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[Toronto: second city of the muses
By Norman Nadel
TORONTO - (NEA) -
Another half-hour and it will
be midnight. In the business
and shopping centers of most
North American cities, the
streets are almost deserted,
except for pairs of police mov
ing slowly, watchfully, in
patrol cars. Stores are barred
and shuttered; dark. The few
couples who are abroad in the
inner cities hurry for their
hotels, cars, or whichever
restaurants remain open. Any
night life of former years is
dormant, if not dead.
But here, in this Canadian
metropolis, young couples and
groups — along with some not
so young — stroll, laugh, look
in shop windows. By this time
the dozens of art galleries are
closed, but many are still lit,
provoking lively debates
about works on display.
On a typical evening, several of Toronto’s 40
legitimate theaters have a performance.
Music lovers have a choice of performances
every night of the year. No city on the conti
nent, including New York, offers as much live
night club entertainment ... Many of the
finest American jazz musicians have moved
here because they ... find devoted, paying
audiences for their kind of music.
Movie theaters have just
released one set of audiences,
and another has replaced
them for the late show. Some
of the finest, most varied
restaurants any city can offer
are catering to diners and con
vivial drinkers.
On a typical evening, at
least several of Toronto's 40
legitimate theaters have had a
performance. Music lovers
have a choice of professional
artistry, from solo to
symphony, every night of the
year.
No city on the continent, in
cluding New York, offers as
much live night club enter
tainment; according to the
Toronto Musicians Associa
tion. 1,800 entertainers are
employed here at the mo
ment. Many of the finest
American jazz musicians
have moved here, because
they like the quality of life in
Toronto, and because they
find devoted, paying
audiences for their kind of
music.
Does all this hint that
Toronto, measured by the
bounty and vitality of its
cultural life, has become the
second city in North America,
surpassed only by New York?
Expectedly, the fiercely
loyal folk of Ontario's capital
argue that it is, just as the
devoted citizens of Los
Angeles, Chicago, San Fran-
. Return to nature prairie
, restoration team’s goal
By c.g. McDaniel
Associated Press Writer
4 BATAVIA, 111. (AP) - Con
servationists are trying to undo
what their ancestors did to a
plot of prairie land at Fermi
National Accelerator Labora
| * tory.
They have finished their an
nual seeding, not with corn and
soybeans, but with the wild
* grasses and flowers which
thrived before they were up
rooted by the plow.
Dr. Robert F. Betz, professor
* of biology at Northeastern Il
linois University, Chicago, said
in an interview that when the
project was completed in about
t 10 years the site would be sci
entifically valuable for the
study of ecosystems and the
evolution of prairie land.
* Intensive cultivation starting
in the 19th century destroyed
all but a tiny fraction of the
prairie — less than .002 per
cent — in the eastern Middle
West, Betz said.
Fermilab turned over 660
acres for the restoration proj
ect, begun in 1974. Before Fer-
* milab was built, the area was
used for farming.
Recently, Betz and his col
leagues planted 450 pounds of
* seeds from about 30 varieties of
prairie grass and 24 wild
flowers on another 40 or 50
acres of the plot. That brings
. the total seeded so far to 60 or
70.
The principal varieties plant
ed were purple and yellow cone
t flower, prairie dock, purple
prairie clover, compass plant,
and Indian, big and little blue
stem and switch grass.
* The original seeds, Betz said,
came from prairies maintained
by Morton Arboretum at Lisle
and his university’s Markham
plot, as well as an old cemetery
and from along railroad tracks.
Now, with the help of about
200 volunteers from the labora
tory and the nearby commu-
* nity, seeds are harvested in the
autumn from the restoration
plot, as well as elsewhere, for
reseeding the following spring.
* They are cleaned, sorted,
bagged, dampened and stored
under refrigeration until time
cisco and a few other con
tenders insist that it isn't.
Nevertheless, a weight of
evidence favors this late
blooming city on the north
shore of Lake Ontario. Toron
to used to be so quiet, accor
ding to a long-standing joke,
that its people would drive
across the border to Buffalo
for excitement on a Saturday
night. Now Detroiters make
the much longer drive to get a
piece of the Toronto action
over a weekend.
