More of the 1950's at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Race Track in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur

It's difficult to believe that fully organized racing began here in our Lakehead cities as far back as the 1920s, but the Hotrods and Jalopies Generation in my mind started in 1952 with a race held in Murillo in August and the first race of the Lakehead Stock Car Racing assoc. started at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition in the late fall of 1952.
So as we start a brand new blog post months overdue, we have donated photos from Glen Kettering's album, Cindy Patton's album (Wally Prokosh's daughter) and Glenn McKinnon's photos.  Thanks to all those who have taken the time to donate photos for our use.  This fall and into winter we have numerous more photos and news clippings that I will share with you, both on early racing and Fort William and Port Arthur history.
To start off, the first photos are mementos of the very first Lakehead Stock Car Racing Association's program and race day which took place on October 6, 1952.

The first LSCRA program with thanks to Glen and Miriam Kettering

 This next piece is the 1952 Roster.  Do you recognize any of your friends or relatives that raced that first race?  Be sure to click on all the photos and brochures to view screen size.


























The next two are Times Journal clippings of the historic event.  You can vividly see the old animal barns that were at the south end of the track in turn 1 & 2.

 

Here is an interesting photo of the #34 Kam Motors car driven by Onorio(Canary) Trevisan and Bill Chepil.  This then and now photo was taken from the original Kam Motors used car lot on Leith st facing towards the garage.  It is now a taxi business.

With much thanks to Glenn McKinnon we have this full color slide to share with you.  This is a circa 1956 photo taken from the Grandstand towards the judges stand and I believe during fair week.  The old wooden fence circling the track is visual as well as a few elevators along the waterfront.  The track would encircle what was also once the golf dome with is now gone as well.  Wouldn't it be great to build the track in its original place again.....not likely.

As I drove by Current River and Current River park the other day, I was remembering The Casino Dine and Dance which was just adjacent (south of) the Current River dam which eventually burned to the ground.  It was a favorite of my parents to have a nice dinner together and spend a night on the dance floor.  Oddly enough it was never a real Casino.  As you can see they even sponsored a stock car in about 1953.

I always like to show the close proximity of the track to where the Coliseum Building is today, and this one is no exception.  With thanks to Wally Prokosh's daughter Cindy Patton we have a number of new clippings and photos which will be brought out over the coming months.  In front and possibly in the last lap is #49 Conrad Trombelli just ahead of #87 Tony Massaro as they pass the gate and the Coliseum building.

The next photo is of Conrad Trombelli taking the checkered flag in front of a packed grandstand and off to the right, the mezzanine area which was the uncovered portion of the grandstand to the north.  Yours truly is somewhere in the crowd selling cokes to get into the races for free.

This is a a very interesting photo of my hero Barry Kettering with a seriously damaged #47 car circa 1953.  Barry's #47 cars were sponsored by Bud Heidrick.  One day when Bud was at the shop and Barry wasn't around, roller skates were welded to the top of his car.  Bud had told Barry that he would have to leave the roller skates on his car until he stopped rolling over.  Obviously Barry did, lost the roller skates and went on to much bigger and better things until his very sad and untimely death years later.  The red rectangle shows the roller skate on his car.

 Here's a typical photo clipping from our newspapers in the day.  We always had great racing coverage which made for record crowds on race days.

 Another clipping from Cindy Patton to enjoy.

In 1957 Barry and Glen Kettering had built a brand new car and was dubbed #57 for the year of change.  Here is Glen and Barry with their horseshoed 34 Ford coupe named Poopsie.  This car went on to numerous wins for the Kettering brothers.

 The last clip on this post is from Cindy as well.  It was a 1958 notification that Wally Prokosh, her dad was back in the lineup with a vengeance and would also see many successful race days at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track.

 Hope you enjoyed this post.  I've been busy working on my new hot rod project and recovering from some health issues, so if you liked this, let me know and I will get back on track on the blog and slow down somewhat on my Facebook page.  Thanks, Dave

The Fort William Times Journal.....and we deliver,,,

Read the Daily Times-Journal, Fort William, Ontario.  This is an old sign I was very fortunate to photograph lately as I had never seen one of these before....believing its from around 1950. 

The Daily Times-Journal was created in 1899 when the Fort William Journal merged with the Fort William Times.  In 1902 the Daily Times-Journal became the second newspaper in Canada to adopt a weekly payment plan for paper carriers, and I was one of them but not until 1955.

This 1953 Times-Journal coverage of local Stock Car Racing in the day was phenomenal as each story was published like a mini-novel with photos included.  Ross "Pappy" Fowler was a fan favourite of the day and the fact that the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grandstand could hold over 5000 spectators.  Both of these photos advertised the above two important advertising components needed for the CLE to keep local racing rolling along for 13 more years after this coverage.  Be sure to click on all photos and clippings once or twice to read.

 In 1963, the Daily Times-Journal covered one of the most momentous stories of our time.....The Assassination of President Kennedy to the finest detail.

