Yes..I'm 66 and found one!! Me and my best friend walking east on Charles St ( where I lived) towards Yonge Street . We were like 8 or 9..all alone, not a care in the world. Best childhood ever. I saved the video. I was shocked to see my young self.
Memories... Hook up with the boys after work on a Friday. Start off at Yonge St Station for 50 cents draughts ordered by the tray. Sometimes we'd head over the Old Spaghetti Factory for a bite or just hit one of the many pubs on Yonge. Tons of live music back in the day. The Gas Works was great rock club. Not too hard to take a gal home after. Once things closed, 1 am back in those days we'd usually hit the Happy Lucky Chinese food joint at Bloor St or head up to Yonge and St Clair and hit Frans all night diner for bite to soak up the booze and head home. No bar fights. No shootings or stabbings. No BS. Just a great night out on the town. Really miss those days
@@sevind7 Yeah, in those days it was dirty, sleazy, and crawling with weirdos. Toronto, like most cities has been completely gentrified. Is it ideal? Perhaps not, but the city is generally safer now I would think.
@@ianarchibald1423 I was 14 years old and me and my friend used to go down and hang out on Young Street all the time ( at the arcade by Sam the record Man ) and we never once had an issue I wouldn’t dare let my 14 year-old kid go and hang out down on Young Street now
This is the first year I hit Yonge Street as a teen - Still remember exiting the Wellesley Subway station on my way to buy a pair platforms and Master Johns
We came from Scotland in 1974 I was only 15. I spent lots of time wandering downtown Toronto in those day. I`m 65 and retired now. The years have really flown past...😥
The Imperial 6 is showing Westworld! I used to be the projectionist in the Jorgenson Hall mini-theater and ran the films for the Ryerson Student Union film program. I also built some of the sound equipment for that theater when I was studying electrical/electronic engineering at Ryerson between 1972 and 1980. (That job pretty much paid my rent at NWC!) One of the films I projected was Westworld and I was so enthralled with that film that after running it about 10 times at Ryerson I went and paid to see it again at the Imperial 6!
And 50 years from now folk will be bemoaning the loss of those glorious days of 2024. ;) It has ever been the so, and always will be, when nostalgia is given free rein. The halcyon days of our younger years elicit potent feelings about those simpler and more care-free times. Particularly where our teen years are concerned, when we begin to leave childhood behind while still having the security of a family and home. But this nostalgia thing is a rolling train, following us throughout life, trailing behind by about 30 years and more. Calling to us with memories given a rosier tint, being always compared to the current travails of modern living. And who would have it any other way? That special mixture of wistful longing and warming glow of reflecting back on long past times is one of the wonderful pleasures afforded by an imaginative, reflective, contemplative consciousness. It is an aspect of the way in which time heals.
@@glennledrew8347 Very true. I recall reading one of the ancient Greek writers bemoaning his present day, and how much better it was in the "good old days" 2500 years ago! You can find this throughout literature going back centuries.
That was the summer I moved to Toronto for grad studies at U of T, spent a fair bit of time exploring Yonge St. A long stretch of the street was closed to cars and turned into a pedestrian mall.
Yes, I was 12 in 1974, born and raised in Toronto, and I remember Yonge Street being closed to traffic. I loved walking on the street. The city did that for a few years in the summer. My mom took us downtown by subway, and we had red hots (hot dogs) and honeydew (orange) to drink, from a tiny kiosk in Simpson's department store basement. What an amazing treat that was. Those were magical times for me. My mom made everything so special. My mom has sadly passed away, and Simpson's is long gone. So many things have changed, forever, not for better.
Toronto was a safe place at one time mr sub at yonge and dundas was always open baskin robbins was open late at DUNDAS SQUARE Across from elcockador before the Eaton center was built 😊
I have lived my entire life in Toronto. I turned 20 in 1974. Unlike a lot of folks my age I really don't look back at those days with rose-coloured glasses. As this video make clear, Toronto was dirtier, scruffier, less interesting all round. Great video, BTW.
At the time you shot this, I was 7 years old in Montreal I live in Toronto since 1994 and just love to see old footage. Great music score too! Did you end up working as a cinematographer? Thanks again!
Awesome vid! I was 10 when this was taken and we used to drive down to Toronto from Kingston a couple times a year to stay in the big city. Used to stay at the what was then the new Holiday Inn beside the new City Hall on Chestnut street. You can see the stub of the CN Tower under construction, people were afraid that when it was completed it was going to fall and kill people in a wide radius (I kid you not)! The city today is completely unrecognizable. Yonge Street was the sleaze capital of Canada in those years just before they built the Eaton Centre. Amazing.