Lawrence O’Toole, dance
critic for the Toronto Globe
and Mail, expects this attrac
tion to spread: “I have a
theory that the people in New
York are going to become so
jaded that they too will be
coming here for a fresher
cultural life.” To which
Gerald Birnberg, a native of
Brooklyn who moved here
from New York 16 years ago
and now owns the Prince
Arthur Art Gallery, adds:
“It’s already happening.”
“Toronto’ has to be the
Canadian dance center
because our National Ballet is
based here,” O’Toole con
tinues. “In addition, it has a
ballet school which is one of
the top three in the world.
“There is no real star
system in Toronto ballet,
which is different from New
York and most cities. Nor is
the star system as important
here as it is in the United
States generally.
“In one way, ours might
seem a kind of sedentary
cultural life. If anyone ac
customed to the ‘hype’ of New
York’s cultural personalities
were to come here, I think
they'd be appalled. But
gradually they would see that
this is what culture is all
about. It’s not ‘my favorite’ or
'your favorite’ performer or
company; not competitive in
that way. Instead, here it is
doing or seeing things for the
sake of doing or seeing them."
As for Toronto’s possible
rating as the second city
culturally on this continent,
that does not mean it is second
in all categories. Its
symphony orchestra, while
widely admired, isn’t quite in
the class of the Chicago,
for spring planting.
Betz said plans were to har
vest the seeds mechanically in
about a year. This would mean
about 1,000 pounds could be
gathered, so that more acreage
could be planted in future
years.
Thorough discing and plowing
are done to try to eliminate
weeds from areas to be seeded,
Betz said, and a controlled
burnoff is done on previously
seeded areas in the springtime
for the same purpose.
Otherwise, the weeds crowd
out the seedlings.
Once the restored prairie is
well along, Betz said, the con
servationists plan to bring in
Franklin ground squirrels,
prairie cicadas, bumble bees,
robber flies and other animals
and insects which once in
habited the virgin land, but
some of which are now endan
gered.
Businessmen’s
Fellowship to
host dinner
The Full Gospel
Businessmen’s Fellowship will
host a buffet dinner Saturday at
the Holiday Inn. The dinner will
begin at 6:30 p.m.
The guest speaker will be Tim
Ruthven from New Zealand. He
was saved at a Billy Graham
crusade there. His testimony
will be tailored for youth and
families.
For reservations, contact
Sam Bunn or W.L. Peeples.
Reservations are required.
Ross returns
from Med cruise
Navy Boiler Technician Third
Class Jesse W. Ross, Jr., son of
Mr. and Mrs. Jesse W. Ross Sr.
of 405 Northside drive, Griffin,
has returned from an extended
deployment in the
Mediterranean Sea.
Cleveland, Boston or
Philadelphia, to name just
four. Its fine art museums
don’t measure up the Kimbell
in Fort Worth, the Art
Institute of Chicago, the
Cleveland Museum of Art or,
in New York, the
Metropolitan, Frick, Museum
of Modern Art and the
Guggenheim.
Still, it is so near the top in
enough various aspects of the
arts that the rating of second
makes sense.
Frank Rasky, entertain
ment writer for the Toronto
Star, also worked for years in
the New York entertainment
scene. “In New York,” he
says, “an actor is lucky to
work a month or two out of the
year at his profession. In
Toronto, with 40 theaters,
mostly subsidized by the
government, he can keep busy
all year and make a good liv
ing. He also can tour, with
professional regional theaters
from coast to coast.”
One of these working actors
described himself as a
member of the people’s
theater. Asked to explain such
a description, he added: “I’m
subsidized by the government,
I do work for CBD (Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation)
radio and television, I travel
across Canada in a regional
theater company — all sub
sidized by the Canada Council,
and this is how I make my liv
ing In Toronto I can do more
creative work in theater and
other media than if I were
working in Los Angeles or
New York, doing mostly com
mercial television. And the
living conditions for my fami
ly are better than I’ve found
anywhere."
