Johnny James

I found these and scanned them - the first band Vic Windsor (Costantino) and the Variety Kings with Gord Stewart - Where is he now? - John

Variety Kings - Circa 1957

Vic Windsor & The Variety Kings

Bermuda Tavern 1957

Tommy Danton & The Echos 1959

John Dowson, Dan Antonacci. & Al Hepburn

John D Al Hepburn and Giggi Boo at Al Hepburn's place on Bishop Ave.

- John Dowson





John

Al Hepburn's Model A

This is Al Hepburn and John Dowson in Al's mint condition 1932 Model A

We are backing out of my parents driveway at 68 Parkview Ave Willowdale ON Circa 1955

Nice car - I believe Rick Carson took the picture on his 35mm slide camera and he later made a print and gave it to me and Al

- John

Ted "Tweet" Smith

From John Dowson, July, 2010:

Ted "Tweet" Smith died New Years Eve 1967 age 31



Yes we played at the Farmers market - it was "Uncle Tweet and cousin John" - we did a hayseed country comedy duo similar to Homer and Jethro.


...and later on Gordie Tapp stole our material and the hayseed clown act and the name Cousin Clem.

After Tweet moved to Toronto Bono and I did the comedy and song stuff, it was "Uncle John and Cousin Bob" Tweet later on went on the road with some country bands travelling Canada my brother Mike saw him in Newfoundland when they were touring and he mentioned to Tweet that he was John's brother. Tweet married a girl that I had been dating Bette Holbrook - I joined Vic Costentino who was selling disability insurance in Vancouver in 1961 and I stayed out west until August 1974.

It's a three hour difference in time from Toronto to Vancouver and it was 7.30 PM PST time 10.30 PM EST on New Years eve 1968 when Bono called. We had a babysitter and were getting ready to go to a hotel for New Years Eve bash with some friends when I got a call from Bono to tell me that Tweet had died earlier that day. I was a downer for the New Years eve party. When I came back to Toronto I looked up his widow, who never remarried and she told me that Tweet had been having chest pains that week and that he was booked with a band for a New Years eave show. She took him to Toronto General and the doctors said they had to operate immediately. She told me he said to her as he was being wheeled into the operating room " I'll see ya when I get out"

Sadly, he died on the operating table -Ted was I believe 31 years old. She was still sitting in the waiting room when he they told her, the doctor said he had the heart of an 75 year old man and that his father had died young with the same heart condition it appears it ran in the family.

Tweet and I were in Public school in the same grade with Al Hepburn, Tweet, and Bob Faulkner, John Hepburn, Tom MacQuillan, Doug Burnell, Doug Waddell and others. Tweet was always whistling when he road his bike so we named him Tweet that was how he got his name in public school. I remember when his father died we went to the funeral. Today he would have had by pass surgery and lived. I was also in Toronto when Vic Costentino died.

Last week we went to see "The Jersey Boys" it was a great show all the tunes from the 50's and 60's it closes next week after two years, if you haven't seen it you should go they have seat sales on

- John

----- Original Message -----

From: Russ Strathdee

To: John Dowson

Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 4:48 PM

Subject: Re: Ted Tweet Smith.jpg

Hi John

You played with Tweet at the Farmers Market, right?

How did he pass away at such an early age?

- Russ

----- Original Message -----

From: John Dowson

To: Russ Strathdee

Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 4:29 PM

Subject: Ted Tweet Smith.jpg

Ted "Tweet" Smith died New Years Eve 1967 age 31

Remember these ?

John Dowson,
Do you know the Convent on Bayview ave just south of Steeles, east side ? Before that was built it was great party/drinking location. One could drive right down to the Don river. Do you remember what we called that place ?

Do you remember “Fritz the faggot waiter “ who worked the late shift at the Prince Nova ?

What was the name of the drive in restaurant just north of Steeles on Yonge ?

Remember Bobby Taylor and Freddy Stott smashing up their car at Steeles and Bayview while being chased by North Yorks finest( pre metro days). Bayview in those days jogged at Steeles.... They didn’t.

Good News from Norm Ovens, He went to a neuro specialist who gave him a clean bill of health, no sign of a stroke etc. He is quite relieved.

Mussy, that nickname Pops was a good example of clearheaded, clean living, ingenious, creative Willowdale knuckle heads that we were. Thank goodness we grew up........................ lately
Dave D.

Al Hepburn's 1956 Caddie

With Al Hepburn's 1956 Robin's Egg Blue Cadillac hard top - we used to chase antelope out on the prairie north of Gem, Alberta when he was out here - spring of 1959

It was a riot to say the least - and we were all pissed at the time of course. but the Cadillac took to the prairies like it was built for them. Since we had little money - all extra went for beer - we chipped in (me, Wick, Ron Drury - Lennie Johnson and Al Hepburn and bought a 45 gallon drum of purple tractor gas. It was cheap since it did not include road taxes.

- Richard Dowson

Great Great Grandpa Dowson - Mike Dowson

I found this information on the Internet... interesting information supplied by Dad about his Dad. Just click on the link:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/25093530

- Mike Dowson

Yonge Street 50s

When Tommy Danton was at the Zanzibar and Joe King was at the Derby and Alex Lazarof was at the Edison and Hawkins was at the Coq D'or and Lighfoot was at Steeles.... we use to go there sometimes for a beer between sets. The beer was too expensive so we settled for 10-cent beer in the mens draft room at the Edison, with old man Rotenberg touting the joint on the street rain or shine. Come to think of it, the Coq Dor was trying to set up a downstairs room and Hawkins got Gord Joisey to book a friend of his named Jerry Lee Lewis, who had just married his 13 year old cousi n. It didn't go over well. Three pieces that's it with Lewis wailing on the Piano!

