1

Appendix to Esther’s Song
1. People in Esther’s Song
The people included here have been mentioned in Esther’s letters. Each
played some role in her life. As well, many – as well as other names
important in Alberta’s Theatre History - are mentioned in other of
Esther’s written materials. This material is in no particular order. It is a
collection of thoughts and materials produced by Esther for use as
background in putting together Esther’s Song.

2. Memories
- Keeping Body and Soul together
- ‘30s Country School Culture
- In the Classroom – letter from Bob Gruno
- Traveling the Alberta Roads
- Academic Life
- My Last Class
- Bird
- Dominion Drama Festival
- The Canwell Hearings Seattle
- Edmonton Recreation Department 1951
- Family Thoughts
- Swedish Cousins

3. Esther – Written Work
Letter - Health Care in Alberta to R. Kline
History of Drama in Alberta
Letter – Theatre 100 to K. Cameron
Normal Schools (this is for information only - by G. Campbell 2011)

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Once More – Esther’s People
The events in Esther’s career – ‘career’ both in the general sense of her
years in the Province of Alberta and the specific experiences within the
Banff School of Fine Arts - are bracketed by the names of the many, many
fascinating people with whom she worked. Most of us have colleagues who
are bosses or underlings or rivals, but seldom do we count in the dozens
true, equally passionate partners in an inspiring venture to see dreams
made into some sort of reality. Esther was part of such a venture and here
there is a little about some of her dozens.
Why remark on these friends, as well as focusing throughout her
biographical piece on the people that Esther worked with and knew over
the years of her career in Drama? Because Esther has made it clear that
the successes and the accomplishments that gave her pleasure were
collaborations; adventures shared with a cast of characters who swept
through her life.

Bette Anderson
Esther: Bette had been working as a secretary after the Seattle

Repertory Playhouse closed in 1951. She had been director of the Theatre
for Children and had worked out a very successful association with the
Junior League who helped arrange the details with schools and the order in
which schools would attend the productions.
Bette taught make-up and was the Playhouse secretary. Thus the first
letter I had confirming my scholarships was from Bette. She was intrigued
at the sound of my hometown, Ponoka. To her I was ‘Ponok’. Bette had
been associated with the Playhouse as a student and from then on as a
staff member. To be the only one in charge of the children’s programme
(she also taught creative drama for early teens) meant that she put in a
full day. I spent a full day at the Playhouse too and it was natural to call
on me for extra jobs. When we were doing Circus Day I stayed with Bette
and her mother overnight because we had to pick up a cast member at a
farm out of town: a small pig. The plays had a 6-week run which meant that
piglets outgrew their parts; we went through at least three by the end of
the run.

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Bette was able to set up a programme very similar to the one in Seattle,
including a similar connection to the Junior League. She became a member
of the executive of the Allied Arts Council and gradually became known.
She moved her productions to the theatre at Victoria High School, which
allowed a larger audience and a decent stage that allowed more interesting
settings. She continued to teach young people creative drama.
She was asked to direct Dark of the Moon for the Studio Theatre. This
led to her being asked to teach at Banff. She received a Canada Council
Grant to tour theatres for children in Europe.
In the meanwhile students of ours from Banff who came to Edmonton
found a theatre they could work in. A student of mine introduced me to
the work of Brian Way in child drama and his plays for children that
demanded audience participation. Those of us connected with theatre
organization across Canada combined resources to bring him on a tour of
Canada stopping at a number of centers for demonstrations. Bette and I
worked out a time for him so that he could direct a production of his play,
Pinocchio, with her people. In addition he taught classes and came up with
a new approach (his own!) to use with Bette’s Playground Players that
toured city parks in the summer. I found his methods fit in with my own
method of teaching acting. Eventually a member of his staff in England
came to teach in the UofA Department of Education. Thus Alberta
experienced a new approach to drama in schools.
Although this was revitalizing for Bette, she had now worked very hard
alone for a long time. In Edmonton she met a man who understood her
interests. She decided to retire, marry and move to Vancouver where she
had the first home of her own. She was also close to her family in Seattle.
Sadly, she died suddenly in 1975 of a massive stroke. She deserved a
longer retirement. Her contribution to Canadian theatre has received
many tributes but alas they came too late.
One of her students went on to win acclaim as a designer. He and Alex
Burton (one of my students) developed a method of lighting that enabled
wonderful transformations of settings – ideal for theatre for children.

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Myra Benson
Myra had been part of the attempt to
revive Everyman in 1948-49, and went with
Esther to Banff in the summer of 1949 playing Jocasta in Oedipus Rex. In
Vancouver in 1953 Myra was one of 7
people who each contributed $20 and thus
started the Holiday Theatre (why that
name? because, “… everyday you go to the
theatre is a holiday”) – Canada’s first
professional children’s theatre. It was
Benson who, as business manager, made
sure the same financial mistakes didn’t
take this theatre down as they had
Everyman; Holiday Theatre went on for
many successful years before merging with
Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver and adding
touring and teaching to its repertoire.
Myra went on to work in Calgary (Workshop 14), with the Burnaby Players,
and then studied in Paris with Marcel Marceau. She, herself, taught
professional acting and mime at the Camosun College in BC and in Toronto
before retiring to England. Throughout her career, Myra remained one of
Esther’s friends, one who shared Esther’s passion for drama.
Esther: Myra worked with me in Vancouver on the sets and acted in one of

the plays Sydney had chosen. She attended Banff school and played
Jocasta in Oedipus Rex. She worked for a time with Workshop 14 in
Calgary then returned to Vancouver where she and Joy Coghill founded
Holiday Theatre, a children’s theatre that toured BC for a few years. She
was interested in mime and went to Paris to study with Marceau. For a
time Myra had a small company in Mime, taught mime and creative drama.
She finally decided to return to England where she died in 1996.

5

When Myra first came to America she and a friend, Liz Bent, regularly
used the expression “We’re having an adventure!” I’ve used it many times
myself since them and think of them every time.

Alex Burton
Esther: The young man standing on the right side of this photo (also shown

in the photo of The Admirable Crichton), is Alex Burton. I had him in an
acting class years ago. He was a good actor and was quite devoted to Bette
and to me. He moved to Texas and continued acting. (mentioned in Train
Crash article)

The Admirable Crichton: Alex Burton is on the Right, next to Megan
Terry (Maggie Duffy). Both were scholarship students, starring in
this play by J.M.Barrie, directed by Esther Nelson in 1956 at Banff.
This was Esther’s 2nd major production at Banff.

…Alex returned to Banff for several summers to strengthen the casts of

plays. Alex played in two of my productions after he graduated from the
school. He also came to play in Bette’s production as well as becoming a
reliable member of her Theatre for Children in Edmonton (was this when

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he worked at the radio station in Edmonton and eroneously reported
Esther’s disappearance in the infamous train crash – early ‘60s?) After he

moved to the States he continued to be active in theatre. He, along with
one of Bette’s students developed a method of lighting that enabled
wonderful transformations of settings – ideal for theatre for children.

Georgie Collins
Esther: In the picture of Stampede the woman seated is Georgie Collins.

I met her in Athabasca when I helped with a play. She came to Banff on a
scholarship, and later went to Calgary where she acted with various groups
and appeared in a movie shot there. She worked with Workshop 14 and
finally ended her career as director of the Pleiades Theatre for a number
of years. It was a small professional theatre that specialized in mystery
plays – The Mystery Theatre established in the Science Centre.

Stampede by Gwen Pharis Ringwood, directed by Esther Nelson at
Banff in 1955 – her 1st major production at the school.
On the Right is Alex Burton, a graduate of Banff School, back on
a scholarship. Seated is Georgie Collins.

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A Special Friend: Barbara Carroll

Esther: 27 July 1988, our 3rd hike, Barbara having lunch at the Reversing

Falls. Barbara became my hiking partner and x-country ski buddy in 1987.
She and her sister Peggy had no relatives – they included me when they did

8

their Chirstmas in Harvie Heights. Barbara first knew Marilyn when they
traveled to Banff together in the early 1950s, from Ontario.

9

Barbara and I celebrated her retirement from teaching in Toronto in July
1986 by spending 3 days at Mt. Assiniboine for Spring Flowers. We
returned for another three days to celebrate my retirement in 1987 – to
see the larch in Fall. On the 3rd day it snowed. This black and white
painting is based on a picture I took of Barbara as she looked toward the
snow on Mt. Assiniboine, transfixed with wonder.
Barbara developed Huntington’s Chorea – a dreadful disease that made it
impossible to walk. She died 11 Nov 2010 in Toronto. She was a good
companion, summer and winter, for 14 years. I think I captured some of
her rapture on taking in the magnificence of the mountains she loved. She
bought a house in Harvie Heights, Calgary, so that she could be in the
mountains as much as possible. We used to meet in the Kananaskis
Information Centre on Thursdays when we hiked or skied, 10 to 15
kilometers. In summer we had dinner at the Kananaskis Golf Club House.

Jo Cormack (see Theatre Letter)
Elodia Christensen (see Theatre Letter)

Marguerite “Maggie” Duffy (Meagan Terry)
Esther: I didn’t know Maggie in Seattle, but came to know her later.

Maggie came from a broken home. Both parents had remarried and Maggie
was not comfortable in either household, so moved in with her
grandparents who lived near the Seattle Repertory Playhouse. She had a
strong interest in theatre and it was natural that it became her second
home.
The James’ recognized her remarkable talents. When Burton came to
Banff in 1950 he brought Maggie to Banff where she played in Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Although I had left Seattle before she attended school
there, the staff at the Playhouse knew what I was doing in Edmonton.
They gave her my story and, probably, an overblown account of what I was

10

doing. Thus, we met and had many long discussions about theatre. The
Playhouse would be closing in a year and she liked the idea of trying to help
me in Edmonton. In 1952 she came to Banff again on scholarship. She
played the lead in Peter Pan and of course impressed the Director from
Minnesota, Frank Whiting. She was a talented actress but was too bright
and headstrong to work with most directors.
Maggie was not only talented she was ambitious, hard working and
impatient of those who did not meet her standards of work. Although I
had reservations, Maggie came to Edmonton in the fall of 1951. I was away
much of the time and she had freedom to pursue her many interests.
Maggie stayed with me from 1951 to 1953. During the two years she
enrolled in and completed two university courses, and worked for the
Edmonton recreation Department teaching creative drama and art to
children. She designed and built the set for Grandmother Slyboots and a
play at UofA’s Studio Theatre. By the fall of 1953 Maggie had decided to
return to Seattle and attend UofW. In the meantime, she promoted the
idea that Bette Anderson should apply for the job of drama director then
open at the Edmonton Recreation Department.
Our next contact came in the late spring of 1956 when I had a call from a
mutual friend. Could Maggie come to stay for awhile? Her grandfather –
to whom she was close – had died and Maggie had fallen into a deep
depression. By then Maggie had completed her degree in creative drama.
This was the year I planned to do The Admirable Crichton at Banff. At
that time I was renting ½ a duplex in Banff and there was plenty of room.
I invited Maggie to take my spare room and then cast her in the female
lead of the play. The play gave Maggie time to refocus. The summer gave
her time to think about what she wanted to do. She decided to go to NY.
This, after all, is where most talented Americans want to go to prove
themselves. Maggie had already tried her hand at writing plays. So, in the
fall of 1956 off she went to NY. And the rest, as they say, is history.
By 1965 she had worked with the Open Theatre an off-Broadway Company
In 1965 she was one of four young playwrights to have a work chosen for
production at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis under the
Rockefeller Foundation grant to the programme for Advanced Drama
Research. She changed her name to Meagan Terry when she moved to New

11

York in 1956. Before that she endured variations on her name because she
disliked her own given name – Marguerite. She succeeded in what she
chose to do and became a prolific playwright. We lost touch – as busy
people tend to do, but I’m glad if I was able to help her find her way.

Robert Gard (see Theatre Letter)
Robert taught Playwriting at BSFA in 1942, then founded and directed the
Alberta Folklore and Local History Project, in association with the UofA
and the Rockefeller Foundation. He helped establish the Provincial
Archives for Alberta in 1945 and his collections, assembled from firsthand
accounts of pioneers still living, constitutes today one of the rare
collections of the UofA. (see his biography: Wisconsin Idea Foundation)

Elsie Park Gowan
One of Canada’s greatest writers. Mrs. Gowan was acknowledged (along
with Ringwood) as a leading playwright in the 30s and 40s attempting to
create ‘distinctively Canadian’ drama. The production of her play, The Last
Caveman, by the Everyman Tour was a significant step along this path. She
wrote the dialogue of the full-length political farce, You Can’t Do That,
with Wm. Irvine from Wetaskiwin, and although her name was omitted
from the published play (!) it marked an important advance in her work,
moving on from the, the normal one-act format. Elsie Park Gowan’s work
created radio drama in Alberta – and Canada – as a recognized venue for
serious dramatic art.

