Prix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

S etting the Canadian Scene Crawley Films and Park

Hilary Grant graduated with a B.A. honours in > Hilary Grant history and theory of architecture from Carleton University’s School for Studies in Arts and Culture in the spring of 2012. Graduating top of her class, she was awarded the Medal in Arts. She is currently completing an M.Phil. in heritage “The Capital is the symbolic heart of the and museum studies at St. Catharine’s College, nation and its political centre. It is the site of crucial political decision-making, yet it University of Cambridge. is also a stage of the nation’s culture and history where the past is illuminated, the present displayed and the future glimpsed.”

—Plan for Canada’s Capital Summary (1999)1

B illiards and Billings: The Beginnings of Crawley Films

he story of Crawley Films and its leg- Tacy in can be said to have two geneses: the first, A.A. Crawley giving his son Frank Radford, known as Budge, a camera in the hopes that it would motivate him to improve his swim- ming stroke, and the second, the Crawley family’s move to 540 Queen Elizabeth Driveway, , next door to the family of R. Percy Sparks. The former spawned Budge’s passion for filmmaking and the latter led to the marriage, in 1938, of Budge to Sparks’s daughter Judy. These two romances resulted in Budge founding Crawley Films with his wife in 1939.2

The new couple quickly confirmed their “cinemagraphic” prowess, becoming the first Canadians to win the Hiram Percy Maxim Award, or any such inter- national accolade, for the World’s Best Amateur Film. The winning film, Île d’Orléans (1938), was made on their honeymoon and was the first of many Crawley projects to present and explore the Canadian landscape. Their success made them ideal candidates for the F TIG. 1.  he Crawley Family in their Studio, 119 Scott Road. | Photo: Malak of Ottawa. Library and Archives Canada, Malak Karsh Maclean Pub Co. LAC nlc 9337.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 > 75-84 75 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

1952 Film of the Year winner, celebrated Newfoundland joining Confederation and Newfoundlanders’ ocean-bound way of life; and Top of a Continent (1959) explored the land, people, and develop- ment of the Arctic.6

By 1950 Crawley Films had expanded from six staff members to thirty-three employ- ees. Nevertheless, Crawley Films con- tinued to operate as a kind of extended family. Staff worked long hours for little pay and dubbed the company “Crawley College.”7 Many prominent Canadian film professionals started at Crawley Films, including film-maker Bill Mason and well-known actors Chris Chapman, Christopher Plummer, and Geneviève Bujold.8 Two Canadian female enter- tainment pioneers began at Crawley Films: Kathleen Shannon, later head of the women’s studio at the National Film F AIG. 2.  erial view of the Crawley property. Budge and Judy Crawley’s home in the foreground. | Jennifer Crawley Board, and Betty Zimmerman, later head Collection, Gatineau Valley Historical Society 2480.02/38. of CBC Radio International.9

new National Film Board of Canada’s Despite its early success, Crawley Films In 1950, Judy, Budge, and their five chil- Ottawa Film Unit, leading to Crawley operated out of a billiards-room-turned- dren built a home in Chelsea, , Films winning a large number of gov- studio at 540 Queen Elizabeth Driveway in what is now Gatineau Park, on prop- ernment film contracts related to the and Budge continued to work as a char- erty previously owned by Judy’s father.10 war effort. During the Second World tered accountant at his father’s firm. Budge and Judy became active members War they made a number of ground- But, in 1946, with financial backing from of the Chelsea community; Budge, for breaking “propaganda” shorts, includ- Budge’s father, Crawley Films was incor- example, served as a member of the ing Four New Apple Dishes, aimed at porated as a limited company and moved Chelsea School Board.11 The year 1950 reducing the apple surplus. Directed out of the Crawley family home into an also marked an important departure for by Judy, it was the first colour film old church hall on 19 Fairmont Avenue, Crawley Films as the company moved into made in Canada.3 In addition to these Ottawa. With government contracts the realm of television productions. In contracts, Crawley Films continued to dwindling after the War, Budge focused 1958, in conjunction with businessman make films focused on Canada’s people, his efforts on attracting corporate spon- John McConnell of , the CBC, culture, and landscape throughout the sors. He produced The Loon’s Necklace and the BBC, Budge signed a million-dol- war. These include Canadian Landscape (1948), based on a British Columbian First lar contract to coproduce a thirty-nine- (1941), which documented the artistic Nations legend, with funds from Imperial part television series. The RCMP Series, process of the Group of Seven artist Oil. It was nominated Film of the Year starring Gilles Pelletier as a charming A.Y. Jackson; Iceland on the Prairies at the first Canadian Film Awards in Francophone Mountie and Don Francks (1941), which explored the relation- 1949 and is still distributed internation- as his anglo assistant, was based on the ship between Icelandic immigrants and ally through Encyclopaedia Britannica.5 work of the Royal Canadian Mounted the Prairie landscape; and Great Lakes Crawley films continued to celebrate Police.12 Graeme Fraser, a long-time (1942), which explored the Great Lake’s Canada’s cultures and landscapes into employee and a friend of Budge’s since role in Canadian industry.4 the 1950s: Newfoundland Scene (1950), childhood, explained in a Crawley Films