Great to see old videos of Toronto. I see a lot of comments where some people feel that it was safer while others say it was pretty seedy. On one hand I remember travelling downtown on my own when I was 15 to buy art supplies and I would go out and about on my own at about 12! Then again I remember being in my late teens and heading downtown and being followed by guys and creepy guys walking by and making comments. And yes I just wouldn't walk down certain parts of Yonge street.
I was there last night, OMG, what happened????????????????????????????? I don't recognize it anymore, it's like a movie set with big buildings and seedy little sidestreets and Ubers all over with bikes
zumburgers ! likely the best burgers in toronto ! i often frequented the location on bloor east just east of yonge...MrMiniCooper79, thanks for the memories !
Love this. The gal around .57 secs. looks very much like I did then! Several friends agree, but would have been earlier than 74. Any chance some shots are earlier? It's just uncanny!
It was about this time I went down to Sam’s and bought the original Lynryd Skynard album with them in fire. I believe they were using helicopters to put up the CN. tower on that day. In a way, it was on that day at 15 that I knew (GNOSIS) what Toronto was and who owned it and why things have happened in the way they have. And yeah...I busked in the pit at Dundas and Young between 79 and 85...I still have the guitar that has the dents when coins hit it:-P
That's awesome. Brings back some memories as I used to work downtown then. Lots of sex shops blatantly selling their toys and I remember back then they were busted and most run out of town when a little shoe shine boy was murdered.
Omg that is so sad 😞 I wasn’t around there till the 90’s but my friend Junior was also murdered. We lived in an abandoned building together with about 20 other kids at the corner of Church & Carlton, I was only 14 when he was killed
@@MissEddieBlueKawaiiKrafts wow 14 and living on the streets. Sorry to hear you were in that situation. :( The Shoe Shine boy was very upsetting. Here is the story en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Emanuel_Jaques
th-cam.com/video/vRUJmhDp3t4/w-d-xo.html If you stop the video at around 2.42 there are two young boys in the picture. In the comments, a guy says he's certain that the young boy is Emmanuel Jacques and the older boy shining the shoes is his brother. The dates match up. The guy who posted the video says he took the pictures in late July 1977. Emmanuel was abducted around that time. Very sad.
@@stumarston6812 I'm confused. The video is only 2 minutes and 16 seconds long, and made in 1974. Are you perhaps referring to a different video? (Added: I think you're referring to a video called "Toronto 1977."
Seems like the "red district" part of Toronto.... I recall those fur coats and the "hippie" hairstyles that carried over from the 60s. Wow - lots of garbage blowing around Yonge back in '74! And those Hare Krishnas chanting up and down.......haven't seen them around in decades. I wonder if you re-shot the same area today how it would compare 48 years later......
We had them in Adelaide, south Australia in the 70s and 80s. They would come chanting into the city mall daily. No idea what happened to them here either.
Great flick! I was 15 and now 64. This brings back good memories of old.
Same here.
Outstanding .
Oh how I miss Sam the Record Man . I spent a lot of Saturday mornings there in the late 60s and early 70s .
Thanks !
I turned 28 in 1974 now I'm 78. Time flies way too fast.
Is was born in Regent Park 1960 and basically grew up on Yonge Street. This just brings back soooo many memories. Thanks for posting.
Who else watches these old videos and looks for people you knew?
I looked for myself lol
I don’t because I’m not old
@@maryanngonneau2856 yes I was 15 at that time. And we would come in from Mississauga and get into a bit of trouble on Yonge St 😂
Yes..I'm 66 and found one!! Me and my best friend walking east on Charles St ( where I lived) towards Yonge Street . We were like 8 or 9..all alone, not a care in the world. Best childhood ever. I saved the video. I was shocked to see my young self.
I was looking to see Sam leaning out on his front door.
Memories... Hook up with the boys after work on a Friday. Start off at Yonge St Station for 50 cents draughts ordered by the tray. Sometimes we'd head over the Old Spaghetti Factory for a bite or just hit one of the many pubs on Yonge. Tons of live music back in the day. The Gas Works was great rock club. Not too hard to take a gal home after. Once things closed, 1 am back in those days we'd usually hit the Happy Lucky Chinese food joint at Bloor St or head up to Yonge and St Clair and hit Frans all night diner for bite to soak up the booze and head home. No bar fights. No shootings or stabbings. No BS. Just a great night out on the town. Really miss those days
@@Jim-ku6ry Jim yes I echo your thoughts completely! I loved those days!!
Lol, move on old man
@@PopShoppekid Absolutely!