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Frances Hyland
Esther’s first role
at Banff was as the
lay sister (in black)
in The Cradle Song.
Frances Hyland is
on her left. The
next year Esther
played Rhoda in

Death Takes a
Holiday. In her 3rd
year at Banff
Esther only took
Stagecraft – from
Pop James

Francis Hyland stands on Esther’s left (Esther is in the black habit) in
this photo of the cast of the 1943 production of The Cradle Song.

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Burton and Florence James
Esther: Their first experience with Canada came in BC. They taught

summer school at UBC. They became familiar with Canadian art and spent
one rare holiday with Emily Carr in the days when one pet was the monkey.
Burton came to the Banff School of Fine Arts first as the instructor in
Stagecraft. He felt that the school should be offering more than the
commercial fare that the director of the major productions had been
choosing. In 1951, he was made head of drama and chose Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Florence came for the last two weeks of rehearsal. She
was an exceptional director as well as being a dynamic teacher and speaker.
The play was a success. Florence joined the staff in 1952 and they chose
Much Ado About Nothing. Then the Canwell Committee struck and
Florence and Burton did not return to Banff.
It was when Burton was teaching Stagecraft that I returned for my third
summer at Banff. I elected to take both Stagecraft I and II, which meant
that I could concentrate on learning all I could without the disruption
other courses would cause. The unexpected benefit was that Burton had
time to assess my abilities and personal qualities. He volunteered the idea
of the scholarship. It was the ‘dapple-gray pony miracle’ repeated!
Florence met Norah McCullough, Director, Saskatchewan Arts Board, in
Banff in 1951. She invited Florence to join the Arts Board as Drama
Director, a job similar to mine. I have no doubt she knew Tommy Douglas
(this comment because I had repeated a story I’d heard that Tommy had
personally invited Florence to come to Saskatchewan).

Dick MacDonald (see Theatre Letter)
Lois McLean
We met as students at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1943. Our
friendship continued through the years with Everyman Theatre and after
she moved to England and I worked at UofA traveling the Province. Lois

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married an East Indian lawyer but after four children and settling in
Vancouver, they were divorced. Lois continued her career in Vancouver and
ended up working with her brother. She developed serious heart problems
and died in 2009. This picture was taken in Kaninaskis… Marilyn ‘gave me’
the visit there with Lois for my birthday present in 1997.

Lois chose one of my
paintings of an iceberg
as a memento of our
visit together and of
our long friendship. She
was another strong
friend with whom I
shared so much of my
life.

Esther includes in her collection of letters two from Lois, the first was
sent in 1942 reminding Esther to bring along her passport for their
Everyman Tour (just in case) and the second sent shortly before Lois’
death in 2009. Esther: “ …our lives were marked out by these two letters.

The style in each reveals the idealism of her nature and the sweetness
with which she accepted disater and disappointment.”

15

Catherine Meehan

Catherine Meehan sharing lunch at the Calgary Heritage Museum
hotel in July of 2010 with Esther and her nieces, Nancy and
Susan, and her great nephew Paul Broska with Lorie .

Esther: In 2003 a former acquaintance, Catherine Meehan, joined my

skating group. I first met her in Saskatchewan where we were both
teaching a summer course. Catherine was an artist who had studied in
England then had a career at a university in the States. Her mother, who
had a house in Scarboro, was dying and after caring for her there
Catherine and her husband decided to move to Calgary and retire. We met
at skating, discovered a mutual interest in painting and finally settled into
a weekly session of experimenting in paint in the sunroom.
Once again I have been fortunate enough to find a good friend and
companion. And because she is ‘computer literate’ she agreed to relay
emails messages so that my biographer (!) can be in quick communication.
So Catherine became a friend to both and we all finally met in 2010 in
Heritage Park. Catherine is fascinated with my big family and is gradually
getting to know us.

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Catherine painting my peonies summer 2011 –
too warm in the sun room…

Alta MITCHELL Bento

Alta now lives in Hawaii, one
of the few of my friends
from the Theatre years who
has survived. Helen Berry
introduced me to the mtns,
taking me and other students
to the top of Sulphur Mtn. to
see the sunrise. I later
climbed it with other
students, including Alta. She
has been a friend ever since.
Alta designed the costumes
for the first performance of
the Theatre for Children in
Edmonton in 1953 –
Grandmother Slyboots – and
she was an original Provincial
Players member… she
became a drama teacher too.

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Anne O’Donnell

Rosa Ponselle (left – dark
dress), Zenka Milanov
(centre) Anne O’Donnell
(right) at a Metropolitan
Opera performance of “La
Forza del Destino” (Vedi) on
2 March 1953 in Baltimore
Maryland… in Milanov’s
dressing room when Ponselle
and Anne went back stage to
chat! Anne was Ponselle’s
secretary… she had been key
to seeing Blithe Spirit
successfully performed in
Wetaskiwin in the early ‘50s

Ponselle (1897-1981) was a legendary operatic diva acknowledged
(even by Callas and Caruso) as probably the greatest soprano of
the century. Though her public career was over by the time Anne
came to work for her (Rosa’s voice remained rich and full up to
her death) she continued to work with young singers, coaching and
mentoring. Anne continued this work and spent her career - for
28 years in NY City - organizing concerts and nurturing,
furthering the careers of hundreds of young singers. Anne had
been entranced by opera from her early childhood, and went to
NY to study singing. Though she never had a singing career
herself, she played a real role in her beloved art.

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Marilyn Perkins
Esther: Marilyn was born in Ontario where she received her early

schooling. Her father was a realtor – he decided to try Calgary and moved
the family there. They had a house in the Scarboro area and took an
active part in building the United Church. The children all had musical
talent and started their studies in Calgary. At an early age Marilyn played
for a Calgary radio programme called The Good Deed Club. Her father
decided to move back to Toronto when Marilyn had completed high school.
She graduated from UofT in Education with a Mus.B. All through her
school years she earned money by accompanying various students, music
teachers and dance/movement teachers. She could sight read very well
and could adjust to demands made upon her.
She took her first teaching post at Eastman Commercial and taught there
for three years. She retained her connections in Calgary and was asked to
join the Opera Division at the Banff School as accompanist. While in
Toronto Marilyn demonstrated qualities that dominated her life – if there
was anyone in trouble they would find her, or she would find them. An
example: a refugee family had found a house in Marilyn’s school district… a
daughter was in Marilyn’s class. Marilyn asked her realtor father to find
them an affordable house. He did and Marilyn became a friend of the
family. The daughter chose Marilyn as a role model and became a social
worker, then married a wealthy man who died young. She established a
scholarship at Eastman in Marilyn’s name.
Although Marilyn had been working at the Banff School as accompanist for
a couple of years we did not meet until 1953 when I was asked to direct
Martha. I was ushered into a room full of singers and introduced to them
as their director. At the piano sat Marilyn, smiling with encouragement. I
said, “I’m afraid I don’t know much about opera but if you will help me
perhaps we can manage.” It was the right thing to say. Most singers have
had experience with directors who came from the old school of ‘director as
dictator’. During the course of the rehearsals I got to know Marilyn very
well. We had the same way of working with people. She lived in residence
and, being a light sleeper who worked long hours as the accompanist to
singing lessons, she was often tired. She began to come to my duplex for a

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20-minute nap – then she was good for another 8 hours. Later I often
envied this faculty that served her all her life.
Martha was a success. I passed the grade and was asked to direct
another opera the next year: Hansel and Gretel. By then Marilyn had
bought a VW – a little green bug she called ‘Speedy Gonzales”, a cartoon
character. She brought her brother to Banff. Roger was a gifted musician
but he had always been interested in theatre. He ended up in my acting
classes for 2 years, acting in Stampede in 1955.
Marilyn loved to drive. Now that she had her own car she wanted to take a
trip to California. A singer (whose name I have forgotten) wanted to visit
someone in California. So, along with Roger, we had a trip to California
then back across country to Toronto. I came home by train stopping off in
Regina to visit Mrs. James. She had taken a position with the
Saskatchewan Arts Board.
I had taught each summer for 8 years and felt the need for a break.
Marilyn and I planned a trip to Europe in 1958. We started in Paris with a
rented Peugeot. We drove through France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway,
Sweden. This is when I visited Baekkesletten and the Swedish cousins.
We drove from Stockholm to Bastad in two cars. We were treated royally
by Carin and Arne. I had met them both in Banff on Arne’s visit during the
geophysical year when he traveled across country on speaking engagements.
We met Runa and Nils (who reminded me of Ed, as Arne reminded me of
Mel).
During this trip I had mentioned how tired I was of living in an apartment.
Marilyn convinced me I should buy a house. When I returned to Edmonton
I found a small house that offered an equal distance for both Bette and I
to our places of work. Bette accepted the change, I think, gratefully. It
would be possible now to have her mother come to stay from time to time.
Marilyn had an offer from a former teacher to come to Calgary to teach
Music and English at a new school where she was Vice-Principal. Marilyn
had always liked Calgary and decided to accept. She moved back to Calgary
in 1959 and taught at the new Viscount Bennett High School for more than
20 years and then served as Music Consultant for the Calgary School Board

20

until 1988. She then became Coordinator of Programmes for the Scarboro
United Church. She was conductor of Scarboro Choir from 1959 until
illness forced her retirement in 2001.
In addition to Scarboro Choir, she conducted a large seniors choir, a multicultural choir and the Viscount Bennet Grad Choir that went on to be a
community choir, regularly including as members the children of the
original members. She gave help and support to Michael Dobbin, a former
student, from his first attempt to develop a professional theatre in Jasper
to his 25-year stint as director of the Alberta Theatre Project. She
founded the Opera Workshop to give experience to local singers. From
here Alex Monk went on to sing with the Met in New York and Roy… who
sang with Los Angeles and San Francisco Operas. Members of the
Workshop went on to help found the Calgary Opera Company. She
continued to work at least a 14-hour day throughout her life.
When I decided to retire in 1962, I decided to start a new career – at just
40, I returned to university as a mature student. I gave up tenure, income
and pension. Marilyn had always wanted a house. I had enough for a down
payment. If I rented out my house in Edmonton, if Marilyn kept up
monthly payments, we could do it. One weekend we went looking and found
390 in a convenient part of town for us both. It turned out to be a
perfect buy.
We moved in during August 1962. Bette was able to afford the modest
rent on the house in Edmonton until she retired and moved to Vancouver.
After she left I continued to rent the house, my last renters being Marilyn
Hoar and Gord Cumming. When they decided to move I decided to sell.
Prices had gone up since I bought and the profit provided the pension I
had sacrificed on resigning from UofA.
Marilyn and I lived at 390 Wildwood Drive in Calgary for just over 40
years. Two days before she died she told me, “I could not have lived with
anyone else.” It worked because we knew each other well – to work
together in any of the arts is a good way to get to know another person.
We felt the same way about money and what was important.

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Marilyn had her first bout with cancer in 1989, the year she retired as
Music Consultant. It was a rare form of lung cancer. They sent the lump
removed to the States for identification. It was related to skin cancer –
very unusual. Of course they had to remove sections of ribs to get at the
lump. Her doctor described it as ‘such a terrible operation’. I know that
the scar bothered Marilyn, but she did not complain. The doctor was sure
he had all the cancer out, but early in 2001 it had returned and the
diagnosis was ‘terminal’.
She continued working for a year and continued to go to Scarboro where
she, since 1989, had been the co-ordinator of programmes. She found a
good musician to replace her, but even though she was on medication she
insisted on ‘being there’ until about 6 weeks before she died.
A friend, Enid Holtby, took over setting up a schedule so that her many
friends could come to see her or sit with her. It was a big help. One day I
had 3 people – one in the bedroom, one in the kitchen and one in the living
room – weeping away. I am afraid the numbers have gone down in both
choir and congreation since Marilyn left. She had a genuinely cheerful
disposition that lifted the spirits of young and old alike.
The principal at Viscount Bennett said, “If I had two more teachers like
Marilyn, we’d be in orbit.” Before Christmas she would go early move the
piano into the hall and conduct Christmas Carols. The hall would be packed,
including a Jewish boy who loved Christmas Carols – and this gave him a
place to sing what he liked. Getting boys to join the choir was a problem,
they had early basketball practice. In our kitchen is the grill Marilyn
bought. She made breakfast for the players after practice and they
cheerfully joined her choir. She learned to drive the school bus so that
she could help out the football players. They too found their way into the
choir. There is a school music festival run by the Kiwanas Club. Her choirs
won many of them – including the Matheson Trophy for the Canada-wide
High School competition.
She helped her two brothers with their careers. When Ken was nearing
the end of his life from cancer, his wife was unable to handle needles.
Marilyn couldn’t look at a needle on television but gritted her teeth and
gave him his needles. When Roger was nearing the end (he had just sold

22

the house and bought a condo) I told him I thought he had handled
everything very well and that Marilyn would be proud of him. He said,
“That’s the nicest thing you could say to me” and started to cry. That was
our last conversation.
You see why I think of myself as blessed. Few people can claim 40+ years
of friendship with such a special person.