76 JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

newsletter that the RCMP Series would be “[t]he day-to-day story of Canada’s federal police force... There will be stor- ies of city, prairie, and the bush coun- try of Canada’s north. And through the whole series will run a sense of Canada’s pride in its Mounties.”13 CBC General Manager J. Alphonse Ouimet proclaimed the series “an event of major importance for the whole Canadian television and film industry.”14

Crawley Films bought the forty-acre Prud’homme farm adjacent to the Crawley estate and built an eight thou- sand five-hundred-square-foot studio at 119 Scott Road for the production of the series. It contained everything needed to make a hit, including com- plete “set” facilities, a carpentry shop, dressing rooms, a canteen, and offices. A utilitarian building, the studio had clean lines and no ornamentation, in essence F IG. 3. Crawley Studio. | Michel Anne Crawley collection, Gatineau Valley Historical Society, 2480.01/38. consisting of two rectangular forms clad in metal. Large garage doors would have been used for moving huge equip- sharp contrast to the Empire Avenue, lumber trade, rural farm areas, and indi- ment and unloading deliveries. Though Ottawa, location where the neighbour- vidually-owned wood lots.20 Beginning no plans and only a few photographs hood was largely unaware of the studio in the early nineteenth century, the remain, it can be assumed that the sound in their midst.17 In the end, forty epi- landscape was further changed when stage would have been housed in the sodes were produced. It was Canada’s wealthy Ottawa citizens and members two-storey section to the north, while first exported television series and by of Parliament, such as R. Percy Sparks, other services would have been located 1961 was airing in a hundred American taken with the beauty of the area, built in the section to the south, dotted with cities as well as in the United Kingdom, summer cottages in the Gatineau Hills.21 windows. Iran, Hong Kong, Nigeria, West Germany, and Australia. This series proves, said one G atineau Park: The National The RCMP Series shooting was not lim- commentator, “that Canada can take a Playground of Canada ited to the studio. Taking advantage place in the front rank of commercial of its setting, Budge turned the entire producers of television entertainment.”18 In 1899 the Ottawa Improvement Gatineau Region into a stage set. The Commission (OIC) was formed with the studio housed such sets as the detach- The Crawleys were engaging with a mandate to enhance the city in such a ment office and local restaurant, but changing landscape. Since the first way as to “reflect the character of the all the exterior scenes were shot locally, European settlers in the seventeenth nation, and the dignity, stability, and residents being paid for the use of their century, the Gatineau Hills were used good taste of its citizens.”22 The OIC property.15 Budge and Judy’s daughter to some extent for mining and agricul- hired Frederick Todd, student of land- Michal Anne Crawley recalled how “[t]he ture, but primarily for lumber due to scape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, film crews, the production vehicles and poor soil conditions.19 The landscape to develop a comprehensive plan- the procession of actors made a mini- reflected these various uses, being div- ning scheme for the city. This resulted Hollywood in the Gatineau.”16 This is in ided into small towns connected to the in the Todd Report of 1903, the first

JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 77 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

government-produced report that rec- 1927 under Prime Minister William Lyon region in 1945 and the General Report ommended the formation of a park to Mackenzie King. The new Federal District on the Plan for the National Capital, also complement the capital: Commission (FDC) replaced the OIC and known as the Gréber Plan, was begun.34 was given the power to acquire, hold The goal was to make the Capital a The Dominion of Canada is famous the and develop property, engage in joint “reflection and symbol of the country.”35 world over for the extent and beauty of projects, do urban planning, and pre- Gréber had five principal recommenda- her forests, and for this reason it would serve historic places.26 The FDC had far- tions: the relocation of the railway out of seem appropriate that there should be reaching territorial jurisdiction, including downtown Ottawa, the extension of the reserved in close proximity to the Capital, a portion of the province of Quebec.27 parkway network, the decentralization of good examples of the forests which once government buildings, the creation of the covered a great portion of the country... During the Great Depression, Gatineau Greenbelt, and the expansion of Gatineau due consideration being given to the fact Hills woodlots were sold and clear-cut Park.36 The Gréber Plan was completed in that it is desirable that such a reserve for quick cash while other areas were 1949, with the help of planners John M. should contain as picturesque and diversi- thinned out as people scavenged for Kitchen and Édouard Fiset, and was fied scenery as possible.23 firewood. Throughout 1936, this was approved by the FDC in 1951.37 The plan reported with alarm in local papers like became official with the adoption of the That recommendation was echoed in the the Ottawa Citizen.28 Concern arose over National Capital Act in 1958. The FDC findings of the 1913 Holt Commission environmental preservation and led to became the National Capital Commission and its subsequent report, the 1915 the formation of The Federal Woodlands (NCC) and its jurisdiction was expanded Report of the Federal Plan Commission, Preservation League.29 It counted two to four thousand six hundred and sixty more commonly known as the Holt prime ministers among its honorary square kilometres.38 Plan. The Holt Plan proclaimed that presidents: William Lyon Mackenzie King “London, Paris and Washington are all and Richard Bedford Bennett, both own- T he True North Wild great Capitals, each of them situated ing property in the Gatineau Hills, at and Free on the banks of a river, but not one of Kingsmere and Lake Mousseau respect- them has the natural beauty of Ottawa. ively.30 The position of vice-president was The reason for the founding and subse- Nature, indeed, offers a direct invitation held by R. Percy Sparks, Judy Crawley’s quent expansion of Gatineau Park par- to make this northern capital one of the father, who had property on Meech allels Crawley’s work in the linking of most beautiful in the world.”24 The Holt Lake.31 Throughout the 1930s, the group nature and Canadian identity. During Plan recommended the formation of a actively lobbied the government for the interwar years, Canada entered a National Capital District and expanded the creation of a national park in the period of nation building that required Todd’s vision, recommending the forma- Gatineau Hills. A 1935 Department of the a uniquely Canadian identity that would tion of a park on a much larger scale. It Interior report entitled Lower Gatineau ground the nation in its territory. This further surmised that, “[s]ince [the land] Woodlands Survey, Interim Report, was done by defining Canadian iden- ha[d] little commercial value, it could be Ottawa 1935 confirmed that the environ- tity through its unique topography and acquired at slight cost and a great tract ment was deteriorating.32 The Federal geology. The idealized Canadian wilder- of it, consisting of 75 000 or 100 000 Woodlands Preservation League used ness took the place of a history of ori- acres, should be secured as a national that document as the basis for the Lower gin. Anthony D. Smith identifies a type park. Here, at the very door of the cap- Gatineau Woodlands Report, which was of “naturalism” in Canadian nationalist ital, should be preserved, for all time, submitted to the FDC in 1935.33 myth-making in which the past “should a great area in the state of nature.”25 be as organic and natural as conceivable, However, neither report resulted in any Concurrently, Mackenzie King hired and our histories interpreted as if they action; both were shelved due to the French planner Jacques Gréber to develop were extensions of the natural world.”39 onset of the First World War. After the an overall plan for the capital. Mackenzie Nature was presented as an agent that War however, the Holt Plan’s recommen- King first met Gréber at the Paris World lent historical authority and authenticity dation to form a strong federal district Exhibition of 1937, hiring him between to Canada as a nation. Smith underlines did come to fruition with the passing of 1937 and 1939. Gréber officially received a consequence of this “naturalization”: the Federal District Commission Act of the mandate to plan the entire capital “with the fusion of community and

