Levitt, Cyril H. and Shaffir, William. the Riot at Christie Pits. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987

Document généré le 25 sept. 2021 01:22 Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine Levitt, Cyril H. and Shaffir, William. The Riot at Christie Pits. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987. Pp. xii, 305. 8 black and white plates. $26.95 Paula J. Draper Volume 17, numéro 3, february 1989 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1017641ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1017641ar Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine ISSN 0703-0428 (imprimé) 1918-5138 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer ce compte rendu Draper, P. J. (1989). Compte rendu de [Levitt, Cyril H. and Shaffir, William. The Riot at Christie Pits. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987. Pp. xii, 305. 8 black and white plates. $26.95]. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 17(3), 219–221. https://doi.org/10.7202/1017641ar All Rights Reserved © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 1989 Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ Book Reviews/Comptes rendus Metcalfe, Alan. Canada Learns to Play: prevailed. The culture of the rural, the to support them. British elite ideas about The Emergence of Organized Sport, francophone, and the working classes were, sport, of course, persisted. 1807-1914. Toronto: McClelland and as Metcalfe says about the last group, Stewart, 1987. Pp. 243. Illustrations. "largely confined to the sidelines." It would Lacrosse, which enjoys an entire chapter, is $15.95 (paper). appear that the culture of a new, pushing used by Metcalfe to illustrate the nature of business class suffered the same fate to the amateur/professional clash —embodied, In this volume, Alan Metcalfe examines the some degree. And since the victory was in fact, in the conflict between the elite clubs growth of organized sport in Canada from chiefly that of Montreal and, later, Toronto, it of Montreal, representing traditional society 1807, when the Montreal Curling Club was was also a central Canadian one. and its values, and the Shamrocks, an Irish, founded, to 1914, when the Amateur Athletic Roman Catholic, working-class organization, Union of Canada had established control of The book builds to what is arguably representing modern structures and values. the amateur in sport. Metcalfe's considerable Metcalfe's best chapter, which is also, Even though they were the best club on the accomplishment lies somewhere between happily, his central one. It describes, if in field, the Shamrocks were unable to control that of Nancy and Max Howell's Sports and over-abundant detail, the growth of he the development of the sport in the face of Games in Canadian Life (1969) and John amateur ethic and its challenge at the end of elite resistance. Without support of traditional Hargreaves' study of Britain, Sport, Power the 19th century by professional, commercial institutions and an organizational centre, and Culture (1986). He appears to be aiming sport. There was to be no compromise. A lacrosse died as a commercial, and for a book like Hargreaves', one in the proposed compromise intended to permit proletarian, enterprise. So, too, did the tradition of E. P. Thompson, and at times he amateurs and professionals to play on the assertion of a commercial and proletarian approaches the standard. But he retains, still, same team was rejected by the purists. They culture. The middle-class, amateur ethic, much of the minutiae typical of the Howells underlined their declaration by the which arose in Montreal and spread to and sport historians of their genre. repudiation of the amateur status of Tom Toronto, was assailed by the proletarian Longboat, selected to run for Canada in the values of the city at the turn of the century, Metcalfe sees his book as a history of the 1908 Olympics. By 1909, the conservatives but they were at that time not strong enough emergence of new sport forms that had also achieved organizational control of to change the face of sport. correspond to the 19th-century evolution of sport, and, in doing so, confirmed as urban-industrial Canada. In this process, dominant the notion of the amateur. Metcalfe has produced a book that ranks spontaneous play forms, according to among the best yet produced on Canadian Metcalfe, gave way to a more rationalized Professional sport by no means disappeared, sport, but it is one that still lacks much structure of spectators, rules, and indeed commercialization of sport proceeded necessary descriptive clarity and analytical administrative bureaucracy. Despite the apace. The middle classes exploited the vigour. We still seem to be awaiting a changing nature of the larger society, and of market