{"id":396,"date":"2025-01-09T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/?p=396"},"modified":"2025-08-27T11:41:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:41:28","slug":"hurricane-hazels-best-dressed-reading-between-the-headlines-in-the-toronto-evening-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/2025\/hurricane-hazels-best-dressed-reading-between-the-headlines-in-the-toronto-evening-telegram\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Hazel\u2019s Best Dressed: Reading between the headlines in the Toronto “Evening Telegram”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Hurricane Hazel\u2019s Best Dressed: Reading between the headlines in the Toronto \u201cEvening Telegram\u201d\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Figure 1: The Telegram. 16 October 1954. p.1. Photo citation: Miscellaneous issues of The Evening Telegram, 1942-1959; Fonds 70, Series 655, File 28; Larry Becker collection, Larry Becker newspapers; The City of Toronto Archives, Toronto, Ontario Canada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On October 16, 1954, buried between the pages of the Toronto Evening Telegram, <\/em>reads a seemingly out of place headline, \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball Despite Lashing Winds and Rain.\u201d[i]<\/a> The black and white photo collage framing the banner appears as an odd tribute to Toronto\u2019s who\u2019s who.[ii]<\/a> Dressed to impress in their splendid and posh attire, the following article lists exactly who wore what right down to the jewels and accessories. In mild contrast to the smiles of a determined pair of guests, one out-turned umbrella hints at the presence of Hurricane Hazel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers will have had to flip past the pages of horrific news stories: \u201cFear 58 Drowned,\u201d \u201cDamage Estimate is $100 Million,\u2019\u2019 and \u201cI saw a man drown\u201d before arriving at the headline, \u201cNight in Nassau\u201d Ball in support of the National Ballet.[iii]<\/a> Hurricane Hazel and the cascading Humber River drowned out homes to ultimately render 81 dead and 1900 families homeless. In all, Hazel would cause over $25 million in damages in modern currency.[iv]<\/a> Meanwhile, amid this calamity and chaos, the attendees of this soiree were making merry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would editors of the \u201cTely\u201d allot precious print space to this gala event with such an obtuse header? What more does this say about Toronto in 1954? How does this feature speak to the ways disaster is differently felt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sifting through the delicate and yellowing pages of the Telegram<\/em> at the City of Toronto Archives, I admit I was unfamiliar with this particular newspaper. Founded by Canadian media giant John Ross Robertson in 1876, it would eventually cease publication in 1971 due to financial troubles.  In the late nineteenth century, the Telegram <\/em>was the first to cater to the city\u2019s changing demographic and appeal to a broader readership beyond businessmen and professionals. The first to practice \u201cpeople\u2019s journalism,\u201d according to biographer Ron Poulton, the Telegram <\/em>narrated events with a popular, sensational, and more superficial flare.[i]<\/a> It was a family newspaper and the first without any political party affiliation. By 1954, the Telegram <\/em>had changed ownership twice. In 1948, George McCullagh, owner of the Globe and Mail<\/em>, purchased the paper for $3.6 million. Later in 1952, publisher John Bassett purchased the \u201cTely\u201d for $4.2 million with funds from retail mogul John David Eaton.[ii]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 2: The Telegram. 16 October 1954. p.11. Photo citation: Miscellaneous issues of The Evening Telegram, 1942-1959; Fonds 70, Series 655, File 28; Larry Becker collection, Larry Becker newspapers; The City of Toronto Archives, Toronto, Ontario Canada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The linkages between the Telegram<\/em>, the Eaton family, and the National Ballet Readers are telling, as they offer a glimpse of what life was like in Toronto in the 1950s. From these relationships, I argue that the allure of post war development, optimism, and progress could not be deterred by Hurricane Hazel and its devastation. It would appear that this headline, albeit tone-deaf, curates a certain social immunity that allows wealth, culture and the high arts to appear safely outside of Hazel\u2019s immediate path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the grandson of Timothy Eaton, founder of T. Eaton Company Ltd. in 1869, John David Eaton was born into Canadian retail royalty.[iii]<\/a>  As president of the Eaton\u2019s department store chain from 1942 to 1969, he was responsible for its expansion west while fueling rumors as the richest man in Canada for contributing an unprecedented $50 million to employee medical and retirement plans.