78 JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

terrain through the identification of nat- ural with historical sites... natural fea- tures become historicized; they become actors in the reconstructions of the past which nationalist intellectuals elabor- ate.”40 Nature in a sense becomes cultural. One example of this is the acceptance of the Group of Seven’s depictions of the —a subject studied by Crawley—as inherently Canadian due to what was considered to be the group’s work as an embodiment of Canada’s iden- tity as a primordial, un-peopled North.41 Nature was preserved in this context as the apotheosis to man and “civilization.” Alisa Catharine Apostle explains that “Nature presented a piece of history that had great legitimacy and authority for its ‘timelessness’ but nevertheless was seen as fatally at odds with mankind and progress.”42 Historians William Beinart and Peter Coates describe the early twentieth-century Canadian “wilderness F IG. 4. Jacques Gréber at Moorside. | Library and Archives Canada, PA-203045. ethos” aesthetic as “a physical environ- ment freeze-framed at the point after the Indians have been cleared out but before Canadian National Park system. National After the First World War, there was a the settlers arrived.”43 Parks Canada still parks became an increasingly valuable degree of disenchantment with tech- espouses that, nation-building commodity due to rapid nology, modernity, and urbanization. industrial expansion and the incorpora- National Parks were an opportunity for National Parks are a Canadian institu- tion of “the West” into Canada.45 The visitors to escape the modern world tion. Their role in Canadian society is far first national parks, or “forest reserves,” and re-enact encounters with the “new greater than their actual area within the were established in the late-nineteenth world.”49 The trope of nature-tourist as Canadian landscape... National parks and century.46 The Dominion Parks Branch, explorer, discoverer, and conqueror were other protected areas help root Canadians the world’s first national parks service, common in parks literature and promo- in geographic and biological diversity that established the principle of appropri- tional material. National Parks served as defines the Canadian people—even if day- ate use for National Parks, excluding all a buffer zone and precursor to the narra- to-day urban lives of most Canadians seem business except those necessary for the tive of civilization. Historians Beinart and to have little connection with nature. The recreation of visitors.47 James B. Harkin, Coates claim that the establishment of the Canadian psyche nurtures the belief that the first Parks Commissioner, wrote in earliest National Parks in the west was just beyond the country’s cities and towns 1927 that “[a]larm at the changes in the a way for the urban northeast to define exists a wild area that makes Canada a face of the country due to rapid exten- a relationship with the unfolding contin- better country just because such wilder- sion of our present industrial civilization, ent. Patricia Jasen argues that tourists as ness exists.44 has emphasized the necessity of con- pretend colonists had an important role serving a few untouched areas.”48 This in expansionist logic, “whereby the fate While this concept was expressed in art- desire to conserve “untouched areas” is of the ‘unsettled’ regions of Canada was istic works such as those of the Group consistent with the wilderness aesthetic identified with the interest of the metrop- of Seven or Crawley Films, it was cele- that was being conceived as an essential olis.”50 In this way, National Parks served brated at the largest scale through the part of Canadian identity. to consolidate an expanding nation.

JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 79 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

