Paul Cardin (Never Was An Arrow II)
::: HAWKEYE, CHINGACHGOOK, and the Hidden History of Pickering, ON
YOU KNOW FOLKS, with all the airplanes flying around the Toronto/GTA on a daily basis, you’d think it would be pretty funny if someone didn’t know the Wright Brothers were the starting point for this huge phenomenon called powered flight. That from the brothers' successful flights, an entirely new mode of transport was soon flourishing.
And from the millions of cars, trucks, and motorcycles that saturate the Toronto/GTA, you’d think it silly if someone didn’t know the Ford Motor Company was THE company which launched the large-scale manufacturing of cars. An event that finally made it possible for the common man to own is own personal high-speed chariot!
Now with the hundreds of film productions going on in the Toronto/GTA (and Vancouver) for TV shows and documentaries, blockbuster movies, TV or internet commercials, and even commercial training films, employing tens-of-thousands … like … how did this massive industry come about Ontario peeps?
Any idea?
Was there always such a large scale film industry in Canada?
Nope. Not a chance.
There was nothing up here until 1956.
Hollywood and New York FILM PRODUCTIONS had been going strong for about 30 years, employing thousands of people south of the 49th, and in World War II those guys even helped with the Allied war effort!
But, in Canada, still nothing.
CBC TV finally started television broadcasting in 1952, but that was in-house, code for: only for Canadians.
And was small-scale.
But that all changed in 1956, for Canada, in the most unlikely of places … Pickering, Ontario.
An industry was born.
“Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans”, a new international western kid’s TV show, started production after the creation of four filming location sets in the newborn “Hollywood North” of Pickering and Mimico, respectively.
THREE outdoor locations in Pickering … and ONE indoor location in Mimico, Etobicoke, and the ball was rolling.
TPA Productions (which produced the “Hawkeye” show) found 3 major advantages for TV production in Canada. One, Canadian actors cost less. They could get around the American acting unions and their onerous monetary and working condition demands. Two, TPA (Television Programs of America Inc.) could use highly trained CBC actors (who had years of radio and live acting experience) to achieve the equivalent acting quality viewers were accustomed to finding from Hollywood and needed for American and British TV production. Three, and this third reason isn’t widely known, and is rarely mentioned. However, INDEED, perhaps it IS the most important reason of all.
Content rules.
Which is code for "Rule Britannia".
American TV shows simply were NOT to be shown in the British Empire!
Period.
TV was considered a powerful medium, and the easiest way to sway public opinion.
Great Britain wanted the British Empire to stay British, and not become American. Heck, it was only a few years back since they stopped it from becoming German!
So, if you were a TV production company, the easiest and fastest way to double your audience was to create content that could be shown NOT JUST in the USA, but right across the enormous British Empire. The Empire being almost as large in populace as the good, ole´ USA.
And TPA found the magic formula; first.
To get around those restrictive British content rules, TPA just had to comply with those content rules.
And here’s how they did it:
They would film in Canada, except for the first episode. Therefore, filming occured in a British empire location.
TPA used 95% Canadian actors (British subjects) for each episode and starred ONLY TWO well-known American actors (John Hart and Lon Chaney Jr. The British were also featured positively in the show, and in a non-embarrassing time period, about 20 years BEFORE the American Revolutionary War. With these complying factors, the new TV show was now considered British content even though it was largely stories about Americans!
So “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans” would be seen not just across America, but also worldwide across the glorious British Empire!
The billion dollar yearly film industry WE NOW HAVE IN CANADA started with this TV show.
This endeavour, “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans”, was a large-scale production using hundreds of Canadian actors and even kept the camera rolling through the bitter Canadian cold, in sleepy-town Pickering, in forgotten years of 1956 and 1957. The canoe lake TV set was about a three stones throw from Neil Young's boyhood home. Neil Young's brother, Bob, visited the TV set several times DURING FILMING with his friend, and later-to-be CBC producer, David Robertson.
American and Canadian investors put up a cool million to see the production through all its' 39 episodes, back in the day, as reported on the front page of the Toronto Daily Star at the time.
Ask anyone in Canada today, what the first car or airplane produced was and they’ll probably mention the founders. The Wrights, or the Fords.
Ask them how "Hollywood North" started?
Just listen for the silence.
And the crickets ~
What’s in the pictorial graphic?
ON THE LEFT is how the “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans” wilderness and man-made canoe lake set look today. This coloured photo is UPSTREAM from the blue-toned one captured from the show.
I have circled two small clusters of trees that I think, one of which, corresponding to the single circled cluster of slipping trees seen in Episode 39: ”Circle of Hate”.
The orange line shows the viewer Concession 3, in Pickering, back in 1957 when the “3” went almost down to lake level and also ended before Brock Road!
Now you know!
REMEMBER, THIS PARTICULAR TRIP BACK IN TIME was helped along because of the great research efforts of others, and the 'Hawkeye' fanship of others.
I learned that "Hawkeye", one of my fav boyhood TV shows, was actually filmed in CANADA through one of the links below.
So I had to check things out (go there), MYSELF, because of that.
Do check out these "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" links below!
To watch all 39 episodes SEE: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmHgXUJMN1TWiHtWel7yJzgB8S...
Check out these folks:
Clayton Self: johnhart.tripod.com/pickeringhawkeye.html
Steve Jensen: www.members.tripod.com/~JohnHart/hawkloca.html
Ian and Kyle Macpherson: www.members.tripod.com/~JohnHart/starhawk.htm
… also check out Clayton Self's additional investigative work, his The Forest Rangers TV Show Fan Site. Hey, remember that show?!: forestrangers.bravehost.com
And IF you visit any of these former TV studio locations BEWARE AND PREPARE against TICKS!