[iv]<\/a> Noted as a private and \u201cshy\u201d man, he is visibly absent from the Telegram <\/em>feature. Instead, his wife \u201cMrs. J. D. Eaton\u201d (Signy Steffanson Eaton) is photographed at the gala wearing a dark strapless ball gown alongside other prominent guests.[v]<\/a> Together, the Eatons were lauded for their philanthropy.[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the campaigning of Toronto\u2019s Boris Volkoff Ballet, Canada\u2019s first national ballet was established only years earlier in 1951. Recruiting \u201chalf-trained\u201d students from across the country, the company held its inaugural performance at the Eaton Auditorium at the now historic College and Yonge Street location.[i]<\/a> Listed among the feature\u2019s fashion forward in Telegram<\/em>\u2019s expos\u00e9 is the National ballet\u2019s artistic director and founder, Celia Franca, wearing a gown of \u201cMagnolia green satin\u201d.[ii]<\/a> A newcomer from London, she, like many new Torontonians, had left a Europe devastated by the Second World War.[iii]<\/a> Life in 1950s Toronto signaled a time of new hope and old world culture as the company\u2019s dance students, choreographers, and professionals asserted their European background and training into the Canadian arts. In an interview for the 2020 book Early Days, Early Dancers,<\/em> dancer Myrna Aaron describes Toronto in the 1950s as \u201crather dreary and provincial\u2014not at all like the metropolis it is today.\u201d[iv]<\/strong><\/em><\/a> The 1951 fundraising campaign that helped inject the city with its current cultural urbanity called for $150,000 in sustainability funds, to which local businesses responded fervently to fundraise, gain board membership, and patronize the early performances of the National Ballet.[v]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The momentum this fundraiser brought to Toronto as the home of the nation\u2019s own ballet company appears unphased by the arrival of Hurricane Hazel. Simply, Hazel was but a blip in the on-going plans towards the city\u2019s metropolitan progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite The Telegram<\/em>\u2019s allegiance to both the Eaton family and the National ballet, the remaining headlines tell of the immediate and urgent realities of Hazel\u2019s destruction. The frontpage headline in its bold type face reads, \u201cFear 58 drowned. 300 Missing in this area. City blocked off.\u201d [vi]<\/a> Immediately below is a black and white image of the \u201cheroism\u201d and rescue of civilian, Richard Stock, whose head is seen barely surfacing from the raging current of the Humber River. Metro Chairman Fred Gardiner, to whom Toronto\u2019s main traffic artery, the Gardiner Expressway, is named after, issues an emergency decree under the headline \u201cDamage estimate is $100 million\u201d to cease all non-essential travel. Traffic over the bursting Humber River was thereby limited to two bridges for volunteers, fire fighters, and police to access on their rescue missions as the death toll rose in neighboring Etobicoke, Weston, Holland Marsh, Woodbridge and Unionville.[vii]<\/a> Terrifyingly, another frontpage headline, \u201cI saw a man drown,\u201d details the futile screams of one victim, \u201cHelp me. Save me.\u201d[viii]<\/a> The storm that killed and displaced thousands along Toronto\u2019s outskirts stood in stark contrast to the rain and wind that dampened a few ball gowns and tuxedos at the gala ball in the city\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no sense of disaster, but a little bit of \u201crain and high water\u201d when it comes to being seen within Toronto\u2019s socialite circles as proprietors of high culture.[i]<\/a> The Telegram <\/em>was one such venue that showcased and celebrated this commitment. It did, of course, also owe its financial existence to Eaton funds. Perhaps, the show still goes on so to speak when much meaning is still being made for post-war Canada to stand culturally on its own with its nascent National Ballet. Though the victims of Hurricane Hazel will have felt an entirely different sense of urgency to their own lives and livelihoods through years of loss, recovery, and reconstruction, the legacy of metropolitan Toronto remains. As the immediacy of Hazel\u2019s ruinous path unfolded, the headline,\u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball Despite Lashing Winds and Rain,\u201d assured readers that the Telegram<\/em> was still moving forward alongside the individuals and institutions that saw a version of the city\u2019s modernity, come what may.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Darlyne Bautista<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> Foster. \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball,\u201d p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> Jocelyn Terell Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers: Early Years of the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>. Toronto, Ontario: Inanna Publications and Education Inc. 2020. p. 5.; See also Heritage Toronto. \u201cEaton Auditorium.