Frontier Theatre: A History of Nineteenth-Century Theatrical Entertainment in the Canadian Far West and Alaska

Frontier Theatre: A History of Nineteenth-Century Theatrical Entertainment in the Canadian Far West and Alaska by Chad Evans has a wealth of information about entertainers, Canadians and others, who travelled and worked in Canada's west and in Alaska. I particularly recommend this if you are interested in the theatre or, if you are interested in cultural life in Canada's west or in Alaska.

Right now I'm reading the very lively chapter on 'Theatrical Enterprise in the Kootenays', mostly about travelling entertainers and troupes in the 1890's.

Not all were appreciated - In Revelstoke in 1892, McMahon's Circus was memorialized thus

"...beyond being the first that ever exhibited in West Kootenay it had few features worth recording....the show was miserable deficient in good clowns and lady riders."

This particular circus apparently came first to the Canadian Northwest from Australia in 1889, then spent time on the western coast of the U.S. The 1892 trip referred to by the newspaper, was the first time a circus had gone east from Vancouver on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Quotation from the Kootenay Star, 5 November, 1892 p.1 as quoted by Chad Evans, in Frontier Theatre, p. 200 (Victoria, BC: Sono Nis Press, 1983)

60 Years Behind The Wheel: The Cars We Drove In Canada, 1900-1960

For some time, I've been meaning to start regular posts about books helpful to someone doing Canadian genealogy and history. In honour of this month's Carnival of Genealogy topic, family cars, I decided to start with this one.

60 Years Behind The Wheel: The Cars We Drove In Canada, 1900-1960 by Bill Sherk, with a foreword by Mike Filey (Toronto: A Hounslow Book, Dundurn Group, 2003)

Bill Sherk, known as Canada's 'old car detective', has written several books and many, many articles. In 60 Years Behind The Wheel, he has gathered together photographs and stories about cars and their owners and drivers mainly in Ontario, but also in the Maritimes, the Prairies and in British Columbia. A few commercial, farm and industrial vehicles are included, as are some buses.

There's a photograph showing one of Ed BROWN's trucks from Burnaby, B.C., for instance. Ed Brown had a trucking business from about 1910, as well as other businesses later.

And, there's a great story with photographs about four young women's adventures driving together across country from London, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1935. (Surnames: SIMMONS/COWHIG, PALMER/ROBINSON, SMITH, COPELAND/ZURBRIGG )

Well worth a look.

If you're interested in cars in Canada, here are a couple of links to check out:

CarStory with articles by Bill Sherk, Patricia Weaver Blonde, Scott Marshall and Harry DeYong: http://www.carstory.com

The Windsor on Wheels on-line exhibition from the Windsor Public Library: http://209.202.75.197/digi/wow

And look for Bill Sherk's books at your library, and for Cars of Canada by Glenn Baechler and Hugh Durnford (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973)