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24
This bust of JS Bach,
by Robert Stowell, was
presented to Marilyn
Perkins on her
retirement as Music
Consultant for the
Calgary School Board.
It has now been
donated to the Rosza
Centre at the UofC in
Marilyn’s name. The
Centre has invested in a
Bach organ so this
seems to have been the
correct final resting
place for a special
mememto.

Marilyn commissioned this
sculpure, entitled “ThreePart Invention”, from artist
Robert Stowell to provide
funds for him to spend
time in Europe furthering
his art. This was one of
many such generous
gestures Marilyn made to
working artists in the
Calgary community. She
understood and practiced
‘philanthropy’ that made a
difference.
The sculpture stood in our
hallway for many years and
has now been donated to
the Calgary Cancer Clinic in
Marilyn’s name.

25

Roger G. Perkins 1940 – 2 Jan 2009

After a nearly three-year struggle with cancer, he passed on quietly, in the
company of close friends, without pain, at his home in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Roger was a man of honour, a man of faith, a man of many talents and of
great integrity. He viewed death as part of the adventure of living and
approached it with grace and little fear. He will be missed by a very large
circle of friends from his church community at Grace United, NOTL; from
The Evergreen Singers, a choir he founded and directed; from Chorus
Niagara with which he sang in recent years; and by his many friends from
the theatre and arts communities in which he worked across the country.
He was predeceased by his brother Kenneth; by his sister Marilyn; and by
his partner of 25 years, Robert Benson. He is mourned by his extended
family including cousins in Ontario; a sister-in-law, niece and nephew in BC;
and, many dear friends in Niagara, Calgary, and across the land.
Born to Erma and Jack Perkins, in 1940 in Toronto, Roger grew up there
and in Calgary; served as national president of the Student Christian
Movement in the 60s; studied for a Masters in psychology at the
University of Calgary; then followed a career in music, which saw him

26
working for numerous Canadian theatres including the Shaw Festival
(where he was Director of music for several years), Stratford Festival,
and many others. He was a singing coach to innumerable theatre artists,
accompanied hundreds of singers over the years and was a great inspiration
in the field of choral music for many, both as conductor and singer.
Particular thanks to the remarkable core group of friends who supported
him during the last three years and especially in the last few weeks when
they provided 24 hour care at his home. Thanks also to the doctors and
home care providers who formed part of the team, especially to nurse
Nancy Solohub. With their help, love, and constant attention Roger was
allowed to die in his new home, as he wished. He would want all who knew
him to celebrate his crossing over by practicing random acts of kindness
toward one another and treasuring every moment of life on the earth.

27

Irene Protheroe

(see Theatre Letter)

Grant Reddick (see Theatre Letter)

Jim Rintoul
I enclose a letter from Jim Rintoul, a student I had long ago at Banff. It
shows, I think, that it was not always easy to protect students. Jim was
outstanding and worthwhile. He became a principal of his school. He was a
friend of Murray’s (Murray Robison) in school. His first note came out of the
blue. We had not been in touch.
The final production with Murray was the realization of success at a difficult
job (at least once!). The letter from Jim a reminder of how difficult it was
to teach and build with a group of teachers who did not share your values.
Murray and Jim died within a few months of writing these letters.

28

Peggy Haynes Rootes
Esther: Another early call for help came from a teacher in Sedgewick.

She needed help with a play. By the time the play was ready we knew each
other well. Years went by and she turned up at the Department of
Extension as secretary to the Fine Arts Instructor. She did as much to
help the ADL as I did, typing minutes and notices to the members, etc.

29

We remained friends and I regret so much not seeing her for a last time
before her recent death. Such friends make up a large part of my life.
The part Peggy filled is, with her death, so strangely empty.

Shelagh Norman-Martin RELJIC
b. 1928 d. 2008
Shelagh started her career as a stage manager and actor with Everyman
Theatre in Vancouver in 1947. She moved on to Parry Films, becoming head
editor, then to the CBC for several years before working freelance for the
CBC, CTV and other television companies. She was the founding editor of
the 16 mm Film Workshop at Simon Fraser University from 1966 to 1969.
Shelagh worked as a producer, director and editor at the National Film
Board’s Pacific Regional Studio. She worked on films such as: Anne
Wheeler’s “Every Saturday Night”, Sandy Wilson’s “He’s not the Walking
Kind”, and the award-winning “Harrison’s Yukon”, a profile of acclaimed
Yukon artist, Ted Harrison.
At every stage of her career Shelagh acted as a mentor to many women
who were getting their start in the film business. She was made a lifetime
honourary member of Women in Film. She was an uncompromising idealist
who hated discrimination in any form, an agile-minded woman with high
standards for life and art and an ability to see through the fluff. She
prepared the ground for women who followed her into the Canadian film
industry.

30
Her list of credits include:
Editor/Producer

Editor

He’s Not the Walking Kind
Mental Patients’ Association

Baby This Is for You
Man Who Choses the Bush
Play to Learn
Behind the Masks
Every Saturday Night
Tour en l’air
Jablonski
Sweet Substitute

Editor /Director

Harrison’s Yukon
Soccer
Producer

Sauk-Ai
Salmon People
Rosanna: A Portrait of an
Immigrant Woman

Shelagh (on the far right)
with Esther and Lois McLean
– Everyman Pals

31

Shelagh visited Esther in May
1987 after her husband had
died. She was a member of
Everyman in the late ‘40s and
early ‘50s. She worked in Banff
at the Paris Tea Room, attended
Seattle Rep. Playhouse with Lois
in the ‘50s and finally became an
editor for the National Film
Board for documentaries that
are still available. She
developed severe arthritis and
died as the result of an accident
in 2008. She was a good friend
to Esther and to Lois McLean.

Sydney Risk
Google: Sydney Risk and the Everyman Theatre by James Hoffman for a
comprehensive picture of Risk’s early career and the years of Everyman
Theatre. His contribution to Canadian Theatre was extraordinary and
Esther knew that she had been given, by this unusual man and in the unique
circumstances of the theatre world of her era, training in her art that
money couldn’t buy.

32

The Everyman Theatre Tour group in 1942/43
Shirley Kerr
Esther Nelson
Hilda Nual
Arthur Hill
Peggy Hassard
Floyd Caza
Ted Follows

Murray Robison

Murray Westgate
Lois McLean
Drew Thompson
Dave Major
Ed McNamara
Ron Rosvold

(see more in Theatre Letter, see Jim Rintoul)

Esther: Murray was perhaps my most successful student within the

context of the Banff School’s original premise. Soon after I came to
Edmonton I received a call from the ‘Y’ in Lethbridge to give a talk on
theatre. I gave my talk, stressing the possibilities of community theatres
and the challenge for their directors. He had he told me been doing plays
with his fellow teachers. “But”, he said, shyly, “I don’t know if I could be
the kind of director you are talking about.” I said, “You are exactly the
kind of person I am talking about.” He had taken a course in drama at
UofA and taught drama in his school in Coaldale.
I gave a 3-day workshop in Coaldale. It was a success. Other workshops
followed. I came to help with plays he was working on. He came to Banff
on scholarship and proved an eager, promising student. The ADL was
beginning and he became the secretary-treasurer. Finally he entered Papa
is All in the DDF and won the semi-final. I must point out that I never
helped directors with plays entered in either a one-act or a three-act play.
He used what he learned at Banff to transform his drama room into a small
workable theatre complete with good lighting.
The last year I was with the Department of Extension Murray asked if I
would join him in an extended course. He wanted to do Shakespeare
because there was a talented actor in Lethbridge he wanted to help by
offering more challenging material. Knowing his actors, I suggested that
we do scenes from Twelfth Night and MacBeth. Murray would take

33

rehearsals during the week and I would take rehearsals once a week. By
now Murray knew my way of working so we had no difficulty working
together. We ended with a very successful production in his little theatre.
That summer the actor Murray wanted to help auditioned for the season at
the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. He was accepted and
continued to make his way in American professional theatre.
…There were great successes amongst many lesser moments and then time
moved on. My great regrets now are not making opportunities to keep in
touch with more of these great people. When I was on the Everyman tour
we visited Alix, Alberta where Robert Haskings had developed a theatre
and won the DDF in the 1930s. I found the remains of the theatre he had
equipped down to the lighting board and dimmer of the time. Even after so
many successful years I am sure Murray Robison’s wonderful little theatre
in Coaldale has gone the same way to dust. So much work for such brief
moments of magic. Marilyn understood. She came home one afternoon
just after I finished a painting. She said, “ at least you have something to
show for the time you spend…”

Ethel Taylor of the Quota Club of Red Deer
Esther: We stayed in contact. On hearing that I had received the

Canadian Drama Award in 1955 for my contribution to the development of
theatre in Canada from the Dominion Drama Festival, Ethel sent me a lovely
card expressing the excitement she and her fellow Quota Club activists
felt on learning that my work – the work that she and the others had been
part of - had been recognized.
The Quota Club undertook the continuing task of sponsoring the Provincial
One-Act Final Festival for the Alberta Drama league. She was a delight to
work with.

34

Shirley Douglas Sutherland
Esther: By the way – I had Tommy Douglas’ adopted daughter, Shirley, as

one of my students. She went to England and had some success, and later
married a Canadian actor, Donald Sutherland, who acted in England, Canada
and the US. She and he ended up for a time in LA where Shirley took on
the US by supporting someone in the Black Panthers. Shirley and Donald
had a son (Keifer Sutherland) and a daughter.
Shirley returned to Canada and has had a long acting career, including longrunning TV shows. I liked her very much. I will always remember that,
during one Banff summer, we needed a rain barrel for a play I was doing.
At rehearsal one afternoon the door of the auditorium burst open and
sunshine flooded in, lighting little Shirley pushing the biggest, most
beautiful rain barrel in the world! She had walked up and down the streets
of Banff until she found it.
Shirley is a staunch supporter of health care. I always meant to send her
my famous letter to Ralph Klein (with copies to the PM, the Federal Health
Minister, all party leaders, plus Provincial Health Ministers) tearing apart
each of the points he offered. Everyone answered my letter and when the
Liberals asked permission to table it (which meant it would go into the
Alberta archive) Ralph suddenly retired! I think Shirley would have
enjoyed that as much as I did!

Kiefer Sutherland unveiled the statue of his grandfather,
Tommy Douglas, at Weyburn Saskatchewan in 2010

35

Memories EI NELSON

Keeping Body and Soul together so you
could ‘live theatre’
Esther: 1948 – When I returned to Canada in 1948 to help Sydney re-

launch the Everyman Theatre I found part-time jobs. This enabled me to
work on rebuilding sets in the large building we called Little Mountain. Lois
McLean and I fixed up a couple of small rooms. We moved in a bed and hot
plate and set up housekeeping. Very economical- no rent, but also no heat.
By the end of November it was so cold we had to move. We found a large
single room in an old mansion on Marguerite Street and moved in our hot
plate.
Lois found a secretarial job and we were set. The first part-time job I
found was in a (Westons) biscuit factory that also made candy. The
company was facing a strike over an effort to unionize the staff. I
thought it would be an interesting experience, and it was. When the strike
vote came all the company had to do was offer a small raise from 50 up to
60 cents and hour and the workers didn’t even bother to vote. Most of
them had an education of less than Grade 9. For them this was a
wonderful job. Otherwise the jobs open would be housework under the
close supervision of a demanding housewife and an irregular income.
This was the time of the Christmas candy rush. When the rush was over
the supervisor came at the end of the day and tapped unsuspecting girls on
the shoulder: “You don’t have to come in tomorrow.” That kept on until
there were just 6 of us left on the floor. Each day girls left the room
weeping. Christmas was coming and they had no job. This was their
company’s reward for not voting for a closed shop.

