photographs | Françoise Noel - Nipissing University

August 5th Monday. A Glorious hot August Day. Perfect for the first Big Day.
Went to work early and got the parade arranged at least our part of it. Jack Fischer had our float to finish and we had the “Gutter Service Ambulance” to decorate. Had to get a car for the last Old Home Week Babies. I did all the lettering on the old cars and trucks. The first and opening parade was at 9:30 and we did some tall old hustling to get up there.
The parade was splendid and the crowd was good too. Brought Marg, the kids down to see it. Took a bunch of pictures of the floats. PM. I was too busy to go down and see any of the sports. There was a full day of entertainment and everybody was in good spirits. At night everything was hilarity personified.

Diary of Hartley Trussler, Courtesy of Paul Trussler

Jacques Cartier. Photo by Hartley Trussler.

HMS Traveller. Photo by Harlty Trussler

The Old 1908 Auto Car. Photo by Hartley Trussler.

The grand opening parade of Old Home Week 1935 formed at the old Arena Rink on Main Street West and made its way to Amelia Park where Mayor Bullbrook with the help of several other dignitaries, declared OHW opened. Six bands participated. The grand parade on Monday was the most important event of the 1935 celebrations. It was viewed by an estimated 20,000 people and reported to be “one of the greatest in the history of the city.” A mile and a half in length, it took twenty minutes to pass a given point and included floats, veterans, dignitaries, comedians, and oddities. The veteran’s float reproduced a dugout with sandbags and a battle scene. The city’s float consisted of a historical panorama built on the firemen’s ladder truck which showed surveyors arriving in 1882 and a hunting and fishing scene. It also carried Miss North Bay, 1935, and the two children born during the 1925 Old Home Week. First prize for the floats went to the Cercle Canadien Français for a “tableau depicting the landing of Jacques Cartier on Canadian soil, planting of the cross, and welcome by the Indians.” The Travellers’ battleship float of “H.M.S. Traveller” directed by Pilot Paddy Petch looked so genuine it took second prize. (The Nugget, 5 Aug 1935)

— Motor Club Day —- August 6th Tuesday. A beautiful hot day Just Perfect.
Went to work early – I was busy as could be all forenoon getting things ready for the big Motor Club Parade It was at 1:30 PM. It was very good too but not nearly as large as yesterday’s. We had our float and two new cars in it. There was an interesting drill of the Copper Cliff Cadets down at the Park and then a couple baseball games and softball games. In the parade today was the old 1915 Buick Touring car which belonged to Harry Pedder when new and in which I had my first wonderful automobile ride. In those days it was a real adventure and something to talk about for the rest of the year. The Old car is still running good and I guess could make the same trip now in 12 hours which took us 21/2 days to make then. Margaret and I went down after dinner to see some of the sports and it was so uninteresting we went back home. Came back to see the Swim. Mar[vin] Nelson was here and swam in a relay race against four North Bay Boys. It was about as interesting as a stroll of ten year olds. We didn’t stay to see the finish.
Worked until late.

Diary of Hartley Trussler, Courtesy of Paul Trussler

The Turgeon Family.

On Wednesday, French Canadian day, the parade themes were historical and allegorical. Floats were entered by the many French Canadian communities from the surrounding area that participated and featured figures from French Canada’s past such as Jacques Cartier, Champlain, and Louis Hebert as well more allegorical figures such as Evangeline, “The Angelus”, and a tableau of the “‘slaying of the Canadian Martyrs”. The most unusual float was that from Astorville and consisted of Mr. and Mrs. David Turgeon and their 21 children. The Nugget featured their photo under the headline: “ALL OF ONE ASTORVILLE HOUSEHOLD.” (The Nugget, 12 August 1935.)

Jacques Cartier Monument

In the afternoon the parade went to McMurchy Park where a monument to mark the 400th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Canada (1534) took place. Like French Canadian Day, the monument was sponsored by the FFCF and Le Cercle Canadien-Français. Judge J.A. Valin and E.M. Regimbal, the president of the Cercle presided. The monument was blessed by Very Rev. Dean J.A. Chapleau of St. Vincent de Paul Church, North Bay’s French parish. Speeches were made by Dr. J.R. Hurtubise of Sudbury, M.P. for Nipissing, and J. Harry Marceau, M.L.A. for Nipissing. According to the French program, Senator G. Lacasse was to have given the major speech, but he was unable to attend. Mayor Bullbrook spoke saying French Canadian “were carrying out the old French traditions inaugurated in Canada with the early settlement of their country by Jacques Cartier.” (The Nugget, 7 August 1935; The Globe, 8 August 1935.)

