Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Brian Bradley: Toronto Mike'd #862

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

Mike chats with Brian Bradley about the history, courage, and diversity of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Toronto with a keen focus on Craig Russell and Lori Russell Eadie.

Welcome to episode 862 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majewski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Brian Bradley. Welcome Brian. Hello, thank you for having me. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.

The fact is I need to let the listenership know this is not former Toronto Maple Leaf Brian Bradley or is it Or is it? Sadly not. My uncles have a hilarious story of trying to get this Brian Bradley on skates. That it was longer to get the skates on than it was on the ice. I remember Brian Bradley was a... This is back when Tampa Bay Lightning

was a bad team. Brian Bradley was a rare bright spot for the Tampa Bay Lightning lightning and then he ended up in maple leaf for a couple of years but uh nice to nice to meet you man yeah great to me i mean i've listened to your podcast for a long time and you know full disclosure you know once i was shaping wanting to share my book as many ways i was like oh i definitely have to go on some of my favorite podcasts and you were on top of that list so i was the very top right very top is that true yeah 100 oh my goodness okay because that would be something nice you might say to somebody of my favorite podcasts and you were on top of that list. I was the very top, right? Very top. Is that true? Yeah, 100% true.

Oh my goodness. Because that would be something nice you might say to somebody. It's like Toronto culture. He talks about a bunch of stuff. We can have a beer and in this time I need a lot of beer. Okay, so before we get into it, firstly happy Pride month to you. Thank you. Happy Pride. Happy Pride.

Maybe the first and foremost thing should be there's an eight pack of fresh craft beer for you on the table from Great Lakes Brewery. Is there a cold octopus wants to fight there? I know this is, I'm putting you to work here. Is that the colon?

Okay. Okay. I could tell you're an IPA man. When I looked at you, I was like, he's an IPA man. Whoa. Okay.

Maybe let that settle for a minute. Cause I totally just dropped the beer, but I'm going to have one too, if I can. Oh my God. Yes. There are the rest of yours the beer. But I'm going to have one too if I can. Oh my God, yes. The rest are yours, okay? I didn't mean to steal one of your beers, but I need a cool one. Premium lager.

Okay, so let's open them on the mic together here. So we're going to have a great chat. Here we are. Wait, hold on. I'm not ready yet. Okay, on the mic. One, two, three. There we go.

In stereo. So toast to you. Cheers. Happy Pride. This toast to you. Cheers. Happy Pride. This is because it hit the, because you dropped it, but perfect. Beautiful. Okay, so which one did you crack open? I cracked open the premium lager.

My wife loves the Great Lakes lagers. Yeah, no, I don't get too dark with beers. Like, ales and lagers are good with, are pretty good for me. So this is perfect. Enjoy. Enjoy. You write for the Toronto star. Yes.

So tell us like, what do you cover for the star? What do you, what would you say you do for the one young street tour star? Well, my day job is actually digital producer or better, maybe better termed as a web editor. So I work on our website and our social space with our audience team you know getting our getting our news out there that's that's my day

job that's cool that's cool i feel like i applied for that job at some point in my life maybe like 15 years ago we have a lot of great people come through and that's how i got to know some awesome guests who've been on your show people like mary ormsby yes paul hunter and peter howell yes um i think have you had you you've had, well, Ben Rainer, of course, the one and the only Ben Rainer. He practically lives in my backyard.

I was expecting, I was hoping to see him here. So I, it's a really great job to really get to know people in the newsroom. And, but you know, all people, all journalists, they have that itch to write.

So on the side, I like to, to dig into things. And I've been doing a lot of queer issue issues and communities related reporting lately and that's been a real passion of mine and in writing my book Outrageous Misfits I got to learn about so much arts and culture in the city I've got to learn about so many different communities and so many different people and you definitely see people who are underserved and also just a lot of fascinating people and for better term, misfits.

And that's where I like to play when I'm out there, when I'm out there writing. Well, I'm excited about this episode because of course, Outrageous Misfits, which is primarily about Craig Russell and Laurie Russell Eadie. And we'll talk great, great details about these two people.

But just like just in general to maybe have a good, honest, real talk discussion with you sort of about like sort of the gay history of Toronto, if you will, like, let's do it up proper, uh, for pride month and all. So to begin, like, why don't you just tell us, uh, who are like, let's not assume the listenership knows anything about Craig Russell, because I can tell you, I had a lot to learn when I booked you on the program. Like, who are Craig Russell and Laurie Russell Eadie? Well, Craig Russell, as he would tell you if he were here, he was a Hollywood child who happened to be born in Canada, in Toronto. And he was a female impressionist, where he did impressions of great female entertainers. And his

art, though, fits into the world of of drag and that was where he found his career so some people would call him a drag queen and the drag community certainly holds him at his own and um as their own and craig his career was huge for a huge period of time he started his career here in toronto on at the time the main gay village trip was actually on young street he shaped his career there, went out to California, expanded it, toured, made a film called Outrageous that was made by the founders of the Toronto International Film Festival,

which just rocketed him to the stardom that he really wanted to find. His wife, Laurie, Laurie Russell Eadie, was his number one fan. She was a woman so passionate about the arts, so passionate about entertainers. She was just consumed. And Craig was her absolutely favorite entertainer and she sought him out to meet him

one night at the elmo she strategized she fully planned it and before you know it she he pulled her into his orbit and they eventually got married and had canada's royal wedding in 1982. Wow. Yeah. Okay. What I'm excited about is, you know, as we walk through this, you'll have some great stories, but just like the, just the story of Craig Russell and Laurie Russell Eadie, but Craig Russell, the fact that there are some people my age who aren't familiar with Outrageous, for example, or aren't even, that name doesn't necessarily resonate. And you've got this fantastic book Outrageous Misfits which tells the whole story and we're going to cover a little bit here

but maybe just so I have a little bit of like a baseline here like so why did you write this book about Craig Russell and Laurie Russell Eadie like what attracted you to? I started well I was introduced to Craig when who Craig was literally watching a commercial for a documentary when I was introduced to Craig, who Craig was, literally watching a commercial for a documentary when I was just 13 years old. And I was living in a small Francophone community in northern Ontario. And I was watching a really, I'll say a bland documentary. And here comes this commercial for this guy, Craig Russell. And I knew nothing about queer community. I knew nothing about gender identity, sexual identity, the arts and drag. I knew nothing about uh queer community i knew nothing about gender identity sexual identity

the arts and drag i knew nothing and i i just kind of was quizzically like who is this guy you know he's all right i was watching a documentary about lucy mudd montgomery because i was super cool and uh it sounds cool to me was it on tv oh yeah it was on cbc okay and i was one of the other i did not feel i didn't feel so cool. But so I was like, who is this guy? Why would he get a documentary like this about Montgomery? And he had just stayed with me. And honestly, where my paths took me in life, my life always felt incomplete until I dug in and really started to research who he was.

And it was learning about him that I learned about Lori. And while she wasn't as a public person as Craig, her life was just as impactful and just as meaningful. And so that was sort of where my research had two roads and a biography of one became a biography about two. All right. So let's go back. Let's start in the 1960s. Okay. So talk to me about Craig Russell in Toronto, and then maybe you can talk about some of the early venues in the city that helped embrace drag as a popular form. You bet. Well, Craig was born in Toronto, raised between Scarborough and Port Perry.

He started as a teenager. He latched right on to these female entertainers, and the number one was Mae West. He loved Mae West. That's the come up and see me sometime? Yeah, that was the... My goodness had nothing to do with it, darling. So he started the Mae West fan club, but it actually was fake.

He just wanted to hang out with his friends and talk about Mae, and he pulled out a phone book, remember phone books, and he made minutes with a tenants list for people who weren't there and sent it off to Mae West and said, hey, I got a fan club for you in Canada. Well, Mae loved attention, a little bit of a narcissist,

and she latched right on. She loved to be loved. So she helped him form the official Mae West fan club. And under her leadership, he went and stayed with her, and then he went and lived with her for six months as personal secretary, and it was through watching her and feeding off everything she did how she responded to things he just soaked it all in and her art became his art and shaped what he wanted to do and when he came back to Toronto after living with her they had kind of a traumatic sort of separation

he threw himself into the drag community in In 1967, drag was up and happening in Toronto. It was the place to be at some unusual places, I'm going to say. In fact, it was helping some businesses stay afloat. And Craig sort of latched onto that wave and very, very quickly rose to the top. Most notably, there was a venue, it was called Browning's on bay street above what was a bistro 990 restaurant yeah and it was it was a good happening disco but it was struggling to get by

and the manager they had a man named michael oscars he said he was from the uk where the arts was maybe a little more avant-garde than we were used to in prim and proper waspy toronto sure i was gonna say this is uh i'm surprised to find out this was such a burgeoning art form in the 60s. It was new. It was new and different. But at the same time, the people who went to see it, they could appreciate it for what it was as an art form. It wasn't something you think, oh, it was part of gay culture. It was an art form.