Outstanding film. It really captures the look and feel of 1974.
This was my Toronto. I was 22 a starving art student at the Ontario College of Art. It was very safe and people were friendly.
I hope you are not starving 😊
probably rose tinted glasses. Yonge street was far from safe back then. It's much better now.
@@sevind7 Yeah, in those days it was dirty, sleazy, and crawling with weirdos. Toronto, like most cities has been completely gentrified. Is it ideal? Perhaps not, but the city is generally safer now I would think.
@@sevind7
Yes. Yonge St went through a change following the Emanuel Jaques murder.
@@ianarchibald1423 I was 14 years old and me and my friend used to go down and hang out on Young Street all the time ( at the arcade by Sam the record Man ) and we never once had an issue I wouldn’t dare let my 14 year-old kid go and hang out down on Young Street now
I was obsessed with those popcorn / candy apple carts when I was a kid
1:53 - please use time stamps, others would really appreciate it, only takes a second
That caught my eye, are used to love those.
This is the first year I hit Yonge Street as a teen - Still remember exiting the Wellesley Subway station on my way to buy a pair platforms and Master Johns
Omg! Good times, had 2 pairs of there shoes, add some satin pants, and off to see Bowie at the okeefe centre 👍♥️
I bought a pair down there too, I tried to wear them, but I couldn't. :)
The candy apple and popcorn carts! I can still smell them!
1:53 - please use time stamps, others would really appreciate it, only takes a second
I was 14 and miss those days
I emigrated to Toronto Canada from England in 1974, this brings back memories for sure.
We came from Scotland in 1974 I was only 15. I spent lots of time wandering downtown Toronto in those day. I`m 65 and retired now. The years have really flown past...😥
The Imperial Six and Sam The Record Man. That's when you knew you were on Yonge Street in the 70s.
Why is it B/W?
@@bgorveattblack and white film was cheaper back then, film was expensive
The Imperial 6 is showing Westworld! I used to be the projectionist in the Jorgenson Hall mini-theater and ran the films for the Ryerson Student Union film program. I also built some of the sound equipment for that theater when I was studying electrical/electronic engineering at Ryerson between 1972 and 1980. (That job pretty much paid my rent at NWC!) One of the films I projected was Westworld and I was so enthralled with that film that after running it about 10 times at Ryerson I went and paid to see it again at the Imperial 6!
@@bgorveatt it's better in B/W!
boy did we love city back then
It's a hole now.
We didn't realize it then that was the best time in our lives
So true, life was so simple, we had no idea how complicated it was about to get.
This is a great video that deserves more views! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome footage of our city!
Awesome, this is priceless. So sad this is all gone.
And 50 years from now folk will be bemoaning the loss of those glorious days of 2024. ;)
It has ever been the so, and always will be, when nostalgia is given free rein. The halcyon days of our younger years elicit potent feelings about those simpler and more care-free times. Particularly where our teen years are concerned, when we begin to leave childhood behind while still having the security of a family and home.
But this nostalgia thing is a rolling train, following us throughout life, trailing behind by about 30 years and more. Calling to us with memories given a rosier tint, being always compared to the current travails of modern living.
And who would have it any other way? That special mixture of wistful longing and warming glow of reflecting back on long past times is one of the wonderful pleasures afforded by an imaginative, reflective, contemplative consciousness. It is an aspect of the way in which time heals.
@@glennledrew8347 Very true. I recall reading one of the ancient Greek writers bemoaning his present day, and how much better it was in the "good old days" 2500 years ago! You can find this throughout literature going back centuries.
@@glennledrew8347 Nobody is celebrating Toronto today.
@@monicapushkin3274 No, now that cameras and AI are here, it'll be about five years.
Great film with a touch of jazz! I enjoyed it very much:)
I was 1 year's old. I think this might have been the year they started building the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
LOL!!
I wish it was longer! But thanks for sharing what you have.
Me Too 👍🏼
That was the summer I moved to Toronto for grad studies at U of T, spent a fair bit of time exploring Yonge St. A long stretch of the street was closed to cars and turned into a pedestrian mall.
Yes, I was 12 in 1974, born and raised in Toronto, and I remember Yonge Street being closed to traffic. I loved walking on the street. The city did that for a few years in the summer. My mom took us downtown by subway, and we had red hots (hot dogs) and honeydew (orange) to drink, from a tiny kiosk in Simpson's department store basement. What an amazing treat that was. Those were magical times for me. My mom made everything so special. My mom has sadly passed away, and Simpson's is long gone. So many things have changed, forever, not for better.
I remember it and I loved the film!
