The South Bayview Bulldog

Don Valley West has proven a key win for the Conservatives in their suceess in recreating “Tory Toronto” as it was known in previous decades. In fact, it has been decades since the Conseratives held more seats in Toronto proper than the Liberals. They now have six, compared to the Liberal five. Two key reasons for this are the win of John Carmichael over Rob Oliphant in Don Valley West. It was an exceptioanlly narrow win. Less than 2,000 votes. The second key was of course the defeat of Michael Ignatieff in Etobike Lakeshore, a rather unexpected development. The Conservatives will face the larger presence of the NDP inside Toronto — they have seven seats.

South of Manor Road betwewen Yonge Street and Mount Pleasant Road is the Glebe, an area of quaintly curving streets and homes ranging from stately to frankly kind of tatty. And soime of the architecture, while showing its age, has an enduring charm. The Gracewood Apartments (top) on De-Savory Crescent are distinctly this way. High set homes, as seen in the frame below, seem somehow untouched by the years that separate them from their construction. Much love and repairs, no doubt. At bottom is the Glebe Presbyterian Church, venerable and unadorned, as might please its founders.

Nearly 43 years ago, Peter Rehak, a Toronto man, filed a story of world shaking importance despite censorship restrictions imposed by the Red Army. Rehak, a frequent vistor to South Bayview and client of Rosie’s, is seen at the right in 1962 in front of the Berlin Wall. Rehak was the correspondent in charge for the Associated Press in August 1968 when the Soviet Union decided to crush the Prague Spring reform movement of Alexander Dubček. Dubček (left) had been elected to run the puppet govermmnt in Prague in January. But his tendencies toward freedom and free markets made the Kremlin so nervous that they invaded the country with an army of tanks and Russian soldiers. Here Rehak tells the story in his own words, “I filed the bulletin from the telex room at the Alcron Hotel that is just off Wenceslas Square. It was the unofficial U.S. press headquarters in ’68. I filed the rest of the story from the U.S. embassy. It caught fire when the CIA burned some papers and the fire department refused to come because of the Soviet-imposed curfew. Fortunately, an ex-Colorado forest ranger staying there organized a fire brigade. Somewhere I have a letter from the ambassador, the late Jacob Beam, thanking me for helping to put out the fire.”

The last of the fabulous 18th century theatres in which Mozart was originally performed is in Prague. It is the Estates Theatre. Among many appearances here, Mozart personally directed and conducted the debut of Don Giovani. The theatre owes its existence today to the work of Czech Director Milos Forman (left). He directed Amadeus, the 1983 Oscar winner and made a deal with the Communist government to restore the crumbling theatre at the cost of many millions. The film was shot completely in Prague posing as Vienna, and the Estates was a central locale. Today, in two current pictures in the lower windows above, it is a superb recreation of the times. Picture on the left is taken from the Emperor’s box while on the right is the private hall to the finest boxes. Mozart was perhaps more celebrated in Prague than Vienna. Here his work was sung in the street by ordinary citizens. Get a taste of the movie Amadeus by checking our Mozart page. Forman, 79, is nearly as widely revered in Prague as Mozart.

Prague — While it was rather chilly and wet on South Bayview yesterday, the weather was great for a wedding in Prague (Oh yes, and in London too). This bride and groom were one of a number of newly-weds who came to a city square to have their pictures taken in quaint and sun-drenched surrounding.