36

One girl had worked relief on my machine – hard candy. You sat on an old
bucket at the end of a long belt that carried a string of hot candy fed into
the machine at the other end by a man who took the large, heavy batch
from the stirring machine. The belt was run by cog wheels. Because there
were many breakdowns the supervisor left the covers off the cogs. You
broke up the hot candy wearing floppy gloves that the company provided.
When I returned to my machine the girl who replaced me had her glove and
hand caught in the cogs. She disappeared for a few weeks ad returned in
January, very happy that the company took her back. She had a severely
damaged right hand. The realities of work for so many then and now.
About this time Sydney had booked a show into a school in New
Westminster. There was no one to set up the show. I said, “That’s easy.
I’ll quit my job.” The next morning we came in to work at the factory and
the power was off. We were sent up to the 3rd floor to pack cello candy.
You sat in front of a blower that opened a cello bag. You filled the bag and
then sealed it by running it through a hot, vice-like contraption. Every so
often you burned your fingers. All the while we sat and froze. When the
shift ended and I knew I was finished, I said, “That’s it. I quit.” Looks of
horror! “You’re hot going to quit such a good job.” And they meant it.
The next part-time job was with the civil service renewing unemployment
insurance. I learned how to work a machine that punched holes in cards
and I learned much more about how the civil service works (or how people
work the civil service). Each ‘servant’ had his ‘territory’. Each jockeyed
for position. When I came to UofA and UofC as well as UNB I found that
I had met them all before. The salaries were different but the behaviour
was the same.
When the cards were all punched the job was over. I had about six weeks
until my job started in Banff and on checking the paper I found what I
wanted: “Strawberry pickers needed”. On Sunday afternoon I was on a
bus and on my way to a large farm that hired about 20 people and had in
addition a number of families in tents. Four of us became acquainted and
after one week we realized that we could not make any money. The crop
was not actually ready as a flood had seriously damaged their crops. The
day was explained to us: you could pick, hoe or take time off and all you

37

could possibly earn was how much was charged for room and board (and
meager fare it was - Mrs. Buck’s frugal portions seemed lavish in
comparison). (Mrs. Buck was Esther’s landlady in Slave Lake in 1942/3
where Esther had her first teaching experience.)
Two of us set off to find other jobs for the four of us. We found a small
farm that needed pickers, signed on then hitchhiked back to Vancouver to
return on Sunday. When we came back they had assumed we had quit so
they hired pickers on the weekend. Disaster! But, they were nice people
knew someone else who needed pickers and in a jiffy we were loaded in the
back of a truck that was heading straight for the place we had originally
worked at! We were seriously relieved when we went by their gate. It
transpired that there were two farms adjacent to each other. Our
destination was the neighbour.
One of the girls teamed up with me and fortunately she was as thorough
and slow as I was. We elected to pick by the hour rather than by the
basket. We had a small cabin and could cook our own meals, but never felt
comfortable as we kept expecting to be fired for being so slow. As the
season marched on we watched as they gradually let everyone else go and
kept us on, for an extra week - and they gave us a bonus! As the farmer
drove us in to Abbotsford at the end of our work, he explained that we
were picking properly which assured next year’s crop. We wished he had
told us before! With the bonus I had just enough to cover train fare to
Banff. Was it worth it? Of course it was!

The Country School Culture of the 1930s
Esther: In many ways, I think Blanche would agree, Barbara Marr was the

teacher who really broadened our vision. She read to us each morning. At
one time we had a choice between two stories: Beautiful Joe and a story
she had written, Betty and Billy. I remember a vote one day and the class
chose Beautiful Joe and I felt embarrassed. I am not sure if it was Betty
and Billy or private conferences, but Blanche credits Barbara Marr with
inspiring her writing. Miss Marr also introduced us to an interest in the
natural world. We learned how to collect and mount butterflies; leaves

38

were identified, mounted and dried. We built a rock garden. On Arbour
Day we tidied and cleaned the schoolyard and just about burned down the
barn and two little houses situated in the tall grass.
Barbara Marr also wrote plays for Christmas concerts and for other
occasions, as well as the usual pageants, recitations, songs and dances. I
remember Blanche reciting: “… not a creature was stirring, not even a
mouse.” I was cast as an unlikely Virgin Mary. Thin, sunburned and
freckled, I was under no illusion about my appearance. I think Thea had
hoped her youngest would be a beautiful child. She scrubbed my nose with
lemon peel – all to no avail.
A higher point came when Miss Marr entered a play she had written about
Laura Secord’s journey with the cow through enemy territory in a festival
in Wetaskiwin. I recall that Mel played the Colonel to whom she delivered
information that ‘saved the day’, but I don’t remember what parts Blanche
and I played. I do remember that we went to and from Wetaskiwin in the
back of August Kramer’s truck. The experience gave me my first taste of
competitive festival. At first, much excitement, we had won! Then came
the announcement, we had not won after all. The plays were supposed to
be about Western Canada and ours was about the EAST!
Later when part of my job was to adjudicate school festivals I was happy
to find that non-competitive festivals predominated in schools.
There were not many opportunities to see plays when I was young. I
remember going to see Here Comes Charlie at the Brooksona Hall,
directed by my brother Ed with his future wife Mildred Auten in the lead
role. I thought she was quite beautiful.
Another experience with live theatre was to attend a Chatauqua in Ponoka.
Hans Paulson was one of the directors of the organization. It played in
large tent. I still remember some of the acts in the program.
My feeling about Christmas concerts, the festival and the Chatauqua was
not that I wanted to act, it was that I felt the coming together of many
people to share the same experience was somehow important. I remember
coming at night to the school. The lights were on in a place that had no

39

lights. The audience was already assembled. The curtains were closed
above the makeshift stage. Mysteries were about to be revealed.
Later I learned that the impulse toward theatre was common to all
countries, past and present. Our experience in Alberta was closest to the
history of European countries: the population of each was mainly rural;
travel to large centers was difficult and thus rural communities developed
their own art forms including the various forms of theatre that emerged
over time. The Chautauqua movement started in the NY State in 1874. It
spread throughout the States and parts of Canada and lasted until WWII.
Although I do not know of anyone writing about this I can see now that the
Banff School of Fine Arts was modeled on the first Chautauqua: a mixture
of instruction and practice of fine arts and lectures (adult education).
Perhaps the tent in which the first Stratford Festivals played in Ontario
was a solution that owed something to the tents spread out in the US and
Canada to provide a stage for its traveling companies.
Tom Patterson and the original sponsors would certainly have been familiar
with the practical solution the Chautauqua tent provided. Rural US and
rural Canada followed the same patterns. “Co-ops” in business evolved
from the rural co-operative effort in building schools and community halls.
During the Depression of the 1930s co-ops were formed to take over the
running of telephones. In the same way rural communities acquired
electricity. The co-op movement was developing when the Seattle
Repertory Playhouse was formed; the Playhouse continued for more than
25 years. Norris Houghton toured the US and wrote Advance from
Broadway about the theatres he found. He was impressed with the quality
of work and the extent of the programme at the Playhouse: 2 plays were
classical, 2 were modern serious with some social comment and 2 modern or
original comedies. Each play was pre-sold for 18 performances. In addition
theatre for children played 2 performances on Saturdays, 2 per day during
Christmas and Easter holidays – a total of 3 or more plays. When I first
came to the theatre in 1945 it had a staff of 22 people. All had been
trained in the Playhouse Theatre School. Each staff member was paid an
equal amount to ‘work in the theatre’. Auditions were open to the public.
Thus, Florence and Burton James had developed a working, successful
semi-professional community theatre. Houghton, who assumed only the NY

40

model of professional theatre would achieve such things was truly
dumbfounded.
With the development of modern roads and transportation, educational
opportunities and television Chautauqua gradually declined. WWII almost
marked its extinction. Although I did not realize it at the time I accepted
the job with the Dept. of Extension 13 Feb 1847, the day oil was
discovered near Leduc, was to mark a similar transition in Alberta. The
Province changed from small towns and cities and a rural economy abruptly
to larger towns and cities with an economy driven by oil and gas.
Immigration changed the cultural make up. Suddenly the government had
money for projects that had gone hungry before. Pioneers would have been
dumbfounded at the Jubilee theatres.

41

In the Classroom 1943-45
A letter from a student 60 years after the class
at Eastside…

42

Traveling the Alberta roads alone…
Esther: Generally the long hours of travel were not very exciting and I

spent the time planning what I wanted to accomplish in the upcoming
classes. Black ice and cold added interest and I had several incidents of
driving off or being forced off the roads… happily with no serious
consequences. The one truly serious event occurred when I was traveling
by train.
I was returning home after a class in Lethbridge in a two-car train. It was
a Saturday and I planned to spend the weekend with Marilyn in Calgary.
She was to meet me. I was reading with my shoes off and feet on the
opposite seat and noticed in particular two other passengers. At the end
of the car was a Mountie handcuffed to a prisoner, near them was a
beautiful teenager with a violin case, obviously on her way to a lesson in
Calgary.
Suddenly there was a crash, a flash of fire, the car lurched to a crazy
angle and people and suitcases were thrown about. I saw the door at the
end away from the fire open as the Mountie and his prisoner jumped off
the train. I had heard that when there was a fire to drop low to avoid the
smoke, so I did. It was an uphill climb toward that open door because of
the angle of the car, and soon people grabbed at my ankles to pull
themselves out too, but consequently dragging me back toward the fire. I
stood up and pulled myself along by the tops of the seats on either side. I
finally got to the door to find it blocked by a rather large woman frozen
with fear. Over her shoulder I could see the Mountie, still attached to his
prisoner, ready to catch people as they jumped down – about an eight-foot
drop. I put my shoulder to the seat of the lady in front of me and pushed
her off. When the heroes below were recovered, I jumped.
I didn’t think of saving anybody. My one thought was to keep the doorway
clear so that people could get out. We were not through yet – the grass in
the ditch had caught fire and to get away from that we had to get through
the 4-string, tightly stretched barbed wire fence. About six passengers
made it through the fence and then through a stubble field to some stooks
where we could look back and see what had happened. A propane truck had
hit the train between the two cars and had knocked them off the track.

43

We saw that some of the passengers had escaped on the other side of the
train and that the police and others had arrived. At the same time the
farmer came across his field to us and took us in his car to the Claresholm
hospital. There, after being checked out, I met some people who had come
to the hospital to see if they could help when they heard about the
accident. They invited me to stay with them until someone could come for
me, so off we went to their house.
The police had taken the names of those who remained near the train.
They did not notice the 6 who had gone across the field. When Marilyn
went to meet the train and found that there had been an accident, she was
told the ‘survivors’ would be on the next bus. She hurried to the bus
station; I was not on the bus. With no other choice, she went home and I
was finally able to contact her there. The telephone line was jammed for
quite a while. She came and picked me up; I was wearing a coat that
smelled of smoke and a pair of large white shoes loaned to me by my
hostess.
Because I was not on the police ‘survivor list’ I was declared missing.
Friend and former student, Alex Burton, who was a radio announcer in
Edmonton, picked up this misinformation. My relatives heard the news and
told my mother at church on Sunday. I reached her just as she got home
from church. Marilyn contacted Ed who was at a meeting in Banff and he
picked me up and took me back to Edmonton the next day.
I have forgotten how many were killed besides the truck driver and the
lovely young violinist.

44

An Academic Life - 1962 to Retirement

UofC 1964/65 Year Book
Ed and Mil came for my
convocation. I didn’t bother
to attend convocation for
my MA – once was enough!
Esther Nelson BA, MA

My Last class
Esther: My last class was in the College at Hobbema, and they were

shocked when they found out that it was my last class before retirement
and I wasn’t having a party! So, they took me to lunch and presented me
with a pair of beautiful beaded moccasins. The lady who organized it sat
next to me. She and her family had used the oil money that came to them
from the tribe for travel. She had been to Europe, Hawaii, South America,
the Caribbean, etc. Now that I was retired, was I going to travel? I said I
planned a trip to Mount Assiniboine to see the golden Larch in the fall.
Shock! “Aren’t you afraid of the bears?!” I thought, ‘everything is
turned backwards’, but I was glad to be accepted as one with them.

45

BIRD
Esther: Others have written books about the psychology of school horses.

Each seemed to develop its own method of dealing with its small owners.
Bird probably came from mustang stock. She never seemed to be accepted
by the herd of farm horses. She made no effort to make friends. We had
a strange relationship. She seemed to put up with me but there were no
signs of affection as such. One bitterly cold afternoon, I was slow sliding
off her back. She reached around, grabbed my collar in her teeth and
shook me. Mel saw what happened and came to ‘teach her a lesson’. I said,
“NO, don’t do that. It was my fault.”
When I was cleaning at the school after everyone had left (at Anthony
Hill, as at other one-room schools, children were given the opportunity to
do janitor duties – sweep the floor, clean the black boards and brushes, etc
– for a small salary. In my day it was about $2 a week, and that was CASH
money!). Bird was in the yard and played hard-to-get when I tried to catch
her to go home. Finally she whirled and kicked me gently on the shoulder.
I often wondered if she could judge distance accurately.
In summer the horses were let loose to graze in the schoolyard. Wasps
were a constant misery for them. Whenever I was on the ball diamond
Bird would come over to me to swat the wasps away from her. No one else
had a horse that would do that. When she ran away and finally was
returned to Fred Hagemann’s she showed signs of memory. Evelyn used to
inherit my red sweaters when I grew out of them. If she walked into the
yard wearing my sweater Bird would follow her. Mel tried to ride her and
she refused to move.
When I was bitten by the dog at school, and taken to Wetaskiwin Hospital
by car, Bird was left in the school barn. Mary Kramer volunteered to take
her home. That wasn’t such an easy task. Bird liked to go home after a
long day in the barn. We always went through the doorway at a gallop with
me flat on Bird’s back. My lunch bucket was a Roger’s Golden Syrup can,
carried in a satchel (that Thea had made for me out of a flour sack) over
my shoulder. Thea never asked me why the lunch tin had such deep dents.

46

I just didn’t always get it at the right angle as we galloped through the
door and Bird’s back was pretty close to the top doorjamb. I never
thanked Mary enough for leading a reluctant Bird home. My horse knew
that there was something wrong and Mary had to pull her every inch of the
way and then walk the one and a half miles home.