Gatineau Park adopted the National park must be developed in a manner which thousand acres.59 Land appropriation model and this nationalist rhetoric. The will be truly national in spirit.”54 The was put on hold for the duration of the 1995 Cultural Landscape Project Gatineau advisory committee made a direct link Second World War but resumed immedi- Park: Historical Study asks, to the Gatineau hills topography as ately afterward. An order-in-council inherently Canadian again in an early was passed on August 16, 1945, which [w]hy the national park model? There is no draft of the 1952 Master Plan for the expanded the National Capital to an direct evidence answering this question... Gatineau Park: area of approximately 2330 square kilo- both Mackenzie King and Bennett were metres, embracing all of Ottawa and likely familiar with the principles behind a The vigour and power of our Canadian Hull as well as twenty-six other muni- national park. While documented proof of forebears was the result of their close cipalities, and raising the FDC’s annual the decision to use the national park model association with nature as it still exists grant from two to three thousand dol- was not uncovered... it must be said that in the Gatineau Park area... The area lars to facilitate land acquisition.60 The “natural national parks” was likely the only included in the park forms part of the Gréber Plan recommended that the park model for saving an endangered environ- Laurentian Shield which extends from be expanded and by 1956 the FDC had ment such as woodlands that existed at the Maritime provinces to Alberta and acquired about fifty thousand acres of the time.51 therefore is typical Canadian terrain. It the planned seventy-five thousand acres. consists of several ranges of granite hills A large amount of additional land was There is no doubt Mackenzie King was and contains 24 lakes large enough to be purchased in the 1960s, including such familiar with the National park model shown on the enclosed map... If the park historic properties as the Willson Estate as he gifted the Prince Albert National is to achieve its true purpose it must be and the Asa Meech House (reputed to Park in Saskatchewan to his constituents developed in a manner which will be truly be the oldest structure in Gatineau Park) in 1927 as a thank-you for electing him in national in spirit.55 in 1963 and the O’Brien Estate in 1964.61 the 1926 by-election and again in 1927.52 To be a sufficiently “Canadian” land- H eritage vs. Nature: In the chapter on “Recreation and scape, the Gatineau Park project The Continuation Tourism,” the Gréber Plan stated that needed a space untainted by any signs of Nationalist Ideals Gréber’s “essential recommendation of “civilization,” consistent with other relative to the enhancement and the parks. Unfortunately, there were no After the Second World War, there was appropriate treatment of what we areas close to the Capital that easily resistance against what was viewed as might call ‘The National Playground of lent themselves to this “wilderness aes- the FDC’s heavy-handed approach.62 Canada,’ involves no artificial embellish- thetic.”56 The Gatineau Hills were not The re-naturalization process meant ment, very little additional expenditure, the example of primordial wilderness as the destruction of countless buildings but certainly calls for serious protective imagined frontier that the nationalists in the Gatineau Valley. R. Percy Sparks, measures. By their nature, such meas- desired, but a previously-settled, for- Vice-President of the Federal Woodlands ures pertain to matters of aesthetics... ested, and mined area within sight of Preservation League, was not ambiva- ”53 This recommendation that the Park the Capital, the stronghold of Canada’s lent toward the built heritage resour- be enhanced and treated in a way that “peace, order and good governance.”57 ces in the Gatineau region. One of his will create a wilderness aesthetic is in The solution was the re-creation of wil- dreams was the creation of a pioneer line with nationalist discourse. The FDC’s derness through the appropriation and village in Chelsea, with old mills, a tan- Gatineau Park Advisory Committee drew re-naturalization of the Gatineau Hills. nery, and town hall. In the 1960s, his upon the concept of Canadian identity Encouraged by the Federal Woodlands daughter became an advocate for the embedded in the Canadian landscape Preservation League, a 1928 amend- region’s built heritage. Judy Crawley as early as 1949 in the Report of the ment to the Federal District Commission thus met with the NCC in 1962 to dis- Advisory Committee of the Gatineau Act gave the FDC the right to expropri- cuss the foundation of a pioneer village, Park: “the area included in the park ate land for its purposes and allocated but the project was deemed unfeasible. forms part of the Laurentian Shield and three million dollars to initiate new She also inquired about the possibil- therefore is typical Canadian terrain... If projects.58 By the onset of the Second ity of opening a tearoom at Moorside the park is to achieve its true purpose it World War the FDC had acquired sixteen since, although William Lyon Mackenzie