And Michael brought in drag into Browning's and totally turned this venue around and made it a hip and happening place to be. And he rebranded it Oscars. And across the street, there was a theater called the Global Village. And the Global Village was a freaking fantastic, doing all kinds of avant-garde different arts. They had Andy Warhol movie nights and just things that you would not find in the Toronto art scene. But they, too, ran into some trouble because the city of Toronto was just not used to

this. Like, Andy Warhol movie nights? Is this for a bunch of drug addicts? Like, they just couldn't handle basically creating art. Well, the Toronto I grew up with, like, you couldn't even shop on a Sunday. Like, this is, you know, the old Protestant, the blue laws or whatever they referred to them as. But Toronto, they're good.

Yeah. So at the end of the day, these businesses were struggling, but then they brought drag in, so at the end of the day, these businesses were struggling, but then they brought drag in, and drag saved the day and kept their businesses going. And prominent people in the city, including Honest Ed Mirvish and Bill De Laurentiis, who ran a theater called Theater in the Dell, latched onto their show and brought shows into their venues, which further expanded and brought visibility. To performers at the time.

One of which we still have today. And that's Michelle DuBarry. Who at the time was going by a different stage name. And Craig dove right in there. And met these people. In fact at one of those shows. Michael Oscar says. There was late teenager Craig.

Walking around with a notepad. And he went up to him and said. Are you a reviewer? And Craig's like. No I want to be a female impersonator too. I up to him and said, are you a reviewer? And Craig's like, no, I want to be a female impersonator too. I need to know, where do I get a dress for my frame? Where do I get shoes for my big male-sided feet? And

with help, because there's a real community in the drag community, from drag sisters he got help and pulled together his act and on the very first night he went out dressed was on Halloween 1970. He went to a little bar called Club Manatee, which is just near Young and Wellesley. It's where it was on St. Joseph Street. And he went out dressed as Tallulah Bankhead.

And you would think transforming yourself into somebody else, myself, I would be shy. If you asked me to dress up in drag now, I'd have a hard time walking down the block. I would be so, I'm not used to that. Craig had the opposite effect. It made him feel strong because on his personal life he did not feel strong and he was transformed and in fact that night he was accosted by a police officer which was very common in that time a lot of police intimidation and other nastiness and on his way home he's probably drunk and carrying his shoes and wearing his gown and his wig and and, and the police officer stops him and says, what are you doing? And he stayed in impression and in front of a cop as to the bank head and

says, I'm looking for the nearest Catholic church. I want to confess everything, darling. Like he felt untouchable and I, and it went from there. He knew he liked it and he held on. He was hooked. Okay. Wow. Okay.

So this, so, so where does uh craig russell first starting start uh performing yeah well club manatee was a okay a big place a lot there's all kinds of bars that were along the young street strip there that time saint charles tavern is another one so that's okay okay let's walk through this because i'm trying i had uh johnny uh dover court on the program recently and he's got a walking tour of like venues where bands would play okay so i always try to visualize the walk so okay and i will say i lived for a couple years i lived uh when i right after i got married the first time 30 charles street west was my address and across from the brass rail and then that's back when the uh uptown theater was still there

and that was just below my balcony. So I guess it's Charles Street and Yonge. And it was called Charles Street Tavern? St. Charles Tavern. St. Charles, right, of course. St. Charles. It actually, you can still see there's a little clock tower there and they're building a condo. That was the St. Charles. And at the time, maybe you wouldn't go up to someone and say, hey, do you want to go to gay bar? They'd be like, hey, do you want to meet under the watchtower? And if you knew you if you were if you also were part of the community you knew what i was talking about right it was a safe sort of language this is when i first discovered that uh being a friend of dorothy was code for uh for being

your friend of dorothy that was code for being gay yeah that's that's that would be another one yeah or arthur arthur or martha isn't it are you arthur martha okay and you say you're martha that would be another one. Gotcha. Okay, so what other venues? So Yonge Street, you're saying, had a number of venues where you could perform drag. Yeah, St. Charles, there was the Manatee, there was the August Club, there was a hotel that had a tavern, the Letros Tavern, and the Nile Room,

very popular to allow drag. A lot of these places, they weren't in the phone book. Some of book some of them were after hours clubs and most of them weren't licensed the city wasn't licensing a bar that was meant for gay clientele in the 1960s so a lot of them would open after hours or but how do you learn about it is there just like uh like what is there a word of mouth word of mouth the body politic was a very popular publication at the time as well as another publication called tab and it had a column called The Gay Set and you could go to that column and it would sort of tell you the latest goings on and Craig literally would make some of his own posters or cutting up his own pictures with pinking shears and hang them around you know come and see my show that it was very I'll say organic or not so not so professional there wasn't a lot of money for that kind of

thing or a lot of support but if you wanted to wanted to do it, there was no stopping you. Good for Toronto. I love this. I love it. I'm feeling the pride now. Me too. I'm okay with my age. I wouldn't mind being even 10 years, 20 years old

to have seen some of this. Not far from there, the Colonial Tavern Jazz Club, just a little south. And a different time where you could approach people who we think are celebrities you know like he would hang out with peter allen peter allen was you know born out of hollywood married eliza manelli and he befriended peter allen after his shows uh peter allen used to play the colonial um tom waits would you know be hanging around he was just starting his career in the 70s you're going outside and having a dart and the guy next to you asking for a light is freaking Tom

Wade. It's just a very different time where people are approachable and you can meet artists and grow and in fact when Craig got founded he was playing at a little hotel in Galt Ontario outside of Cambridge Galt's not even really there anymore and that is where the big Hollywood

manager spots Craig Russell and pulls him out of of ontario is there was a certain we always were a destination for the arts even if we necessarily weren't marketed as such and with a lot of incredibly talented people i talked about the global village well who was at the global village but gilda radner joe flaherty uh katherine o'hara eugene levy martin short john candy all in that era they at least were part of that community and Joe Flaherty, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, John Candy. All in that era, they at least were part of that community. And all of these people came to Toronto to develop their early careers.

Some came from America, like Gilda and Joe. Right. What was the man? What was the Godspell? Yeah, exactly. That's what it was, right? Pre-SCTV, they were all there in Godspell. That was their first big production together. And that wasn't at Global Village. That was at another theater. I what it was, right? Pre-SCTV, they were all there in Godspell. That was their first big production together.

That wasn't at Global Village. That was at another theater. I think it was on Bayview. But nonetheless, they came here to do their art and to find people who were like them. So tell me, where was the Parkside Tavern? The Parkside Tavern is actually in the same strip. I think it was next door to what was the St. Charles.

The Parkside Tavern was a beer hall, a little seedier. It actually crafted some not great history later on. At the Parkside Tavern, there actually was holes in the bathroom where police could spy on men and would charge men who were caught. Because, you know, everything I learned, I learned from the Pucca Orchestra, Cherry Beach Express, right? So, and finally, you know, it took me a long time to learn I learned from the Pucca Orchestra, Cherry Beach Express, right? And finally, it took me a long time to learn how to even pronounce Pucca Orchestra,

although that is a fantastic jam. But our police, the Toronto Police Service, was not very kind to the homosexual community in this city. Yeah, you're right. And at the time, at the St. Charles, they would have a drag ball every Halloween, and everybody would come out dressed in drag. It was this big, fantastic celebration. And some people for drag, that's their only way away from themselves. That's their only way to feel confident, their only way to feel strong. So they get to go out. But every Halloween, they would be taunted at the St. Charles by homophobic people. And the police organized it, but but allowed it they weren't stopping anybody right and people would be harassed just wanting to go into this bar and and celebrate and be who they were and do what they wanted to do and it was really really rough really sad okay so here's a segue into the uh the less rosy and happy part of our you know toronto's gay history if you will so just

before we get there though i know you brought me a gift, okay? Yes. Now, okay, yeah, the floor is yours. I'm just going to say thank you, Great Lakes Brewery, for partnering with Toronto Mike to help fuel the real talk and great episodes like this one right here. You've got your, I was going to say your eight pack, but I took one, so you're down to seven.

