One Great History

Deanna Durbin, Winnipeg’s Sweetheart

We've got a special guest today, folks! Musician and author Melanie Gall joins us to talk about movie star Deanna Durbin.

In the 1930s and '40s, one movie star above all had captured Winnipeggers hearts: Deanna Durbin. Born Edna Mae Durbin at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital, Durbin skyrocketed to fame in the late 1930s with a stint on Eddie Cantor's radio program Texico Town and the film Three Smart Girls. She'd go on to save Universal Studios from bankruptcy and become the highest paid woman in America - before abruptly retiring to France.

Grand Beach

It's time for another beach episode - this time, to the other side of Lake Winnipeg! Explore the history of Grand Beach from the first ill-fated tourist excursion to the 'grand old days' as a Canadian Northern Railway Resort.

The Burton Cummings Episode

So, there's this guy. You used to see him around town, but he keeps moving away. His name is Burton Cummings. They named a theatre after him, and a community centre, and probably a few other things. He owns Salisbury House, got into a fight at a North End 7-Eleven, and even wrote a song or two that got played on the radio. He used to play these songs for royalty and presidents, and sometimes for kids at rec centers. Some of these songs he wrote by himself, and some he wrote with Randy Bachman, and they played in a band called The Guess Who, until they didn't, and then the rhythm section took the name when no one was looking. So yeah, this guy moved to Moose Jaw and yelled at a dance instructor until she moved away. Now he writes poetry. Oh, and one time he bought 50 canoes and blamed it on an accounting error. 

This month on One Great History, Producer Nick tells Alex and Sabrina all about Burton Cummings.

Special thanks to Martine from the Morris and District Centennial Museum for chatting with us for the Collecting Conversations segment!

Wilde Times

Join Sabrina, Alex and Nick on a journey through the development of Winnipeg's 2SLGBTQ+ across the 1970s - from the early days of the Mardi Gras and the Marlborough all the way to the creation of Giovanni's Room (better known to some as Gio's).

Thanks to Danielle with the Brandon General Museum & Archives for joining us for Collecting Conversations! Visit brandongeneralmuseum dot ca for more information.

William Beal

When homesteaders were coming to Canada by the tens of thousands in the late 19th century, William Beal was one of a small number of black pioneers who staked his claim in Manitoba. Though by all accounts he was never much of a farmer, Beal made his mark as a booklover and autodidact in the community at Swan River Valley.
In this episode, we explore the life of William Beal as well as the history of black immigration to Canada, and the tactics used by white Canadians and the Laurier government to prevent African-Americans from crossing the border.

Lord Gordon Gordon AKA Winnipeg’s Anna Sorokin

On the evening of July 2nd, 1873, a visiting Scottish lord, Lord Gordon Gordon, was kidnapped from James McKay's Silver Heights home and rushed towards the American border. The events that followed would spiral into a full-scale international incident involving both the Canadian and American governments and the discovery that Lord Gordon Gordon was not who he seemed.

A huge thank you to Jon Benson with The WRENCH for joining us for Collecting Conversations! Visit thewrench.ca/archive-project/ to learn more about The WRENCH's efforts to build a cycling archive.

Milk!

Once a year, in ye olde days of the late 90s, children across Manitoba would dress their teachers as cattle, wear their best milk moustaches to school, and go to bed dreaming of winning a giant, inflatable cow. In this episode, Alex interrogates the historical origins of this somewhat unusual childhood tradition known as Milk Spirit Week.

Listen to find out:

• Were six spilled cans of milk coincidence or conspiracy?
• How did pants settle a milk delivery strike?
• And just why do North Americans drink so much milk, anyway?

All that and more in this ultra-niche milk episode!

Virginia Vane Says

It's February, which means it's time for another deep dive into advice columns of years past! For Valentine's Day 2022, we're focusing on Virginia Vane Says (briefly called The Women's Forum) - a column that ran in the Winnipeg Tribune from 1933-1944.

Pressing issues include: how do I stop my husband from wearing a hat I hate, should I tell my mother I secretly married a soldier, and how do I convince my first love to leave her husband for me (and do I kidnap her)?

Assiniboine Park and Zoo

On this episode we take a leisurely stroll through the history of Assiniboine Park and the Zoo. Alex tells us about decades of underfunding, a crooked gardener, a completely unsurprising fire, and the German animal-lover who made our zoo what it is today.

More Christmas in Winnipeg

Alex, Sabrina and Nick dust off their sleigh bells, pointe shoes, and bottles of (non-alcoholic) champagne to talk about more festive Winnipeg stories. Sabrina talks about the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's The Nutcracker and it's lengthy legacy, while Alex takes us on a pub crawl through New Years party's past.