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- Editor’s
Note:
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- This
column is a regular feature in the Wayback Times in which my
husband takes interesting people out to lunch … and sends
me the bill.
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- (It's
a tough job, but someone has to do it!)
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- Send
us an e-mail if you have someone in mind for one of Peter Neilly's
interviews over lunch.
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- Out to Lunch!
with Peter Neilly
- Today's Out to Lunch guest is
Mike Filey, noted Toronto historian.
Mike Filey has dedicated decades to research and fact finding
in recording the fascinating history of a city he has a great
passion for - Toronto.
Mike, born and raised in Toronto, has written nearly two dozen
books about Toronto's past and, for more than 25 years, has written
The Way We Were, a very popular column in the Sunday Sun newspaper.
Mike can also be heard weekdays at 9:30 a.m. on AM740 Radio,
where he shares stories on Mike Filey's Toronto.
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- Mike Filey
- e-mail
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- Peter: I read in your bio that you graduated from Ryerson
Polytechnical Institute with a diploma in chemical technology.
How did that evolve into what you do now?
Mike: I started working for the Ontario Water Resources
Commission (now the Ontario Ministry of the Environment) and
then went on to work for the Canadian National Exhibition in
event planning and public relations, eventually ending up at
Canada's Wonderland (from 1979 to 1982).
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- I had grown up in the Bloor/Bathurst
area and was always very interested in streetcars. I started
collecting pictures of streetcars, many of which had buildings
in the background and then pictures of old buildings that had
streetcars in the foreground. It all mushroomed from there.
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- Then, in 1969, one of the editors
at the University of Toronto Press called and said he had heard
that I had quite a collection of photos and would I be interested
in doing a book. At that point, there was only one other book
on Toronto available, so I did an album book that came out in
Christmas of 1970. It sold very well.
Peter: How did you become involved with the Toronto Sun?
Mike: It was actually the Tely (Toronto Telegram) back
then. I was doing the odd column for the real estate section.
If they had space, they would call me. At that time, I was doing
Then and Now pictures depicting what current buildings or intersections
looked like compared to old photos I had.
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- I would tell them what my old
photo was and the Telegram would send out a photographer to take
a modern picture of the same scene. After several incorrect angles
and scenes, I decided to learn photography myself and take my
own pictures, supplying both ends of the product.
After the Telegram folded, I did the occasional article for the
new Toronto Sun, which started in 1971. My regular column, The
Way We Were, was introduced in the Lifestyle Section of the Sunday
Sun in 1975 and I have been in every Sunday edition since, except
for one issue. They had oversold the paper, meaning they had
sold too many ads, and my space was replaced that one Sunday
by an ad for Crisco Shortening.
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- I have also had a daily The
Way We Were feature in the Sun for the last two years.
Peter: How did you become involved with AM740?
Mike: I originally started in radio way back with the
old CBL Radio with a gentleman named Bruce Smith on his
morning show. I also worked on CFRB and later did a segment called
Our Toronto with Carl Banas on CKFM.
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- Then I was on CHFI doing a show
called Focus. I really enjoyed working with Don Daynard
at that station. He would play music from a certain year and
I would fill in bits and pieces about that year. For the last
two years. I've been on AM740. They're a great bunch there. The
only difficulty I have is fitting a complete story in to the
limited time slot. It's easy to write a story of two thousand
words, but it's not a simple task to limit it to 600 words and
still have a beginning, middle and end that make sense. But I
do enjoy working for them.
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- I recently did a story on AM740
about the first jet to fly over Toronto. The test pilot was Jack
Ritch and they were testing a jet to see what they would
replace the Mustangs with.
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- It was 1945 when Jack Ritch
flew this jet above Bloor Street and along the Danforth because
his parents lived on the Danforth. He had called them earlier
and told them to go outside and look up at a certain time. Back
then, even the newspapers didn't know what a "jet"
was, so they referred to it as the "squirt."
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- The day after this AM740 segment
aired on the radio, I got a call from a gentleman who said, "Do
you know who this is?" I answered, "No." "Well,
it's Jack Ritch. You just did a story about me on the radio."
It was amazing to me to actually get to talk to this man over
60 years after that flight.
Peter: I know you also do streetcar tours, bus tours,
slide shows and walks through Mount Pleasant Cemetery. I've heard
you have a few stories about some guy named (Ed) Mirvish,
who ran a store in your old neighbourhood.
Mike: When I do my slide show presentation, I show the
original Honest Ed's store in the old house at Markham and Bloor.
Ed would go down to the garment district and buy seconds to sell
at the store. It was originally called Anne and Eddie's and then
it became The Sports Bar until he finally changed the name to
Honest Ed's.
I was talking to an elderly man who worked in the garment district
and had dealings with Honest Ed. I asked him what he did in the
garment district and he told me he was a diesel fitter. I asked
him what does a diesel fitter do in the garment district and
he said "I hold the clothes up to lady customers and say
'diesel fit 'er."
I know it's an old joke, but I still use it in my presentations.
Peter: Is there anything that you collect?
Mike: I don't have much room left to collect anything.
But I do have a 1955 Pontiac that has been restored. And I still
have an interest in collecting old postcards from the Toronto
area. In fact, I'm a member of the Toronto Postcard Club and
I believe they have a show on February 18 at Humber College in
Toronto.
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- I am constantly looking for
old photos, many of which you can date from the cars or the buildings
in the background. Now that people can scan photos, or email
them, it makes it so much easier to acquire them. I have someone
who is going to scan some photos of Toronto, Australia and send
them to me.
Peter: I didn't know there was a Toronto, Australia.
Mike: The town was originally called Ebenezer and the
townsfolk changed the name to Toronto in honour of Ned Hanlan,
the world champion sculler from Toronto, Ontario. He competed
in Australia several times and made quite an impression on the
locals. Toronto is about a one-hour drive from Sydney. There's
a Toronto Hotel, a Toronto Busline and the locals read a Sun
newspaper called the Newcastle Sun.
Peter; Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today,
Mike. I know how busy you are. You certainly have a great passion
for Toronto's past and it's great that you share it with the
rest of us.
Mike: Thanks for the lunch and good luck with the Wayback
Times.
Editors Note: As you probably know by now, this is the
column in which Peter shares his luncheon experience with an
interesting guest … and sends me the bill. Mike chose Winfield's
Restaurant in North York for lunch. Peter says Mike must go there
a lot because the entire staff knows him by name. Friendly staff,
great food and great company.
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- Thanks Mike.
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- (Some of the books Mike Filey has written are I Remember
Sunnyside, published by Dundum Group; Toronto, Then and Now,
Magic Light Publishing; and nine volumes of The Way We Were,
based on his Sunday Sun columns written over the years.)
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- If you have old photographs of Toronto buildings, street
scenes, special events, transportation vehicles etc. that you
would like to share with Mike, e-mail him at mike.filey@sympatico.ca
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