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

by Lance Abel, Graig Abel, Darryl Sittler (Foreword by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770904729
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	09/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

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.

Read an Excerpt

Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens

Photographs and Memories of Canada's Most Famous Arena

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By Graig Abel, Lance Hornby

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Graig Abel and Lance Hornby
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77090-472-9

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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 inch poster for him to work with. We had a nice long chat about photography and my job with the Leafs and a few days later, he gave me a perfectly re-done picture. He even re-created Harold's hand on the ledge of the bunker. Mr. Ballard liked it so much that he hung it in the Hot Stove Club in a prime location.

Years later, I read a story about Ernst Zundel, who had been saying the Holocaust never happened and was jailed for publishing hate literature and was about to be deported to Germany. I recognized the name and realized he was the fellow I'd dealt with on Carlton Street. I guess if you can make things disappear in a photo you can try to make history disappear too!

Harold and I got along especially well after I gave him the picture. He even asked me to come over to the bunker and take his own portrait watching the game. It took several attempts to set up, because every night we scheduled, he'd wave me off, saying that he had the wrong tie on or the wrong jacket. I finally got the shot, and he was quite happy with it. I also like this one because it was the classic Harold face and he's wearing his Leafs tie.

When Mr. Ballard died, the Leafs asked me to print a poster of this photo, which was placed in front of the bunker. Most of the Toronto newspapers ran a photo of the bunker and my portrait the next day.

Most people think of Harold as a crusty old grump, but sometimes I'd see the other side of him. I was in the Hot Stove for lunch one day and he was sitting with six or seven kids, all enjoying themselves having lunch. I asked what was going on and was told Harold had taken these kids for a skate and brought them in for lunch. All of the kids were blind and he had arranged the whole special day for them. Most people never saw that part of Harold.

I happened to be looking in Ballard's bunker one night and snapped this one of Dave Hodge, one of the many times Harold allowed the Hockey Night people to interview him.

Here is King Clancy, Ballard's faithful sidekick, on what would be his last birthday celebration at the Gardens in 1986.

It was a surprise party for him in the Hot Stove. My job that day was to keep him busy taking his picture so the restaurant could prepare. I took him to the Leafs bench, up in the stands and to the special ticket office, pretending it was for the book on him, Rare Jewel for a King.

The title was a play on words because Conn Smythe won $10,000 on a long shot horse named Rare Jewel to get the money needed to purchase Clancy from the Ottawa Senators back in 1930. We finally ended up in the Hot Stove where I got a few more shots.

Hockey players are supposed to be bitter enemies on the ice. It doesn't matter if you are related.

But that animosity didn't extend to the Courtnall brothers. Russ was a Maple Leaf, and when brother Geoff came to town with the Bruins in 1984 — 85 (the first full season in the league for both), Russ asked if I could take a picture of them in warm-up. Players sometimes ask for such favours, and usually nothing ever comes back my way, but I didn't mind doing this one.

But if you tried to oblige and set this kind of picture up today, especially without the players wearing helmets, there would be hell to pay.

Pre-game warm-ups were the perfect time to get some nice portraits done — with helmets off — or to catch players in a relaxed moment.

This is Al Secord and Wendel Clark fooling around in the late 1980s. Pictures like this were useful — and profitable — for another reason. I'm often approached by collectors who are purchasing game-used equipment and sticks online. They want verification that the player wore a certain number or type of sweater or used a particular stick. Someone who was about to buy a pair of Secord's gloves once asked for my help and this is the kind of shot that answers the question.

I was told the golden rule when taking the Leafs' official team picture was that if Harold didn't like it, you didn't come back.

My first few years at the Gardens, I didn't have a large format film camera, just 35mm, so I passed on doing the team photo. The printers wanted the largest possible slide or negative to reproduce it, but I had a good thing going as the game photographer and didn't want to screw it up.

I watched several people come in to try shooting it; I'd drop by to observe the set up and take a few shots with my 35mm. The next time the Leafs asked me to shoot the photo, they recommended I work with Dennis Miles. He had become a good friend of mine, after shooting Leafs games for the Toronto Telegram and Toronto Sun. He was well qualified for something like this, since he was also a corporate photographer for Molson Breweries, and taught the subject at Ryerson University.

I assisted Dennis setting up lights and carpets, testing the light balance and confirming that every player could be seen. Dennis took a few large Polaroids to make sure the exposure and lighting were perfect and then he did his large format stuff. When he was done, I stepped in with my 35mm camera. My photos were fine for 8 x 10s and 11 x 14s, but Dennis's were sharper for the bigger publications. Dennis and I worked together this way on the photos right up until 2001, when we got our first digital cameras.

One year in the late 1980s, Mr. Ballard showed up for the team photo with his dog, TC Puck. TC was a big bouvier des Flandres, with a long and curly coat, who often ran around the Gardens. We got all set up and waited for Mr. Ballard and TC to arrive. He finally came out onto the ice and sat TC Puck down in front of him. The ice looked great, nice and fresh and without a speck of snow on it. The Leafs logo was perfect and there were no skate marks anywhere. Dennis started his shooting routine and the dog sat there patiently.

However, as any good Canadian knows, when you place a very warm hand on very cold ice, your fingers kind of stick. Now imagine a male dog on fresh ice. He was fine for a while and then he got a little sticky where you don't want to get sticky. Then he got very restless, began barking and wanted to run off. Mr. Ballard kept telling him to "Sit nice," while Yolanda, his partner, was yelling, "Hey Harold, the dog's balls are sticking to the ice!"

The players were all trying not to laugh and I'm looking through the viewfinder thinking this is the goofiest picture I've ever taken.

The photo shoot wrapped up pretty quick after that.

