Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens: Photographs and Memories from Canada's Most Famous Arena - Softcover

Abel, Lance

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770411631 ISBN 13: 9781770411630

Publisher: ECW Press, 2013

Synopsis

Explore the unseen Maple Leaf Gardens

Generations have come to marvel and celebrate spectacles of all kinds at Maple Leaf Gardens. With its soaring roof and massive walls, this iconic building tells a story with an unlikely beginning and an ending yet to be written. Built against all odds, in the grip of the Great Depression, the Gardens went on to host 2,533 hockey games, with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ final regular season record 1,215 wins, 768 losses, and 346 ties. When it closed in 1999, it was the last Original Six arena still standing and remains in use for hockey today as Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.

In Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens, Graig Abel and Lance Hornby have composed a rare, stunning, and historically invaluable tribute to what many would consider the Mecca of Canadian sport. Abel’s years as the Maple Leafs’ photographer make him the perfect guide for sports fans, music lovers, and star-gazers. Readers will experience the building’s many innovative features from the rafters to the clock, from the rinkside gold seats right up to the greys, where the “real fans” sat. Alongside Abel’s humorous first-hand stories about Harold Ballard, Doug Gilmour, and the celebrities who frequented the Gardens, Hornby gives a press box perspective on covering the Leafs at the end of the Gardens’ eventful era and the building’s place in history.

About this title

About the Author

Graig Abel is the official photographer of the Leafs, starting his 37th year in 2013-14. He’s a former player with the Streetsville Derbys Junior B team and grandson of Charles Abel, founder of the nation-wide photofinishing chain. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Lance Hornby has been at the Toronto Sun since 1981, covering the Leafs and the NHL since 1986. He has written, edited, and contributed to six other hockey books, including The Story of Maple Leaf Gardens in 1999. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens

Photographs and Memories of Canada's Most Famous Arena

By Graig Abel, Lance Hornby

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Graig Abel and Lance Hornby
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-77041-163-0

CHAPTER 1

My most profitable photograph was of the Gardens at night, used in the program for the final game on February 13, 1999. I've sold several thousand copies of this image in all sorts of sizes through the years, 8 x 10, 16 x 20 — and it's all that more valuable if someone like Doug Gilmour signs it.

Most NHL arenas produce wonderful art to show how nice their buildings are. But the Leafs had been using an old daytime exterior shot taken many years before I'd come along. Before taking my own picture, I did some research on photos taken around the league. I thought a nighttime shot with the Leafs logo lit up on various spots on the roof would be ideal. Management really liked the idea, but then I had to find an elevated position from which to shoot.

There was a 17-floor apartment/office tower on the south side of Carlton, east of Church, with an unobstructed view. The problem — how to get on their roof?

I wandered in the lobby one morning, up to the front desk and talked to a very nice security guard. I asked if he was a Leafs fan (of course he was), explained who I was and what I wanted. For the price of some poster prints of his favourite players, my secret project was underway. I picked a late August date and asked the Leafs for interior lights on all floors, inside and out, to be kept on until 10 p.m., especially around the roof.

Around 7:30 p.m. on the appointed evening, a friend and I loaded up with assorted lenses and cameras as well as different films, slides and negatives. We got the thumbs-up as we passed my security friend and also managed to sneak in a few brown pops. I'm very afraid of heights and thought I might need some liquid courage if I had to sidle up to the edge of the roof.

Sure enough, there were no rails or anything to keep us from falling. We set up in the middle of the roof, my tripod with a timed exposure. The first shots looked fine, but not 100 percent perfect; I kept catching the corner of the building's roof in my frame. But I'd vowed not to get any closer to the edge.

We waited for the sun to go down, had some beer and started to enjoy a perfect summer night. I took some nice shots of the Toronto skyline while we waited, getting a little braver with each sip and moving my gear closer toward the foreboding ledge for the ideal shot.

The one I selected, as I said, has been used everywhere. Many news photogs tried to duplicate it later, especially during the 1998 — 99 season as the Gardens was closing. But we had the perfect night and the perfect lighting, and they could not figure out where I'd been positioned. I always know it's my image because you can see two young ladies on the corner of Church and Carlton hanging around, waiting for something.

I don't think it was a streetcar.

Most pictures I took of Harold Ballard in his bunker were from the other end of the ice at a weird angle. He had this goofy rule that photographers couldn't work on the east side of the building.

Then one day I was called in by Bill Cluff. Harold had asked him about getting a picture I had taken of him and King Clancy. Mr. Ballard really liked the photo, but they were slightly obscured by a very tall fan sitting in front of them. He wanted the picture re-touched.

I told him no problem, even though I had no idea how to do it. I had heard of a guy on Carlton Street who did air brushing and photo restoration, gave him a call and showed up with a 20 x 24

Edition details

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770411631
• ISBN 13: 9781770411630
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248