran the club during the 1970s pronounced the name PASSim. Bob Donlin said this pronunciation as he welcomed people to the shows with the always-out-of-adjustment mic stand microphone, but those who were unaware often said PassEEM. It adopted the present name in 1994; a combination of the earlier two names. In 1994 the venue also became a non-profit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen's Quay Terminal</span> Mixed-use residential and commercial in Ontario, Canada

Queen's Quay Terminal is a condominium apartment, office and retail complex in the Harbourfront neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was originally built in 1927 as a marine terminal with office, warehouse and cold-storage facilities. When shipping to Toronto declined in the 1960s and 1970s, the building was bought by the Government of Canada to be repurposed along with a section of the industrial waterfront. The Terminal Building itself was rebuilt in the 1980s with the addition of four floors of residential above the original facility, which was converted into retail and office uses. The cold storage wing was demolished and its plant building became The Power Plant gallery and Harbourfront Centre Theatre.

Donald Dean Summerville was a Canadian politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Toronto from January 1963 until his death that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Robert Colombo</span> Canadian writer, editor, and poet

John Robert Colombo, CM is a Canadian writer, editor, and poet. He has published over 200 titles, including major anthologies and reference works.

Mary Jane and Winston Young were a Toronto-based folk music singing duo. They were active as early as 1960 in the early days of the North American urban Folk Revival. They were part of the movement that tied folk music to a socially progressive view of the world.

Paul Paul Haines was an American poet and jazz lyricist. Born in Vassar, Michigan, Haines eventually settled in Canada after spending time in Europe, Asia, and the United States; he had a long stint as a French teacher at Fenelon Falls Secondary School, in Ontario, Canada. Active in New York City in the 60s, he recorded Albert Ayler's Ghosts. A second recording made by Ayler called Spiritual Unity (1965) included a printed folio with text by Paul Haines called "You and the Night and Music."

David Mirvish Gallery was a contemporary, commercial art gallery run by David Mirvish from 1963 to 1978, within the Markham Street art community on Mirvish Village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Artists at the gallery are best known for Color Field and Post-painterly Abstraction works. Mirvish assembled the Mirvish Collection, consisting of mostly contemporary artwork including artists he represented, lending it out to museums around the United States and Europe after the gallery's closure. In 2012, Mirvish announced plans to open a gallery to display these works, at planned condominium project Mirvish+Gehry Toronto.

Amazingrace Coffeehouse was an influential counterculture music and performance venue in Evanston, Illinois, during the 1970s. Run by a collective called the Amazingrace Family, it was known for its welcoming atmosphere, eclectic menu, excellent sound system, and respectful audiences. Amazingrace was the top music club in the Chicago Reader poll 1973-1975, plus Number 3 in the 1975 wrap-up of "Who's Who in Chicago's Alternative Culture". Performers from a wide variety of genres played at Amazingrace from its beginning on the campus of Northwestern University until its final incarnation at The Main on Chicago Avenue in Evanston.

Owen McBride is an Irish-born folk singer and storyteller, primarily performing traditional Irish and Scottish music. McBride settled in Toronto in 1963 and became a fixture in the Toronto folk scene. McBride was a key figure in the folk revival movement in Canada and in North American in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at major folk music festivals like the Mariposa Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festivals. For this role, he was inducted in the Mariposa Folk Festival Hall of Fame in 2019. He continues to be an active performer in the folk music club and festival scenes.

The Bitter Ash is a Canadian drama film, directed by Larry Kent and released in 1963. One of the first narrative feature films ever shot in Vancouver, the film stars Alan Scarfe as Des, an unhappy blue collar man who is drawn into the city's counterculture underground, where he clashes with bohemian intellectual Colin over the affections of Colin's wife Laurie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Cullen</span> Canadian entertainer (1933–2022)

Donald Austin Cullen was a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, and proprietor of the Bohemian Embassy, which he operated, off and on, in various Toronto locations from 1960 to the early 1990s. He was a prolific performer on radio, stage, and television, including as a featured player on Wayne and Shuster's CBC television broadcasts, for 25 years.

