movie released in 1957. It was directed by Roy Baker and shot in Switzerland, despite the fact that the setting was Canada. It told the true story of Franz von Werra, a German pilot (played by Harvey Kruger) who had the distinction of being the sole prisoner of the Second World War to escape from a Canadian internment camp. He succeeded in making his way to the still-neutral United States, where he generated publicity for the Axis cause.
025. Who is the father of anthropology?
Many anthropologists consider Joseph-François Lafitau to be the father of anthropology. He has also been called the father of ethnology, anthropology’s cousin discipline. A Jesuit from France, Lafitau served as a missionary among the Mohawks at Caughnawaga. From 1712 to 1729, he observed the life and customs of the Natives and described them in Jesuit Relations. He identified the ginseng plant growing in the St. Lawrence valley and was thus responsible for the profitable trade in the plant, which continues to this day. One of his notions, since discredited, was that because the Iroquois had many customs in common with the Lycians — who lived in what is now southwest Turkey — the Natives of North America are their descendants.
026. Was Glenn Gould a fictional character?
Glenn Gould, the celebrated pianist, died in Toronto in 1980. As a recording artist, he has reached an immense audience of classical music lovers. As a fictional character, he has made appearances in two works of fiction. He figures in Austrian author Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Loser (1991) and in American author Richard Powers’s The Gold Bug Variations (1991). In both novels he is described as a hermit-like performing genius alienated from his country and century. Robert Fulford discusses these novels in this column in Saturday Night, September 1992.
027. Who were “Your Eminent Residences” at the Stratford Festival?
Tyrone Guthrie, artistic director of the Stratford Festival, was wryly amused when he arrived in Stratford to find in his company a house, a hut, and a mews — the talented actors Eric House, William Hutt, and Peter Mews — so he addressed them as “Your Eminent Residences.”
028. Who rode Scout?
Tonto, the faithful Indian companion of the Lone Ranger, rode a piebald Indian horse known as Scout. The Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels, a Native of the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario, played Tonto on radio, television, and in the movies in the 1940s and 1950s. The Lone Ranger rode “the great horse Silver.”
029. Who composed the women’s anthem “Give Us Back the Night”?
The words and music of the women’s anthem “Give Us Back the Night” were composed by Cynthia Kerr, the Hamilton songwriter; the French translation was prepared by Chantal Chamberland.
The anthem’s chorus runs as follows: “Who’s going to break this silence, who’s going to fight the fight? / Stand up and be counted, and give us back the night. / Who’s going to break this silence, who’s going to fight the fight? / Stand up and be counted, and give us back the night.” When the chorus is repeated the third time, the following words are added: “Give women back the night.”
Kerr composed and copyrighted the moving anthem on October 17, 1989, as if in anticipation of the Montreal Massacre of fourteen women students at l’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, December 6, 1989. The anthem is now performed at the annual vigils that commemorate the massacre. An audio cassette, Give Us Back the Night / Redonnez-Nous la Nuit (Open Mind, 1989), includes the following notice: “We dedicate this recording to the fourteen women whose dreams were crushed on December 6, 1989, at l’Ecole Polytechnique, Montréal.” The cassette lists the names of the background vocalists, all of whom are Hamilton-area students. One of the vocalists was Nina de Villiers, who was slain the night of August 9, 1991.
030. Did A.H. Clough compose any verses in Canada?
This is a trick question. Arthur Hugh Clough, the Victorian versifier, did not visit any part of Canada on his trip to America. But he crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 1850 aboard the steamer Canada, and in his berth he wrote the lines of one of his moving poems, the one that begins like this: “Green fields of England! wheresoe’er / Across this watery waste we fare, / Your image on our hearts we bear, / Green fields of England, everywhere.” The incident is described by David Williams in Too Quick Despairer: A Life of Arthur Hugh Clough (1969).
031. Who is the Ottawa-born comic writer and actor whose name is most frequently misspelled?
That question sounds like a comedy routine from the typewriter of Dan Aykroyd, the Ottawa-born comic writer and actor who got his start with SCTV’s Second City stage troupe and TV’s Saturday Night Live, later moving on to such feature films as Ghostbusters and Spies Like Us. His name is frequently misspelled by the media and on movie marquees.
032. Who was the second premier of Newfoundland?
Everyone knows that J.R. (Joey) Smallwood was the first premier of Newfoundland. He held office from 1949 to his resignation in 1972. His successor was Frank D. Moores, who held office from 1972 to 1979.
033. Did someone named Robur ever go over Niagara Falls?
This happened only in the pages of Jules Verne’s Master of the World (1904). In the 1914 English-language version of this fantastic adventure novel, Robur the Conqueror is a master criminal who nurtures an insane ambition to rule the world. As captain of the Terror — a combination automobile, boat, submarine, and airplane — he flees two pursuing destroyers on the Niagara River and then sweeps over Niagara Falls and sails away. Verne wrote, “At the moment when the Terror reached the very edge of the Falls, she arose into space, escaping from the thundering cataract in the centre of the lunar bow.”
034. Who created Superman?
Superman, the first of the caped crusaders, was created in 1939 by writer Jerry Siegel (1914–1996) and cartoonist Joe Shuster (1914–1992). They met in Cleveland, where Jerry lived. Joe was a youngster from Toronto, and the Daily Planet, where Lois Lane and Clark Kent worked, is modelled on the Toronto Daily Star, which he had delivered house to house. It is frequently said that Americans claim Superman whereas Canadians claim Clark Kent.
035. What were John Buchan’s favourite Canadian books on angling?
John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, served as governor general of Canada. Born in Scotland, his country home lay in the Border region. He was a confirmed angler and a discerning littérateur. He could tell a good book from a mediocre one, especially when it came to angling. Here is what he wrote about the conjunction of literature and fishing in Memory Hold-the-Door (1940):
The literary classics of angling after all are few in number, for who is there besides [Izaak] Walton? I should select part of the Noctes Ambrosianae, and some of Andrew Lang’s Angling Sketches, but that may be a Borderer’s bias; Lord Grey of Fallodon’s Fly-fishing beyond doubt; and two Canadian books, Stewart Edward White’s The Forest and W.H. Blake’s Brown Waters. But Walton must always head the list.
It is interesting to note that histories of Canada writing and writers yield no information on Stewart Edward White. W.H. Blake’s well-written Brown Waters was published in 1915; its sequel is A Fisherman’s Creed (1923).
036. What was the so-called Champagne Safari?
What has been called the Champagne Safari was the 1,200-mile expedition across the Canadian Rockies in the 1930s led by Charles Bedaux. The millionaire industrialist travelled in style with a fleet of Citroens, 130 horses, and gourmet food and books. He was accompanied by his wife, his mistress, and the cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who kept a record of the “trek.” In 1995, director George Ungar