1981 Esther and Mary Kramer at the Anthony Hill Reunion.

Dominion Drama Festival
Esther: The Festival started in 1932, dedicated to one-act plays. It

continued in this manner until forced to stop its annual event with the
onset of WWII. After a 10-year hiatus the Festival re-started in 1949, in
its same one-act format. In 1950, though, it switched to three-acts until
it stopped in 1978. In order to make the DDF work it was necessary to
have Provincial organizations, and have a winner of festivals in each
Province that could represent each Province at a Final Festival.
The Alberta Drama league was formed in 1933 for this purpose. It too
stopped operation in 1939 and when the DDF started again it was
necessary to re-organize the Alberta Drama League. It was decided that

47

in addition to organizing the 3-act competition the League would sponsor a
Provincial One-Act Festival. This took up much of my time in addition to
teaching. The ADL continued until the DDF came to an end.
Mrs. Ethel Taylor of the Quota Club of Red Deer urged that group to
sponsor the Final Festival. They did this for a number of years and that
strengthened the League, added members and broadened community
involvement.
None of this would have been possible if it had not been that Elodia
Christensen of Sterling wrote to enquire if the Department of Extension
still offered help with drama. She was in charge of the drama programme
for the Latter Day Saints Church. It turned out that she had known
Elizabeth Sterling Haynes and had become her devoted fan. She was also
interested in theatre and the DDF. Thus I went to Sterling to conduct the
first of many workshops. Elodia went to the first meeting that reformed
the ADL in 1952 and within a year she became its president. She was
enthusiastic, a driving force, which was what ADL and drama in Alberta
needed.
Peggy Haynes Rootes made another early call for help. She was a teacher
in Sedgewick. She needed help with a play. By the time the play was ready
we knew each other well. Years went by and she turned up at the
Department of Extension – secretary to the fine arts instructor. She did
as much to help the ADL as I did, typing minutes and notices to the
members, etc.

The Canwell Hearings Seattle
Esther: The Canwell hearings began the spring of my last year at the

Playhouse. In support of the James’ I went to a session. It was to be one
of the most frightening experiences in my life.
At the front on a raised platform was Canwell. At the rear, the doors of
entry. Along the side walls, shoulder to shoulder, stood very big army
police wearing two guns each and two long strings (belts?) of ammunition on

48

their shoulders. There were a number of young people in the audience
from Bette’s classes, I think, along with their friends. Afternoon
proceedings started and continued in the manner that had been already
established.
‘Witnesses’ were called – all were from out-of-town – and gave their
testimony that one or other of the accused was guilty of communist
activities. Cross-examination was not allowed. The witnesses left and
returned to their home – New York, Chicago, etc.
Finally, the James’ lawyer said, after cross-examination was disallowed
again, with a polite bow, “ I bow to more powerful authority” and sat down.
A nervous titter ran around the room.
Canwell said to the soldiers (military police): “Remove those
demonstrators.” There had been no demonstration. The police looked at
each other uneasily and then awkwardly grabbed a few people and forced
them to walk out of the door.
One of the people forced out was a middle-aged man. The press was always
waiting. An indignant ‘demonstrator’ was glad to be interviewed. The next
morning we read: “ I came here to see justice done but this is not justice.
It’s an outrage, … escorted out as Mrs. James was. She was articulate, but
The testimony of each of the ‘friendly’ witnesses consisted mainly of
association as proof. There was no real evidence. The only way to avoid
conviction was to use the appropriate phrase from the Constitution. I
know that Burton and Al Ottenheimer lost their tempers, did not use the
magic words and were convicted, I think of contempt, and jailed for 3
months each. Of course, if they went to jail they must be guilty! All the
various Un-American Activities Committees succeeded in doing was to
destroy the lives of many of their best and most productive artists.
Something that was general knowledge at the Playhouse was the animosity
of the Head of the Drama Dept. at UofW, Glenn Hughes, toward Mrs.
James and the Playhouse. Mrs. James had joined the staff at UofW when
she arrived in Washington from New York. She was determined to do the
best she could for her students and was one of the first teachers to
become acquainted with the ‘Stanislavski method’ through the
interpretation of his work by his students, especially I. Rappaport.

49

Consequently her classes in acting began to be sought out by all the
students, especially those of Hughes. He became very jealous and
continued his animosity after Mrs. James left and eventually founded and
developed the Playhouse just 4 blocks away from the campus.
Because it was possible to make accusations to the Un-American Activities
people without being identified, various people at UofW were also accused.
We had our suspicions but could prove nothing. The Playhouse is now called
Glenn Hughes Playhouse. Ex-members of the James’ Playhouse helped
create another venue downtown.
I was acting in The Font Page that spring. During the run (pre-sold
productions) Of the play my visa term expired. I had to go to Vancouver to
have it renewed. Bette volunteered to take over my role (the prostitute
who commits suicide). Apparently I was not important enough to have my
name on a list. I returned to Seattle to complete my obligations. That
summer I returned to Vancouver. I felt that I owed Sydney for an
experience I could not have bought anywhere.
The experience left its mark. When I was in Vancouver a left-leaning
Jewish group wanted to produce a dramatic poem written by (posibly
Szlengel…) on the Warsaw Ghetto during the war. Dorothy Somersett at
UBC recommended me to them. It was a powerful piece that interested
me. Available were six young people with good voices. There wasn’t any
pay, but I was satisfied. I designed a setting using only platforms lighting
and a flexible shifting of individuals and groups. The actors were
passionate about the story that contributed to a strong performance.
Unknown to me they entered the play in a local festival. I couldn’t desert
them so I went along as the only stagehand. I again arranged the ‘set’ and
lighting and was the only curtain puller. I knew that this fare was not the
usual offering at festivals. When I pulled the curtain at the end there was
a long pause. I found that I was shaking. Then the applause came. Huge
relief. I was back in Canada.
To finish this anecdote, I will add that this was about the time readings
became popular. The group wanted to continue so I showed them how they
could adjust without ‘scenery’, just six teaching podiums with strong
reading lights that would light up their faces. In a dark room it was quite

50

effective. The president of the group gave me a wonderful
recommendation when I applied for the drama specialist job in the summer.
Returning to the “un-American” issue, it did raise its head once in Canada
for me. One day in Banff I had a brief meeting with Dr. Cameron (the
head…). He told me that ‘a man from the University of Oregon’ had been to
see him and asked if he knew that he had a communist on his staff. I said
to Cameron, “I wish you had told him to meet me and tell me that to my
face!” The subject did not come up again. Cameron was not above using
what he thought was a weakness to maintain his power over others.
Perhaps the poor man wanted my job. I, of course, assume the event
related to my attending a ‘communist-run school’.
The poison of that period infected Canada too. Only this year did the
RCMP reveal that they kept a file on Tommy Douglas - the man voted the
most outstanding Canadian of the Century at the end of the millennium.
Perhaps they kept a file on Ed, your father, too. The CCF, NDP, or
anything left-of-center was suspect while anything rightwing was Simonpure. So naive.

The Edmonton Recreation Department 1951
Esther: Your first paragraph in this section forced my hand. I wasn’t sure

that I wanted this story told. There were many things about my job I did
not care for but tried to work around. First was my boss, Director of the
Department of Extension, Donald Cameron (eventually Senator Donald
Cameron). Second was his successor, Duncan Campbell.
Cameron wanted his way in ALL things and consequently fought with just
about everyone. In the late 20s and very early 30s Dr. Ned Corbett was
Director of the Department. I met him later and liked him. It was under
his watch that the Banff School of Fine Arts was formed with Elizabeth
Sterling Haynes in charge of drama at the school. He also was responsible
for appointing her as Drama Specialist. I discovered that his general
philosophy in working with Alberta communities was similar to Chautauqua.

51

Donald Cameron became Corbett’s assistant at Banff as well as in
Edmonton. When Corbett left, Donald Cameron automatically became head
of both. Cameron didn’t like women, especially strong women. He and
Elizabeth did not get along. She left in 1937. From then on (the staff on
stage suffered through his annual speech) it sounded as though he had
started the school. It became his obsession; it would be the Saltzberg of
North America. He gradually grew less and less interested in the
Extension Department.
I found that his quarrels didn’t stop with Elizabeth. Robert Orchard had
replaced Sydney Risk as Head of the Drama Department in Edmonton. I
later discovered that, although my salary was paid by the Drama
Department’s allocation for salaries, my work was to be entirely in the
Department of Extension – a recipe for disaster. This was not clearly set
out in my letter of appointment (though I was hot in a position to
reconsider). Later I began to see that I was trapped. In addition, a
squabble between Orchard and Cameron resulted in the edict that I was to
do no work in Edmonton. No wonder my predecessor had numbered his
desk calendar backwards to his day of leaving! I found that there were
things to so in Edmonton. I just said ‘yes’ to things I knew Bob Orchard
was not interested in.
As I worked I gradually became aware of the change that was taking place
as a result of the change in the economy. Alberta was changing from a
rural economy to an urban one. Money for new projects was becoming
readily available. New Universities were projected: Lethbridge, Medicine
Hat, etc. I had had a first hand experience with the territorial aspirations
that lurked behind a university’s academic facade

52

FAMILY THOUGHTS
Blanche

53

Fort Ostell Recognition of Women
Blanche Hoar

Nominated by the Dakota Women
February 2004

Community Involvement:
• Active member of the Dakota United Church
• Member of the Dakota UCW for 55 years
• Sports
- As a teen played 1st base with the Twin Creek Ball
Team and
Brooksona Ball Team, as well as
high school and Normal School basketball
and softball
- A catcher with the University Summer School
Women’s Team
- A coach of the Ponoka Jr. High boys and girls softball
teams and later of
the Crestomere Boys Summer League
- Evening “Keep Fit” leader at Crestomere for 10 years
• Youth Groups
- Worker with Edith Cane & other women in the area to
offer Explorers
They organized weekly
activities including ball games, camping at the
Ferrybank Canyon, crafts and sing-songs for youth in the Dakota
district
- CGIT leader in Lacombe for 1 year, Ponoka for 6 years
and Dakota area
for more than12 years working with dozens of young
girls

54
- Dakota Sunday School teacher for 45 years and
responsible for many
Christmas plays and
celebrations. Still teaching in 2005
- Helped organize, promote and lead Dakota Summer
Vacation Bible School
for years. It was here that many
played their first soccer games!
• County Rep on the Ponoka Recreation Board in its early years
• Co-founder, with Jennetta Miller, of the Crestomere
Recreation Board
• One of the founding members of the Fertile Forest Historical
Society that
spearheaded the restoration of this one room school house
• Secretary for the Red Deer Presbytery for many years
• Secretary for the ATA local back when teaching full time
• Secretary for the Ponoka Retired Teachers’ Association, 2004
• Member of the organizing team for the Normal School
Reunions held each year for
the grads on 1938
• In the 1940’s, member and President of the Ponoka Stagettes,
a group of working
women who raised money to help families who had lost their
father during WWII
Political Involvement
• Actively involved in the NDP party for many years working
with numerous candidates and organizing forums. Worked
tirelessly especially for her brother Ed Nelson in the 1960’s
• In the 1970’s and 80’s was a member of the Ponoka Peace
Group which focused on the need for peaceful solutions to
conflicts.
• Unifarm Convention delegate to Edmonton many times
• Member and often secretary of the UFWA (United Farm
Women of Alberta)
• Long time member of Unifarm and secretary for the Red Deer
District Unifarm for 6 years
• Secretary/Treasurer for Region #9 of Unifarm from 19871990
• Longtime member of the Council for Canadians

55

Writing
•

•

•
•
•

•

Family Herald contributor in the 1950’s and 60’s. While at
home raising 5 children she wrote 30 children’s stories which
she is now preparing to put into a book
Articles, stories, and news reports for the Red Deer
Advocate, Country Guide, Western Producer, Small Types in
the 1950’s
CBC School Broadcasts bought and used her stories for 25
years, before VCR’s were in schools!
Taught a number of creative writing classes to high school
students in Devon
Wrote the play “From Wood Smoke to Fax Machines” which
was presented at a festive evening at the Ponoka United
Church in 1993 to celebrate the history of the Ponoka area
Contributing author to Alberta Council On Aging

Teaching & Studies
• Grades 1 to 9 at Sharphead (just west of Ponoka) in 1939 – 41
Also organized picnics, school dances, concerts, and adult
theatre
• Lacombe Jr. High for 1 year in 1942
• Ponoka Jr. High for 6 years in 1943 – 1948 where she also
coached softball
• Crestomere part-time and subbing for many years
• Studied drama and creative writing at Banff School of Fine
Arts for 2 summers

Gardening
• Has always had a huge garden growing enough raspberries and
strawberries for the
community! She and her husband Don
continue to enjoy the many fruit trees planted
by Will and
Olive Hoar, but have also added numerous Saskatoon bushes
• Ponoka County Fair supporter by entering vegetables, fruit,
flowers, and baking, and she encouraged and guided her children to
plant gardens and to participate!

