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Live Theatre

Live theatre was very popular in Calgary before movies came along.  It continued in our era, but with different focus than in our parents’ generation.

1940 – The Grand (Variety) in the Lougheed Building has live acts.
1940 – The Palace has vaudeville performances, live orchestras, public speeches and touring acts

1944 – a Calgary teacher at Western Canada high school, Betty Mitchell, forms a workshop for actors

1950 – The Dominion Drama Festival is held at the Grand Theater

1957 – The Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium was built on 16 th avenue NW (we were 8 years old). It had an auditorium of 2500 seats and over the years hosted  plays, opera, ballet, the music festival, live speeches, comedy acts and even some grand funerals.

1966 – Ken Dyba stages live theatre presentations and Christ Newton becomes artistic director

1968 – Theatre Calgary is launched

1982 – (we were 33) Stage West is begun

Music

Given that babies in the womb hear a mother’s heart beat and mothers around the world rock their babies to sleep in a universal rhythm, it is clear that we humans are wired to rhythm.  Our bodies have their own cycles too, sleep wake, and the heartbeat, the breathing, even eye blinks. Our brain waves are a rhythm so music does speak to us in ways that words cannot always explain.

I once asked a high school class what type of music they like to listen to when they are very upset- fast or slow. They agreed they mostly wanted fast music and loud then,  and only later, the slower part.

Our music was heavily influenced by music from our parents. In the 1950s when we were 1-10 we likely did not often get to choose what radio station was playing. Our parents did. It was our background music to the day and probably to our outlook on life.
What may trigger memories then for my cohort are songs of a decade earlier, the ones we were hearing our parents listen to  as we played.

Our parents having been through years of war uncertainty, sang a lot of hopeful songs from the 1940s. The lyrics I still find very comforting now “There will be bluebirds over the white hills of Dover tomorrow just you wait and see” or “Look for the silver lining whenever clouds appear in the blue” captured a life attitude and  got them through some pretty bad times.

1919 –  Look for the silver lining

1927 – She’ll be comin round the mountain

1933 – Stormy  Weather

1933 – Goodnight Irene

1933 – Smoke gets in your eyes

1934 – I only have eyes for you

1939 – Take the A train

1940 – You are my sunshine

1940 – This land is your land

 1940 – in the Mood

1941 – Chatanooga choo choo

1941 – White Cliffs of Dover

1941 – Boogie Woogie bugle boy

1942 – White Christmas

1943 – Paper Doll

1943 -Take a chance on love

1943 – That Old Black Magic

1943 – You’ll never know

1943 – You’ll never walk alone

1944 – Accentuate the positive

1944 – Besame Mucho

1944 – Don’t fence me in

1944 – I’ll be seeing  you

1944 – Swingin on a star

1944 – You always hurt the one you love

1945 – On the Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe

1945 – Sentimental Journey

1945 – Till the end of time

1946 – Let it snow

1946 – Personality

1948- I’m lookin over a four leaf clover

1948- Buttons and bows

1948- Ghost riders in the sky

1949- Some enchanted evening

There were new songs in the fifties. What is interesting though is that Elvis peaked before we were teens.  We were only  7 when he played Hound Dog and by the time we were teens we were more interested in other music, like the Beatles.

In the fifties we heard:

1950 – Mona Lisa

1951 – I whistle a happy tune

1952 – Your cheatin heart

1953 – How much is that doggie in the window?

1953 – That’s amore

1954 – Ballad of Davy Crocket

1954 – Earth angel

1954 – Mr. Sandman

1955  – Blue suede shoes

1955 – Maynard Ferguson plays trumpet

1955 – Only You

1955 – Rock around the clock

1955 -The Four Lads perform

1956 – I walk the line

1956 – Que sera sera

1957 – Jailhouse rock

1957 – Moe Kaufmann plays jazz flute

1957 – Paul Anka is famous

1957 – Peggy Sue

1958 – Johnny B. Good

1958 – La Bamba

1958-  Purple People Eater

1958- The Chipmunk song

In the sixties we were now entering our teens

Here are some of the songs we were hearing. There was rock n roll yes but also folk.