References

  1. 1 2 "Behind the Bohemian Embassy". Toronto Star. July 17, 2010. pp. SS7.
  2. 1 2 "Bohemian Embassy at 1171 Queen Street West – Downtown Toronto Condo Specialist Axon Capital Realty Advisors Inc., Brokerage". My Bohemian Embassy Condo. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Mays, John Bentley (September 26, 2006). "It's all a question of scale". Globe and Mail. pp. G2.
  4. 1 2 Smith, Dom (August 31, 2018). "Band Spotlight: The Bohemian Embassy".
  5. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 15, 19–20
  6. ↑ "In the Matter of the Ontario Heritage Act R.S.O. 1990, Chapter 0.18 and City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, 7 St. Nicholas Street, Notice of Intention to Designate". December 9, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  7. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 15
  8. 1 2 Elliott, Nancy (July 2, 1966). "There'll be no more passports to Bohemia". Maclean's. 79 (13): 45.
  9. 1 2 Whittaker, Herbert (June 29, 1961). "Private club appeals to Queen, Premier". Globe and Mail. p. 11.
  10. ↑ "Folk Songs are her forte". Toronto Daily Star. September 10, 1960. p. 21.
  11. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 24
  12. ↑ Caplan, Dave (October 19, 1963). "Toronto's Alive and Kicking". Toronto Daily Star. p. 22.
  13. ↑ "Like sure man we're an embassy". Toronto Daily Star. May 9, 1961. p. 27.
  14. ↑ "Diplomatic error". Globe and Mail. May 16, 1961. p. 6.
  15. ↑ "Bohemian Embassy charge dismissed". Toronto Daily Star. November 30, 1962. p. 22.
  16. ↑ Haggart, Ron (December 13, 1962). "Our Famous Trials: The Coffee House Case". Toronto Daily Star. p. 33.
  17. ↑ Secter, David (October 11, 1963). "Smoke, swing & sex". The Varsity. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  18. 1 2 "Don Cullen: Bohemian Embassy 'Ambassador' Nurtured Talents of Fellow Artists". Nicholas Jennings.
  19. ↑ Ferry, Antony (November 18, 1960). "Ah, our night life is coming of age". Toronto Daily Star. p. 34.
  20. ↑ Lemm, Richard (1999). Milton Acorn: In Love and Anger. pp. 133–134. ISBN   9780886293406.
  21. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 30–33
  22. ↑ Sullivan, Margaret (1995). Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen. Toronto: HarperCollins. p. 100. ISBN   0-00-255406-2.
  23. ↑ Sullivan, Margaret (1998). The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out. Toronto: HarperFlamingo Canada. p. 103. ISBN   0-00-255423-2.
  24. 1 2 Lucas, Tim (December 10, 1960). "Poetry-to-Music on the menu in dim (in black) coffee house". Toronto Daily Star. p. 26.
  25. 1 2 Cullen 2007a , pp. 25
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Behind the Bohemian Embassy, Moose Creek Productions Inc., Andraos Media, 2010.
  27. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 25–26
  28. 1 2 Cullen 2007a , pp. 28
  29. ↑ "Advertisement". Toronto Daily Star. December 31, 1964. p. 25.
  30. ↑ "Advertisement". Toronto Daily Star. March 11, 1965. p. 23.
  31. ↑ Sherman, Michael (February 24, 1966). "Tom Rush—Sincerity in action". Toronto Daily Star. p. 26.
  32. ↑ "Advertisement". Toronto Daily Star. April 15, 1965. p. 27.
  33. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 26–27
  34. ↑ "Beatniks: The hippie forefathers". CBC Archives.
  35. ↑ "This Week's TV Highlights". Globe and Mail. February 15, 1963. pp. T1.
  36. ↑ Moon, Barbara (March 13, 1965). "What's Happening?". Globe and Mail. pp. 14A.
