Anytown Canada, Northern USA, or Fort William Ontario in the 1940's....

These wonderful winter photos could very well be from here in Thunder Bay(well one is).  The clarity of these pictures are incredible and a must share with anyone who enjoys vintage photography.  This week during Christmas and New Years day is always a time for myself and family to reflect on our past and be grateful for what we have in today's modern world, however, as you can see from these photographs that everyone was as happy as can be enjoying life on a day to day basis back when things were simpler and sometimes happier.

 

This house looks exactly like the one in the movie "A Christmas Story" only missing the 1937 Oldsmobile in the driveway and the Leg Lamp in the window.  The kids are having a great time sliding down the small hill.  This photo was taken in 1940.

Here we have a 1928/29 Ford Cabriolet with opera windows.  I have never seen a soft top with windows like this before.  Oval windows like this were mostly used in commercial vehicles such as roadster pickups.  This photo was taken in 1940.

Here is one more 1940 photograph which could have been taken in any small town Canada or Northern USA.  This is a wonderful picture of a young man on his bicycle with all the great 1930's cars along the street and all the store fronts decorated as they did in that era.  It almost looks like a movie set.

Here we have a January 1943 photo of a caboose man cave....wouldn't any guy love to have this on his property.  The girly photos etc. may have been allowed in those days but not now.  Times have sure changed on the railroad.  The end of the caboose era was about 1990 mainly due to the fact that rail cars had roller bearings by then and there was no need to watch for hot boxes(?) or worn bearings at that time(I hope i am fully correct on that data).

This last picture is a favourite of mine although the quality is poor.  It was taken near where I lived as a kid.  Looking at the picture the CNR engine (Circa 1950) is turning down a spur at the corner of Marks and Arthur Streets in Fort William.  The CNR spur turned east just behind the Kingsway Motel, headed down Arthur Street with a gradual turn north at Marks Street and headed down Vickers Street to reconnect to the Main Line, with a station just before the Fort William Gardens.
In the picture, a small elevator called the Davidson Elevator is just behind the train.  That property is now called West Arthur Place where the Spence Clinic is today.
MacDonald Equipment Co. on the right which faced Marks Street is now a portion of the parking lot for West Arthur Place.  Ray's Esso Service station which faced Arthur Street would be behind the picture taker.
For a little more data about this CNR spur click on this link http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2009/10/old-canadian-national-railway-spur-in.html
....then reture to this post.

Thanks to our friends at www.shorpy.com for some of the great photos above....and as usual BE SURE TO CLICK ON ALL THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM.

Our 2012 Christmas Card to You

Many thanks to our son Jay for his great work producing and editing this Christmas Card.....also a huge thank you to all those who have donated photos and ideas throughout the past year, including my proof reader Al. 

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Early Thunder Bay Theatres and Top 10 for Christmas 2012

While winding down the Christmas countdown for this year, it was interesting to check the Internet to get a few top 10 lists of viewers Christmas Films.  The favorite top 10 are below with a complete documented history of each film at the end of this post, and also showing the awards which they had won.

Here are some of the old local theatres in Fort William and Port Arthur Ontario where you may have seen some of the older films back in the day.  I had actually watched the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol to my total fright at about age 8, and had nightmares about it for years.

Be sure to click on all the photos for a larger view.

 
"It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story" were such a contrast in how we viewed Christmas in the 1940's and then again in the 1980's.  Both these top 2 films are my personal all time favourites.





 

INTERESTING TIDBIT:

The Bing Crosby song "White Christmas" which is still the most sold single recording of all time was actually introduced in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn" shown here.  It won an academy award that year and also 12 years later in 1954 won another academy award for the film named after the original single.

 

Here is the page 1 and page 2 lists of the above films, who starred in them and what awards they had won.  Click on these once or twice to read the data.