......and of course we delivered these newspapers either as a newsie on the street corner or door to door.  In 1955, if you nailed a newspaper route your were known as a very tough kid.....you had to ride your old CCM down to the Times Journal building here in Fort William to pick up your papers....they didn't deliver them to your doorstep as they do now, and you had to fight off the tougher kids to find your place in line.  Once you got your papers, you'd have to load them into your bicycle as shown below without it falling over, then off to your route which could be quite a distance from downtown....then fold them all (a very special way so they wouldn't come apart on a toss)...then deliver them.  You would then try to collect your money from your customers weekly who invariably would likely not pay for weeks or maybe not at all.  It was a tough job, but a pretty good job for a kid.  You learned responsibility and entrepreneurship to maybe start a business of your own one day.  The CCM with a large carrier was the bicycle of choice of the time here in Canada anyway.

 In this picture the paper boy would get a kick in the butt from a customer because he folded the paper wrong and it would come apart on a toss.

 

IT WAS A TOUGH JOB....

....NOW THIS IS THE WAY AND ONLY WAY TO FOLD NEWSPAPERS

 CCM was the bicycle of choice in Canada, and the Daily Times Journal in Fort William was my employer..........

My actual paper bag...still have it.

The Times Journal building on May Street in Fort William still exists, but it has changed a ton over time from a beautiful structure in the 1920's to a fairly modern uninteresting building, however they still circulated and shared world and local news for many years until the amalgamation of Fort William and Port Arthur into Thunder Bay in 1970.  The new newspaper, The Chronicle-Journal was a combination of the Daily Times-Journal and the Port Arthur News Chronicle....a fitting name for two tremendous newspapers.

 This door and alleyway on the side of the Times Journal building was the pickup point for all the Fort William newspaper delivery boys.....I was a little skinny kid back in 1955 and usually was one of the last kids to pick up my papers....I was a lover not a fighter...LOL ...........they were great times😊

This is not an actual local photo, but a delivery truck bringing newspapers to all the corner stores and there were literally 100s of corner stores in the day, would likely look like this in the late 1920s.

Above is a super photo donated by Richard Houston showing May St. in Fort William facing North and the old Times Journal building in the bottom left hand corner.  There are many landmarks in this photo that are long gone....Circa mid 1950's.

This is how the entrance of the old Times Journal building looks today decorated to the 9's by Victoria's Cupboard who now inhabits the building.  They maintain its unique architecture and continues to look like a very strong and important edifice.

If you were lucky enough to have given your paper boy a tip at Christmastime you might have received a card something like this back in 1952.

THANK YOU FOR KEEPING IN TOUCH...THIS WEBSITE IS FOR YOU... I TAKE NO PAYMENT FOR THIS, AND I HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO ENJOY HR&J

Need for Preservation....Some Favourites, and Some Then and Now Pictures from our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....

Well....Finally back at the Blog pages..  I've been spending too much time on my face book page when I should be spending the time here.  This post is long overdue but you race car guys will have to wait for more vintage racing photos and stories, as this one is pure local history.
I am starting off here with a couple of my most favourite photographs of downtown Fort William even before my day(photo source unknown).  They are both taken circa 1930 by the vehicles in it.  The first one, facing west on Victoria Ave is taken just before the May St. intersection where the Model "A" Ford sedan is making a turn to head north on May St..  The second one is taken a block west on Victoria Ave.  Making a comparison in the second photo to today is sad because as we know, Victoriaville takes up most of the street, and with rumors of its demise....we are still waiting.
This is a fairly long post as I have been working on a few things separately but I'm just going to put them all together into one.....and as usual be sure to click on all photos to enlarge them and if you get a + sign...click once more for x-large.

White's Drug Store is just past the Cigars sign on the right...the intersection in 1930 is May and Victoria...

The intersection coming up is Victoria and Brodie...the Victoria Hotel is on the left and this all would be Victoriaville now.

Next:
By printing this following collage we would hopefully encourage the city to preserve a very historic building that apparently is coming up for demolition ..... Jan Starr wrote this comment last month.  The property in question is located on the old Ogilvie Elevator property, as shown in one of the photos below....Click on to read...

Next|
Only stickers now appear to let you know where your vehicle was purchased, but in the middle to near the end of the 20th century, very cool little metal pieces of advertising were added to your car when you purchased it....and to mount some, holes were actually drilled in your vehicle to do so.  The following pieces some of which I have in my own collection and some photos were donated by Boris Krystompol to add a few more to the local list.
The original location of the dealers is shown with the trunk advertising.

Hillman Sales and Service was originally located on the corner of Edward and Gore Sts. in Westfort










                                                            Twin Port was a Studebaker Dealer and located on the corner of May and Bethune Street in Fort William near the original Spicer's Tire Service and Kam Motors Depot.












One of the Jessiman Motors locations on 730 Memorial is where Parts Source and a flooring store is today......I wish Boris would sell me these to add to my collection... LOL.










