Winnipeg FACTOIDS: 130 Years of Curiosities
Transcription
Winnipeg FACTOIDS: 130 Years of Curiosities
VOLUME 7 All Original Facts Guaranteed to Satisfy Even the Biggest of CURIOSITIES MADE IN WINNIPEG, CANADA e m o c l e *W * * ** 2 Photo courtesy Dan Harper Factoids | Volume 7 Were it not for Winnipeg there would be no James Bond, no Winnie the Pooh and no Bugs Bunny. You may read this and say, “get out of here”, but indeed it’s true, and these are just some of the Factoids about our fair city that will make you want to get here. Winnipeg’s storied past overflows with characters, anecdotes and happenings that have made us one of Canada’s – and indeed the world’s – most intriguing and welcoming of cities. From our iconic Portage and Main intersection, immortalized by its grand architecture and the voice of Neil Young, to the pre-settlement history of trade and congress at The Forks, which now beckons the world to witness the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg was and continues to be a thriving centre for the arts, culture and business. Enjoy this “mint” collection of more than 130 years of tasty tidbits. And, more importantly, get out there and discover your own. Here are a few to get you started. www.tourismwinnipeg.com3 IN BRIGHT LIGHTS 4 Pantages Theatre, built in 1913-14, hosted vaudeville performances by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. Tickets cost 10, 15 or 25 cents for an exclusive box seat. It was the first air-conditioned building in Winnipeg. Huge pieces of ice were placed in the basement and large fans were used to blow air over the ice and cool the patrons. * Winnipeg’s French theatre company, Le Cercle Molière, is Canada’s oldest continuously running French theatre. Photo courtesy Pantages Playhouse Theatre Encore! Factoids | Volume 7 * Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, David Cooper The Winnipeg Art Gallery has the world’s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art, including close to 11,000 works of sculpture, prints, drawings and textiles. * Photo courtesy Eric Au Studios Come get your vitamin D: Winnipeg receives measurable sunshine approximately 318 days of the year with over 2,300 hours of warming sun. IN BRIGHT LIGHTS Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada’s oldest dance company and among the oldest in North America. It was granted the “Royal” title in 1953 by the Queen of England—the first such distinction in the world. www.tourismwinnipeg.com5 Winnipeg company, Asham Curling Supplies is the only company in Canada that manufactures curling shoes, which they distribute worldwide. * GAME ON! Spongee is an adaptation of road hockey and originated in Winnipeg in the 1950s. Originally a tennis ball was used and players wore winter boots. Today, it is played on outdoor hockey rinks, and players wear soft-soled shoes. The game gets its name from the soft sponge puck used. Spongee is a cult sport played almost exclusively in Winnipeg by thousands of players in dozens of leagues. The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame has 18,000 artifacts, memorabilia and game-day jerseys and equipment covering 72 sports that document the province’s sporting life for the past 125 years. At any given time, about 10 per cent of the collection is on display. Winnipeg-born Clara Hughes, a cycling and speed skating Olympic competitor, made history by becoming one of only four athletes in history to earn multiple medals in both the summer and winter Olympics. * Photo courte sy www.xinhu anet.com 6 Photo courtesy www.asham.com Factoids | Volume 7 * In the 2011/2012 NHL season, sales of official Winnipeg Jets merchandise were the highest in the entire league. At the same time, Winnipeg is the smallest market in the NHL. That’s cool! GAME ON! The Pan American Games, which are second in scale only to the Olympics, have been held in Canada three times, twice in Winnipeg, in 1967 and 1999. * * Winnipeg was the first city in North America to build a freestanding ice-climbing tower. The 20-metre-high column, first built in 1996, stands within sight of downtown Winnipeg and is open to experts and newcomers. Every winter it is built, flooded and maintained by the Club d’escalade Saint-Boniface. www.tourismwinnipeg.com7 GREEN WITH ENVY * 8 In 1968 a Winnipeg entrepreneur, Ray Olecko, introduced a new concept in camping that continues to be one of the most popular and recognizable