But what do you have for me? All right, well, I knew you were a great lakes guy but i thought it would be criminal for me to come from hamilton to come from steel town back to toronto and not bring you some hamilton beer so i brought you uh some clifford brewing they've got a really great lager and you actually can see stelco on it which is uh kind of funny my dad it's a german style pilsner and i brought you two beers from our collective arts who are huge supporters of the arts of all kinds so So that seemed kind of appropriate. This one's a little hoppier, but it's pretty good.

And this little final two aren't from Toronto. I don't even know what this is going to be. But are from Hamilton. They are from Toronto. They are a Henderson Brewing Company sponsored Glad Day beer. I bike by their place on the rail path. Yeah. Glad Day Bookshop.

It's Canada's longest running bookstore. It used to be affiliated with the Bali Politic. So for a Pride episode, I thought I had to bring you some Glad Day beers. So thank you so much. I love that you brought me gifts, because typically it's the other way around. So thank you so much. I'll enjoy, I'll drink

that. So it's like you brought me some Hamilton beer, although Henderson's is ours. Yes. You brought us some Hamilton beer, and I'm giving you some Southern Etobicoke beer to take back to the Hammer. How was the traffic coming here from Hamilton today? It was okay. I was surprised. I didn't know what to expect in COVID times. You know, I used to regularly make the Toronto commute. So I was a train person. There's no way I was driving, but now you can drive. Right. You just take the go into, yeah, of course, to Union Station, I guess, and walk over. Because my wife, my wife is working from home now.

Yep. But she used to work at 1 Young Street and she'd jump on at the Mimico Go Station. And it's so slick. Yeah. I moved to Hamilton in 2019 after my book was finished. I was living here in Toronto. And so that was an adjustment. That was the commuter life.

But how is it there? Because I'm very close with Ralph Ben-Murgy who lived in Toronto his whole life and now he loves Hamilton. Like he's in love with Hamilton. Like how is it in Hamilton? It's a reshaping community. You know,

it's always been an industrial town. A lot of my family are part of Stelco DeFasco the Steel industry and that of course is largely gone. So now it's reshaped itself

as an art city. Because artists can't afford to live here. Is that the deal? Because artists can't afford to live here. Journalists like me can't afford to live here. So that's where I had to get a house.

You know, the system's broken. Can we fix it? You know, but at the same time, we're expanding a little bit. We're still all coming together. Toronto's still accessible to me. Hamilton's accessible to you. We can all be friends. You're here right now.

Here we are in the South Etobicoke backyard studio. It's a beautiful day. So I'll just paint a picture for people who are listening on their phones or whatnot, on their computers. This is a gorgeous day. There's a little bit of a breeze coming off the lakes. If you go as north as Bloor Street, I'd say,

I think you're melting. I really think you're in a good place here. I'm very happy to be back in the 416 and even better to be by the lake. So a couple more gifts for you since you gave me some gifts, which is very kind. But there's actually, so Ridley Funeral Home, fantastic partners of the program. What a wonderful local funeral home. That's hand sanitizer for you to take.

So they want you to be safe. And thank you, Ridley Funeral Home. It's hand sanitizer, not embalming fluid, right? Like I'm not ready to go. I think the goal of the hand sanitizer is that you won't be at Ridley Funeral Home for a very long time. That's the idea.

I also have a large meat lasagna for you courtesy of Palma Pasta. They're in Mississauga and Oakville. So kind of just between that. That's awesome. And again, like I know you're happy in Hamilton and enjoy yourself. Bless you. But if you did happy in Hamilton and enjoy yourself, bless you

but if you did want to come to my hood, the man to talk to is Mimico Mike Mike Majeski, go to realestatelove.ca reach out to Mimico Mike have a conversation with him, tell him Toronto Mike sent ya and you can thank me later, he was here in the backyard

a few weeks ago, kicking out the jams I highly recommend it, it, kicking out the jams. I highly recommend it. Uh, it was all eighties jams and it was a lot of fun. So, uh, check out the Mimico Mike kicks out the jams episode of Toronto Mike. And last but not least,

I have to get you a Toronto Mike sticker. I've got it downstairs. I forgot to grab it, but sticker you.com made these amazing, uh, Toronto Mike stickers. And I got one for you, Brian.

So make sure you don't leave without it okay so so far we've talked about what's surprisingly positive news I'd say for me to hear as a lifelong Torontonian to hear about the drag scene drag club scene and

and it seems very progressive and kind of awesome outside of the fact the cops don't seem to be very supportive, unfortunately. But tell us, like, it's not all awesome, because there's some volatile situations, some anti-gay activity. You can share the real talk here. Yeah, at the time, well, you know, homosexuality, same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in 1969.

And so as all of this activity is happening, people are gathering, bars are starting to open, police were tasked with going in to break things up. Publications, local, I won't name some, one of them I work for, was covering what's up with this new homosexual trend. And trying to dig in. And police were tasked with trying to figure this out. And they actually complained to one of these newspapers saying, we're going into the bars, but no one's doing anything wrong.

We can't press any charges. Well, in the 1970s in Toronto, there was the tragic abduction and murder of a boy named Emmanuel Jacques. And this is the shoeshine boy? The shoeshine boy. My mom tells me this story. Yeah, it was really awful and the perpetrators in that

case happened to be men who identified as gay or at least part of the gay community and that became just cause to go in and clean things up and break up these bars. You know, bars weren't getting licensed. They started being regularly harassed by police officers and not by regular people, justifiably

so. At the time, as people thought, you could be walking down the street in drag, and they could pick you up, they could charge you with solicitation, they'd pick you up and drop you off at Cherry Beach. There was some awful stories of assaults and terrible things like that. And it was just a completely, dare I say, at the same time as an area of empowerment, it was an area of ignorance. Awful stuff.

Like, this is all, you know, stemming from some false belief that it's deviant behavior and somehow it's a choice. Like, you're choosing to be gay and this is sinful because I'm sure the Bible plays a role in all this. And Toronto being so Protestant, I guess waspy as you said Toronto the good, right? We had a mayor who was anti-everything anti-drug, anti-alcohol, anti-vice, anti-hambling It was the Toronto the good era that people were just holding on to

and not accepting that everybody has a place and everybody deserves space here So beyond Emmanuel Jacques that's the name of the shoeshine boy and this isn't this uh yeah the murder of emmanuel emmanuel jacques yeah outside of that there actually was an unrecognized serial killer stalking the gay village in the 1970s where at least 14 men um it sounds familiar like something recent okay so wait slow down because you're talking 1970s

because people are going to think you're talking bruce mccarthur that's right i'm not talking about or mr mccarthur though they were investigating if potentially he was behind some of the awful murders that had been happening in 1970s yeah so what happened so tell me uh because uh i'm actually a little ignorant to the 1970s uh gay community deaths here tell me exactly what happened in the 70s at least 14 men were violently murdered um stabbings um in their home there was one i'll say somewhat well-known case of a gentleman named sandy leblanc sandy uh ran a club called club davids that was open to everybody it was not necessarily gay club they actually advertised basically leave your shIT at the door.

You can swear on the show. All right, leave your shit at the door. This place is for everybody, and that's what you pay to come here, is accepting everybody. And he ran this popular club called Club Davids. And Sandy was into some uncolourful stuff on the side to keep his business running in the 1970s. But he was murdered. He was stabbed over 96 times in his apartment. 1870s but um he was murdered he was stabbed over 96 times in his apartment and all of these cases at the time while they were investigated by police there was kind of a consensus or thinking of it's

a homosexual murder it's not a murder it's a homosexual murder meaning what do you expect it sounds almost like uh what we're experiencing now with like oh it's an indigenous yeah exactly killing uh somehow it's in a different category. Exactly. Just, you know, these awful cases that we're hearing about this week. And I love when somebody said, this isn't a discovery.