56
•

Won Best Over-All in Baking at the Ponoka County Fair

Family Life
• We, her family, feel this is her greatest contribution! Much
of her community involvement was centered on her children
and her desire to offer opportunities to them, as well as to
make her community, province and world a better place.
Month in and month out, she planned, helped organize and run
various activities. If her grandchildren need goodies for a
class project or apple cider for a skating party she is offering
to help out. She was always a willing driver to and from
games, practices, 4-H meetings, or lessons. She was ready to
chase cattle even in the middle of baking bread and cinnamon
buns, and supper was always ready for a hungry crew. No
matter what her family members dream of doing, she is always
supportive and encouraging. And, regardless of where her
children and grandchildren have traveled or for how long (a
few hours or a few years) we always know that Sunday
morning will find grandma cooking waffles and that there
might be a game of some kind. And finally, what women is not
worth her weight in gold when her and her husband load 5 kids
into a station wagon to head out on their yearly camping trip
that was always a go, rain or shine!

WOW!

You have done a lot and we
thank you!

57

Blanche
Esther: As you probably know Blanche and I were two very different

people. She looked after me when we were little, made clothes for me,
bought clothes for me so that I would be a little more presentable. I think
that she was a much better teacher than I was. I was given Eastside, the
top new school, because of her reputation, not my ability.
After she married Don and started raising a family, she was very involved
in community and church affairs. She continued to look after Thea and
Elof. She had a huge garden and was lavish with canned goods in the Fall.
The family owes her and Don gratitude for ensuring continuing family
reunions. I treasure the trip we took to North Cape, visiting Baekesletten
and Swedish relatives. Blanche and I also had a visit with Arne and Carin
Bjerhammar when they were at the University of Ohio.
It wasn’t always fun for Blanche. When I was about 4 I was hurt about
something and ran away from home. Blanche caught up with me at the
bottom of the garden and persuaded me to come home. You were another
famous runaway. Blanche looked after you and Doreen one time and was
annoyed that you ran away … walking purposefully down the road to the
south. She brought you back and had to carry you because you were tired.
The next day you ran away again. Once more you were brought home, but
this time you were made to walk. On your third break out, you took your
little red wagon along, determined not to have to walk home, you relied on
your fluttering eyelashes to persuade Blanche to pull you back to the
house.
(Several letters refer to Blanche babysitting for Hilda when various of her
children were born, and that Esther was grateful not to have to do this
family duty.)
That Blanche should develop Alzheimer’s is a tragedy. Her mind was always
active and inventive. Her collection of her published short stories for
children, From Between the Covers is a remarkable achievement. To
accomplish as much as she did in school, church and community makes one
wonder at her determination to make time to write.

58

I recall one sun-drenched afternoon Mel, Blanche and I sat at the door of
the hayloft looking east out of the farmyard, the field beyond, the ‘small
slough’ (the ‘big slough’ was farther south), ‘the big tree’ (that served as
the ceremonial object for the rite of passage performed by each of the
Nelson kids – you could touch fingers reaching around it) and ‘the big hill’.
Blanche and Mel were talking about what they were going to do when they
grew up. I was too young to know. Mel was going to fly planes. Blanche
was going to be a writer. And so they did.
There were other things we did together. One was the continued story
that evolved with Blanche’s first doll – Flossie. True to Scandinavian
tradition, Christmas Eve was a special time. Any little gifts were given. I
know now that a certain amount of family planning preceded this Eve. Mel
‘heard something’. He put his coat on and went outside. Soon we heard the
sound of jangling chains. Elof did not go in for non-essentials like sleigh
bells. Mel came in carrying a snow-covered little teddy bear. “Santa
dropped it!” Later Teddy and Flossie became the parents of an unlikely
‘family’ when Mel decided to make a baby for them – with the help of the
sewing machine, some wool from Thea’s supply. He finally presented them
with a rather skinny ‘baby’ that was called (what else?) Baby. This family
was put through many adventures each time with an unlikely array of
cooking utensils. They went many (imaginary) places; the stores and
restaurants were great. Thea was very inventive about food and groceries.
Teddy finally lost his beeper. Mel decided an operation was essential. The
beeper was unfixable but Teddy thereafter sported a neat scar and
stitches. He also was subjected to a haircut, made possible by clippers
used by Ed when giving us haircuts. Tucked away carefully and never used
was the Eaton’s Beauty given to Clara. It was made of porcelain, unable to
stand up to the treatment of the other three. Flossie had lost most of her
nose but otherwise was equal to the strain of family life imposed on her.
Christmas was important to both Thea and Elof. After we were working
and came home for Christmas, Elof had found and set up a Christmas tree
and Thea had carefully decorated it (jobs the kids had always done before
Elof and Thea were left alone). In the Fall Thea made Christmas cakes and
for Christmas there were always a supply of Norwegian cookies (sandkager,

59

Berliner Kranser, lefse and Fleischman buns. (Elof thought Thea was a
good cook and liked her food… though he never told her. But, Thea knew.)
Although Thea had little money she would manage small gifts (thanks to
the Eaton’s and Simpson’s catalogues). Giving us gifts gave her joy. She
found it hard to keep them secret until Christmas Eve. I can remember
she gave me a peek at what she had for Blanche and me – tucked in the
flour bin of the kitchen cupboard, wrapped in tissue paper: a lovely pink,
beige and white touque for Blanche and a red and white one for me. It was
OUR secret! In addition to other preparations, the house had to be
spotless.
After they moved to town Thea had the pleasure of attending Sunday
morning services with her sisters, thanks to the kindness of August and
Borghild Cerveny (Borghild was the eldest daughter of Thea’s eldest sister,
Marit). But, Thea never sacrificed a Christmas Eve or morning when her
children were home. How wonderful to know how much you are loved by
your parents.

Clara
I have very visual and aural memories. She loved to recite poetry and sing
songs no doubt learned at school. One was:
I remember her sick on the couch in the living room. She was no doubt
hallucinating, “Put the cat out.” There was no cat. I didn’t really seem to
understand death at the time. What I was aware of was the behavour of
people around me. I remember Ed came in from the field (a white cloth on
the south screen door was the signal for coming to the house) – he was
crying.
I remember Clara on the dining room table, Marit and Annie (Thea’s
sisters) were there. It was the ‘laying out’, and they shooed me away.
Then I recall going upstairs to see Thea. She was surrounded by sisters
and neighbours and I couldn’t get near her to comfort her… At the funeral
the coffin was placed on a contraption with wheels. I remember being lost
among tall people and Fred Hagemann picking me up so that I could see
Clara’s face. Then there was the silent trip to the cemetery, following
immediately behind the funeral wagon. It was my first experience with
being totally helpless, unable to comfort anyone.

60

Later when I talked to Mabel Massing, who had been friends with Clara, I
asked what her memories were. She said, “She was awful smart”, then,
“your Dad took it real hard.” At the Anthony Hill reunion, her teacher,
Audrey Osterland, said, “Clara? Oh, she was brilliant.” And so when I
came to do a portrait of Clara I chose to do it on sandpaper and idealized
her face. I remember when she sat in Thea’s rocker beside the west
window, with the afternoon sun on her face and hair.
Much later I foud that Thea had included with her schoolwork an obituary
written by Blanche – aged about 7.5 years) that included the important
information: “Clara was a good girl. She always helped her mother with
the dishes.”
I Had a Horse Whose Name was Napoleon
I had a horse and his name was Napoleon
All on account of his bony parts
He was sired by an old Hambletonian
Damned by everyone round these parts
He was so thin you could see right through him
Hair as fine as the finest silk
I hitched him up to an old milk wagon
Taught him to stop when I hollered, “Milk!”
As I was goin’ to town one morning
Met a fellow wit a rig so fine
Said he, “I’ll race your old Hambletonian.”
Said I, “You’re on”, and I fell in line
Down the road a helter skelter
We were going at a hell of a pace
Sure as I’m a sinner I was comin’ out winner
Someone hollered “Milk!” and I lost that race

61

Melvin
I have mentioned that we had an uneasy time of it when we were kids. Mel
was something of a perfectionist – I couldn’t live up to the image he had in
mind. When he was on his own he was good to me. As I mentioned I could
not have attended the Playhouse without his help. During the Canwell
hearings I am sure he was nervous about his job at Boeing but Mrs. James
told me that the doorbell rang and there was Mel offering her a
contribution to help with legal expenses. He also drove her to Banff one
summer – not easy as she was a chain smoker and just about asphyxiated
him. It was Mel’s way of paying them back for their kindness to me.
Family responsibility.
When I saw him the spring before he died, I told him that I was planning a
ride in a glider that summer. He said, ”Why didn’t I know you wanted to do
that? I could have taken you!” I had my ride – a birthday gift from
Marilyn. In spite of her many trips by plane, she did not like flying. She
hid behind the hanger until I was back down on the ground.
He was a practical man too. He couldn’t understand Ed’s principles. “If he
wants to be in government why doesn’t he run for a party that can win!?”
He didn’t always get along with Elof – the story of being thrown out of the
house in ‘Elof’s Story’, wanting to join the RAF against Elof’s wishes But
when Elof was seriously hurt (broken ribs) in a fall from the hay loft
through a hole in the floor onto a manger below, Mel came home from
school in Ponoka to take over running the threshing crew - much to the
admiration of neighbour Henry Muhs – and probably silent admiration from
Elof too??

Pragmatism vs principle

Mel and Ed – Mel’s reaction to Ed’s

fruitless efforts to get elected: Mel, “If Ed want to be in government why
doesn’t he run for a party that gets itself elected?”
Mel’s support of Florence James: perhaps less principle and more the
personal debt owed to someone who helped ‘family’ (ie Esther).

62

When I saw Mel in the spring before he died, I told him that I was
planning a ride in a glider that summer. He said, “Why didn’t I know you
wanted to do that? I could have taken you.” I had my ride – a birthday
gift from Marilyn. In spite of her many trips by plane she did not like
flying. She hid behind the hanger until I was back down on the ground.

EDWARD
I wish I could be of more help with your father, but you know we were
both working hard at the same time and didn’t see much of each other. I
associate him more with my childhood. He spoiled me, I know, treated me
somehow as an equal. That gives a child confidence. Where did he learn to

63

do this? I remember two occasions he came to my office at UofA. The
first time he was planning the house at RR5 and wondered if there were
architects connected with UofA.
-

caught in the uban/rural shift in his fight for the
family farm… fewer and fewer are listening.

Your assessment is right on. I am afraid Ed spoiled me. Although we never
discussed I’m sure Blanche and Mel resented it. Ed would insist on my
going to things that were ‘too old for me’, like an overnight picnic at Gull
Lake. Blanche was stuck with looking after me

1944 at Gwynne Esther took this photo of Blanche with Elof and Thea
visiting with Edward and Mildred. Ken is 5, Pat is 3 and Doreen is a
baby born in April 1944. (the man in the trilby hat must be the hired
man of the day. The hired man was so important in farms of this era.)
This must be mid summer of ’44, Esther had finished her first full
year of teaching, at Reo School, and would have been on her way to
Banff – this year she played Rhoda in Death Takes a Holiday.

64

Theatre 100 – Letter & history of Alberta Theatre
390 Wildwood Drive S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T3C 3E6
December, 2006
Mr. Ken Cameron
Executive Director
Alberta Playwrights’ Network
2633 Hockwald Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta
Dear Mr. Cameron:
I wish to congratulate you and Ms. Wattling on the publication of Theatre
100: Celebrating 100 Theatre Practitioners over 100 Years. I also wish to
thank the person who sent me an invitation to the final evening of Playworks
Ink on November 5, 2006 for merely supplying a picture of Bette Anderson.
The fact that my nametag indicated that I was there as a ‘representative of
Bette Anderson’ would have amused Bette as much as it did me. It made me
feel, however, that I had somehow slipped under the barricade and didn’t
really belong. Let me explain.