When Dennis and I finished shooting, he'd let the Sun and Star hook up to his lights for pictures for their newspapers. Dennis didn't receive a cent for allowing them to use his equipment, but that's how Dennis is.

One year, goalie Gord McRae showed up for the photo sporting a beard. Harold was angry when he saw the finished photo, wanting no part of a photo with a bearded player. Dennis was asked to replace McRae's head with someone else's without facial hair. Dennis quietly arranged to have this done and the re-touched photo was approved.

It's not that hard to take a quality picture of a major league team. But you have to be really prepared for shooting day and you needed someone, such as Bob Stellick in the Ballard days, to lay everything out properly for the players and the executives in the picture. It can turn into a real mess when no one knows where they're supposed to stand. And it seems there are more non-team people to include every year.

You fire off some test shots to see if the reflection is right. At the Gardens, they always did the ice perfectly, so you could even see the reflection of the goal pads.

We can usually fix things like height differential, but some pictures are very challenging. One year, there were four Leafs goalies to fit in. And in the 1980s, the Leafs tended to use so many players you needed one team photo at the beginning in October, one in the middle of the season and one at the end.

One spring, they told us to get down there on short notice for an end-of-the-year pic. But they'd covered the ice that day. So instead of shooting at centre, we had to jam everyone on some benches in the corner. My son, Dave, worked some magic and restored the ice underneath them, complete with the reflection.

In December 1998, two months before the building closed, we took the last of 66 team pictures in the Gardens. That's me behind the big camera in this photo taken by my son, Dave, high up in the north end.

When each season begins, the first things the players must go through are their physicals and having their individual headshot photos taken.

Whenever camp was held at the Gardens, I set up my backdrop and lights in the Hot Stove Club upstairs, while all of the medicals were done on the other two floors. It was a must to get your photo taken and you were not released for the afternoon until everything was completed.

The NHL demanded a set of slides and black and white prints of each player. I bought a special tripod that enabled me to mount two identical cameras, one with slide film and one with black and white.

The Leafs would sometimes invite as many as 80 players to camp in the mid 1980s, so it was always a busy afternoon. I have a bad habit of smoking and usually have a full pack sitting on one of the tables with my extra camera equipment. It was okay to smoke in a building in Toronto back then.

Everything was running smoothly this one particular year in the late 1980s, with players streaming in for pictures and then heading off to their medical stations for tests. There was a break in the action, so I had sat down to relax a bit when Al Iafrate arrived for his photo. Al's a real beaut and asked if he could have a cigarette. Just as he lit up, Chris Kotsopoulos came up the stairs and made the same request. After I took their shots, the three of us were sitting around chatting and smoking and having a great time. I should have brought a couple of packs that day because all the smokers on the team were grabbing one off me.

Al and Chris finished off their butts and down the stairs they went. Remember, this was supposed to be an NHL training camp. A couple of minutes later Al walked backed up and asked me sheepishly, "Uh, did I leave my urine sample here?"

I was sorry I couldn't help.

It seems that every year at opening of camp, one player gives me a hard time or makes me wait forever. When Ed Olczyk came to town in 1987, he arrived for his first headshot day. Ed had on a yellow T-shirt, which I asked him to take off for the picture. The NHL rules were no coloured shirts under your team sweater unless they were team colours.

Ed refused, saying it was his lucky shirt. We had a discussion that was going nowhere fast. But when Gord Stellick, the Leafs GM at the time, finally arrived, he took over the conversation. It took Gord a while, but he finally convinced Mr. Olczyk to remove his yellow shirt.

Then there was a rookie Toronto picked in 1996 named Brandon Sugden. Rookies never do anything on opening day on their own and usually travel with one or two other kids. This young player and his buddies came up for their shots, and he was definitely the jokester of the bunch.

He sat down and gave me a big gap-toothed smile. I politely suggested he might want to put his teeth in for the photo, but he just laughed and said his mom would love it. The other guys thought it was pretty funny, too, so I just snapped the photo with his big toothless grin. I don't believe I ever saw him again.

Another young man came up and I had no idea who he was. He was supposed to have a training camp number, which I would later match to a name. I did know that the lower your training camp number, the better chance you had of making the team.

The rookie took one look at the numerical roster and laughed.

"The Leafs have real plans for me this year," he joked. "Last year I was 74 and this year I am up to 72."

I don't think I saw him again, either.

Al Iafrate was one in a million.

One day I invited my brother-in-law to drive down to the Gardens to meet me for lunch. He excused himself to go and pay his parking and came back into the Hot Stove all confused because the parking guy wouldn't help him. I went out to investigate and found Iafrate sitting in the one-person hut the parking attendant was supposed to use, slowly eating a Big Mac.

The Leafs dressing room wasn't my favourite place at the Gardens, because it was so small. There was hardly any room for the players or me to move. Brian Papineau, who was and still is their equipment man after 2,000 games, had to be creative, storing sticks underneath staircases. I didn't really want to be in there with a bunch of stinky players and their equipment. I often thought about how I'd had a bigger, nicer place to dress when I played for the Streetsville Derbys.

But you could understand what it meant to a fan to see it, if they could. You walk in that door and imagine Mahovlich once dressed there, you wonder where Wendel Clark used to sit and you could picture Dougie Gilmour at his stall, giving a speech.

When they upgraded the dressing room in the late 1980s, as well as the training facilities and medical room, Bob Stellick asked me for some new pictures to mark the occasion. Most of the new facility was built in a renovated area under the Hot Stove Club, as there was little or no room on the ground floor for expansion.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens by Graig Abel, Lance Hornby. Copyright © 2013 Graig Abel and Lance Hornby. Excerpted by permission of ECW PRESS.
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