80 JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

lobbied for the preservation of the Asa undergoing an extensive restoration, but Meech House and managed to save it.66 the O’Brien House has seriously deterior- A June 25, 1968, NCC memo stated: “... ated; neither is open to the public. we should endeavour to have the house preserved using Historical Development The continuation of the nationalist view funds... There are few enough historical of nature in recent policy has created buildings in the National Capital Region a binary between nature and herit- in Quebec to deliberately permit their age conservation. Concurrent with the destruction.”67 In 1966, the Society rise in awareness of the Park’s herit- started acquiring land, purchasing the age assets was an increased concern Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery, designated a over environmental degradation due National Historic Site of Canada in 1989.68 to overuse. In 1967, the Park received It also established and still manages the one million eight hundred thousand vis- Historical Museum of the Gatineau in itors and a third of a million cars drove Wakefield, the successor of a smaller, the Gatineau Parkway, built in 1953. earlier museum at Moorside.69 By the 1970s, approximately two hun- dred kilometres of trails had been cut Despite these early successes, many struc- through the Gatineau Hills.74 Pressure F PIG. 5.  ercy Sparks, July 1958. | City of Ottawa Archives/ MG393-P416A/CA022370/Andrews-Newton. tures have been lost in the face of the on the area only increased with the Fall NCC’s continued re-naturalization poli- Rhapsody Festival, Canada Day celebra- cies. The McCloskey farm belonged to tions, and bus tours in the early 1980s. A King had bequeathed his Gatineau Hills, some of the first settlers in the region 1975 study carried out by the NCC found Kingsmere Lake estate to the people of and their barn served for many years alarming ecological degradation in the Canada, it was not open to the public. as a rest stop for weary skiers. Now the park and recommended the formation of The NCC thought a tearoom was an farm is only remembered through the a Gatineau Park master plan to address excellent idea, but did not think it appro- trail that bears its name.70 Miles Barnes, the issue and guide future planning priate to have a government property known as the Hermit, was a mythical fig- decisions.75 managed by a private individual. Judy ure in the park. He inspired the poem responded by founding a society to deal “The Hermit” by confederation poet Since the 1980s, emphasis has been with historic buildings in the Gatineau Arthur Bourinot and was acquainted placed on the concept of “ecological region.63 with prominent figures with summer integrity” in all national park policies, retreats in the park, including Prime which can be defined as preserving The Historical Society of the Gatineau, Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.71 the integrity of an ecosystem by ensur- renamed the Gatineau Valley Historical Sadly, the Hermit’s hovel was simply ing that its native components remain Society in 2003, was founded in 1962 to left to decay in the woods. Its location intact.76 The first Gatineau Park Master “promote matters of historical or herit- can only be identified by the remaining Plan of 1980 drew upon this principle age significance in the general area of the apple trees that supplied his livelihood.72 to establish three official functions for Gatineau Valley.”64 This non-profit soci- The historic J.R. Booth mansion, across Gatineau Park: conservation, interpret- ety’s work, still carried out today, ranges Kingsmere Lake from Mackenzie King’s ation, and recreation. These functions from organizing events and publishing estate, was demolished after being were described in the 1980 Gatineau Park an annual journal and bi-monthly news- struck by lightning. Shady Hill, a cot- Master Plan as: conservation, an activity letters to preserving archival material of tage that was part of Mackenzie King’s seeking to “preserve biological, hydro- local interest.65 The Society’s first project, bequest to the public, was demolished logical, geological, and cultural resour- the tearoom at Moorside, was a huge despite public outcry.73 The Asa Meech ces of the environment in the interest success and continues to be open each House was saved through early efforts of the general public”; interpretation, summer, although it is now managed by of the Historical Society of the Gatineau, as “an educational activity, striv[ing] to the NCC. Despite the NCC’s decision to but has suffered a series of vandalisms increase the visitor’s appreciation of ecol- allow it to “rot gracefully,” the Society and needs repairs. The Willson Estate is ogy and history and heighten his respect

JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 81 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

York required hiring forty animators to work at 119 Scott Road. Among them were Bill Mason, Barrie Nelson, and Blake James, all of whom moved to Meech Lake and became enthusiasts.