Toronto was a safe place at one time mr sub at yonge and dundas was always open baskin robbins was open late at DUNDAS SQUARE Across from elcockador before the Eaton center was built 😊
Excellent work. Thanks for sharing. ♥️
I have lived my entire life in Toronto. I turned 20 in 1974. Unlike a lot of folks my age I really don't look back at those days with rose-coloured glasses. As this video make clear, Toronto was dirtier, scruffier, less interesting all round. Great video, BTW.
Correct Sir
Has been and always will be a capitalist hellscape.
1:45 I missed SAM The Record Man.
Dang I remember going g to that theater.
Wonderful video, I spent a lot of time on the strip way back in the day. It's great to look back in time. Thanks man.
I miss Sam the Record Man. 😢
Amazing and thank you!
At the time you shot this, I was 7 years old in Montreal I live in Toronto since 1994 and just love to see old footage. Great music score too! Did you end up working as a cinematographer? Thanks again!
Whoah, memories! I was 5. Imperial 6 = Star Wars / Close Encounters.
I'm surprised Caligula was on the bill too!
Awesome vid! I was 10 when this was taken and we used to drive down to Toronto from Kingston a couple times a year to stay in the big city. Used to stay at the what was then the new Holiday Inn beside the new City Hall on Chestnut street. You can see the stub of the CN Tower under construction, people were afraid that when it was completed it was going to fall and kill people in a wide radius (I kid you not)! The city today is completely unrecognizable. Yonge Street was the sleaze capital of Canada in those years just before they built the Eaton Centre. Amazing.
I remember slum street very well.
Back before all the "world class city" nonsense.
Aka Chinese money launderers buying up all the housing.
I was there in ‘72. Looks about right.
Wow. I saw the original Star Wars at the Imperial Six upon its release. Ahhh..the good ol days.
Great to see old videos of Toronto. I see a lot of comments where some people feel that it was safer while others say it was pretty seedy. On one hand I remember travelling downtown on my own when I was 15 to buy art supplies and I would go out and about on my own at about 12! Then again I remember being in my late teens and heading downtown and being followed by guys and creepy guys walking by and making comments. And yes I just wouldn't walk down certain parts of Yonge street.
I was in Toronto 1974 and I enyoid it very much. At that time I turned to 21 years. Now I am already 71 years old 😢😊
I wasn’t born till 81’ but omg Tysm!! Even this is closer to what I knew then how it is now 😅💖
You should follow me on Instagram
It wasn't too diverse back then
That's why we loved it so much.
I remember the Yonge st. crossing back then. they had great bands.
Safe, Clean, Friendly and thriving that was Canada before the current madness
Yonge St. used to be fun! Too bad it got ruined...
I was there last night, OMG, what happened?????????????????????????????
I don't recognize it anymore, it's like a movie set with big buildings and seedy little sidestreets and Ubers all over with bikes
To bad the whole of canada got ruined beyond repair
Around the time of my first enchantment with T.O.
Mine was 1969.
Shocking how filthy the streets were back then.
Hi! Can I cut and use some of the shots for a video? This clip is awesome!
The Hare Krishnas outside Sam’s. They used to show up at Loyola College, Montreal, as well. I don’t know where their ashram was.
Thanks for sharing
zumburgers ! likely the best burgers in toronto ! i often frequented the location on bloor east just east of yonge...MrMiniCooper79, thanks for the memories !
Awesome!! ✌️❤️🇨🇦
Great clip. Looking to contact you about it. Let me know if there's a way to get in touch. Thanks!
Great film!
Love this. The gal around .57 secs. looks very much like I did then! Several friends agree, but would have been earlier than 74. Any chance some shots are earlier? It's just uncanny!
It's like midnight cowboy set in Tirana
See the Canadian movie "Going Down The Road". Two Newfies come to Toronto for fame and fortune and wind up hanging out on 1970s Yonge St.
I liked the SCTV version better.@@lamontcranston3177
@@lamontcranston3177 You mean the _SCTV_ parody.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver That too! Ha ha !
@@lamontcranston3177
"Garth, Garth! I just got her pregnant!"
"Mohhhhhhpe ... now I'll have to move to Etobicoke ..."
Hello, I would like to use your video to animate a music video, would you give me permission?❤
It was about this time I went down to Sam’s and bought the original Lynryd Skynard album with them in fire. I believe they were using helicopters to put up the CN. tower on that day. In a way, it was on that day at 15 that I knew (GNOSIS) what Toronto was and who owned it and why things have happened in the way they have.
And yeah...I busked in the pit at Dundas and Young between 79 and 85...I still have the guitar that has the dents when coins hit it:-P
I miss the big slice
I was the guy at sam's and I was very polite and forthcoming with admiration and pontalnax with booky booky.