This is a confirmation of what we have always known. Right. And with the Bruce MacArthur case in the Toronto gay community, as awful as it was, it also, it brought to light of the community has always been vulnerable. And there are always, there are people in it who are marginalized. And there are people who come and go and you don't know why. And maybe they've gone for some reason

that we're not ready to know. And it's really, really sad and really awful. So the people who go there, it takes an element of bravery, you know, to go out and go to a place to find people like you. And it doesn't have to be that way. You should be able to go to any place, any gathering, any group of people and just be without it being without there being a sense of fear. today. You know, the gay village is wonderful and colorful as it is. And we've all probably been to a pride. We've seen that excitement at the same time. There's vulnerability there and there's trauma there. And that's really rough. But one consistent that stayed there through all of this is drag. Drags persisted through the generations. You know, the previous pandemic, we know it's the AIDS crisis. Businesses really struggling. What kept it going? Drag. Drag brought people together. It brought people together for benefits.

It brought people together for hope. It brought people together in entertainment in a time that was scary and sad. And that continues now. You know, the bars aren't functioning on Church Street in the COVID era, but there's all these virtual shows going on. And, you know, there's people who are hosting. There are people who are bringing people together, and it's people who are involved in drag.

And if Craig were here, he would certainly be there, and Laurie would be cheering right alongside him. So we're going to get back to Craig and Laurie. Absolutely. But share, remind me of the, there was outrage with Mel Lastman, right? Who did he invite to talk in East York? So there was this, I don't know her deal. She was some kind of singer, actress, but she became an anti-gay activist. Her name was Anita Bryant. She's an American woman. And she went out trumping and saying the most ignorant things

relating to homosexuality. You know, she, I, it's a family podcast. I just won't go there. But she's essentially an anti-gay activist. She's an anti-gay activist. And she's getting, she's essentially an anti-gay activist she's an anti-gay and she's getting making getting and she's touring and and doing public talks and making tours and for some reason out there excitable mel lastman who also participated in pride yes thought it would

be a great idea to invite her to east york and to do a talk and there was um of one strong part of of toronto and global queer community history is there's a lot of strong activism so activism saved the day there where they kept anita from uh from making that date all right let's talk about laurie uh laurie russell edie uh so talk to me about her being in toronto in the 1970s and also by the way i've loaded up a few CanCon jams because your book, Outrageous Misfits, your chapters are song titles and stuff. So I don't know. I didn't tell you the three I chose. So I loaded up three that were by Canadian artists.

So you'll be surprised. I'll just start playing one maybe and then I'll bring it down and we'll talk some more. But tell me about Laurie in Toronto in the 1970s. You bet. So Lori was born and raised in Etobicoke, West Toronto area. She had a bit of a traumatic. Right where we are right now. Right where we are.

She had a bit of a traumatic upbringing. But as a teenager, she moved to the East York area, and she went to Riverdale. Riverdale was a big high school for the arts, and she was a pretty damaged human being. But at Riverdale, she got involved in every kind of activity, you know, all kinds of sports and got involved in theater. And as the demure, shy person that she was, theater reshaped her to being a vibrant, excitable woman who gets things done. And she just fell in love with theater and

going into a theater and being transformed. You know, the world of make-believe was safe for her. And she loved artists. She loved television and film and music. And she loved intensely. When she got into Peter Allen's music, she saw him on Brian Linehan's show, City Lights. You know, I model my interviewing style after Brian Linehan. Oh, that's awesome. Loved.

I was always blown away by his research. And when I started this little thing nine years ago, I said, I'm going to do my fucking homework. And that's because Brian did his homework. Legend of Canadian journalism. You could see, I remember even as a teenager seeing him interview, and he'd come up with some questions. You could see the subject was like, whoa.

Right, because there was no Wikipedia back then. How is he come up with some questions you could see the subject was like whoa right because there was there was no wikipedia back then how is he coming up with this exactly so she loved she watched brian lanahan's show she get into all these artists so when she learned of peter allen she immediately got a ticket to his show ran to the sam the record man that we all knew and loved around uh young and um young and dundas just a little north and bought all of his albums and listened to all of them and memorized them in time to see his show that she knew so much that he picked her for a request and she asked for a song she knew from memory like she loved and got into people intensely and that is in that same time she learned of crag and uh followed his career and championed him right through her last days you

know 50 years later wow okay so you'll be you're the you're the expert here uh like before we get to i did i did pull a couple of like teaser trailers for outrageous i do and i want you to bury me in outrageous information here but uh is that where we are in the timeline of things now okay so laurie's out hitting the scene in toronto she lived in rosedale and and by the late mid to late 1970s and she's out feeling out the scene she Toronto. She lived in Rosedale and by the mid to late 1970s. And she's out feeling out the scene. She's going to Toronto Free Workshop Theatre. She's going to Café des Combes and Cabaret. And Craig is touring the world performing. And a man, a writer in Toronto named Dick Benner wrote a screenplay off a short story by Margaret Gibson. And it was about

the friendship between a woman with mental illness and a female impersonator and unknown to Dick at the time it was based on Craig's real life and his friendship with his best friend Margaret Gibson who he knew from young adulthood and so he bought her story wrote a screenplay that was originally called Animal Crackers and got it in front of the founders of the Toronto International Film Festival who were looking to produce a film, Hank van der Kolk and Bill Marshall. And they were all about, they were about the avant-garde, they were about exploring gay culture, they were about exploring unique and special relationships. So literally the week after their very first Toronto

International Film Festival, or Festival of Festivals as it was called at the time, they sat down with a screenplay and went about making Animal Cr crackers which became known as outrageous okay let me play a little clip here let me find this okay so here's a little um let me see what is this okay this is the original theatrical trailer for Outrageous. A fast, funny, fresh flick. And the Los Angeles Times called it original, alive, and funny. Outrageous. Don't miss it. You can set the world on fire. You can set the world on fire. Oh, this one wasn't made for podcasts because it's very visual.

I was like... All right, so I'll bring her down here. But this is, yeah, that was the original theatrical trailer for Outrageous. Do you know who was singing? Who wrote that song? Tell me. Paul and Brenda Hoffert.

So you may know Paul Hoffert from Lighthouse. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so I have a jam for that. Okay. All right, you pick that song. Yeah, yeah, that's because I picked only the Canadian ones. Perfect. So here's a little bit of CanCon Classic.

Oh, it's perfect for today too. And Skip Prokop, I think, was in Lighthouse. He was. He passed away very recently. Worked at CFNY for years. Oh, awesome. Sitting stoned alone in my backyard

Asking myself why should I work so hard Sitting dreaming about the days to come Half undressed, just soaking up the sun Sitting here, I hope I don't get fried Two years ago, you know, I almost died And yet there's nothing better for your soul Than lying in the sun and listening to rock and roll Sunny days

Oh, sunny, sunny, sunny days Ain't nothing better in the world, you know Than lying in the sun with your radio Or podcaster. Love it. Okay, tell me though, where did they film Outrageous? Outrageous filmed all over Toronto. They filmed at the Westin Harbour Castle. They filmed at club manatee they filmed along the young street strip um where

right where uh the on sam the record man used to be they filmed in the strip in front of honest eds uh they filmed in a rosedale apartment in the third floor uh in january they're running around the commerce court on a on a freezing cold winter day in the Commerce Court Courtyard. Of course. And as you see, the opening scene of Outrageous has the character Liza running up King Street. And you can see there's actually not as many buildings around. Like this is January 1977 when it was filmed. And they filmed on a shoestring budget.

So doing it in their backyard was certainly in their best interest. But this would be a great way to catch a glimpse of Toronto in the late 70s. Someone's put it on YouTube. You can watch the whole thing. And it sustains. It endures. The story is very, very meaningful to this day. It's just as relevant in 2021 as it was in 1977.