Theatre 100 was difficult to do, but well worth doing. I think, however, that
the title created problems for you. History, in whatever form it takes, is
just not that tidy. Another problem is that your contributors did not
become active or aware of work in the province until after 1960. I have no
objection to what was written (inaccuracies are inevitable in third-hand
accounts) – but I do have serious objection to what was not written.
Some important work was done during the 1940s and 1950s. Unfortunately, there
are no biographies that reflect this 20-year period. When I looked through
Theatre 100, I realized that I am probably the only one still living who knows
first-hand not just what happened during that period but, more importantly,
how it came to happen.
With the publication of Theatre 100 you are going to find that you will be
sought out as authorities on the history of theatre in Alberta. There is, as
you probably already know, a tendency among the young to think that the
professional theatre as it now exists was always as it is now - that it was
born, like Athene, armed and fully grown out of the head of Zeus. I am
distressed that names of certain people were either discarded or
overlooked: Sydney Risk; Dick MacDonald - who was the first Co-ordinator

65
of Cultural Activities; Ethel Taylor and the Quota Club of Red Deer; and,
Irene Protheroe of Calgary. Each played a pivotal role in the development of
theatre in Alberta.
I think that the most unfortunate omission in Theatre 100 was the
contribution of Sydney Risk to theatre in Alberta and western Canada. He
was Director of Drama at UofA from 1938 to 1946. During that time he
taught courses on campus and served as drama consultant for the UofA
Department of Extension and he taught drama at the Banff School of Fine
Arts for six years. He was one of the founders of the Western Canada
Theatre Conference, which sought to co-ordinate theatre projects in the
four western provinces. It sponsored annual playwriting competitions for
one-acts. Winning scripts were made available through the Alberta Dept. of
Extension. It was during this time that Robert Gard came to the Dept. of
Extension to explore and write about the history and folklore of Alberta on
a Carnegie Grant.
After taking a year off in 1942 to complete his MSA at Cornell, Sydney
organized the first Provincial Players (a group of university students), which
toured the province with three one-acts and provided valuable training for
its members. A member of the first company was Lois McLean who went on
to be a founding member of Everyman Theatre. Later she pursued her
acting career in England and Vancouver. After Sydney left his position I
believe there was another tour.
After I became Drama Specialist in 1949 another tour was organized in
1950. It was a co-operative venture between Dick MacDonald of the
Cultural Activities Branch, the Alberta Drama Board (appointed by the
Branch of which I was a member) and the Dept. of Extension that provided
my services, office and business arrangements with sponsoring groups in
communities and a truck to transport scenery. I bought a car, which along
with the truck provided transportation. I went along as chaperone, a
position deemed essential by the university in those days.Grant Reddick and
Jo Cormack, whose careers are documented in Theatre 100, were members
of that tour.
True to the spirit of the time and Sydney’s goal to establish a
professional theatre, the Alberta Drama Board hired one of Betty Mitchell’s
former students, Gordon Atkinson, who had just graduated from the
Pasadena Playhouse School, to direct the production. Neither the cultural
Activities Branch nor the Dept. of Extension had any money for projects.
The director was paid $500, a donation made by Alan MacDonald (Mickey
MacDonald’s husband).

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In 1946 Sydney Risk left his position at UofA and founded Everyman
Theatre. I enclose a copy of the Vancouver programme, which gives an
outline of the tour to that point. The tour continued to Vancouver Island,
where the company played several towns and concluded with its final
performances in Victoria.
Sydney, with help from his family (and Lois, who sold her precious portable
typewriter to get the company over a low point) financed the whole tour. He
had no assistance from any other source. Of course the company ended up
in debt. Rather than declare bankruptcy as subsequent theatres have done,
Sydney went to work at UBC and finally paid off every cent of Everyman’s
debt.
The company started up again in 1948 but not as a professional company. It
began with a modest tour of Vancouver and area schools. Eventually, Sydney
found a home for the company in a theatre in Vancouver and gained
semiprofessional status. After several successful seasons, the company finally
folded, thanks to a dishonest bookkeeper.
The tour of Everyman Theatre was the first attempt after WWII to
establish a professional theatre in western Canada. It took place during one
of the worst winters on record. Perhaps Sydney was not included in Theatre
100 because none of your contributors knew him or the complete story of his
creation of what the other ‘movers and shakers’ in Alberta only talked
endlessly about and dreamed of.
I think that the story of Everyman Theatre is the stuff of theatrical
legend. Indeed, if it had taken place in the United States it would have been
recognized as such. But in Alberta, where nothing was of value unless it
made money, it was something thought of as a failure: not to be talked
about. I think of Sydney Risk as one of Canadian theatre’s truly tragic
figures. His ‘flaw’ was his idealistic determination to create a theatre in
western Canada before western Canada was ready to support it.
Recently, I had a call from a graduate student in Regina who wanted to do a
history of the theatre in western Canada. She contacted the UofC Faculty
of Communication and Culture who gave her my name. I began to think where
such a person might start a search. I looked up Everyman Theatre in the
Canadian Encyclopedia and found a terse account that was almost totally
pure fiction. The writer managed to get the founding date right but went on
to misspell Sydney’s first name – a sure sign that this was based, not on
research, but on hearsay. Thus do Canadians treat their heroes. Perhaps I
should say potential heroes.
I write this and enclose the programme so that you will have some knowledge of
an achievement in Canadian theatre that might otherwise be lost. You may

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recognize the faces and names of members who went on to work professionally in
Toronto and area on stage and in film and TV. Arthur Hill, who died recently,
carved out a career in London, on Broadway and in American TV – surely enough
to satisfy the insatiable appetite for Fame and Success that has distorted so much
of our natural appreciation of our artists and writers.
As a student at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1943, 1944 and 1945 (when
we eagerly shared all information available about theatre in Canada); as a
scholarship student at the Seattle Repertory Playhouse in 1945-46, 194748; as a member of Everyman Theatre 1946-47, 1948-49; as instructor in
Acting and Directing at the Banff School of Fine Arts for 11 years; and, as
Drama Specialist for the Dept. of Extension I am one of the people who
knew that 20 year period very well. Many of the people who appear in
Theatre 100 I taught, directed or helped in some way.
After my experience with Everyman I realized that before anyone could
hope to earn a living in theatre in western Canada two things had to happen:
theatre education for the general public and government funding to help
establish theatres. My experience and training at the Seattle Repertory
Playhouse made me aware of the possibilities of semiprofessional community
theatre. At the Playhouse the staff of 18 were paid to work in the theatre.
Because each had been trained in the Playhouse School, it was assumed that
everyone could act in productions when needed; but, at the same time, each
had a role in running the various departments. Some had other skills as
writers, musicians, composers and artists.
When I arrived the production was an original incident in Seattle’s history:
Calico Cargo. The play was very successful and had an extended run.
Normally, six plays comprised a season, playing a run of six weeks each. In
addition three different plays were offered in the Playhouse Theatre for
Children: two performances each Saturday and through Christmas and
Easter break. Students, as well as members of the community, were able to
try out for productions. An innovative approach was developed in house sales
to organizations in the community. Plays ranged from the classics to serious
modern and modern comedy. There, in this unique environment, I formed a
philosophy and had a model for Alberta if only I could find enough people to
interest in the model.
When I joined the Dept. of Extension as Drama Specialist I found that I
was comfortable with Ned Corbett’s philosophy. I soon found, however, that
Director Donald Cameron’s goals, both for the department and for the Banff
School, were no longer in tune with that original philosophy. His idea of
success was to build a school that would outdo London, Broadway and
Salzburg. For a time all went well. Cameron was primarily concerned with
Banff School and I was free to pursue my goals and encourage as many

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students as I could to attend the school to obtain the training they needed
for work in their communities.
During my first year I met Murray Robison, after a talk on community
theatre I was asked to give at the Lethbridge YWCA. I stressed the need
for committed leadership. Murray approached me and said, “I don’t know if
I am the kind of person you are talking about.” In his modest way he
explained that he had just been putting on plays with fellow staff members
at his school to raise money for various projects. I said, “but you are
exactly the kind of person I am talking about.”
In a short while I was invited to Coaldale for a 3-evening workshop in acting.
Classes were announced for 8 to 10 pm. In the excitement generated by their
introduction to improvisation and their wonder at their own creations, the
sessions went on to 3 and 4 in the morning. These were all working people! And
that is where and when the Coaldale Little Theatre was formed: in the basement of
‘the pink house’, Murray and Yvonne’s home.
I taught many more workshops for Murray. He came as a student to Banff
several summers, learning all he could about stagecraft and directing. In
1961 one of the last workshops I gave was for the Coaldale Little Theatre: a
production of scenes from Shakespeare: Macbeth and Twelfth Night,
complete with lights and costumes. Murray was afraid to tackle
Shakespeare on his own so we worked out a schedule. I came to Coaldale
once a week to rehearse the cast and Murray rehearsed them during the
week. The performance was very satisfactory for both cast and audience.
Thus, Murray was able to give Sandy McCallum the experience he needed to
pass his audition for the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.
The following summer I resigned from my position with the Dept. of
Extension. This workshop and performance and my long association with
Murray Robison was the realization of my conviction of what any community
could do, given the gift of a committed director. It was also the realization
of the dream set forth by Ned Corbett in the way in which the Banff School
might contribute to developing theatre in Alberta. It was also the
culmination of what I had set out to do. The gift of $500 to the
government branch had grown to a, rumoured, $500,000. The future for
theatre seemed assured.
My association with Elodia Christensen was equally long and productive.
During my first year at the Dept. of Extension I received a letter of inquiry
from Elodia asking if anyone was available to give a drama workshop, as there
had been in the 1930s when Elizabeth Sterling Haynes was teaching. Elodia
was in charge of the drama program for the LDS Church. She directed
plays, helped inexperienced directors and taught workshops.

69

When I came to teach my first workshop for her I found that she was very well
organized, indeed. I taught morning, afternoon and evening sessions for three
days. There was no hotel in Stirling so I was a guest in Harold and Elodia’s home
then and on all my many subsequent visits: teaching workshops, helping with
plays (mainly with direction) and adjudicating small festivals that she
organized for the communities she worked with - all within her church.
I came to know Elodia well. She was genuinely passionate about the theatre
and wanted to participate in more than the role her church offered her.
That year the Dominion Drama Festival changed from one-act to three-act
plays. As far as I could make out the Alberta Drama League had consisted
mainly of drama directors and their groups who wanted to participate in the
DDF. In order for a province to participate in the DDF it had to have an
official amateur organization to work through. Up to 1950 the Alberta
Drama League had been an informal association that came to life for the
annual festival and then died back until next year. It needed the help of
someone free to travel to organizational meetings.
Dick MacDonald was very interested in the DDF and finally left his position
as co-ordinator of Cultural Activities (a small branch, for some mysterious
reason, of the Dept. of Economic Affairs) to become its Director. Dick and
I pooled our knowledge of groups and individuals. Dick knew the directors
who had participated in the DDF before the war and immediately after when
it started up again. I had discovered some new people who were interested
in participating. A meeting was arranged to reactivate the League to cope
with three-act festivals, as well as to host the DDF Final in Calgary, to be
held in the Grand Theatre.
Either at that meeting or soon after, Elodia Christensen became president
of the ADL. Her outgoing personality, knowledge of theatre and festival
organization, her enthusiasm and drive were irresistible. I volunteered my
services to the League as corresponding secretary, providing office and
organizational continuity as membership and executive members changed. In
1950, six three-act plays were entered in the DDF, representing Edmonton,
Medicine Hat, Calgary and Coleman. Because the ADL had no money, Dick
MacDonald, Elsie Park Gowan and I agreed to act as adjudicators, traveling
to each performance to select Alberta’s representative. Later Lethbridge
and Coaldale were added to DDF entrees, and all major centers except Red
Deer were represented.
I had never been fond of competitive drama festivals (a chance remark in a
public adjudication can destroy the future of an inexperienced director), but
I realized they were a useful tool - not just for building audiences for live
theatre, but also for stimulating government interest in smaller centers, as

70
well as in the cities. The distribution of seats in the Legislature favoured
the area outside the cities, then as now.
Elodia and I had many discussions about how to increase membership in the
ADL. We decided that a provincial one-act festival, in addition to its
commitments to DDF, might be possible. I drew up a plan that divided the
province into regions, providing a structure for present and future groups.
I met with Ethel Taylor and the Quota Club of Red Deer. They offered a
permanent home and continuing sponsorship of the final of the one-act play
festival. This was a great contribution to the festival’s growth and success.
When the plan was presented to the ADL membership it was accepted.
Regional and final festivals were held the following year and continued in the
1960s. Ethel Taylor had a great deal of experience in local, civic and
provincial politics. When I suggested to Elodia that it would be helpful to
invite politicians to open or close festivals and thus learn more about live
theatre, she became a willing accomplice. But it was Ethel Taylor, more than
anyone else in the province, who understood what I was trying to do and
agreed with my goals, who did the most in a practical way to help.
Thanks to their work, and the hard work of many directors with their
groups, the League’s membership gradually increased. But we had made a
very small dent in a world that was still more interested in curling and
hockey than in plays.
When I arrived at my office in the old ‘lab’ that housed the Dept. of
Extension in the fall of 1949, I looked through the ‘active’ file. I found
three rather old letters of inquiry but no copies of replies. I looked at the
appointment calendar on my desk. No entries, except that my predecessor
had numbered the pages backward up to the day of his leaving. I had met
him at the Banff School that summer. He directed Oedipus Rex. The cast
included Douglas Raines, who went on to work professionally in Ontario; and
Myra Benson, who contributed to the rebuilding of Everyman Theatre, to the
development of Holiday Theatre in Vancouver and finally - after studying
with Marcel Marceau - teaching and working both in mime and theatre for
children. Donald Cameron always sought ‘the best’ – first, for the Banff
School and, second, for the position of Drama Specialist
.
For him, the ‘best’ meant anyone in professional theatre in London. Robert Stuart
was a competent director but he must have spent a long, lonely year in that office
waiting for someone to call. Later when another professional from London,
Michael MacOwan, came to teach at the Banff School he flatly refused to direct a
student production. After meeting his students the first day he
came to me and said, “What am I going to do? They don’t know anything!”