travel trailers around, the tiny fibreglass Boler travel trailer. The Boler was first produced from a small plant on Higgins Avenue in 1968, demand soon saw the company move to a larger location at 770 Dufferin Avenue. Even today the “original” shape of the Boler lives on and a number of companies, many Canadian, are today building fibreglass trailers based on the Boler design. The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden is one of the few sculpture gardens in the world featuring the work of a single artist. Ukrainian sculptor Leo Mol—who resided in Winnipeg—is acclaimed worldwide, and his works grace sites around the world, including the Vatican. * Photo courtesy The Forks A meticulously detailed world-class sculpture plaza and an expansive modern 8,500 sq. ft. bowl complex make up The Plaza at The Forks, Canada’s best and largest skate park integrated into the context of urban downtown Winnipeg. * Factoids | Volume 7 * Photo courtesy The Forks In 2011, The Forks was selected as Best Public Space in Canada in the Great Places in Canada contest organized by the Canadian Institute of Planners. The Forks was selected from a pool of more than 6,000 nominations. GREEN WITH ENVY * The Assiniboine Forest, 287 hectares of aspen parkland, is one of the largest urban forest parks in Canada. Winnipeg holds the 2008 Guinness World Record for the longest naturally frozen skating trail (8.54 kilometres). The trail typically opens in January and snakes its way along the frozen Red and Assiniboine rivers, offering spectacular views of the city. * www.tourismwinnipeg.com9 JOIE DE VIVRE 10 The St. Boniface Museum— originally built for the Grey Nuns—is the oldest building in Winnipeg and the largest oak log structure in North America. Festival du Voyageur is the largest winter festival in Western Canada. Giant snow sculptures, ice climbing, French cuisine, music, dance and revelry take place at Voyageur Park surrounding Fort Gibraltar every February. * * Métis leader Louis Riel was hanged in 1885 for treason after leading the North-West Resistance. Today, that opinion has changed and many consider this man to be the “Father of Manitoba.” “Riel”ly y! t s e z In 1862, the bells of the old St. Boniface Cathedral were shipped across the ocean to England for reconditioning. Coming home, a storm blew the ship off course and the bells ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota. It would have been too expensive to bring the bells back to Winnipeg via Red River Cart, so they were transported by ship back to England and returned to Winnipeg through Hudson Bay. Factoids | Volume 7 The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first national museum designed from inception in over 40 years, and the first designated to be built outside of the capital region. It is located at The Forks in downtown Winnipeg. * * * * Minty * The only place to find the most comprehensive historical documents of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world, is at the Archives of Manitoba. * EDU-TAINMENT Photo courtesy Kevin Wolk In 2012, the Planetarium installed Canada’s most advanced projection system and the second of its kind in the world. Called the Digistar 5, the multi-projection system delivers a nearly 3D experience blasting star lovers across the universe. The Royal Canadian Mint not only produces currency for Canada, but has minted more than 55 billion coins for more than 75 countries around the world. The Mint produced the world’s first coloured circulation coin— the 2004 Remembrance Day 25-cent piece featuring a red poppy on the reverse. www.tourismwinnipeg.com11 Fresh FROM NOTES TO REELS 12 The Winnipeg Folk Festival was established in 1974. Originally planned to be a one-time event to celebrate Winnipeg’s centennial, this annual event is one of the oldest and largest folk festivals in the world. * The Exchange District is favoured by Hollywood as a location setting for period movies, including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt. Other parts of the city have been locations for major motion pictures like Capote, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Shall We Dance with Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere. Photo courtesy Western Canada Pictorial Index Inc. Photo courtesy Brian Goldschme id The city is home to some of the most prestigious arts organizations in Canada. Rainbow Stage, a musical theatre