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Discover the Feeling When You Come to Play

By Jamie Bradburn


If Reba McEntire and Tony Bennett come to Toronto to play, why shouldn’t tourists follow suit?
Two decades ago, Metro Toronto urged tourists to “discover the feeling” while sampling its neighbourhoods and attractions. The focus of the late 1980s television spot that we’ve dug up today is the multitude of leisure activities the city offers. Viewers in markets like Cleveland and Detroit were enticed to check out ballet, fishing, gondola rides, horse racing, boutique shopping, bike taxis near the Gooderham Building, and Jim Clancy leading the Blue Jays to victory over the Indians or Tigers.
The producer’s sure-fire bet to bring in the crowds? Hire a pair of dueling fencers and a fog machine to lend an air of mystery and old-fashioned adventure to Casa Loma.
As for when the headliners came to play, Tony Bennett crooned at a Variety Club of Ontario fundraising gala in February 1988 while Reba McEntire took the stage for two nights at Massey Hall that October.

Comments

  • Toby von Meistersinger

    I think you are right about Jim Clancy. From the angle, of the shot with him I would have to say he was warming up in the Jays bullpen, which was on the third base line. The bullpen locations were the reason the Jays had their only forfeit game. In September of 1977, Orioles manager Earl Weaver took his team (which was losing anyway) off the field claiming he was worried about the bullpen tarps blowing off. The pitcher who held Baltimore to two hits and got the win? Jim Clancy.

  • TokyoTuds

    Before anyone chimes in to mock Tony Bennett, I “accidentally” saw him perform in Atlantic City in 1988 when I got free tickets and didn’t really know who he was.
    I was just getting into jazz at the time, but didn’t like vocals. Once I did come around to vocals, I found I far preferred Bennett to Frank Sinatra.