Regardless of his success in educational and documentary films, Budge was deter- mined to make feature-length produc- tion. Not deterred by his first attempt, the box-office flop Amanita Pestilens (1963), Budge made The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964), starring Robert Shaw and his wife Mary Ure, and directed by Irwin Kershner, best known for Never Say Die and The Empire Strikes Back. The film was shot largely in Montreal and the Gatineau Hills, with the stars and direc- tor renting houses in Chelsea. The Luck of Ginger Coffey went on to win the Canadian Film Award for Best Theatrical F TIG. 6.  he Crawley Compound at present. | Photographed April 2012 by author. Feature in 1965.81 The highlight of this period for Crawley Films was Budge’s for the environment”; and recreation, as of an inland gulf known today as the 1975 Oscar win for Best Documentary an activity “concerned with providing receded,” and “[t]he Feature for The Man Who Skied Down the public with activities practiced in a topography of the area [a]s typically Everest, with script by Judy Crawley, natural milieu and compatible with its Canadian in its content.”79 sound effects by Rod Crawley, and a preservation.”77 The 1990 Gatineau Park musical score composed by Gatineau Master Plan describes Gatineau Park as C losing Credits: The native Larry Crosley. “a haven of peace and unspoiled beauty Downfall for all who live in the National Capital of Crawley Films Returning to earlier tropes after his Oscar Region.” The 1995-1996 Annual Report win, Budge became obsessed with mak- states that “The NCC is proud of its role Crawley Films continued to make films ing a film based on the 1959 novel The in creating what is known around the “typically Canadian in content” through Strange One by Fred Bodsworth. Written world as the ‘Green Capital.’ The pres- its engagement with similar themes. It by a Canadian journalist and amateur ervation and enhancement of nature in also became entrenched in the Canadian naturalist, the novel follows the parallel the Capital Region is, and will remain, psyche, becoming the second largest pro- love stories of a male Canada goose and the keystone of planning.”78 This has ducer of educational and documentary a female Barnacle goose and a Scottish remained the case, with clear connec- films in the world. By 1960 the company ornithologist and a Cree woman. Budge’s tions continuing to be made between had produced 1800 motion pictures, 600 daughter Michal Anne Crawley explained nature and Canadian identity. Over TV commercials, and 100 slide shows, in 2009 that it was not the human story forty years after the submission of the winning 180 national and international that interested him but the story of the Report of the Advisory Committee of awards and having multiple studios and birds and the natural environment that the Gatineau Park, NCC literature still offices across Canada.80 The company encompassed the Arctic, the Hebrides of describes Gatineau Park as “situated continued to create jobs in the Gatineau Scotland, and the sea. Although Budge where the Pre-Cambrian rock of the region; Crawley’s contract of 1962 to commissioned many screen adaptations Canadian Shield meets the rich alluvial make 130 five-minute cartoons based on and built a million-dollar wind tunnel plain formed eons ago when the waters The Wizard of Oz for Videocraft of New for special effects, he never succeeded