production company in Kildonan Park, is Canada’s oldest outdoor theatre still producing shows. The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre is the only professional theatre company in the country performing strictly Jewish themes. In 1970, “American Woman” topped international music charts and was the No. 1- selling single in the world. Winnipeg rock ‘n’ rollers The Guess Who, who penned the tune, went on to become one of Canada’s largest cultural exports. That year, they sold more albums than any other band in the world, including The Beatles and The Doors. * Factoids | Volume 7 * Aboriginal Peoples Photo Courtesy Lance Thomson Photographic At about 56,000 people, Winnipeg has the highest per capita population of Filipinos living outside the Philippines. More than 100 languages are spoken in Winnipeg. Held in Winnipeg each August since 1969, Folklorama is North America’s largest and longest-running multicultural festival, featuring pavilions celebrating 40-plus ethnic cultures. Scouts from Walt Disney World come to Folklorama regularly to book entertainment for Epcot Center Performances. The World Tourism Organization voted Folklorama the festival that best depicts Canadian culture. * CULTURAL MOSAIC Television Network (APTN), headquartered in Winnipeg, is the first national Aboriginal network in the world. The largest collection of Ukrainian-language books outside the Ukraine is housed in the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg. www.tourismwinnipeg.com13 14 helped discover Maria Aragon, after seeing the young Winnipegger’s cover of “Born this Way” on YouTube in 2011 (the video has been viewed over 58.5 million times!). Since then the two have performed together while Aragon’s solo career has taken off exponentially; she’s performed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, on Parliament Hill for Prince William and Kate Middleton, and gained huge exposure in the Philippines. Photo courtesy www.imdb.com * P R OM I N E N T ‘ P E G GE R S * Lady Gaga and Perez Hilton Guy Maddin, a Winnipeg avant-garde filmmaker produced, among many others, The Saddest Music in the World with Isabella Rossellini, the docu-fantasy detailing Maddin’s hometown, My Winnipeg, and in 2016 won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award for his surreal outing, The Forbidden Room. Lionel Lemoine FitzGerald was a Winnipeg painter who became the only western member of Canada’s famous Group of Seven. These artists heavily influenced Canadian art and Canadians’ impression of their community. * Photo courtesy Ernest P. Mayer Factoids | Volume 7 * William Alloway, the founder of the Winnipeg Foundation, had a younger brother, Charles, who is credited with saving the bison from extinction with his 13 “pet” bison. Marshall McLuhan, who grew up in Winnipeg and went to the University of Manitoba, rose to prominence in the 1960s as a media guru and philosopher on communication theory, coining the phrase “the medium is the message.” Photo courtesy Douglas Coldwell Foundation At the age of eight Winnipegger Hannah Taylor founded the Ladybug Foundation, which advocates for the homeless through assisting charitable organizations to feed, provide shelter for, and assist people in need across Canada. P R O M I N E N T ‘ P EG G ER S Tommy Douglas—born in Scotland but raised in Winnipeg—is regarded by the CBC-supporting public as the “Greatest Canadian of All Time” and is generally recognized as the “Father of Medicare” in this country. * da Photo courtesy Western Cana Pictorial Index Inc. Now in her early teens, Hannah does speaking engagements across the country, having had audiences of over 10,000 including the current and former Prime Ministers, raising well over $2 million to help fight poverty. www.tourismwinnipeg.com15 H I S TO R I CA L R O O T S 16 The word Winnipeg means “muddy water” in Cree and the city was established at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers— The Forks—a meeting place for more than 6,000 years. More than 30 major bridges provide access over the 100 kilometres of navigable waterways and railway tracks in the city. Pine Street—in Winnipeg’s West End—was home to three WWI soldiers who received the Victoria Cross for their bravery in battle. The street was renamed Valour Road in honour of these three courageous citizens. Canada’s first monument dedicated to women who served in World War II, the Women’s Tri-Service