Ed Conroy, archivist, curator

Since 2006, Ed Conroy, video archivist and curator of Retrontario (retrontario.com) has been documenting Ontario’s televisual past on Youtube, sparking memories of the early days of home video recording and uncovering forgotten blips of Toronto history along the way.

The drinks: on one of the coldest days this spring , a Death Rattle for Eric, a winterized daiquiri for Ed, at Yours Truly, 229 Ossington Ave.

Mixologist: John Bunner

Q: Most of what you feature on Retrontario — the commercials, station idents, newsclips — were accidentally preserved. Nobody ever intended to record a Gord Martineau broadcast.

A: It is a very interesting fact that 95 per cent of the stuff I’ve found was accidentally recorded. Whether it was somebody taping a sporting event or a film and they went out and just let the VCR record the entire evening.

Q: Have people donated material over the years?

A: My brother is a contractor and was clearing out a house. They found three reels of film in a can and a rejection letter from the BBC. I read the letter, deduced that this guy, Derek Davey, made these shorts in the late 1950s and was trying to sell them. The BBC said thank you very much, but too amateurish. I thought it might have some cool Toronto footage.

Q: Was it just static footage or an actual film?

A: I threw one on and my brains were on the floor. It’s like a Fritz Lang noir of this guy having a nervous breakdown on Queen St, with footage of New City Hall being constructed. It reminded me of Return of the Jedi when you see the new Death Star half-built – not that City Hall is like the Death Star.

Q: These days it seems like it. Do you know anything about the filmmaker?

A: I looked him up but there’s no info anywhere. It looks like something the NFB would have made at the time. It opened up this idea of how much stuff there is out there that we don’t know about or will never see.

Q: Does this type of oversight result in cultural amnesia?

A: It does. Everything is reset every thirty years or so. In the seventies, the CN Tower had a mascot called Skywalker. He was a clown on stilts who stood in the lobby and welcomed people. He was terrifying. I found a postcard, but beyond that I couldn’t find any other information. There’s a mention of him in the Star archives from 1979, with a picture of him getting on his stilts at City Hall.

Q: Did the CN Tower have anything to share?

A: I put all my information together, and the head of publicity wrote back saying I didn’t know what I was talking about, that a clown on stilts was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with them and that I shouldn’t talk about it. Is it a state secret or something?

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Q: Is there any video footage?

A: There’s news footage of him on the CBC from the opening of the CN Tower. He was apparently in the 1975 Toronto Santa Claus parade, so I can find a clip of him from that. It’s weird Toronto lore, which is what I love. Why not celebrate this weird stuff too?

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