Toronto: City of Dreams

A compelling dramatic television documentary starring the city we love to hate

Love it or hate it, Toronto is wedged like a thorn in the national psyche. Known as Toronto the Good because of its Victorian morality and temperance, it was anything but. From the beginning, immigrants have challenged Toronto’s identity, forcing necessary tolerance and surprising contradiction. From Lt. Governor Simcoe’s muddy little York to the sprawling megacity of today, the history of Toronto is a unique mix of paradox and complexity.

Episode One:
A Colony Up for Grabs (1600-1867)

Episode Two:
The Queen City (1867-1939)

Episode Three:
City State (1939-2000)

For press and media, please visit CTV's website at:
www.ctv.ca/media

John Graves Simcoe (City Founder)

Toronto: City of Dreams, an extraordinary three-part television series produced by White Pine Pictures, is the first-ever TV history of Canada’s largest metropolis. A fascinating documentary drama that blends innovative story-telling techniques with riveting portraits of heroes and hooligans, the series is an entertaining, and sometimes irreverent, look at the history of a city and the building of a nation. Toronto: City of Dreams is based on two years of exhaustive research. The series maps the evolution of the city’s architecture, business, social justice, politics, sports, arts and entertainment. Braiding together archival footage, dramatic re-enactments, music and commentary from famous figures as well as ordinary citizens, this series celebrates three centuries of history. It looks at the first Native settlements, the arrival and influence of colonial dynasties, the conflicts between commerce and social justice, the skirmishes over class and cultural divisions, and the dynamism that grew from its heritage of diversity.The historical events of Toronto are shaped into three one-hour films, divided chronologically. Part one covers the pre-European settlement of Toronto through to the eve of Canada’s Confederation in 1867; part two focuses on the Industrial Age up until the World Wars; and the final installment looks at the post-war years of Toronto until the present.

City of Toronto from the Northern Grain Elevator, 1876

Tribute is paid to figures, big and small, who stumbled in on hope: from founding fathers John Simcoe, Bishop Strachan and Egerton Ryerson, to Dr. Emily Stowe, Bobbie Rosenfeld, Marilyn Bell, Marshall McLuhan, Norman Jewison and Ed Mirvish.

Newly arrived immigrants

Toronto: City of Dreams also documents the largely unexplored immigrant contributions of the French, Irish, Germans, Black Americans, Italians, Chinese, Jews and many others, and their integral role in shaping Toronto. At its core, Toronto is a city of immigrants and of possibility, a place where the politics of identity have been played out over three centuries. Toronto: City of Dreams is compelling television that promises to be a fascinating journey into the unsung history of a city and a nation. Weaving the academic with the vernacular and the solemn with the ridiculous, it is a television series that will capture the hearts and minds of both a local and national audience. Don’t miss it!Toronto: City of Dreams was written and directed by Lindalee Tracey. The producers are Peter Raymont, Maria Pimentel and Lindalee Tracey. The

For more information on Toronto: City of Dreams, please visit:
www.torontocityofdreams.com

August 10, 2000

Dear Producer/Interviewer,

For the first time ever, Toronto stars as itself in a three-part documentary series, Toronto: City of Dreams. Known as "Toronto the Good", "The City of Churches" and "Hogtown", Canada’s biggest metropolis has a reputation for straight-laced Victorian morality and good old-fashioned greed. But beneath a humdrum reputation lies a secret inner life – two hundred years of contradictions, of heroes and hooligans, of teetotalers and renegades. A lively documentary drama that blends innovative story-telling techniques with riveting human portraits, the series is an entertaining, and sometimes irreverent, look at the history of a city and the building of a nation. This is television that will surprise you.

When first approached to create the series, writer and director Lindalee Tracey had some reservations. A former Montrealer, Toronto had initially struck Lindalee as "a Protestant town that didn’t have any good bars. A place with a pole up its ar…." Anal retentive, she meant to say. After months of initial research, a different city began to emerge. One that was "a lot more raucous than I’d ever imagined." Lindalee found a wealth of entertaining stories and characters, like York’s first brothel owner, Mrs. Ellis; Thornton Blackburn, an ex-slave and the city’s first cab driver and Red Ryan, Canada’s first con artist to take advantage of penal reform. Tracey uncovered the venal, the naïve and the courageous elements in the history of a city that people love to hate.

It was also the city of nation builders – Henry Pellat erecting his Casa Loma castle; the Massey-Harrises supplying the west with tools; Eaton’s catalogue uniting the country, William Lyon MacKenzie demanding political reform and Robert Baldwin, the founder of the modern state. And always there was the constant rush of immigrants challenging Toronto’s identity. "An immigrant town from the beginning," Tracey says. "Not at all politically correct, but able to correct itself to include the dreamers who wandered in." Despite early bloody skirmishes between Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, seventy significant minorities make Toronto home, speaking over one hundred languages. Here, their largely ignored histories are remembered – the contributions of the French, Irish, Germans, Black Americans, Italians, Chinese, Jews and many others. Toronto: City of Dreams is a compelling journey into the unsung history of a city and a nation.

For more information, or to book an interview with the delightfully provocative and knowledgeable chatterbox, Lindalee Tracey, writer and director of Toronto: City of Dreams, please contact us at above numbers. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Susan Meisner
Meisner Publicity