potential of their sports facilities and Canadian Hargreaves'. sport itself, the underlying and guiding ethic the working classes were quickly in sports remained amateurism, a product of consumerized. A history of professionalism Bernard F. Booth an earlier, elite society. is provided, including horse-racing, bicycle- University of Ottawa racing, and the touring professional who In this way, then, the roots of Canadian sport made his living travelling from city to city. are seen to lie in a clash between pre- Ned Hanlan is presented as the prototype for Levitt, Cyril H. and Shaffir, William. The industrial values, as represented in the the sport hero who is marketed by the press. Riot at Christie Pits. Toronto: Lester and amateur ethic, and those of the newer urban- But commercialization appears to have been Orpen Dennys, 1987. Pp. xii, 305. 8 black industrial patterns, as represented in confined to sectors, baseball, for example, and white plates. $26.95. commercial sport. By 1914 the former was because it had American support, and largely victorious, and the amateur ethic hockey because it was rural and somewhat It was the summer of 1933. Young men and (sport seen chiefly as avocation) prevailed in beyond the reach of the urban amateurs women paraded on the city's eastern much of the sporting world. Commercial, (though this last judgement seems beaches sporting swastika badges and t- professional sport was confined to certain questionable). More to the point is Metcalfe's shirts. One morning, residents of a downtown areas. discovery of hockey's professional roots in neighbourhood awoke to find a large the amateur game. British sports, such as swastika and "Heil Hitler" painted on a roof of Looked at in a social sense, the culture of cricket, existed in Canada only so long as the Willowvale clubhouse. During a junior the urban, anglophone middle classes there was a strong core of British expatriates league Softball game in Willowvale Park, 219 Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XVII, No. 3 (February 1989) Book Reviews/Comptes rendus (known locally as Christie Pits), between a exclusively Anglo Beaches neighbourhood devoted to newspaper accounts of Nazi predominantly Jewish team and a team were horrified by weekend invasions by atrocities. A helpful series of charts sponsored by a church, a swastika flag was immigrant bathers. These newcomers, some summarize the geographic, age, language unfurled and voices cried: "Heil Hitler" and of them Jews, monopolized the picnic tables, and occupational distribution of Jews in "Kill the Jews". In the riot that ensued several were noisy, nursed their babies in public, Toronto. The book is carefully documented. people were injured badly enough to be changed in their trucks and littered the The authors were frustrated in their attempts hospitalized, yet only one combatant was beaches. Local youths, adopting Nazi to interview former members of the Swastika eventually jailed. Responding to the ethnic paraphernalia, created "Swastika Clubs" Clubs and the non-Jewish fighters from the strife, the mayor threatened prosecution of which began a campaign of intimidation and Pits. This does not detract, however, from anyone displaying the swastika emblem. This occasional violence to rid the Beaches of the vibrant picture they present, a picture was "Toronto the Good." He called on its these foreigners, conveniently lumped enhanced by their colourful use of quotations citizens to keep it that way. together as Jews. The Jewish community from Jewish old-timers. was quick to react. The authors argue in For most of Toronto's inhabitants, the riot at convincing detail that no one in Toronto could Levitt and Shaffir are concerned with a Christie Pits was quickly overshadowed by be ignorant, even at this early date, of the variety of issues raised by the events they the mounting tensions in Europe and the Nazi identification with the swastika and its describe. Their discussion of the changing enormous human tragedy of the Second symbolic connection to their treatment of ethnic mix of Toronto is enhanced by their World War. But the Jews of Toronto never Germany's Jews. Every newspaper in the look at interconnections between ethnic forgot the events of the summer of 1933, and city was replete with front-page reports on conceptions of territory and self-defence. the riot has become permanently embedded the abuse and murder of Jews under Nazi They also examine the changing face of in their ethnic mythology. It is a particular rule. The anti-Semitic incidents at the anti-Semitism in Canada and make strong point of honour to have participated in the Beaches were further sensationalized by the arguments to connect it, not only with a rioting, or even to have witnessed it.

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