So how was Outrageous? By the way, Outrageous has an exclamation mark at the end. So we really should be saying Outrageous. How was Outrageous received? Oh, it was a runaway hit. By the way, outrageous has an exclamation mark at the end, so we really should be saying outrageous. How was outrageous received? Oh, it was a runaway hit. And again, in this background area we were talking about, people aren't so sure about gay culture or having a person who is a drag queen in a lead role

and an identifying gay character. They weren't so sure about it. So Bill Marshall and Hank Vandercroft, they took it everywhere else first. They screamed it in New York, totally were prepared for it to crash, and it was a runaway hit. And they thought, oh, maybe we can bring it to Canada. And Bill Marshall

was like, oh, I'm so scared. I'm going to have an aneurysm. Let's bring it to Ottawa and see what the bureaucrats think. If we can win over the bureaucrats in Ottawa, we can win over Torontonians. So they screamed it there, and then they brought it into Toronto, and it was an immediate, immediate instant success And have we been clear

With the listenership That Craig Russell is the star Of Outrageous I just want to make sure that we didn't bury that lead there The whole film is written Off a short story that was really based on his life And friendship with a writer named Margaret Gibson And he was sought out by

Dick Benner, the chap who became the director and was the screenplay writer, and sought out to star as Robin Turner, who was the starring role. I have a little clip here so we can just get a taste of Craig Russell in Outrageous here. So let me bring down Lighthouse. That's a great jam, especially on a day like this. And let's listen to this. This is Craig

Russell as Betty Davis. Betty Davis. Anita Bryant sent me down here to beat some sense into you frozen fruits. Dark street diploma. Oh, what a dump. Speaking of Joan Crawford, Joan and I were reminiscing recently,

and I reminded her of all the times that she'd been evil, capital E, evil, in her pictures, her very moving pictures. You remember Mildred Pierce. She played a waitress, but she couldn't wait to beat up Anne Blythe because she was stealing her boyfriend, Zachary Scott. Well, Joan gave her the shoulders and the full treatment.

Beat her, you little tramp. Then of course, years later, she graduated to a typist, who couldn't type, because she was going out with an outpatient. Where else would you go with an outpatient? And one day he picked up a typewriter and smashed her hand. She took her one good hand and got Vera Miles right on the cheek. Why you little slut.

I finally got her where I want her. Come on, Blanche. Let's go for a walk. Wow. Oh, Jane, you wouldn't treat me so cruelly if I weren't in a wheelchair. But you are. Outrageous. You hear the reception, right?

He's not even singing. There's no singing or moving to Beyonce or Rihanna in this time, right? He's just impersonating Betty Davis. He knows her idiosyncrasies. He's playing on her relationships with her co-stars. He was so smart. And the reception is so warm. And so, like, while this is a film,

it was just like that in his shows. And it really captures the specialness and captures his talent just so, so well. All right, tell me, Brian, how does Laurie meet Craig Russell? Laurie met Craig one February night at the Elmo, the way we meet all of our greatest people. So she was totally onto Craig's career.

She'd been following him. He was a promo sexual, so he was in the papers all the time. And she knew he was going to be just as guest at the Elmo Combo. So she showed up and got right in front of him immediately, right away, and told him, hey, I made a tapestry about you. I want to give it to you, and I just want you to know how much I love you.

That was their first meeting. Okay, and just to be clear again for the listenership, but Craig Russell is a, he's a proud gay man. No. He never corrected that. Okay. So he was identified as that commonly and neither did Lori. Neither of them frequently identified as one particular, as you know, one particular sexual identity. They would were really fluid, queer people. Oh, thank you for correcting me. And you know what?

At the end of the day, Craig, while he had many boyfriends, and trust me, he had a lot of socks, his most meaningful, intimate, close relationships were with women. And the same thing with Lori. She didn't have other relationships with men, and she only married one man. But that was her most meaningful, even though she had many thing with Lori. She didn't have other relationships with men and she only married one man.

But that was her most meaningful, even though she had many relationships with women. See, my ignorance just trying to put people into these compartmentalized buckets here. Well, they helped me too in my own journey, right? Like I have a horrible habit of looking at things so linear. And things don't have to be so linear. And myself, I identify as a queer person now. And that's only, only to me what it means it's just doing whatever I want right and it's nobody's business otherwise and that's exactly

how Craig and Lori live so that was kind of inspiring for me and learning about them okay so my ignorance there I uh I don't know where I got this idea Craig Russell was a gay man he's uh his own wedding so when they had their wedding it, for her, she was marrying the love of her life, marrying her idol. For him, it was promotion because he was getting into some trouble and getting bad press. And everyone was hot on Charles and Diana. So he's like, let's have Canada's royal wedding. And there's all this media scrum. And so people are asking him, like, who is this woman?

Aren't you gay? And he's like, I'm trisexual, honey. I'll try anything once. Which is a great line. And that's what I'm going to say going forward. Okay, so, so Lori and Craig have Canada's Royal Wedding. Yes.

So paint this picture for me. Now, you know, when I think of Canada's Royal Wedding, I think of Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones Gretzky. That's what I think of. So please, paint the picture. Like, I can only assume,

first of all, are we in the early 80s where are we january 1982 okay and it must have been a media frenzy like paint the picture so craig set up in advance literally minutes after he suggested getting married to laurie he was on the phone calling up colonists um and leaving messages on their answering machines like hi it's craig russell guess what i'm getting married. Click. Like it was, so they really built it up. Right. And they basically crafted a wedding at Toronto City Hall,

which is at this time, the functional City Hall was next to what we now know as Nathan Phillips Square. Right, this is Old City Hall. Old City Hall. I was married there, by the way. My first marriage was at Old City Hall. It's the same room.

I have it in the book. Amazing. And so they show up. They have, the head of pr for the royal york hotel is craig's best man that is no coincidence and uh they show up there's a media scrum they get married they come out he walks up he's walking down that grand staircase at old city hall and he goes ladies and gentlemen it's princess charles and boy die because you know he's more feminine she's a little more masculine.

And it had just as much media attention as Wayne and Janet, as you mentioned. Right, right, right, right, right. And this is Toronto. Wayne and Janet did that in Edmonton. So, you know, center of the universe here. No, the big headline in the Toronto Sun, Sylvia Train was a big columnist, entertainment industry columnist for a long time. And the headline in her column about it was,

Move Over May, Hello Lori, This Wedding Takes the Cake. Because everything about it was just so different from what people are used to. Craig's wearing a fur cone and red high heels. And Lori's dressed in this gold glittery type of outfit. And he's center stage. And, you know, actually the advice to him that day was craig remember that you're not the bride and uh there was a judy welch who was a model she ran a modeling agency she had a mansion

in rosedale and they went for their wedding party thereafter and they're drinking champagne out of out of shoes and eating feeding themselves cake with their hands that was shaped like may west your wedding cake shaped like this you know older, older lady. It was everything about it was, I will say unusual for its time, but absolutely genuine and authentic. And here's a couple of names from the mainstream media at the time that would be covering Canada's royal wedding here between, yeah, Craig and Laurie. Bob McAdory. Yeah, remember him from years and years, Global News. Yeah, he was Global News at that time for sure, and that's how I knew him too. But as I've been educated on the history of 10-50 chum, I've had Doug Thompson over and basically like just,

hey, young'un, here is what was happening with 10-50 chum, you know, through the 50s, the 60s, the 70s. And, of course, Bob McAdory was a 1050 chum personality before global, but I really did enjoy Bob. I'm just going to say as an aside here, cause he, he died far too young, but Bob McAdory was a,

I thought he was fantastic on global, doing the entertainment for global news. I remember watching him all, all growing up, you know, and I'm not an entertainment reporter, but it certainly made the world feel closer to me. And, you know, within my reach, you know.

And it's so cool. People, these people like Brian Landland, Bob McIntyre. But they died so young, I'm realizing, because Brian left us too young, too. But here's somebody who's still with us. Jeannie Becker. Yeah. Classic. Classic.

And you know what? I wanted to interview for this book. She had no time for me. I want her on Toronto Mic'd. So if I get her her on toronto mic i'll come back and we can talk about okay i'm gonna say i'm gonna make her talk to brian bradley and i need to bring laurie's sister because funny enough on the same at the same wedding i guess jeannie becker she obviously generated a lot of attention laurie's sister was wearing the same outfit and she says my sister's wedding and here is this awesome broadcaster taking the show. Oh, wild. Okay, well,

shout out to Jeannie Becker. Fashion television. You know, they use animotion obsession, right? Animotion's obsession. Retro Ontario's Ed Conroy tells me that they just used it without clearing it.

Like, they didn't license it or whatever. They just used it. Like, this was the city TV way back in the day. I learned a lot when it came to rights and stuff like that.

