Take a walk by 790 Bay Street in Toronto and you’ll see why most people would never give it a second look. There's nothing distinctive about it, nothing to draw your interest, excitement or imagination. In fact, it's rather utilitarian and sad, nondescript, ordinary, featureless.
It's a mid-century
modern-style building from the late 1950s, and it was built as the Canadian
offices of the Continental Can Company. Then, it was sold and refurbished to
make money from tenanting.
It's a drab,
eleven-story building situated on a standard, street corner and there's nothing
special about it. Not in architecture, styling, location or presence. Today,
it's a simple medical building that exudes nothing in character, history,
culture or elegance. It just is.
Yet, this building is
a-part of Toronto's history and it is a major part of Canada's storytelling
legacy. For this building housed the creative offices of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation during the 1970s and ‘80s, until the new CBC Broadcast
Centre was built on Front Street.
The CBC offices at 790
Bay Street became the nucleus of television production in Canada. Here,
television drama was created, current affairs and documentary programs were
innovated, television specials were instigated, and crews were sent out all
over the world to bring back stories and footage from everywhere. It was here
that the productions were edited and post-produced, ready for broadcast to the
nation.
This building housed,
not just production offices for writers, producers, directors and staff, but
other floors where film camera units were ready for action, editing rooms were
assembling shot footage, screening rooms, negative cutting rooms and sound
editing rooms were in a huddle creating and finishing programming. There were
camera maintenance departments, film evaluation rooms, scheduling offices and
travel offices. Throughout the many floors the CBC rented in this office
building, there was a total production facility, from script to screen.
This was hub of creative
and artistic talent and anyone who was anyone, the Who's Who in Canadian
production, walked these unassuming corridors.
And from 1971 to 1986
this building was the epicenter of my career.
Here, I learned how to
be an assistant cameraman, a camera operator and a Director of Photography.
Here, I learned to be an international cinematographer, sent around the globe,
to return with stories within the many cans of film that I shot.
We would be sent to the
jungles of the South Pacific, across the iron curtain into the heart of
communist countries, across the oceans and continents to hunt out the most
interesting of stories, from the wine-making vineyards of California’s Napa
Valley to the high speed rail systems of Europe. And each story had it’s own
drama, happy moments and sorrow, birth and death. We were sent everywhere
across the USA and we explored and documented every inch of our own country of
Canada, from sea, to sea to sea. It was a busy world and we were shipped off
for months, weeks and days.
Everything that stemmed
from 790 Bay Street, for me, was the greatest of education. The subjects were
endless and the people I worked with and documented were fascinating.
Here I also learned the
essence of drama cinematography, and I would build my resume of television
series, TV drama and movies for television.
The building itself was
filled with life. When I came home from an assignment, I would sit with the
editors who became my friends. I might climb the stairs to the drama department
to see what productions were in the works. Sometimes I would get a call from a
friend who was producing documentaries or have a coffee with a scheduling
clerk. Then, there were the wrap parties and the office Christmas parties, one
on each floor. I had a blast at every one. Friendships were made and lost, we loved, we cried, we laughed, we created together. Where are they all now?
In 1985, I left the CBC
to become a freelance Director of Photography, but a year later I was asked
back to shoot a lawyer-based TV series.
Then, in 1986, I ended
my CBC days and never looked back. I had learned what I could, and had traveled
the world. It had been a charmed life of adventure, knowledge and creativity.
Not long after, the CBC moved out of 790 Bay Street and into their new
production facility on Front Street.
Today, nothing remains
of the CBC’s involvement with 790 Bay Street except in the minds of the many
people who worked and created there.
Much like the workings
of a drama where sets are designed and erected to bring a story to life, then
they are torn down when the production is finished, 790 Bay Street was
discarded and cast away in the same way. It was of its time and nothing more.
It is now a medical
building, helping bring wellness to thousands who remain unaware of the history
it holds.
So take a walk by 790
Bay Street in Toronto and see a place that, for one shining moment, gave Canada
and the world a touch of film magic.