I was 17 yrs old😊
RPI stands for Ryerson Polyrechnical Institute.
I was born in Toronto January 1974 👍🏻
How's it feel being 50? I've still got a few months before that hits. Cheeds
@@buckodonnghaile4309 so far so good, it’s going great
@MrMiniCooper79 I would like to use a clip from this video in documentary feature.
Wow, that really brings a whole bunch of great memories!!
✌️👍
Yonge Street is Fun Street! 🤩
Yep cruisin Young st in 74 was the thing to do... Zumburger and munchies
Now Toronto is just a boring playground for the wealthy.
Toronto was so nice back when people had civil liberties
Now toronto is such a dangerous place to live
Did you know Dermot Kenney, he did the midnight til dawn show on CJRT? How about Tony Lamana? Third year RTA grads in '72.
Still haven't found myself yet.
Alot of wild and bad stuff happened on that street, 1977 was the end of it.
The year I was born and my mum was working for Bell downtown at the time. Maybe I'll see her waddling down the road ?
That's awesome. Brings back some memories as I used to work downtown then. Lots of sex shops blatantly selling their toys and I remember back then they were busted and most run out of town when a little shoe shine boy was murdered.
Omg that is so sad 😞 I wasn’t around there till the 90’s but my friend Junior was also murdered. We lived in an abandoned building together with about 20 other kids at the corner of Church & Carlton, I was only 14 when he was killed
@@MissEddieBlueKawaiiKrafts wow 14 and living on the streets. Sorry to hear you were in that situation. :( The Shoe Shine boy was very upsetting. Here is the story en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Emanuel_Jaques
th-cam.com/video/vRUJmhDp3t4/w-d-xo.html
If you stop the video at around 2.42 there are two young boys in the picture. In the comments, a guy says he's certain that the young boy is Emmanuel Jacques and the older boy shining the shoes is his brother. The dates match up. The guy who posted the video says he took the pictures in late July 1977. Emmanuel was abducted around that time. Very sad.
@@stumarston6812 I'm confused. The video is only 2 minutes and 16 seconds long, and made in 1974. Are you perhaps referring to a different video? (Added: I think you're referring to a video called "Toronto 1977."
Seems like the "red district" part of Toronto.... I recall those fur coats and the "hippie" hairstyles that carried over from the 60s. Wow - lots of garbage blowing around Yonge back in '74! And those Hare Krishnas chanting up and down.......haven't seen them around in decades.
I wonder if you re-shot the same area today how it would compare 48 years later......
When toronto was a good safe city..not anymore..
This is super. I love it. How can I get a hold of you to ask a question ?
Thanks for posting that. you captured it well, but... no Papaya Hut?
At Elm St. and Yonge?
@@lamontcranston3177 That's right, with the carved coconut heads. It seemed exotic at the time!
@@ranaldthurgood4875 I lived up the street on Elm. I would arrange to meet people at the Hut all the time.
🎉 éstos son los años preciosos DESPUÉS vino la Guerra en NICARAGUA
I loved the imperial 6. Actually everything back then was better
When did Canada get color?
One shot look like Abbie Hoffman ?
More Starvin Marvins !
Yonge street looked pretty filthy n ‘74…🤷♂️
Were you in RTA or Photo Arts?
Sadly .... I'm old enough to look for me 😁
I was 2 then
Sam the Record Man.
“ got any third Reich marching music”?
4rth floor!
What’s missing from the crowd?
Turdo’s people.
It looks like a Depression
Sad to know that all the people we saw are now 70+ or no longer with us. Now so much of Yonge Street are ugly steel and glass walled condos.
Schneiderman's music hall
💖🙃
The Hare Krishnas made me LOL. Gawd, they were annoying.
I wonder what happened to the Hare Krishna people?
We had them in Adelaide, south Australia in the 70s and 80s. They would come chanting into the city mall daily. No idea what happened to them here either.
They moved to Nunavut.
@@danielthoman7324 Found em!
th-cam.com/video/FzfXvTuZE-A/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Shout%21Factory
Declined due to corruption. Public lost interest. No new converts. They're still around but they are no longer obsessed with growing.
They became yuppies in the 80's.
starvin marvins...the beginning of the alphabet nightmare
I could easily have been in this video! The only thing they missed was the Church of Scientology!
toronto, city of champions
In 1974 I had a live in girlfriend the entire year and we shared everything 50/50. She was a true feminist😊
Oh yeah she also never wore makeup and didn't need too.
Look how thin everyone was.