Monument, is located in Winnipeg’s Memorial Park. * World War II’s most famous spymaster, Sir William Stephenson—whose incredible story was immortalized in the best-selling book, A Man Called Intrepid—was born and raised in Winnipeg. This legend and his escapades became the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s suave spy, 007 James Bond. A statue of the super spy—sculpted by Winnipegger Leo Mol—is on display at the headquarters of the world’s most famous spy agency—the CIA in Langely, VA. * Factoids | Volume 7 itoba Photo Courtesy Travel Man * The first retail store at the corner of Portage and Main was built by Henry McKenney in 1862. At the time, people laughed at him for opening a store so far from the river. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, the largest-ever community strike in Canada, forever placed Winnipeg at the centre of the labour movement. It forced then Mayor Charles F. Gray to enact the Riot Act. Strike! Photo Courtesy Harv HI S T O R I CA L R OOT S In 1914, a World War I captain from Winnipeg, Harry Colebourn, took a black bear cub to England as his regiment’s mascot. When Colebourn shipped out for France he donated the bear, named Winnie after his hometown, to the London Zoo. Author A. A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin loved “Winnie the Bear” and Milne crafted the muchadored stories about his boy and the bear that we still enjoy today, known as Winnie the Pooh. * Sawatsky www.tourismwinnipeg.com17 In 2012, Winnipeg’s Osborne Village was chosen as Canada’s best neighbourhood by the Canadian Institute of Planners. Located just south of the downtown, this chic urban district is an arts, retail, entertainment and social hub for locals and visitors. STRUCTURALLY SOUND * 18 Photo courtesy Dan Harper Photography Winnipeg’s Union Station was designed by the same architects responsible for Grand Central Station in New York City. At the time of construction in 1968, the Winnipeg Floodway was the second-largest earth-moving project in the world after the Panama Canal. It has saved the city from flooding many times since it was constructed by then-Premier Duff Roblin. It is affectionately referred to as “Duff’s Ditch.” Built in 1904, the Union Bank Tower—an 11-storey Chicago-School-style building at the corner of Winnipeg’s Main Street and William Avenue was Western Canada’s first skyscraper. Today, it is revamped to be the home of Red River College’s culinary arts students studying at Paterson GlobalFoods Institute (PGI). The 17,000 cubic metres of concrete used in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has an approximate mass of 35,000 tonnes, equivalent to around 3,000 full-grown male elephants. This also amounts to an approximate volume of 2,125 loads from a standard 10-yard cement truck. Factoids | Volume 7 ec Photo courtesy Cory Aron Photo * At the turn-of-the-last century, Winnipeg had the nickname “Chicago of the North” because of the then-modern skyscrapers created in the Chicago School style of architecture. court esy C J Alex ander The Golden Boy, a gilded four-metre figure, is probably Manitoba’s bestknown symbol. Embodying the spirit of enterprise, the bronze statue is poised atop the dome of the Manitoba Legislative Building. Its official name is “Eternal Youth.” Winnipeggers nicknamed him the “Golden Boy” because of the sunlight that reflects off of this gold-covered statue. * STRUCTURALLY SOUND * Built in 1919, Winnipeg’s grand dame the Metropolitan Theatre, was a dazzling 24,000 sq. ft. neoclassical gem with a domed ceiling, twin staircases leading to a large mezzanine and an enormous chandelier. Designed by renowned American theatre architect C. Howard Crane, the theatre was closed in 1987. In late 2012, the Met was refurbished and reopened as a cabaret-style special events venue. www.tourismwinnipeg.com19 QUIRKS & ODDITIES The biggest gold heist in Canadian history was carried out at the Winnipeg International Airport in 1966 by the Flying Bandit, Ken Leishman—a bank robber, prison escape artist and folk hero. * 20 In the early 1900s, Winnipeg doctor and member of the Manitoba Legislature, Thomas Glendenning Hamilton hosted countless séances inside his Elmwood home. He took thousands of pictures during the table tipping and Ouija board demonstrations and used mediums to commune with the dead. After gaining worldwide interest, Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attended a séance at Hamilton’s home and later declared, “Winnipeg stands very high among the places we have visited for its psychic possibilities.” Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory houses Canada’s only Biological Safety Level 4 containment laboratory, used to test the most deadly human and animal diseases. In 2012, local scientists discovered antibodies to treat Ebola, the deadly human virus typically found in third-world countries. The vaccine is still being tested but it’s one more advancement in understanding and controlling the virus. The Harlequin Romance publishing empire was founded in Winnipeg in 1949 by Richard and Mary Bonnycastle. Today, this empire spans more than 94 international markets and its books are printed in more than 25 languages. * Factoids | Volume 7 ! y k o o Sp * The world’s first renowned serial killer Earl The Fort Garry Hotel “The Strangler” is haunted by a ghostly Nelson criss-crossed woman in a ball gown, the States until a phantom diner and he landed in a mysterious ghost Winnipeg in June light that traverses 1927. After the hallways of this killing two grand hotel. local women, Garry Hotel, Spa and he fled to Photo Courtesy The Fort Conference Centre Regina and back Photo Courtesy Gerry Kopelow to the Manitoba-U.S. border hoping to evade Opened in 1928, Winnipeg James capture. Police and Armstrong Richardson International citizens caught Nelson, Airport, then called Stephenson Field, who had by that time was the first international airport in killed 26 people in 20 Canada. In 2011, the airport opened months. Nelson was Canada’s first LEED-certified terminal, shipped by train back to and it was named one of the world’s Winnipeg iconic airports by Travel Channel. * where he was convicted and hanged. www.tourismwinnipeg.com21 * It is said that QUIRKS & ODDITIES BRINGING HOME THE BACON 22 Winnipeg-based milliner Crown Cap has been keeping heads warm and fashionable with its iconic hunters’ cap since 1934. Originally a textile headwear manufacturer for the farming trade, today Crown Cap ships two million hats around the globe every year. They have a showroom in New York City, are stocked at Macy’s, Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdales, and have created a line for Polo Ralph Lauren among other top-name brands. Photo Courtesy Salisbury House Restaurants of Canada Limited ! t a h t o t s r e e h C Barley Brothers’ noble mission is to bring craft beer to Winnipeg, and they overshot their goal by quite a bit. Their Stadium location features the most taps in Canada, with over 150 different beers from both local and international brands. * In 1931, Ralph Erwin opened the first restaurant to sell burgers in Manitoba. Not liking the name “hamburger,” he named his a “Nip.” More than 75 years later, Salisbury House (“Sals” as it is known locally) is again Winnipeg owned by a group of business partners that includes rock legend Burton Cummings. * Factoids | Volume 7 Winnipeg has a sweet tooth. Confectioners Mordens’ of Winnipeg, The Nutty Club and Clodhoppers, all internationally known candy companies, started here. OMG Candy, owned by the two Winnipeg entrepreneurs behind Clodhoppers, launched in 2012 with the help of marketing guru Arlene Dickinson, one of five “dragon” investors on the CBC show Dragon’s Den. Winnipeg’s fleet of street food trucks serve a smorgasbord of global cuisines including Fillipino, Japanese, Italian, Ukrainian, Mexican, French and Middle Eastern eats. Along with North American favourites like hot dogs, burgers and smokies, there are also trucks dedicated solely to chicken wings and French fries. The fleet typically hits the street in late March and parks for the season in late October. In 2012, Winnipeg brothers Chris and Lawrence Warwaruk, owners of Luxalune Gastropub, launched Canada’s first-ever estate brewery, The Farmery Estate Brewery. The brothers grow hops and barley on their Neepawa-area farm to brew and sell inside their Winnipeg restaurant. * BRINGING HOME THE BACON A local concoction served at Bridge Drive-In (fondly known as BDI) is the weirdly named Goog, which is an upside-down blueberry milkshake topped with a hot fudge sundae, bananas and whipped cream. * www.tourismwinnipeg.com23 VOLUME 7 It’s a fact. Toll Free: 1.855.PEG.CITY Local: 204.943.1970 [email protected] 300-259 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2A9 #onlyinthepeg Manitoba, Canada