A Night at the Garden (S): a History of Professional Hockey Spectatorship

A Night at the Garden(s): A History of Professional Hockey Spectatorship in the 1920s and 1930s by Russell David Field A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences University of Toronto © Copyright by Russell David Field 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39833-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39833-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada A Night at the Garden(s): A History of Professional Hockey Spectatorship in the 1920s and 1930s Russell David Field Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences, University of Toronto Abstract This study inserts the spectator into the socio-historic analysis of commercial sport in the interwar years, specifically in the context of North American ice hockey. It focuses upon two facilities, New York's Madison Square Garden (built in 1925) and Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens (1931), which hosted indoor sports spectating on a scale previously unseen in either city. Maple Leaf Gardens' scale was a direct response to the economic challenge symbolized by Madison Square Garden and this study begins with an examination of hockey spectators in New York. The emphasis then shifts to Maple Leaf Gardens and Conn Smythe, the man most responsible for Toronto's new arena, who was symbolic of interwar sport entrepreneurs who positioned their attractions as respectable alternatives to, for example, a night at the theatre. How should we think about spectatorship at Madison Square Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens? How did these buildings anticipate particular spectators and spectator behaviours? Who were the spectators that attended hockey games in these arenas? And what were the experiences of spectators within them? To make his arena venture successful, Smythe wanted, in his own words, "a place where people can go in evening clothes ... a place that people can be proud to take their wives or girl friends to." The result was a building that anticipated and produced respectable spectators at a particular intersection of class, gender, and ethnic expectations. The spectators who watched hockey games at Maple Leaf Gardens were predominantly ii men who earned higher incomes and were more commonly occupied in white-collar professions when compared to Toronto's contemporary wage-earning male population. Attending hockey games was a social experience regardless of social standing or gender. There were women who went to hockey games in the company of other women. Spectating has been constructed as a masculine pastime, but in the new spaces of sport in the interwar years, both women and men in Toronto used one of the city's most prominent public buildings as a site for their own socializing. in Acknowledgements While only a single name appears on the cover of this dissertation, the research that went into producing it was a collaborative effort. It is the work of friends and family, colleagues and strangers, archivists and librarians. And I want at the outset to acknowledge and give thanks for their many and varied contributions. The most appropriate place to start is to thank the people who shared with me their experiences as spectators at Maple Leaf Gardens and Madison Square Garden in the 1930s. These 33 men and women set aside time in their days and, in many instances, opened their homes to me, a complete stranger. We met in Toronto, Kingston, Waterloo, Calgary, Vancouver, Manhattan, Queen's, Brooklyn, Long Island, and rural New Jersey. In all cases, these former spectators were welcoming and giving. I am certain that most, if not all, would rather that their actual names accompany their memories as they are recounted here. Sadly, the strictures of post-secondary research require me to attribute their stories in this document to pseudonyms. My hope is that they will feel that I have done justice to their memories and accurately interpreted their experiences as hockey spectators. In some cases I met these charismatic and enthusiastic former spectators through the assistance of administrators at assisted-living facilities, and I am also grateful for the efforts of these people. This project got its initial push in February 2004 during a visit to New York City where I was lucky enough to meet John Halligan at the offices of the National Hockey League. His support, enthusiasm, and seemingly endless rolodex were all much appreciated. In Toronto, a number of employees of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the corporation whose holdings include Maple Leaf Gardens and the Maple Leaf hockey iv club were very helpful. These include Paul Beirne, who connected me with long-time Leafs' ticket subscribers, and Mike Ferriman. Absolutely invaluable assistance was also provided by Donna Henderson and her staff in the Air Canada Centre ticket office. It was Donna who alerted me to the existence of the Maple Leaf Gardens subscriber ledgers that comprise such a significant portion of the evidence upon which this dissertation is based. She was gracious enough me to allow me to spend much of July and August of 2005 at Air Canada Centre transcribing the ledgers. Jason Vogel of the New York Rangers also provided important assistance. Like many historians, I relied heavily on archival collections. And, given the scarcity of accounts of spectator experiences, I combed through as many different archives as I could access. In all cases, the staff at these facilities—the unsung support networks of many theses—were generous with their time and knowledge. I am especially grateful to the reading room staff at the Archives of Ontario, Lawrence Lee at the City of Toronto Archives, Sophie Tellier at the National Archives in Ottawa, and Howard Shubert and Andrea Kuchembuck at the Centre for Canadian Architecture in Montreal. In Toronto, the staff of the resource centre at the Hockey Hall of Fame (including Paul Patskou and Kevin Shea) was always helpful, as were the data and geographic information systems librarians at the University of Toronto's Robarts Library. In New York, Julie Tozer of the Avery Library Drawings and Archives at Columbia University guided me through the collections of Thomas W. Lamb. I spent seven weeks over two visits researching in New York, and much of this time was spent at the main humanities and social sciences branch of the New York Public Library, on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, reading newspapers in the Microforms Reading Room and reviewing the v collection of the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy. I am grateful for the assistance of the staff in both departments for making my time at one of New York's most beautiful buildings more fruitful. As I sit writing this, at the Hava Java coffee shop on Water Street in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland, I'm reminded that much of what follows was composed in similarly cosy confines. This project was born at the Cafe Diplomatico in Toronto's Little Italy and many of the final edits were made in the Second Cup on Yonge Street, south of Davisville. In between trips to these two venues—and countless pots of Earl Grey tea and a truly alarming number of baked goods later—the vast majority of this dissertation was composed over a memorable winter and spring spent in the Baltimore neighbourhood of Fell's Point, primarily at the Daily Grind coffee house and Bluehouse Cafe. I'm grateful to the staff in all these establishments for allowing an ill-kempt and rarely shaven doctoral student to while away the hours at a corner table. It was only with the support of a truly patient supervisor—one who was at times likely more convinced than I was that this would all work out—that such a wide-ranging and far-flung project could be completed, and I am grateful for the guidance of Dr. Bruce Kidd. The confidence he has shown in my research and his willingness to solicit my input on pedagogical matters have meant more to me than I've probably told him, and I look forward (with a due sense of awe) to making the transition from his student to friend and colleague.

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