Some will remember the titillating tale of Gerda Munsinger, the German femme fatale who ensnared a Canadian cabinet minister, Pierre Sevigny, in a sex scandal in the early 60s. The death yesterday of Bob Reguly recalls how Gerda hood-winked all of Canada into thinking she was dead. Everyone, it seems, except Bob Reguly. As her affairs were being revealed in Canada Munsinger slipped out of the country and landed in Munich. There she and friends constructed an elaborate hoax that she was dead. Much better play dead than face the press, she thought. There were even stories of trips to her grave. But Reguly some how got wind of her deception and tracked her down. His world exclusive for the Toronto Star is legendary. She was born in East Germany and married for a short period to American soldier Michael Munsinger. Gerda came to Canada in 1955, when she was in her mid 20s. She worked in Montreal as a maid, a waitress and as a hostess at the “Chez Paree” nightclub.
Thursday night Shawn Brady (left) will play McSorely’s Tavern from 9.30 to closing. It’s billed as an all-request acoustic classic rock show. On this occasion Brady will be himself but he is also well known as “Bono” (right) in the band Elevation Canada, a successful tribute band to U2. Shawn Brady famously once told an interviewer: “I lead a double life. During the day I work in a hospital helping elderly people and directing physiotherapy services, at night I have leather pants on and sing my guts out, it’s quite the contrast.” At McSorely’s he will put on a “one-man acoustic show (which) encompasses the entire History of Rock from the 1960s to the present day.” Sounds like fun.