Gibson Motors was where the Power Centre is today.....and that whole area was always called "Intercity".....which we all knew meant somewhere between Fort William and Port Arthur...








The last one is Port Arthur Motors which was located where Tony and Adams is today on the corner of Pearl and Court Street.  The Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealerships, Port Arthur Motors  and Kam Motors Ltd., were both originally owned by Hubert Badanai Sr...... later to become one dealership on Memorial Ave.




 NEXT - remembering Al's Wonderland.  Albert Massaro was not only a very well known stock car driver in the 1950's and 1960's but was quite the entrepreneur, business man, hockey coach etc etc.  I had the privilege of knowing Al in the day, and did some work for him when he had his Al's Wonderland.  I painted this sign for him as well as built many of his picnic tables for him and also painted and lettered many of the Go-Karts he had at his place....so here's the sign I did and glad I had photographed it just when I finished it....who knows where it is today.  The present day picture beside it is courtesy Google Earth and still reveals the spot where Al had his Go Kart track and his last "Wonderland"... we sure miss Al and all the good work he did for hockey, racing and everything else he was involved in.  RIP Albert Massaro.

NEXT - We have some then and now photos.....The first is The Thunder Bay Co-op building which still exists to this day proving that great structures can be re-purposed over and over for a much cheaper cost than ripping them down and re-building....and also preserving local history....

 

 I had seen this C.P. Drug store pill box sticker and at a glance didn't know that it was a local piece until I took a closer look to reveal the actual address where it was right across from the CPR station on 419 Syndicate Ave...in the building we now know as "The Arcade" building.

The next then and now is Wanson's Lumber on 277 John Street.  It is interesting to note that the original building on the left in the first photo is still being used today, and apparently some of the original office building is still in use as well.

This Fort William photo showing two Brill buses, one a gas powered and the other an electric powered trolley is quite interesting.  Of course we all know the Chapple buildings...the large one in the middle and just a bit of the home store on the left of the late 1940's photo. When you enlarge the photo, you can make out the word Hurtig just above the bus in the centre of the photo.  Hurtig Furriers owned the corner building until the early 1950's when the property was purchased by Heintzman's, which was mainly a music store, but also sold some furniture, radios, early tv sets and of course records.  Heintzman's had booths where you could take your record into a booth and listen to it before you bought it.

When you view this old photo, it's hard to believe its the same building.... "The Victoria Block" as in the photo below it.  The "then" photo is of Walkers Dry Goods all decked out for the Christmas Season in the early part of the 20th century.  The facade was changed drastically through the years and modernization pretty much diminished the desire to even go inside....however I do remember Walkers Department Store in the 1950's when at Christmas time they would have their windows all decked out in the current toy trend and had an American Flyer model railroad layout in the basement that would bring shouts of glee to any child, and likely empty pockets to many fathers wanting to please their kids.
The Victoria Block now houses Barbie's Bargains which I believe is still there.

WOW...the CPR station after over 100 years still looks pretty much the same.  The first photo is likely taken in the very early 1900's.  I remember riding my bike there as a kid and seeing the model of the big lake ship which is now housed at our museum, and punching out a disk about the size of a toonie on a machine with your name and address on it for a dime.....oh...and having to pay a dime to use the toilets...so one of us would get voted in to crawl under, use it then hold the door open for your friends to continue to use it....LOL...great fun...
We watched the trains come in from destinations east and west and dreamed of traveling by steam train to some of those unknown places.....It's great to see that beautiful building stand the test of time.

Awe....the Embassy Grill....Sundays after church heading to the Embassy with your family to have coffee or chocolate milk and toast.....things like that were a rare treat when I was a child...but the memory lives on today, as the building still exists as the Amethyst Gift Centre...and as it says on the newspaper ad "next to the Odeon Theatre"..... great memories...

I know I've posted this before but the memories of hanging out at Ray Charles Texaco in my teens and twenties is still quite strong....When Ray and Charlie were there, they embraced all us teens, letting us use tools, have small credit accounts and we would reciprocate by cleaning up after ourselves and respect our other friends that hung out there....it was awsome times.  The photo is of my own '55 Chevy sedan delivery and on the trailer behind me was Ken Pawluk's Camaro Late Model... we were heading to Riverview for a test run.... Roger Rickards and I are slowly working on a great story about the service station history of this spot...which will be coming up soon.

This is the last part of this post and not so much a then and now but just a "THEN".....I was truly a huge Roy Rogers fan and the wonderful childhood memories of those times are still with me, as my saved so many things for us(bless her heart).  I still have my Post Cereal Roy Rogers button set because many of the buttons I collected as a kid were pinning to an old beanie, and were saved in my bottom drawer of my dresser from when I was a kid to the present day......I will have to get rid of this stuff eventually...but for now I can still enjoy them and write about them.......
Thanks to everyone for being patient with my posts....I still have a lot to write about.  I'm getting older and slowing down a bit....but if us local history buffs don't preserve the memories, no one will!

THANK YOU