  37. 1 2 Duff, Morris (January 11, 1963). "A Funny Thing Didn't Happen Last Night". Toronto Daily Star. p. 28.
  38. ↑ "What's on tonight". Toronto Daily Star. November 24, 1960. p. 40.
  39. ↑ Cohen, Nathan (March 25, 1961). "Mainly Local". Toronto Daily Star. p. 22.
  40. 1 2 Whittaker, Herbert (March 29, 1961). "Gold watch awarded to Hozack". Globe and Mail. p. 40.
  41. ↑ Froggatt, Gordon (March 21, 1964). "Beatles consider Toronto invasion". Globe and Mail. p. 13.
  42. ↑ Froggatt, Gordon (September 1, 1962). "Jack Creley signs for London show". Globe and Mail. p. 13.
  43. ↑ Whittaker, Herberrt (November 21, 1963). "Broadway plunge an icy one". Globe and Mail. p. 11.
  44. ↑ Cohen, Nathan (December 3, 1963). "Decision mere formality". Toronto Daily Star. p. 16.
  45. ↑ Kraglund, John (May 10, 1963). "Coffee-House Opera has much to admire". Globe and Mail. p. 9.
  46. ↑ Whittaker, Herbert (November 5, 1963). "Broadway producers eye Canadian musical". Globe and Mail. p. 40.
  47. ↑ "What's On Tonight". Toronto Daily Star. February 28, 1961. p. 20.
  48. ↑ "Don Cullen: Cultural Catalyst," https://youtu.be/fWhRajHDakg
  49. ↑ Michener, Wendy (March 1, 1961). "Casual Village Revue shows talent galore". Toronto Daily Star. p. 21.
  50. ↑ Cohen, Nathan (March 6, 1961). "Another Sneak Hit". Toronto Daily Star. p. 16.
  51. ↑ "Theatre Calendar". Globe and Mail. April 8, 1961. p. 13.
  52. ↑ Michener, Wendy (September 2, 1961). "New Village Revue is Disappointing". Toronto Daily Star. p. 19.
  53. ↑ Reid, Joan (September 2, 1961). "Need charm sparkle in Bohemian Revue". Globe and Mail. p. 11.
  54. ↑ Cohen, Nathan (April 28, 1962). "Nathan Cohen". Toronto Daily Star. p. 66.
  55. ↑ Whittaker, Herbert (April 16, 1962). "Bohemian Embassy Revue is fresh and bright entertainment". Globe and Mail. p. 10.
  56. ↑ "Advertisement: Village Revue 4th and Final Week". Toronto Daily Star. April 5, 1962. p. 24.
  57. ↑ Hicklin, Ralph (July 10, 1963). "New Revue fair bet to do well". Globe and Mail. p. 9.
  58. ↑ Secter, David. "A selective guide to Toronto night life by David Secter". The Varsity . No. September 28, 1963 – Mar 20, 1964 – via Archive.org.
  59. ↑ Cohen, Nathan (October 12, 1965). "'Porgy' done to death". Toronto Daily Star. p. 22.
  60. ↑ "Too Darn Hot, the Bohemian plans to move". Toronto Daily Star. May 6, 1966. pp. B26.
  61. ↑ ELLIOTT, NANCY. "THERE'LL BE NO MORE PASSPORTS TO BOHEMIA | Maclean's | July 2 1966–". Maclean's | The Complete Archive.
  62. ↑ Cullen2007a , pp. 42–43
  63. ↑ "Eye on Entertainment: Orson's Bag in the works". Toronto Daily Star. December 23, 1969. p. 15.
  64. ↑ "What's New: Bohemian Embassy original founder hopes for a return to the old days". Toronto Daily Star. January 2, 1970. p. 26.
  65. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 87
  66. ↑ Kirby, Blaik (June 24, 1974). "Rebirth of Bohemian Embassy". Globe and Mail. p. 13.
  67. ↑ Rasky, Frank (May 10, 1975). "At Harbourfront the emphasis will be on do-it-yourself fun". Toronto Star. pp. D1.
  68. ↑ "Advertisement, Harbourfront Revue". Toronto Star. July 5, 1974. pp. E6.
  69. ↑ "Advertisement, Free After Hours Jazz". Toronto Star. July 19, 1974. pp. E6.
  70. ↑ Salem, Rob (November 22, 1979). "Not just a familiar face". Toronto Star. pp. H6.
  71. ↑ "Alison Reynolds". Alison Reynolds. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  72. ↑ Kraglund, John (August 30, 1974). "Folk duo talented, charming newcomers". Globe and Mail. p. 12.
  73. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 89