Thursday morning, a children’s parade made its way to Amelia Park where there were activities planned for the children. It included a lot of clowns. Thursday evening featured a “Monster Carnival Parade” with prizes for best costumes in several categories. Young and old were asked to join the Shredded Wheat Band from Niagara Falls, New York, to the carnival and street dance area and to enjoy the Old Home Week spirit.

Two parades featuring the Toronto Shriner’s 70-piece band were planned for Friday, Shriners’ Day.

Saturday, organized by the Associated Canadian Travellers, a monster street parade ended at Amelia Park where the Travellers’ softball team competed against National Hockey League players, one of the entertainment highlights of the week The week closed with a “shirt-tail” parade at 11:30 that night.

View more of Hartley Trussler’s 1935 OHW Parade images below:

[Show as slideshow]

In 1925 the grand opening parade of OHW on Monday August 3rd was billed as a pageant parade. At the time, pageants were all the rage. Quebec City had put on a huge pageant to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 1908. In Ontario, many of the Old Home Week celebrations of the 1920s included a pageant but these required a large outdoor space to stage them and hundreds of volunteers to act in them and North Bay settled for a less ambitious pageant parade instead. Still, like pageants, this would allow the town to highlight its history as well as its recent progress for the visitors. The key pageant floats were designed by an “expert” and the costumes were also specially prepared for them.

Samuel de Champlain Pageant Float 1925. Photo by Hartley Trussler.

The organizers worked from the point of view that North Bay’s history began with Champlain’s travel through the area in 1615. A float portraying Champlain was therefore one of the key pageant floats. It created a stirring image of “Samuel de Champlain and his dauntless followers, bearing hard on their paddles, with their faces eagerly set forth in the direction of the new lands they were to explore…” This float was sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Champlain, played by Chas. St. Germain, was portrayed as “the first of the party and was shown as gazing from the top of a hill over the surrounding country while his companions were landing the rest of the flotilla….”

Other pageants floats represented Jean Nicolet, the first white man to set foot in North Bay, Father Claude Pijart, the first priest to the Nipissing Indians, a band of coureurs de bois and fur traders, and the Rev. Father Le Caron and a band of frenchmen. The three railways present in North Bay, put considerable effort into their floats as well.

The Lucy Dalton. Photo by Hartley Trussler.

“The C.P.R. was represented by the Lucy Dalton, the first railway engine in Northern Ontario, drawing a miniature caboose with the conductor and the brakie in uniform on the steps. The engine was driven by a gasoline motor but nothing was lost to the realistic appearance as the engineer and firemen were in the cab, smoke issued forth and a whistle tooted incessantly.” “…Lottie Britton and Alex Gillie, employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early days, piloted Lucy Dalton, the replica of the first engine used in the service along the streets. Wm. Dreany and Harry Hughes looked out from the tail end of the caboose as they did when North Bay was only a water tank and a few surrounding shacks.” [The Nugget, Aug 4 1925.]

T & N O Float. Photo by Harley Trussler.

The T. & N.O., in three sections, depicted Northern Ontario with the themes of farming, mining, and sport life. Designed by Russel Huntington, it was built in the railway shops in only two weeks. “The third section of the float pictured a sportmen’s camp with great realism. The Indian guide was not other than Frank Commando, chief of the Nipissing tribe, while the fish were brought fresh from the water of Lake Temagami.” [The Nugget, Aug. 7, 1925]

The parade included clowns, bands, soldiers, policemen and many floats by North Bay businesses. Few of them were described but pictures of the parade show some of them. Below: A.B. Gordon & Co. Ltd., a major lumber company in the area, the float from Beamish Stores and a float showing a model of the original post office.

3_PageantRoute The pageant parade formed at the west end of Main Street. Getting it going took some time as the parade streched for six city blocks and the marshals had to place each one. It marched down Main to Fisher before turning North and making its way to Memorial Park where a large crowd was waiting and the city of North Bay was granted its charter.

Hartley Trussler was working that day but he had his camera with him and took time to take pictures of several floats as they went by the North Bay Garage. For more photos from Trussler’s album see below.

“The parade was about eleven and say it was great. It was really a wonderful spectacle and very much better than I ever thought possible. It was a fitting start to the week it ushered in and everything seemed to be on the move and in good spirits. There are about five times as many people on the street as generally and everybody is dressed up and in holiday mood. The town is full of flags and bunting and it is really pretty.” [Hartley Trussler’s Diary, 3 Aug. 1925. Courtesy of Paul Trussler.]