I'm a big supporter of making sure that artists are paid for their, paid for their worth and paid for their efforts and creators. But you certainly learn a lot about that when you put something, when you produce any type of media. So I'm going to play a jam, really just a little bit of a jam. You know, Carol Pope was recently on Toronto Mike. So I'm going to play a little of this jam. That was very big for me.

She went to high school with Craig. Okay, so let's play a little of this jam. That was very, she went to high school with Craig. Okay. So let's play a bit of this and we'll talk more about that. But I just want you to know Brian Bradley of the Toronto. So I'm now I'm speaking to you as a Toronto star journalist. Okay. There is zero legal way for me to play this and compensate the artist. Like I either don't play it.

Like I'm supposed to not play it or I play it like the rogue rebel I am. And there's no legal channel like that's that's bullshit like there should be something I pay maybe per year that allows me to play songs like this one I'm going to play right now so here's a little taste you've probably heard it

I still love this song and every time I hear it I feel like I'm getting away with something. Like it's so risque and dangerous. Well, here's this. While you had Carol Pope on and it wasn't like a paid thing, I ran out and bought her book. Okay.

Amazing. Here we go. Carol. So cheeky for the time. Big time. You can hear So cheeky for the time. Big time. The girl can't help it. She really can't help it now. It's like a high school, a high school confidential. A high school, a high school confidential. Teenage friendos

Stalk her in the halls They tease her with catcalls She's a combination Anita, Edmund, maybe Van Doren Dagmar, a high school confidential. A high school, a high school confidential. What's the principal doing with her? Who's that guy?

Is he screwing with her? What's her perfume? Oh my God. Okay, find me a more iconic song in Canadian music history than Cream My Jeans. Before Michael Jackson, before Madonna, there was Carol Pope singing about sexuality, breaking gender norms, and grabbing her crotch on the Junos. Yep. So they owe her some money. You are preaching to the choir here. Absolutely. Carol fucking Pope.

I've got all the time in the world for her. And this song, forget the risque aspect and the fact she's talking about creaming her jeans or whatever in a hit. This is a great jam. Absolutely. And you know what? Rough trade. Very talented. Kevin, such a talented musician. And the nicest guy. I met him at an event where my book was involved and he was also involved.

Just the nicest, nicest guy. Okay, so before we get to well, before we wrap up the two sorry, the that's right, there's a sequel to Outrageous. We'll get to that. get to, well, before we wrap up the two, sorry, the, oh, that's right. There's a sequel to Outrageous. We'll get to that. But first, again, you know, we go ups and downs.

There's peaks and valleys. And let's talk about, because my daughter, my 17-year-old daughter is taking a law class. And she was telling me all about the 1981 bathhouse raids. Talk to us. Real talk. It's great that we're here in 2021 because it's a 40-year anniversary of a lot of significant

gay history. You know, in February 1981, there was a police raid of numerous bathhouses in Toronto. Many people charged, many people publicly outed,

many people traumatized. And for what purpose? You're making me very fucking angry right now. What was the motion? What was the purpose what was the what was the purpose of that other than harassing and breaking up people who have no other place to go than to you know find a little bit of romance even for you know if you're me 15 minutes uh but uh so

where what are people to do and bathhouse scene is really important to people because it's some people are closeted some people are married some people don't know how to be out um some people it's not safe for them to be out. It's the only place for them to go. And it was a really, really traumatic event. But from that led to a continued, because previous, before that, it was all about human rights, a fight to get sexual identity into the interior human rights code.

It was all about, leave us alone. Give us our space. There was demonstrations there was the very first official pride uh gathering uh in toronto you know in june uh people were protesting in queens park they're protesting at uh the city at the police uh headquarters um some people know brent hawks brent hawks had uh went on hunger strike for a period of time relating to rights. And the big thing going on in the background is this gentleman named John Damien. And he fought for, well, two decades. But he had been fired from a government job for being gay.

Fuck. I'm alive. This is recent fucking history. And it wasn't officially included, I think, 1986. It wasn't included in the Human Rights Code until that late in time. So while people also think of pride and rah, rah, rah, and maybe a little public nudity and some public drinking, it, above anything, needs to be identified as a political event that is about rights

and that we still have work to do. We still have a ways to go. Conversion therapy is not illegal in all of Canada. It's illegal in Ontario. It's not illegal in all of Canada. It's illegal in Ontario. It's not illegal in all of Canada. We still have a lot of trans rights issues. We still have the gay blood ban. Even if it's a shorter period of time than it used

to be. Yeah, I see that on the questionnaire. There's a lot of places to go. There's a lot of fight left in us. And 1981 was a huge year for that. So the bathhouse raids of 1981, that's like our stone... Tell me where it was. Let's bring it home.

Yeah, yeah. So it's now the Oasis Aqua Lounge, the sort of, which is an on-premise sex club. Sorry, mom. I have been there. But it, that is where it was because that was a gay bathhouse at the time. So there's, I think sometimes where people think, they still think, even when Bruce MacArthur was happening, like, that's a gay community issue. No, this isn't everybody's issue. This is everybody's space.

This is everybody's city. It is everybody's issue. It's in your backyard, and it's just as much in places that you frequent as it is everybody else. Yeah, so it's not unreasonable to say that the 1981 bathhouse raids are basically, that's toronto's stonewall exactly there was a toronto's uh stonewall event later that year where um a small gang of homophobic thugs stopped in this demonstration at um was it church and wellesley or church and charles and there was a huge violent brawl and this was this was referred to as the Battle of Toronto. And the police got involved, but who did they protect? The homophobic thugs, not the community.

And again, we're only going back 40 years, okay? This is not ancient history. I'm really glad you're here, man. I'm really glad you're here, and I'm glad we're having this. Let's put this out there. I'm very interested in all of this now back to our man craig russell here uh this is around the time when i guess he he goes to germany because he's got some addiction issues yeah so craig um he kind of peaked after outrageous and

it was a matter of undiagnosed mental health issues it was a matter of drug dependency alcohol a matter of he didn't have consistent people in his life to guide him but also he was adverse to guidance um so he really really started to slip and had some really big public failings including a major major crash at carnegie hall in new york city like a toronto female impressionist or some people call a drag queen selling out Carnegie Hall, having a really huge show in, I think it was 1978, but then having the next one in 1980. And he was so drugged up and drunk that he wouldn't get out from under the piano.

And so he lost a lot of reputation. He lost gigs. He lost respect. And just after marrying Lori, the two of them took off for Germany. He lost respect. And just after marrying Laurie, the two of them took off for Germany. And the thinking behind that was all the crazy things he was doing as a result of unrecognized mental health

and unrecognized drug dependency would be accepted in Europe. Because in Europe, you're more embraced of the avant-garde. Well, that's where Bowie went, right? They stayed in the same place where Bowie recorded Low. Right.

And Laurie was a huge Bowie fan. If she was here, she'd be just all over you about this. But he was of that caliber. So let's just put that out there. So they went to Germany where he was still adored. And he was getting huge gigs. He had a very, how do you put it, conflicted relationship with Laurie. So he booted Laurie home shortly after arriving.

But he stayed for four years trying to continue his career. Very successful for part of it. Another part of it, the same problems caught up with him. You can't escape an undiagnosed, untreated mental health problem. You can't escape drug dependency and all those things caught up with him. But eventually brought him back to Toronto in 1987

to film Too Outrageous, the sequel to the original, which was a very, very different experience with very, very different production. Right, unlike Outrageous. Outrageous! Unlike Outrageous, Too Outrageous. Too Outrageous was not as well received critically or commercially. No, it actually

hardly actually got distributed it was a bigger film it was made really well the people who made it have more experience in the film industry so and they had a much bigger budget Outrageous was made on $167,000

that even in 1977 is a very little amount of money. Two Outrageous was made on $167,000. That, even in 1977, is a very little amount of money. Two Outrageous was made on $2 million. But what was missing was, in making a more richly produced film, they lost some of that organic magic that was existing in Outrageous. And Craig also was a different man. He'd been struggling for years now.