In the lively arts generally
there are more performances
going on any night of the week
than in any other city — again
excepting New York. While
the popular Toronto Maple
Leafs attract 16,000 season
ticket holders to the hockey
games, the Toronto
Symphony’s annual sub
scribers number 23.000.
A font of information, not to
mention enthusiasm, is
Walter Homburger, managing
director of the Toronto
Symphony, who has been a
concert impressario in the
city for 30 years. His recital
series’ bring an international
array of musical artists.
There ’is nothing stuffy
about the Symphony and cer
tain not about its young (33)
conductor, English-born An
drew Davis, according to
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Homburger. Their philosophy,
he explains, is “something for
everybody,” and apparently
that works. The orchestra
operates 48 weeks each year,
averaging three concerts a
week. Only Vancouver and
New York have more season
subscribers.
On tour it gets good
reviews, as does Davis when
he guest-conducts; he's been
invited back to lead the New
York, Philadelphia. Chicago.
Cleveland and Boston
orchestras, among others. His
Toronto devotees can and do
buy Andrew Davis T-shirts,
sporting his photograph.
But it is the art scene that
grabs visitors almost from the
moment they arrive; the city
has about 100 galleries. They
are lined up for blocks in some
sections of town, usually in old
brick or stone houses that
have been renovated and con
verted, what Toronto Life
magazine refers to as
“sandblast chic.”
These refreshed old
buildings contrast with the
proliferation of dramatic new
architectural designs in the
city's several “downtown”
clusters, although the term
still refers primarily to the
older center of Toronto close
to the lakefront.
As for buying fine art, “a
serious collector can do as
well in Toronto as in New
York, if not better.” This
from the Prince Arthur
Gallery's Birnberg, who
knows the market scene in
both cities. Not only do Toron
to galleries have, or have
access to, good paintings,
drawings and sculptures, but
their operating costs are half
those on upper Madison
avenue in Manhattan, center
of art dealing. However, there
is no question that the supply
in New York surpasses that of
any North American city.
Canada still hasn't done
much in feature film produc
tion. preferring to import
American movies. Yet even
that situation is changing,
with several young and able
producers operating in Toron
to. Book publishing, radio and
television all are head
quartered there for Canada,
and all are gaining in impact.
Still. Toronto’s strongest
claim is its vitality — in
architecture, performing
arts, gallery activity, and in
the day-and-night aura of
eagerness in the streets, in the
restaurants, among
audiences. Its population is
growing and no wonder. This
is the place to be.
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Dark horse
HOLDERNESS, N.H.—Visitors to Little Squam Lake
recently saw this unusual looking monster floating about.
She’s the latest rendition of the Lock Ness monster done
up for the annual Squam Lakes Open, an alternative boat
race meet. Nessie didn’t win but her warped two-by-four
neckbone, innertube entrails and fragile skin (part
chicken wire) were the clear favorite of shoreline crowds
(AP)
jw* ’ 5 -a
Happy Birthday!
Jason McKneely
Jason McKneely celebrated
his sixth birthday with a party
at his home on Sapelo road.
Cake, ice cream, and punch
were served. Goodie bags were
given to the guests.
Attending were: Missy
Dearing, Reese Williams, Mark
Kimbro is assistant director
James Alan Kimbro of
Monroe has joined the Gordon
Junior College staff as assistant
director of admissions.
Mr. Kimbro, who was bom in
Albany, holds the B.S. degree in
Social Studies and the Master’s
degree in Administration from
Page 17
and Jim Thompson, Jeb and
Stuart Boles, Vickie and Jerry
Waltz, Sherry Williams, Jesse
Pritchard, Agnes Pritchard,
Mrs. Clara Gardner, Ethel
McKneely, Mr. and Mrs. Gene
McKneely, and the honoree.
the University of Georgia. He
taught in the Monroe Area High
School in 1970-73 and 1974-77.
During 1973-75 he was a travel
representative for Jostne’s Inc.,
and he is also in the U.S. Army
Reserves.
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 11,1977
Clean up .
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