- JOHNNY JAMES (DOWSON)

What ever happened to...?

Rick (the drifter) Carson... he was a friend of Al Hepburn. I remember he used to pop in every so often from, who knows where, and have a few drinks with the gang. I think he drove a '49 Chev.

Comment from John Dowson to Richard Dowson Wednesday, Jan 06, 2010 6:38 PM

A number of years ago I watched a TV documentary on cross dressing and they filmed the documentary around a woman in BC just outside of Oliver who owned a ranch and ran a few cattle. She was a tall slender woman about six feet and she dressed in jeans and a jean shirt cowboy boots and passed herself off as a man. The striking thing about her was that she looked a lot like Rick Carson, it wasn't him but she had the same build. She wasn't a lesbian and had no affairs with a woman or a man she just wanted to ride, run a ranch and be a ranch hand.

I've often wondered if Rick was a woman dressed as a man. He never took his shirt off even on the hottest days, he never went in swimming with us, so we never saw him in swimming trunks. Come to think of it we never ever saw him without his clothes on and I can't remember what he did in the washrooms no one that I know of went to the can with him. When we got pulled over by the police, and were driven to the police station in Willowdale he skedaddled right out of the place. When we dropped him off at his house on Parkview he went in the house by the side gate and disappeared. We never went to his house to pick him up. Al Hepburn decided to find out if he lived there, and after we dropped Rick off one night we drove away and dropped Al on Norton Ave. Al watched and he said Rick went over the back fence through the backyard of another house and walked to his car which was parked on Norton Ave. and drove off. It was to late for us to follow because we had to wait for Al at our rendezvous.

If the guy was a undercover agent, why would he never talk off his shirt, or go swimming with the boys and never have a girl friend. Gunny Nygard was a nice blond who was crazy about Rick but he paid no attention to her even as she sat on his lap in the back of the car when we had five in the back seat. In the old west there is a story of a rancher who lived in the west and was welcomed by everyone and he even had a gun fight with a gunfighter. One day he had a stroke and was at deaths door and when the doctor came to see him it turned out he was a woman and fooled everyone. But they buried him under the name they knew him by as a man. He never had a woman friend and always was alone at the ranch. Could be? Think about it, did Rick ever shave? Did he have a beard or mustache, did he ever look like he had a days growth? and he had very little hair on his arms or the calf on his leg when he was putting on his cowboy boots. - JOHN

Reply from Richard Dowson to John Dowson Saturday, Jan 09, 2010 11:11 AM

I did know Rick Carson while in Alberta. We hooked up in the summer of 1960. He'd been visiting brother Bill and June in Drumheller and they let him know I was living in Coaldale Alberta (near Lethbridge) working for the Dept. of HIghways. He dropped down while I was there and took me to Banff before driving me to Drumheller. He'd become quite ill and went back to Penhold where he was living at the time.

I had never thought of him as a cross dresser. He was very interesting. I did meet up with a group of his friends from Calgary and it was just like Willowdale all over again. They had met Rick at a restaurant they hung out at. Most were into motorcycles but not the bike gang type. The restaurant was on 16th in north Calgary but they mostly lived down by the Forest Lawn cemetery.

Rick told me in the fall of 1960 that he was making some changes in his life. He would not say what - but he was making changes and that he would tell me what he had been doing or I would never hear from him again.

I never heard from him again. He just disappeared.

Some things he did say at the time was that he had a university education and that he had worked in the Giant Yellowknife Mine in Yellowknife. I assumed he worked there during his university days to make money.

The cross dressing doesn't fit with me - no pun intended.

After September 1960 he disappeared - poof! - nopoofter jokes please.

He was a great guy. I still have pictures he took of me sitting on the guard rail in front of Mount Eisenhower.

- Richard

The Willow Theatre

I used to work there as an usher. It was my job to go around and stop people from putting their feet up on the seat in from of them and to stop people from doing "nasty" things in the back row.

I can remember seeing the movie "High Society at least 6 times - with Bing Crosby. That should give you an idea of how long ago that was.

Mr. (Larry) Allen was the manager and projectionist. Marg Durham was the nice lady in the ticket booth. Ron Switzer, another usher, was one of the main guys to "show me the ropes". He gave me my first taste of hard liquor - Rye - from a little spice bottle he carried around in his
pocket..

John Downson and his brother Chuck also have worked there. I remember one night putting up the letters on the marquee and, for a joke, I started putting my own name up there for the upcoming attraction. As I was up on the ladder I got half way through S T R A T H ... and
heard Mr. Allens voice below say "That's nice, Russ. Now stop fooling around and put up what's supposed to be there" ... or words to that effect. He was a nice guy who never lost his cool.

I used to get to work there on my bike until someone stole it one evening. I told the police. Months later they called me to come into the cop shop on Yonge St. to claim it. Well, all that was left of "my" bike was the frame with the serial number stamped under the seat. The rest was all parts from other bikes. I was devastated.