The spark just was not there. So the movie was made. It was on time. It was on so the movie was made it was on time it was on budget it was made here in toronto all kinds of familiar places that are still functioning today the winchester arms hotel on parliament street there's a tim hortons in the base they filmed in that that's one of the places arcadian courts another one um they made it it was all good but it didn't it's had great okay reviews but but due to the business of filmmaking, it collapsed because the distributor,

I think it was the distributor, went bankrupt. A VHS deal went bankrupt, and hardly anybody has even seen the film. But if you talk to Craig, that was okay. He wasn't as proud of it because he was just in a very different headspace in 1987. Right, okay, so now that we're in the 80s here, talk to me about Toronto in the 1980s,

like with regards to Craig Russell and Laurie Russell Eadie and also just Toronto in general. Well, the background of this, of course, is the AIDS crisis. So, you know, AIDS, just as it was in the US, was here and very present in Canada before it was recognized by government

with any meaningful healthcare action. And so many countless people, in the, in the U S was here and very present in Canada before it was recognized by government with any meaningful healthcare action. And so many countless people, countless people were lost. And in fact, when Craig came back to Canada from Germany, he was HIV positive and he actually didn't share that news right away because there's so much stigma at that time attached, attached to that, unless there still is. And so he came, tried to pick up his career, tried to, had to take a little hits to his ego. He wanted big theaters, and no one knew of Craig Russell at that time.

Who people knew about in the 1980s was a performer named Divine, who, pretty fantastic. Here's your Carol Pope connection. Divine was friends with Carol Pope, and they sold out Massey Hall together in a show that was totally pandemonium extravaganza. Divine was a drag queen who was a 300-plus pound queen of self-branded filth who was in a bunch of movies filmed by John Waters.

Absolutely, that's where I know him. He was pretty fantastic, who made records, who was in a bunch of movies filmed by John Waters. Absolutely. That's where I know him. He was pretty fantastic. Who made records, who was on television, and Divine had really surpassed Craig Russell. In fact, Craig got an interview on Much Music and was interviewed by Kim Clark Champness, and they ran into each other backstage, and Kim Clark says, I can't believe you're here. Everybody's talking about Divine. For Craig, that was probably a big uh big hit because he just he did not have the same career people in the 80s you're probably at that time you're all about diana ross you're all about share you're all about madonna and craig's act his impressions they were about tributes he

adored not just the feminine he adored actresses like Mae West, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Betty Davis. But there wasn't an audience for those entertainers in the 1980s. People wouldn't appreciate that act, and he hadn't modulated it. So while he was really struggling, there was a place for drag, but there also was this trauma going on, and there were some really hard years.

Laurie was still out there. What was really exciting for her was after some, you know, she always just, she had jobs, not careers. Her life was going to the theater, going to nightclubs, going to see musicians. She got an amazing gig. She decided I want to be a dresser because she worked as a dresser for Craig.

And so she left her job, became a dresser and her very first professional job was working for phantom of the opera oh and that opened in october 1989 and that i was living outside of sudbury then i heard about it up there it was a huge to do this restoration of the pantages theater which we now know as the mervish theater and bringing in this show it was the most technologically amazing complicated thing that had been done in theater before. And Lori got latched onto that right away.

That's a sign you need another beer. Lori got hired and worked on that show and ended up working nearly 2,000 shows over a 10-year period. So she was living high. She also, it's important, I want to point this out, is we recently had Lou Gehrig's Day. She also, it's important, I want to point this out, is we recently had Lou Gehrig's Day. She also on the side worked as a caregiver for a woman with Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS, who was very involved with ALS Canada and fundraising, and that became an important cause for Lori. So she was a very busy, had a very vibrant life at the time, as Craig now was the one who was struggling to make it.

So he was living in the beaches neighborhood. The beach, right? That's what you're supposed to call it, right? I should fix now. Because I grew up with the beaches. It was the beaches then. And so his manager lived close by, got him an apartment. He also was forming a relationship with his daughter.

So he fathered a daughter in the 1970s. He didn't really know her the mom was okay with that but now he was back in the city they befriended so what was most meaningful in his life between 1987 and 1990 was not as much his career was about his relationships nurturing his relationship with lori nurturing his relationship with his daughter allison most so reconnecting with friends who he had been alienated from before, including Margaret Gibson, I mentioned. And so it was about, while he wasn't sharing his HIV diagnosis, it was about growing roots and making a place for himself here in Toronto.

He was involved at the time. The venues in Toronto, the gay community had moved from where we talked about Young and Charles over to what we know as Church and Wellesley. So he was going to clubs at that time, Chaps, Tracks, that was another one, very popular, Jingles was a piano bar, finding some ability to perform and nurturing himself off the stage, which is something that he had always, he'd never paid attention to. What was important to him was his career, being in character was his escape from mental health challenges and other other problems and now he was forced to look at himself head-on and be craig edie which is his legal name right not craig russell and that's what that era was about for him and this this neighborhood he chose

was pretty waspy right right like you think it we think of the beaches now as being arts focused and i joke like half of my tor Toronto Star colleagues live in the beach. Like it's a very progressive area. But of everything Craig ever done, you know, that was the only place he got beat up for being in drag. And this is in the 1980s. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. And he would literally walk the strip and walk into bars and say, can I perform for you? Just for like a couple of beers. Right. And couldn't get gigs. And that was the only place where he encountered homophobic violence what was his last performance like what was his last show before his uh premature death uh there were uh two shows he did a series

of shows at the royal yoke hotel which used to have this bopping venue called the imperial room where they brought in gino emprey i mentioned before was behind it brought in amazing talent into Toronto people who wouldn't think of Canada at that time he he was bringing in um funny it's it's uh Dean Martin's birthday today people like Dean Martin and Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett and he was also booking Craig like well it's funny you mentioned his name only because uh for a very short period of time I worked with a gentleman named Warren Chappelle. Oh, yeah. No, very well.

And Warren was really close with Gino, I remember. Yeah. And Gino Empry, he would sometimes have appearances on like 102.1, sort of, and I'm talking about the 2000s. Yeah. He believed he was to be of service to the stars. You should read his book after you read mine. Okay. To be of service to the stars you should read his book after you remind okay um to be of service well remind us the name of your book just quickly because we're talking so much about craig russell my book is called outrageous misfits female impersonator

outrageous misfit no it's is there an exclamation mark in your title okay outrageous misfits just outrageous misfits and uh gino empry's a name from that's a name from back in the day and uh yeah i guess he's been he's passed away a while ago now but uh gino empry is a name that's a name from back in the day and yeah I guess he's been he's passed away a while ago now but Gino Empry man I love characters

like I love the characters of Toronto that make up the fabric of this city that's actually my next book

Toronto Characters basically I want to call it something like More Misfits because in learning about Craig and Laurie you learn about people

and you'll come back then when you drop this book yeah Gino Empry I Yeah, Gino Empry. I need a Toronto Mike chapter. I need a Tobacco Mike chapter. I don't know about that. I can hook you up a Mimico Mike.

But I can tell you this, that when I hear about like Craig Russell here and that, you know, we overlap for a bit. I'm born in the mid-70s. And what year does Craig Russell pass away? So this is a little bit interesting. Craig died on October 30th, 1990 of AIDS-related stroke.

And I knew nothing of Craig then. At that time, I was eight years old. And, of course, that's Halloween. Everybody remembers when, you know, Halloween. You remember where they were where you were and I think now as this person passed away when I was eight years old and that same day I knew I wanted to be a writer I knew I was interested in things like music and and stuff like that and I like to think that I I really truly believe that I was destined to write this book and I like to think that that's when it started.

And even years later, every Mervis show I ever saw, Laurie was working. I have all my programs. Her name is listed. She was there working behind the stage while I'm sitting there in the audience. You never know who's in your orbit and how they're going to encounter your life. Well, that's what I'm saying. Here I am. I occupied the same city with Craig Russell when he came back from Germany. I occupied the city for, you know,

let's call it a good decade or whatever. And I knew nothing about Craig Russell. And your book is basically shining a light on this fascinating part of Toronto's history. And as we learn about Craig Russell's life and Laurie Russell Eadie's life, we learn basically the gay history of Toronto. Like you learn about it's good job buddy

thank you like i loved i love craig and laurie and that was absolutely my motivation but i love digging and learning about the film festival and outrageous and how to make a movie and love learning about the about our queer history um because it is so important and it continues today and my only regret is that I couldn't dive in more. There's so many people I didn't talk about. There's so many situations. You've got lots of time. You're a young man.