  74. ↑ Pennington, Bob (November 20, 1975). "Policeman's stark poems reflect life on beat". Toronto Star. pp. E10.
  75. 1 2 Cullen 2007a , pp. 92–94
  76. ↑ Roberts, Paul William (June 3, 1989). "Harbourfront Hero: Man with a mission". Toronto Star. pp. M24.
  77. ↑ Kapica, Jack (August 28, 1976). "Business Booms at Yuk Yuk's with hit-or-miss comedy". Globe and Mail. p. 31.
  78. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 95–96
  79. ↑ Fraser, Graham (March 29, 1976). "The lives and deaths of Bohemian Embassy". Globe and Mail. p. 4.
  80. ↑ Goddard, Peter (March 29, 1976). "Sad note at Embassy despite CJRT's success". Toronto Star. pp. D8.
  81. ↑ "Advertisement, Global TV". Toronto Star. November 20, 1976. p. 53.
  82. 1 2 Miller, Jack (November 26, 1976). "Bohemian Embassy rises again". Toronto Star. pp. F3.
  83. ↑ "AM Radio". Toronto Star. April 7, 1979. pp. D10.
  84. ↑ Adilman, Sid (December 20, 1978). "Eye on Entertainment". Toronto Star. pp. B1.
  85. 1 2 Cullen 2007a , pp. 100
  86. ↑ "What's Up". Globe and Mail. January 19, 1980. pp. E14.
  87. ↑ Adilman, Sid (November 13, 1979). "Eye on Entertainment". Toronto Star. pp. D1.
  88. ↑ "Get out and fill your February days". Toronto Star. February 1, 1980. pp. D1.
  89. ↑ "AM Radio". Toronto Star. December 29, 1979. pp. E12.
  90. ↑ "AM Radio". Toronto Star. January 5, 1980. pp. F9.
  91. 1 2 3 Shainbaum, Barbara (February 1, 1992). "Blossoming reading scene nurtures aspiring writers". Toronto Star. pp. J9.
  92. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 101–03
  93. ↑ "The Arts in Brief: Bohemian Resurrected". Globe and Mail. June 21, 1991. pp. C5.
  94. ↑ Marchand, Philip (June 19, 1991). "Writers development fund proves a winner". Toronto Star. pp. F4.
  95. ↑ "Bohemian Tips". Globe and Mai. August 30, 1991. pp. D7.
  96. ↑ Cullen 2007a , pp. 103
  97. ↑ "Noises Off: Coffeehouse grinds to another halt". Globe and Mail. May 9, 1992. pp. C10.
  98. ↑ Marchand, Philip (May 24, 1992). "Translator helps bridge 2 solitudes". Toronto Star. pp. E5.
  99. ↑ Sanders Greer, Shelly (September 30, 2006). "Hip project features artsy design". Toronto Star. pp. P16.
  100. ↑ McLaren, Leah (November 18, 2006). "Oh, give me a home where the bohemians roam". Globe and Mail. pp. L3.
  101. ↑ Pearce, Tralee (August 26, 2006). "A condo plan suffers an art attack". Globe and Mail. pp. M2.
  102. ↑ Hume, Christopher (February 12, 2007). "Money-driven burg sacrifices creativity". Toronto Star. pp. C3.
  103. 1 2 3 Cullen, Don (January 21, 2007). "Bohemian to the core". Toronto Star. pp. A8. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  104. ↑ "Salons and soirees". Toronto Star. June 21, 2001. pp. G10.
  105. ↑ "Salons and soirees". Toronto Star. July 4, 2002. pp. G6.
  106. ↑ "Bohemian Embassy Night". Artword Theatre Bulletin. No. April–May 2001. April 2001.
  107. ↑ Quill, Greg (September 4, 2003). "September Folk in many forms". Toronto Star. pp. E8.
  108. ↑ "Advertisement, Lit City". Toronto Star. March 7, 2009. pp. C32.
  109. ↑ "Concerts, Mariposa in the City". Toronto Star. June 20, 2002. pp. G4.
  110. ↑ "Festival at a Glance". Mariposa Folk Festival. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  111. ↑ Cullen 2007a
  112. ↑ "Behind the Bohemian Embassy" . Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  113. ↑ Wheeler, Brad (July 16, 2010). "Watch Me: Behind the Bohemian Embassy". Globe and Mail. pp. R17.
  114. ↑ "The Bohemian Embassy: Music". Bandcamp. Retrieved December 11, 2022.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.