Cheers ~
::: HAWKEYE, CHINGACHGOOK, and the Hidden History of Pickering, ON
YOU KNOW FOLKS, with all the airplanes flying around the Toronto/GTA on a daily basis, you’d think it would be pretty funny if someone didn’t know the Wright Brothers were the starting point for this huge phenomenon called powered flight. That from the brothers' successful flights, an entirely new mode of transport was soon flourishing.
And from the millions of cars, trucks, and motorcycles that saturate the Toronto/GTA, you’d think it silly if someone didn’t know the Ford Motor Company was THE company which launched the large-scale manufacturing of cars. An event that finally made it possible for the common man to own is own personal high-speed chariot!
Now with the hundreds of film productions going on in the Toronto/GTA (and Vancouver) for TV shows and documentaries, blockbuster movies, TV or internet commercials, and even commercial training films, employing tens-of-thousands … like … how did this massive industry come about Ontario peeps?
Any idea?
Was there always such a large scale film industry in Canada?
Nope. Not a chance.
There was nothing up here until 1956.
Hollywood and New York FILM PRODUCTIONS had been going strong for about 30 years, employing thousands of people south of the 49th, and in World War II those guys even helped with the Allied war effort!
But, in Canada, still nothing.
CBC TV finally started television broadcasting in 1952, but that was in-house, code for: only for Canadians.
And was small-scale.
But that all changed in 1956, for Canada, in the most unlikely of places … Pickering, Ontario.
An industry was born.
“Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans”, a new international western kid’s TV show, started production after the creation of four filming location sets in the newborn “Hollywood North” of Pickering and Mimico, respectively.
THREE outdoor locations in Pickering … and ONE indoor location in Mimico, Etobicoke, and the ball was rolling.
TPA Productions (which produced the “Hawkeye” show) found 3 major advantages for TV production in Canada. One, Canadian actors cost less. They could get around the American acting unions and their onerous monetary and working condition demands. Two, TPA (Television Programs of America Inc.) could use highly trained CBC actors (who had years of radio and live acting experience) to achieve the equivalent acting quality viewers were accustomed to finding from Hollywood and needed for American and British TV production. Three, and this third reason isn’t widely known, and is rarely mentioned. However, INDEED, perhaps it IS the most important reason of all.
Content rules.
Which is code for "Rule Britannia".
American TV shows simply were NOT to be shown in the British Empire!
Period.
TV was considered a powerful medium, and the easiest way to sway public opinion.
Great Britain wanted the British Empire to stay British, and not become American. Heck, it was only a few years back since they stopped it from becoming German!
So, if you were a TV production company, the easiest and fastest way to double your audience was to create content that could be shown NOT JUST in the USA, but right across the enormous British Empire. The Empire being almost as large in populace as the good, ole´ USA.
And TPA found the magic formula; first.
To get around those restrictive British content rules, TPA just had to comply with those content rules.
And here’s how they did it:
They would film in Canada, except for the first episode. Therefore, filming occured in a British empire location.
TPA used 95% Canadian actors (British subjects) for each episode and starred ONLY TWO well-known American actors (John Hart and Lon Chaney Jr. The British were also featured positively in the show, and in a non-embarrassing time period, about 20 years BEFORE the American Revolutionary War. With these complying factors, the new TV show was now considered British content even though it was largely stories about Americans!
So “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans” would be seen not just across America, but also worldwide across the glorious British Empire!
The billion dollar yearly film industry WE NOW HAVE IN CANADA started with this TV show.
This endeavour, “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans”, was a large-scale production using hundreds of Canadian actors and even kept the camera rolling through the bitter Canadian cold, in sleepy-town Pickering, in forgotten years of 1956 and 1957. The canoe lake TV set was about a three stones throw from Neil Young's boyhood home. Neil Young's brother, Bob, visited the TV set several times DURING FILMING with his friend, and later-to-be CBC producer, David Robertson.
American and Canadian investors put up a cool million to see the production through all its' 39 episodes, back in the day, as reported on the front page of the Toronto Daily Star at the time.
Ask anyone in Canada today, what the first car or airplane produced was and they’ll probably mention the founders. The Wrights, or the Fords.
Ask them how "Hollywood North" started?
Just listen for the silence.
And the crickets ~
What’s in the pictorial graphic?
ON THE LEFT is how the “Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans” wilderness and man-made canoe lake set look today. This coloured photo is UPSTREAM from the blue-toned one captured from the show.
I have circled two small clusters of trees that I think, one of which, corresponding to the single circled cluster of slipping trees seen in Episode 39: ”Circle of Hate”.
The orange line shows the viewer Concession 3, in Pickering, back in 1957 when the “3” went almost down to lake level and also ended before Brock Road!
Now you know!
REMEMBER, THIS PARTICULAR TRIP BACK IN TIME was helped along because of the great research efforts of others, and the 'Hawkeye' fanship of others.
I learned that "Hawkeye", one of my fav boyhood TV shows, was actually filmed in CANADA through one of the links below.
So I had to check things out (go there), MYSELF, because of that.
Do check out these "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" links below!
To watch all 39 episodes SEE: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmHgXUJMN1TWiHtWel7yJzgB8S...
Check out these folks:
Clayton Self: johnhart.tripod.com/pickeringhawkeye.html
Steve Jensen: www.members.tripod.com/~JohnHart/hawkloca.html
Ian and Kyle Macpherson: www.members.tripod.com/~JohnHart/starhawk.htm
… also check out Clayton Self's additional investigative work, his The Forest Rangers TV Show Fan Site. Hey, remember that show?!: forestrangers.bravehost.com
And IF you visit any of these former TV studio locations BEWARE AND PREPARE against TICKS!
Cheers ~