HER (HIS) MAJESTY”S THEATRE MONTREAL

It was the autumn of 1962. I was living at the Boy’s Home of Montreal, also known as Weredale House. (It’s a long story.) The Westmount Rotary Club was one of the sponsors of Weredale House and most of their members leaned Conservative when it came to politics. There was a federal election that fall and the administration at the home asked for volunteers to work on the Conservative campaign. I was the only one who responded. I ended up stuffing envelopes and doing other things at Victoria Hall where the campaign headquarters was located. It kept me away from doing homework in an overheated classroom at the home for a few weeks. I think the district was called Westmount-Little St. Antoine. The Conservative candidate was a guy named Egan Chambers who was the incumbent. Unfortunately for him, his competition was John Turner who had been “parachuted” into the riding.  Chambers lost badly. Turner later became Canada’s finance minister and briefly PM. The highlight of the campaign was being within a few feet of PM Diefenbaker at a rally at Delormier Stadium.

In the spring of 1963  Weredale House received a short letter from the Westmount Conservative Party thanking the boys for helping out during the election. I still have the letter somewhere. It was typed on blue paper about 4” square. (Thrifty Conservatives?) I found it amusing that I really was the only boy who had helped. A group of about 15 boys were invited to see a musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Guy Street. I have no idea how they were selected. We were a somewhat rough looking crew and I think a few of the boys wore their issued sweater with reindeers on them. At one point we were standing in a group when I looked up and noticed 3 girls coming down the wide stairway. I’m not sure whether they recognized me or not. The musical was called Carousel and starred Ed Ames. Jo-Anne Worley (later on Laugh-in) was also in the cast. Ed Ames was part of a singing group (The Ames Brothers) that had a number of hits in the 1950s. He also played an Indian side kick on the Daniel Boone TV series. More than anything Ed Ames is probably most famous for a bit he did on the Johnny Carson Show. He threw a tomahawk at a stick figure target and it landed right in the stick figure’s privates.

Carousel was certainly one of the last musicals performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Months later the building was torn down. The building was built in 1898 when Queen Victoria was still alive. For many decades the building was called “His” Majesty’s Theatre until Queen Elizabeth was crowned.

An odd thing is that I have never voted Conservative in my life. Mostly Liberal and lately Green.