82 JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

in making the film.82 The expenditures reclaimed by the “wilderness” that was Park 1920-1960, master’s thesis in history, in trying to make the film were how- the true stage upon which his work was Kingston (ON), Queen’s University, p. 4. ever a factor in Budge selling Crawley set—even if that “wilderness” is in a 21. Apostle : 3-4: and Brandenburg : 23. Films in 1982. In 1986, eight months sense its own art, an illusion, a stage as 22. Apostle : 67. after Judy’s death, Budge died from a constructed as the sets once held within. 23. Ibid. series of strokes. Despite a tumultuous 24. Id. : 67. separation, they are buried together notes 25. Brandenburg : 16. in the historic Old Chelsea Protestant Burial Ground; Budge’s ashes are placed 1. Capitale, “Plan for Canada’s Capital: A 26. Id. : 16. second Century of Vision, Planning and within a 35mm film can with a sticker 27. Apostle : 69. Development,” National Capital Commission, 83 marked “Rush-Urgent.” The Crawley [http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/sites/ 28. Id. : 72. film collection now resides at Library and default/files/pubs/Plan-For-Canadas- 29. Brandenburg : 23. Capital-1999.pdf], accessed September 14, Archives Canada, stored in the Gatineau 30. Fletcher, Katharine, 2004, Historical Walks: 2012. Preservation Centre. The Gatineau Park Story Third Edition, 2. Crawley, Michal Anne, 2009, “Lights! Camera! Markham, Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd., p. Action! – A Brief History of Crawley Films,” The NCC acquired the Crawley Studio 61. Up the Gatineau!, vol. 35, no. 26. on July 22, 1976, and leases it to the 31. Apostle : 71. 3. Id. : 26. Municipality of Chelsea. While propos- 32. Fletcher : 62. 4. Id. : 26; and “National Film Board of Canada als were put forward to turn it into a 33. Apostle : 72. Film Collection,” National Film Board of theatre in 1984, the property has been Canada, [http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/col- 34. Id. : 64. converted into a garage. The interior has lection/film], accessed November 12, 2011. 35. Id. : 91. been completely refitted, windows filled 5. Crawley : 27. in with concrete blocks, and the exterior 36. Id. : 64; and Brandenburg : 23. 6. Id. : 28-29. re-clad. These changes, combined with a 37. Fletcher : 63. 7. Id. : 27. lack of documentation, make it hard to 38. Apostle : 107. 8. Id. : 29. understand how the studio was origin- 39. Id. : 9. 9. Id. : 30. ally used. Having little left to say about 40. Ibid. the burgeoning of Canada’s film indus- 10. Id. : 27. 41. Id. : 14. try, the Crawley Compound serves as an 11. Davis, Val, 2007,“My First Year Teaching 42. Id. : 46. interesting site to consider the relation- School in Chelsea,” Up the Gatineau!, vol. 3, ships between artists and nature, and no. 6. 43. Id. : 14. nature and Canadian identity. While 12. Crawley : 30. 44. Brandenburg : 7. artists like Crawley were capturing and 13. Rose, Barbara Wade, 1998, Budge: What 45. Apostle : 32-33. Happened to Canada’s King of Film, Toronto, interpreting the Canadian landscape as 46. Id. : 5. a uniquely Canadian wilderness, others ECW Press, p. 94-95. 47. Brandenburg : 8. were creating this idealized form by re- 14. Id. : 95. 48. Apostle : 36. naturalizing areas to serve as Parks, mak- 15. Ibid.; and Crawley : 30. 49. Id. : 47. ing the “wilderness” with which Crawley 16. Id. : 30. interacted as constructed and symbolic- 50. Id. : 32. 17. Rose : 93. ally laden as his art. There is no mention 51. Id. : 70. 18. Id. : 99. of the Crawley property in the Gatineau 52. Ibid. Park Cultural Heritage Strategic Plan, 19. Brandenburg, Maren, 2003, Gatineau Park and Its Unique Situation as the Canadian’s 53. Id. : 92. yet to be published, having not been Capital Natural Park, master’s thesis in 54. Id. : 11. included in an earlier Gatineau Park geography, Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander- Cultural Inventory. Given Budge’s devo- Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Institut für 55. Id. : 99. tion to creating films that celebrated the Geographie, p. 15. 56. Id. : 65. Canadian landscape, perhaps it is fitting 20. Apostle, Alisa Catharine, 1997, The View From 57. Department of Justice, Constitutional that the NCC eventually let his studio be The Hill: National Park Culture and Gatineau Documents, Government of Canada, [http://

JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012 83 Hilary Grant > P rix Martin Eli Weil 2012 | Martin Eli Weil Prize 2012

laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/], accessed November 18, 2011.

58. Apostle : 69.

59. Fletcher : 63 and 88.

60. Apostle : 90.

61. Fletcher : 64.

62. Apostle : 89.

63. Wright, Moiya, 1987, “A Letter to the Editor,” Up the Gatineau!, vol. 13, no. 4.

64. Gatineau Valley Historical Society, GVHS Mandate and Mission, [http://www.gvhs.ca/ about/index.html] , accessed November 13, 2011.

65. Ibid.

66. Fletcher : 65.

67. Ibid.

68. Gatineau Valley Historical Society, Cemeteries (Ownership and Maintenance of Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery; Work on Chelsea Protestant Burial Ground), [http://www.gvhs. ca/sites/pioneer-cemetery.html], accessed November 14, 2011.

69. Gatineau Valley Historical Society, History of the Gatineau Valley Historical Society, [http:// www.gvhs.ca/about/history.html], accessed November 14, 2011.

70. Fletcher : 109.

71. Id. : 47.

72. Id. : 66.

73. Id. : 65.

74. Apostle : 11.

75. Brandenburg : 18.

76. Id. : 11-12.

77. Id. : 19.

78. Apostle : 114.

79. Id. : 11.

80. Crawley : 33.

81. Id. : 32.

82. Crawley : 33; and Library and Archives Canada, Celebrating Women’s Achievements: Judith Rosemary (Sparks) Crawley, [http://www.col- lectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-1252-e. html], accessed February 25, 2012.

83. Crawley : 34.

84 JSSAC | JSÉAC 37 > No 2 > 2012