You're younger than me. You've got all the time in the world here. Holy smokes. So, yeah, the next book will hopefully have more than that. And then you'll be back in the backyard here. Now, outrageous. I have to say that like that, as you know. Outrageous.

Let's just make sure it's clear to everybody that this is one of the first gay-themed films that ever received widespread theatrical release in North America. Like, this was a groundbreaking film. Yep, absolutely. And never before had a film had a person who identified as gay and a drag queen,

as well as a woman with mental health issues, in lead roles, and at the same time, make them relatable. The movie was about relationships it was about love it wasn't about as people might say then a freak show it was about these two people who you can absolutely relate to as a as a person a cisgendered a man and that was absolutely groundbreaking having a man in a role where he's exploring femininity was a gender milestone for the time. And like I said, the reputation and excitement for the film extends today. There was a screening at the Paradise Theatre on Bloor Street a couple years ago.

I know it well, yeah. I know that I used to work for some of the owners. I used to work for some of the owners, actually. And so they brought Outrageous in for a screening. They had a lineup down the block. I'm a writer of the freaking book. I couldn't get in. Wow.

So there is still an audience for this film. I could have made a call for you because Dave Hodge is really tight with the owner of that. Oh yeah. I would have made a call for you. Next time call me. Next time.

Perfect. Shout out to Dave Hodge. We did a reporter's live event at the Paradise. It was amazing. Okay, now- Pre-COVID, i really wanted to get in there to screen the movie i really did myself yeah so the gay village okay so uh as you mentioned it's uh like like wellesley and church area uh and i almost don't think we can do this episode

proper without and i hate to say his name even but br Bruce MacArthur. Okay. So we need to speak of Bruce MacArthur and the negative and then talk about the venues, you know, these venues and are they going to be able to survive COVID-19? Mm-hmm. The trauma as a result of Bruce MacArthur continues, the distrust. But what do people need in times of fear? They need to be together. And what was interesting to me,

because at the same time as the whole Bruce MacArthur case had come to light at last, is when I was writing this book and I was spending a lot of time in the village. And sometimes in the coffee shops or something, it'd be either ghost town or obviously traumatized people. But when you went to a bar at night, Woody's, Cruz and Tango, Church on Church, these places people knew. The drag show, everyone was lively.

Everyone was engaged. Everyone was safe. Everyone was home. Everyone was together. Drag has kept people together in that community and in covid now people are torn apart another trauma that's happened this year is the death of michelle ross who's a long-standing she she actually was an outrageous i read your i read your toronto star article oh that yes so i wrote her obituary so she was in uh outrageous and she

passed away and people can't be together and that's that's so hard for them and i i actually have a story coming out this week on the gay village and i asked like how are you like heart you've had hardly any business closures and they say hey people who come to this neighborhood they are loyal to this neighborhood because they are safe here these are their people and we still need that in 2021 and that's that's okay and that has really helped the businesses sustain by the skin of their teeth but but they're sustaining and really looking forward to any level of reopening in fact there's news today that uh doug ford's government has greenlighted the opening patios a few days earlier and so they're thrilled by that and uh they will carry on because they've been there before

and they've survived and they will carry on again i'm about to ask you about oh god why yeah i have a story about this actually okay good because the uh writer of this song one of the writers uh christopher ward yeah was just just made a second appearance on toronto mic like uh two weeks ago when i recorded my audio book he was in the recording booth next door get out of here yeah out of orange lounge that's okay i like him very much he's a very nice man and uh i got a lot of time for christopher ward and he's uh one of the first two vjs in much music history with jd roberts there so and then it all comes back to genie becker who's genie please come on this show but this jam i'm telling you

let's give it a little moment here. I turn these black velvet If you please Woo! So hot. It's a great song for a sweltering hot day too in June here. All right, tell me though, before we say goodbye here, and this has been amazing, I've really enjoyed this, but tell us, when did we lose Lori Russell Eadie? Lori died in 2008 at Toronto Grace Hospital,

just on the fringes of the gay village. She died of melanoma. And she lived a pretty quiet life after Craig died. She had a vibrant career as a dresser, but was dedicated to her work, not dedicated to herself. Didn't take great care of herself. She had cancer for a long time before she addressed it and passed away.

And actually, funny enough, I have her journals from her last days. And you think you're facing the last days of your life. What you would think about, you'd be reflective of your life and your life having meaning. She was writing about the stars. She was writing about artists she loved. People like Jeff Healy was the one who she loved. Shout out to Jeff Healy. I had the drummer on the program, but I didn't get the opportunity.

Oh, she loved Jeff Healy. And she talked about Jeff Healy so much people were thinking they were dating but he actually was a married man. He's buried at Park Lawn Cemetery

by the way where Harold Ballard is also buried there if you're looking for him. I used to walk through there actually I used to live by there and she was reflective of her life with Craig

and what she wanted was his story told. She was on the phone with publishers trying to convince them to release a book about Craig in the last days of her life. And what she didn't value

was that her life was just as valuable and important and her impacts were just as big as Craig's. So in writing my book, it was so important to me that she was of equal weight to Craig because she was just as remarkable as he was. Well done. And she's buried right next to Craig.

Next to Craig in a small town just outside of Port Perry. Just outside of Port Perry. Yeah, they are together. Pine Grove Cemetery in Prince Albert, I guess it is. Yes. You wouldn't really know it's a town. See, I did my homework just like Peter Howell told me. I saw that tweet, by the way.

I retweeted it. I'm like, I loved it. Like Peter Howell just warning you that Toronto Mike does this. Peter Howell knew Craig. You could have had him instead of me he interviewed craig as an entertainment and rock and roll journalist oh peter peter knows how to reach me i'm happy to get peter back but i wanted to have brian bradley oh bless you his wife margaret bream is a close friend of mine and was a huge help as an editor and edited my work for this book uh before i submitted it for to a publisher. So

huge props to Margaret Bream herself, a wonderful journalist. Peter Howell, a great journalist, loved reading the stuff in The Star. Am I allowed to ask you what's going on with the entertainment section at The Toronto Star? Or is that off balance? You know, it's a really hard time in every industry, every newspaper, and they're all finding their own ways and their own logic to shape how to keep that newspaper going and what the readers want and what the readers need. And unfortunately, sometimes some people have to suffer for that, and it's just rough all around.

It's so hard and so disappointing. But Peter in particular, or Ben Rayner, who we talked about himself, an entertainment journalist, are still doing out there, figuring out different ways to make it work and have amazing contributions in their own ways. Well said, Brian. Well, well, well said here. By the way, I want to shout out a documentary

that I absolutely loved. I saw it on TVO many, many moons ago, like over a decade ago, but it was by Alan King who makes great, he's no longer with us, but it was by Alan King who makes great he's no longer with us, but he makes great documentaries but Dying at Grace about just basically just real talk about

people who are dying at Grace Toronto Grace Hospital and I know Laurie Russell Eadie passed away from cancer there Brian Bradley, happy Pride Month again. This was tremendous. I'm so glad we did this episode. Oh, I don't want it to end.

I've enjoyed it so much. This is your chance, though, because I haven't done the, and that. When I say, and that, you're done, buddy. Is there anything you want to share before I, because I can always bring this down. If you have anything else you want to say before I do the, and that.

Yeah, okay. So you know what? One thing, when I first approached learning about Craig Russell and learning about Lori, I thought they would be so different from me and different from everybody else. And that's what makes them interesting. But in learning about them, you come to see that people who seem so different, we all need the same things. We need belonging.

We need acceptance. And we need love. And every single person, no matter who who you are I guarantee that you need that we are all united we all need the same thing so let's just give everybody each other belonging acceptance and love and just love each other and that's what

pride's about and happy pride to everybody and that brings us to the end of our 860 second show you can follow me on twitter That brings us to the end of our 860-second show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Brian, how do we follow you on Twitter?

I am Brian J. Bradley on Twitter. Don't forget the J because you might end up with the former Toronto Maple Leaf Brian Bradley. So it's Brian J. Bradley to follow this Brian. And you can read him in the Toronto Star. So subscribe to the Toronto Star, damn it. Thestar.com slash subscribe. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike's not on Twitter. He's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls.

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