1. – Leader of the pack
2. – Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious

1960 – At last

1960 – Georgia on my  mind

1961 – Cryin

1961 – Let’s Twist Again

1962 – Sinnerman

1963 – Be my baby

1963 – Louie Louie

1963 – Mas que nada

1963 – Ring of fire

1964  – The Name Game

1964 – Chim Chim charee

1964 – Dancin in the street

1964 – The girl from Ipanema

1964 – Under the boardwalk

1965 – California dreamin

1965 – Do Re Mi

1965 – I feel good

1965 – I got you babe

1965 – It’s not unusual

1965 – King of the Road

1965 – Like a rollin stone

1965 – My girl

1965 – Neil Young famous for “Diana”

1965 – Satisfaction

1965 – The Guess Who, famous for “These Eyes”

1965 – The sound of silence

1965 – These boots were made for walkin

1966 – Good vibrations

1966 – Gordon Lightfoot famous for Early Morning Rain

1966 – Yellow Submarine

1967 – Brown -eyed girl

1967 – Can’t take my eyes off of you

1967 – Daydream believer

1967 – Leonard Cohen performs

1967 – Light my fire

1967 – Pata pata

1967 – Steppenwolf famous for “Born to be Wild”

1967 – Suzanne

1967 – To love somebody

1967 – You made me feel like a natural woman

1967 -Ode to Billie Joe

1967- Your love keeps lifting me

1968 – Born to be wild

1968 – Everyday people

1968 – I heard it through the grapevine

1968 – It’s a wonderful world

1968 – Son of a preacher man

1968 – Wichita Lineman

1969 – Fortunate son

1969 – My way

1969 – Stand by your man

1969 – Sweet Caroline

1969 – Walk on by

Our teen years were marked by the hippie culture, objections to the war in Vietnam and movements for peace and love. Women’s empowerment featured in some of the songs.

Entertainment

Our teen years were an era of magic shows

1960s – Amazing Kresken is famous touring magician

1960s – Peter Reveen is famous touring hypnotist

Dance

Our parents had gone to dance halls in the war years with absolutely huge crowds of soldiers and women gathering.
Dances had actually been a prairie tradition even in the 1930s. Teens and young adults would come from miles around to small town community halls or even church halls to dance. So in the 1940s when the men went off to war, their return was often celebrated by dancing too. Many of the parents of my cohort either met at a dance or went to dances when dating

The dances of the 1930s were the classic waltz of course but also the jitterbug, foxtrot, lindy hop, quickstep and some were doing the rumba.  My dad has lots of stories about going to dances in his twenties.  The girls who did not get asked much were ‘wallflowers’ standing against the wall. My  uncle who liked to ‘cut a rug’ as they say, said a woman’s legs just looked best when she wore high heels when dancing.  My dad would go up to strangers and ask “Can I have this dance?” If they said yes, great. If not, it was a bit of a blow to the ego but men learned to handle it. One time my dad, still single asked a girl  to dance and she not only said no but added “ I’m particular about who I dance with”. He was taken aback only for a second and replied “Well, I’m not. That’s why I asked you”.

In the fifties  we were little kids so we did not go to dances. But as we got bigger we noticed how adults danced and we  imitated.  There were even classes in school for us preteens to learn to dance. The swing, bop and the jive were popular.  Our parents had become good at the jitter bug but we were too young for it.. We did however become interested in the bunny hop.

In the sixties my cohort  we jived. We also learned the twist, the mashed potato, the Watusi, the monkey, the swim and the jerk.   Some did the pony.  It was a question of personality.  The outgoing were more willing to try the new moves.

We had ‘sock hops’ in the school gym after school. The goal was to let us have entertainment and social dating under supervision but it all ended by supper time.

By 1965 though we were already 16 and way too mature we thought for the school to direct our socializing.  In Calgary some venues had dances for teens, often coffee shops with live music, in the downtown area. They were often smoke filled and darkly lit.
Some movies we were watching though had amazing dance scenes.

1961 – West Side Story

1963 – Bye Bye Birdie

1964  – Viva Las Vegas

1965 – Sixteen going on 17

We were in our twenties before some of the classic dance movie sequences were shown

1977- Saturday night fever

1978 -Grease

1979- All that Jazz

I was shy though and for me just waltzing was showy enough.  I can’t recall anyone doing dances other than waltzes at those coffee shop venues.

In the 1970s, now in our twenties,  dance styles for teens had changed. Some were doing the funky chicken, the robot, the hustle, the bump.  In the 1980s and breakdancing, the pop and lock, the running man were fascinating to watch but most in my cohort did not actually do them. Michael Jackson debuted the moon walk in 1983. We were 34.

 Our kids however often danced again. In the 1980s when my cohort had kids, some were learning how walk ‘like an Egyptian”. In the 1990s,  the latest teens were doing the macarena  and line dancing.

Dancing in public takes a certain self confidence. The joy is  the dance itself, sharing the rhythm and movement. I however was so shy I never felt at ease that way.  Our parents sure could dance. With movies of the 1980s I see that some of our kids did also.