Easy Rider-The Toronto Connection.

Easy Rider with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, 1969.

In the summer of 1967 Peter Fonda was in Toronto to promote his latest film, The Trip.

While staying at the Seaway Towers Motel on the Lakeshore, he stayed up all night and wrote the script for Easy Rider. This story was told to me and others by Mr. Fonda himself.

The original covered entranceway.

The original Seaway Towers was built in 1954 and considered very modern at the time.

The pool area.

A period postcard.
A view of the Seaway Motel looking east from the Gardiner in the 1960's.
Vintage period postcards from Chuckman's

Ghosted Coca Cola Sign on Queen West

An old ghosted sign on the side of a building along Queen Street.
H.J. Lavelle Wines.

King and Peter/Then and Now

Looking north up Peter Street from king in 1949 before the street was widened.

A similar view in 2011.
This printer's sign (as seen in the first photo) is still visible on the side of the building today.
Blackhall and Company.

Lost Adelaide Street

A large section of Adelaide Street West was demolished during the University Ave extention.
These are just a couple of the buildings, seen in 1931.

Adelaide and Tecumseth/Then and Now

The south side of Adelaide just east of Tecumseth in 1937.

2010.

River and Dundas/Then and Now

A corner store at the N/W corner of River and Gerrard in 1947. This was before the entire neighbourhood was demolished to make room for Regent Park in the 1950's.

A current photo of the same spot.

King and Sherbourne/Then and Now

The S/E corner of king and Sherbourne sometime in the 1940's when it was the National Hotel.

2010.

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Lakeshore and Parkside/Then and Now

An early shot looking west on Lakeshore at the Parkside Drive Underpass in 1913.

Again in 2010. This is another good example of the amount of reclaimed land along the Lakeshore through infill over the last ninety plus years.

A composite of the two photos.

Welcome to Toronto/1928

Looking east across the old Humber Bridge and the official entry point into the city in the fall of 1928. Population 778,498. I can't really do a now photo as the landscape has been altered so dramatically in the last eighty years or so. But still a good image.
An earlier postcard from Chuckman a little further west looking back at the bridge.

Richmond and Brant/Then and Now

St Andrews Market, seen here in 1932 just prior to it's demolition stood on the south side of Richmond Street just west of Brant St. Built in 1873 on land set aside in 1837. This building replaced a previous version (1850) that was destroyed by fire. Similar to the St. Lawrence Market and the St. Patrick Market on Queen. The building housed a police station, a community hall, a public library branch, sellers of fresh produce, and even butchers. St Andrews never really caught on with the public and was demolished in 1932.
The Market was replaced by this very attractive Art Deco Public Works Facility.
Another angle looking east.
2010.

Queen and Bathurst/Then and Now

From the archives, the N/E corner of Queen and Bathurst in 1923 when it was the Home Bank of Canada. It was incorporated July 10, 1903 in Toronto. It failed Aug 18, 1923. The presence of all these customers and a Policeman suggests that they were there for their money. A run on the bank!

2011 and it's a Starbucks.

A composite. I'm not the first person to do these.
One of their bank notes circa 1920.
The Dominion Bank at the S/E corner of Bathurst and Bloor in 1923.
The Dominion Bnk would merge with the Toronto Bank in 1955 to form the Toronto Dominion Bank now known as TD.
2010.

The outbreak of World War I brought great demand for Canada's natural resources. Within a year the country had erased its trade deficit and become a creditor nation. A few brief years of prosperity followed Germany's surrender in 1918, but the depression and panic preceding World War II appeared at the Dominion Bank on October 23, 1923. Sometime that Friday morning a foreign customer presented a check that was uncashable because of insufficient funds in the account. The teller attempted to overcome the customer's lack of fluency by raising his voice. "No money in the bank," he said. Those five words began a run that lasted until Tuesday afternoon, when rational voices finally overruled rumors.

Lakeshore Motel Strip/Vintage Postcards/Then

A selection of photos and vintage postcards from the former motel strip on the Lakeshore between the Humber and Parklawn. These are all gone now with the exception of a few. The Hillcrest was torn down last year and I'm sure the rest will follow soon. We used to film there frequently. They've been replaced by sprawling condominium complexes.
The Hillcrest in 2009.

The Hillcrest.

Postcards are from the Chuckman Collection.

Here's a shot of the strip even before the motels were built, 1929. This area is now occupied by the TTC Humber Loop.
A postcard from the 1960's from the Chuckman Collection.