\u201d Sounds Like Toronto. <\/em>https:\/\/soundsliketoronto.ca\/en\/stories\/venues\/eaton-auditorium<\/em><\/a> 27 September 2022 (cited 26 December 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> Foster. \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball,\u201d p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers<\/em>. pp. 18-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers<\/em>. p. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[v]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers. <\/em>pp. 8-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[vi]<\/a> \u201cFear 58 drowned. 300 Missing in this area. City blocked off,\u201d The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954, p.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[vii]<\/a> \u201cDamage estimate is $100 million,\u201d The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954, p.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[viii]<\/a> Val Sears. \u201cI saw a man drown,\u201d The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954, p.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> P. Rutherford. \u201cThe Paper Tyrant: John Ross Robertson of the Toronto Telegram by Ron Poulton (Review).\u201d The Canadian Historical Review<\/em> 55, no. 1 (1974): 91\u201392; Ron Poulton. The Paper Tyrant: John Ross Robertson of the Toronto Telegram.<\/em> Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> Denise Marie. \u201cToronto Telegram \u2013 The Newspaper\u2019s Explosive Force in Toronto\u2019s History.\u201d Toronto History. <\/em>Toronto Journey 416. https:\/\/www.torontojourney416.com\/toronto-telegram\/<\/a> (cited 20 December 2024); York University Digital Library. \u201cToronto Telegram\u201d Home. <\/em>York University. https:\/\/digital.library.yorku.ca\/corporate-body\/toronto-telegram<\/a> (cited 20 December 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> Donica Belisle. Retail Nation<\/em>\u202f: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada<\/em>. Vancouver, B.C: UBC Press, 2011. Pp.82-83.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> Historica \/ The Canadian Encyclopedia. \u201cJohn David Eaton.\u201d The Canadian Encyclopedia. <\/em>7 March 2014 (cited 26 December 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[v]<\/a> Foster. \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball,\u201d p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[vi]<\/a> Royal Ontario Museum. \u201cThe Eaton Family.\u201d Bio. Royal Ontario Museum. <\/em>https:\/\/www.rom.on.ca\/people\/eaton-family<\/a> (cited 26 December 2024); Bruce Allen Kopytek. Eaton’s: The Trans-Canada Store<\/em>. Charleston: The History Press. 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[vii]<\/a> Jocelyn Terell Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers: Early Years of the National Ballet of Canada<\/em>. Toronto, Ontario: Inanna Publications and Education Inc. 2020. p. 5.; See also Heritage Toronto. \u201cEaton Auditorium.\u201d Sounds Like Toronto. <\/em>https:\/\/soundsliketoronto.ca\/en\/stories\/venues\/eaton-auditorium<\/em><\/a> 27 September 2022 (cited 26 December 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[viii]<\/a> Foster. \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball,\u201d p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ix]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers<\/em>. pp. 18-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[x]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers<\/em>. p. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[xi]<\/a> Allen. Early Days, Early Dancers. <\/em>pp. 8-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> Lillian Foster. \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball Despite Lashing Winds and Rain,\u201d The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954, p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> \u201cHurricane Provides True \u2018Night in Nassau\u2019 Weather for National Ballet Guild Ball,\u201d The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954, p.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> The Evening Telegram. <\/em>16 October 1954<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a> James H. Marsh. \u201cToronto Feature: Hurricane Hazel.\u201d Article. <\/em>The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2 July 2015. https:\/\/www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca\/en\/article\/toronto-feature-hurricane-hazel<\/a> (Cited 20 December 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 16, 1954, buried between the pages of the Toronto Evening Telegram, reads a seemingly out of place headline, \u201cBeautiful Gowns Worn to Ball Despite Lashing Winds and Rain.\u201d[i] The black and white photo collage framing the banner appears as an odd tribute to Toronto\u2019s who\u2019s who.[ii] Dressed to impress in their splendid and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research_blog"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}