Mike Filey Lecture - March 21, 2013 7:30 p.m.
____________________________________________________________________
The Mike Filey lecture originally announced for March 7th will be held on March 21st. Mike Filey, Toronto's renown Historian will be telling the story of the Toronto Waterfront through historic pictures and their contemporary updates.
His - My "Toronto Then and Now" hour-long Powerpoint presentation features a selection of rare old photos juxtaposed against contemporary views of the city. Special emphasis is placed on views across Toronto's fast changing waterfront.
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MIKE FILEY
Mike File
y was born in Toronto in 1941. Educated at North Toronto Collegiate Institute and from 1962-65 at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute where he received a diploma in Chemical Technology. Following a nine-year stint with the Ontario Water Resources Commission (renamed the Ontario Ministry of the Environment), Mike decided to pursue employment in the fields of event planning and public relations with the Canadian National Exhibition (1974-79 & 1983 - 1985) and at Canada's Wonderland (1979-1982).
Over the past few years he has turned his interests to researching and recording the fascinating history of his hometown. He has written more than two dozen books on various facets of Toronto's past. One of his most popular books is "The TTC Story, the First 75 Years". Mike came by his desire to record the history of the Toronto Transit Commission honestly, having first relied on the Commission's streetcars to get him to and from the Bathurst and St. Clair Branch of the public library from his home at 758 Bathurst Street (top floor flat over the bicycle store) when he was just 8 years old - "and if you get lost, tell the policeman your phone number is Melrose 2154". Other titles include "I Remember Sunnyside", "A Toronto Portrait", "Toronto, Then and Now", "Toronto Sketches, The Way We Were" (Volumes 1 thru 11) and "Trillium and Toronto Island, the Centennial Edition".
Mike has contributed a popular column titled "The Way We Were", to the Toronto Sunday Sun newspaper for more than 30 years. He is also featured on his own radio show on the New AM 740 at 12:30 noon on Sundays (also available on the Internet via www.am740.ca and in "blog" format anytime). Mike also hosts guided tours of Toronto as well as presenting illustrated presentations, the most popular of which is titled "Toronto, Then and Now".
Mike remembers a horse trough at the Bathurst and Bloor corner, some guy named Mirvish running a store just along the street, seeing the movie "The Wizard of Oz" over and over again at the late, lamented Alhambra Theatre (now the site of a Swiss Chalet restaurant) and, especially, the nearby Downyflake donut shop where he learned his first piece of poetry:
As you go through life brother,
Whatever be your goal,
Keep your eye upon the donut
And not upon the hole.