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Although there had been a well-documented spurt of activity during the
Haynes-Corbett era, during the war amateur theatre was impossible unless it
consisted of ‘entertainment for the troops’, of which too little has been
documented. After the war, in the cities some former directors picked up
where they had left off. But in the smaller centers former leaders and
directors had either moved away or died or had found new interests.
When I tried to locate the writers of the three letters in my ‘file’ I found that
two had moved to another province. When passing through her town I
phoned the third. A rather impatient voice answered. “Yes, I used to do
some drama but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It’s too much work.”
In the years that followed I often wondered if I should have taken her advice.
During my 13 years as Drama Specialist I put over 300,000 miles on my two
cars, not including the trips I made by bus, train and plane, to communities
that asked for my services as teacher, director, advisor and adjudicator. I
also organized classes taught by other teachers such as Leona Paterson,
Irene Protheroe, Esme Crampton and Brian Way (author of Child Drama
who contributed to Bette Anderson’s development of the Playground Players for
the Edmonton Recreation Department, as well as providing direction for his
play, Pinocchio, a new concept in theatre for children as part of the regular
season of plays).
I gradually developed and taught theatre classes that followed the 5- and
10-week format now used by most adult education programmes, with one
class per week. (I enclose a copy of a typical brochure.) I usually taught 3
nights per week in various parts of the province, leaving the rest of the
week free for organizational visits to different groups on behalf of the
Alberta Drama League, rehearsals to help inexperienced directors who were
having difficulties (one of whom eventually became secretary to the fine
arts specialists with the Extension Department: Peggy Rootes was of great
help to me and, indirectly, a help to all the groups and individuals I worked
with), adjudicating school festivals, adjudicating the widely separated CYO
festivals - from Dawson Creek to Coronation and Medicine Hat, and final
one-act festivals in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I decided
not to adjudicate for the Alberta Drama League because of my role as
corresponding secretary, but arranged for others to adjudicate its various
festivals. Nor did I assist with plays entered in ADL festivals.
Each year I reserved two weeks in the spring to adjudicate the wellorganized
non-competitive festivals in the Peace River area. Leadership in
adult theatre often came from teachers. In that area, highly competent
teachers were devoted to building the quality of their school programmes in
music and drama. Because they were isolated from theatre activity in BC, I
often received requests from Dawson Creek and Fort St. John. On one

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happy occasion I was invited to Fort St. John to adjudicate three plays
written and produced by three local playwrights. After my adjudication I
invited the audience to ‘adjudicate the adjudicator’. The writers, casts and
crew moved down with me to sit with the audience.
We had a spirited, positive discussion in which everyone took part. The festival
had been organized by one of the writers who had entered an original play in a
festival the previous year. My remarks then had encouraged him to try again, and
to involve more people. It was a very satisfying evening. In those days the
Peace River area was self-contained but rather isolated from the rest of the
province. Festivals seemed to be a natural format for them and communities
supported the participants with enthusiasm.
Occasionally I directed productions for groups who could not find a director.
After directing the popular operas Martha and Hansel and Gretel at the
Banff School, I was asked to direct a centennial production of The Mikado in
Dawson Creek. In the cast was Tom Kerr who had studied theatre in England
and who went on to direct in various places in Canada, including Stratford
where he spent some time as assistant director. I helped with another
Gilbert and Sullivan in Wainwright.
In Edmonton I was asked to direct two separate productions of La Traviata and
one production of Faust for the Alberta Opera Company founded by Mr. and Mrs.
Jean Letourneau. In Calgary I directed Amahl and the Night Visitors for the
Calgary Theatre Singers and The Medium for Calgary Opera Workshop. Members
of those productions went on to help with the founding of the present Edmonton
and Calgary Opera Companies.
When I taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts, I directed at least three
one-act plays each summer. I chose Canadian plays whenever possible; I also
directed a revival of Stampede by Gwen Pharis Ringwood and Teach Me How
to Cry by Patricia Joudrie.
Sometime before 1953 I was asked to give a talk to the Edmonton Little
Theatre. I chose to speak about theatre for children in relation to
community theatre, thinking that I might encourage them into expanding
their programme. They agreed that it was a good idea but financially
impossible. I promptly went to see John Farina, the director of the
Edmonton Recreation Department. He agreed that theatre for children
would be a worthwhile venture and promptly found money in his budget for a
first production.
Within three months the Theatre for Children was ready,
with the help of many young people: Bernice Dorskind, Drama Director for
the Recreation Department; Alta Mitchell, drama teacher at the new

73
Victoria Composite, former student at Banff and member of the original
Provincial Players; Jo and David Cormack (Theatre 100); and Maggie Duffy,
an American student at UofA, former student at Banff and at the Seattle
Repertory Playhouse School of Theatre - later known as Megan Terry, US
playwright. I directed the first Theatre for Children production.
That year Bernice Dorskind left for England and Bette Anderson came in the
fall of 1953 to take the job of Drama Director for the Recreation
Department, complete with a small budget to launch the Edmonton Theatre
for Children. Then, Bette Anderson came to Alberta because of the work I
was doing in the province. She would have smiled that I was invited to
Playworks Ink because of the picture I had taken in the small apartment we
shared so long ago.
Something else I should like to add to information about that 20-year period
is the remarkable, but also unnoticed, contribution to and influence on
theatre in BC, Saskatchewan and Alberta of Florence and Burton James.
They both had taught drama in summer sessions at UBC prior to 1943. When
Burton James came to teach Stagecraft until 1949, then directing in 1950
and 1951, at the Banff School he directed its first two Shakespeare
productions. Through Burton James I was granted a two-year scholarship to
the Seattle Repertory Playhouse School of Theatre. Bruno Gerussi came a
year later, and several other Canadians followed. Bette Anderson was a
member of the staff and one of our teachers.
After the Playhouse closed and Burton James died, Nora McCullough,
Director, Saskatchewan Arts Board, invited Florence James to become
Drama Consultant for the Board. During her years there, until her
retirement and beyond, she contributed greatly to the development of
theatre in Saskatchewan. When Ken and Sue Kramer came to Alberta (Ken
had been a student of Bette Anderson and then a student at LAMDA where
Brian Way taught) they hoped to start a touring company for young
audiences. When no help could be found in Alberta, they went to
Saskatchewan where Florence James and the Arts Board undertook
sponsorship. After Sue Kramer’s death, Ken Kramer founded The Globe
Theatre. Florence was retained by The Globe as ‘Advisor’ after her
retirement.
Thus Florence and Burton James not only influenced Canadian theatre
directly as teachers of many Canadians, but they also provided a link
between their former students as they spread out to forge their separate
careers. Many others were influenced indirectly by the model for semiprofessional
theatre that was provided by the Seattle Repertory Playhouse. Everyman

74

Theatre’s first programme after settling in Vancouver was identical to that of the
Playhouse.
When Irene Protheroe took over the first year of production for Theatre
Calgary, hers was identical in scope to that of the Playhouse - though as far as I
know Irene had never met Florence and Burton James. In his youth Burton James
had trained as a landscape gardener. When he talked about his philosophy of
theatre, gardening metaphors came naturally to his explanations. They thought of
theatre as a natural part of the community. Together the James planted
many seeds. As Canada goes through its various stages, first with its
imitation of the Broadway example, second with the emergence of smaller
theatres without financial support, the playhouse model will again enable
people to work in the theatre.
Because of the peculiar - even ridiculous - nature of my job, I learned that
theatre - whether in Calgary, Edmonton and smaller cities and towns, or in
rural community halls - reflects the nature of its society. If you analyze the
abrupt shift that has taken place in rural Alberta you will notice the
disappearance of first and second generation pioneers who settled in
Alberta at the turn of the twentieth century. The urbanization that began with the
improvement of roads and transportation was almost complete by 1970. The
pioneers built their world together, co-operatively, without outside help. They
built communities. They have been replaced by a new generation, equipped with
TV and electronic communication: computers, email.
These are comparatively affluent people who do not know or need their
neighbours. A new society. The old sense of community has been eroded and
is to be replaced by what? Is it clear, or is it a permanent stat of flux? How
can a playwright grasp its essence? By 1960 I was aware of this change and
knew that my work belonged to an era that was ending.
Florence and Burton James built a theatre that survived the Depression and
WWII, more than 25 years without help of any kind. In his survey of
regional theatre, Advance from Broadway, Norris Houghton expressed
amazement that a theatre could thrive so far from Broadway, so far from
the Broadway example. He didn’t understand the energizing principle of the
James’ philosophy, which was summarized in the brief definition of theatre
coined by Julius Babb: “Theatre is a unity at the core of which is the living
community finding some vital part of itself reflected in the creations of the
actor and dramatist.”
It was my good fortune during those 20 years to experience such ‘vital’
moments for myself: Judith Anderson’s performance in Medea (on tour from
Broadway), Douglas Campbell’s performance in Oedipus Rex in the newly
completed theatre in Stratford, Burton James’ and Bette Anderson’s

75
recreation of the death of Aase in Peer Gynt, which had played two
extended runs in Seattle. But one of those vital moments I also found in
comedy.
In her Preface to her translation: Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides
(2006), Anne Carson makes the comment: “The actor, by reiterating you,
sacrifices a moment of his own life in order to give you a story of yours.” At
one of the school festivals in Peace River that I attended as adjudicator, I
was watching a Grade II class action song in which beautiful children
performed in unison all manner of things that can be done with ball and bat,
all of which required two hands.
Suddenly I realized that I was watching something that had all the elements of a
classical Greek comedy. In those days when money was in short supply, parents
often bought clothes that their child ‘would grow into’. Here, set against a chorus
of serene perfection, was a small boy wearing pants at least two sizes too big. He
tried to perform each action perfectly, but for each action gravity took over and he
was forced to make awkward, sometimes spectacular, one-handed catches and
‘bats’. He was serious, determined. The chorus ignored his plight.
Afterward, I realized that I had, while convulsed with silent laughter,
witnessed a portrayal of the struggle of my own ‘life in art’, Reality vs. Art.
The reality of the constraints of my work, long distances, terrible weather,
lack of help, interest or encouragement, the indifference of the university
vs. my determination to achieve the impossible, I saw mirrored in that small
boy’s struggle with gravity. I thank him for unintentionally sacrificing a
moment of his life for me. The memory of him moved me to laughter many
times and enabled me to pause and see my work in relation to the whole of
what I was trying to accomplish.
I am not sure that Horst Schmidt’s views would have been so well received in
the 1970s had it not been for the many individuals who, by their efforts and
accomplishments, helped to change the attitude of many politicians who
regarded the arts a ‘frills’ or as morally suspect. It bears repeating: the
rural vote still outweighs the urban vote.
The abrupt changes that came with Alberta’s wealth have created a new kind
of society. One writer has proclaimed that the Internet is the ‘new
community’. If so, what happens to live theatre? What happens to the ‘vital
moments’, as ‘audiences’ sit in isolation, individually, watching a small screen or if they can afford it, an ever larger screen? Will it be more than Anne
Carson’s discovery when she tried to Google ‘revenge’ on her computer: “…and
finally you will meet Revenge Unlimited, an empty black screen that says simply:
‘New site and new shopping cart coming soon’?”

76
If you are still with me, thank you for sacrificing so much of your time!
Again, I commend you both for completing what must have seemed a
thankless job. It is, I assure you, a welcome tribute to people who deserve
both recognition and thanks. And so do you.
Yours sincerely,
Esther Nelson
cc Shari Wattling Editor, Theatre 100 ; Lois McLean

Another Banff moment! August 1949 – this is where Elof, Thea and
Marie stayed when Mel took them all to Banff for a holiday. The
house is no doubt still there today.

77

Enroute 1949

Thea and Marie

78

A History of Drama in Alberta -

The contribution of the Department of
Extension University of Alberta

When Dr. Henry Tory became the first President of the University of
Alberta in 1908 he had a definite idea of how a university should serve its
constituency. He believed that the institution should make itself felt in a
personal ways in and through the lives of the people. Therefore, he and his
colleagues tried to go out among the people in the rural communities in
Alberta.
They lectured to audiences of farmers and businessmen in villages and
towns, and in country halls and schools. They talked of history, literature,
philosophy, fine arts and the civilizations of the past. The often sat into
the night in lonely farm houses exchanging ideas with farmers who were
formerly engineers, artisans and teachers from the old world, people who
had come to civilize the West. They believed they had something the
people wanted and that the people had something to offer them.

The Department of Extension Created in 1912
It was only natural then, that Dr. Tory should establish an Extension
Department within the University to extend that institution into the
community. The formal organization of the University of Alberta
Department of Extension took place in 1912, the first of its kind in Canada.
Its purpose was two-fold. Firstly, to make available to the farmers of the
Province research results in agricultural sciences that had a direct bearing

79
on the work of farming, although most agricultural instruction in soils,
marketing, and livestock were provided by a vigorous Provincial Department
of Agriculture. Secondly, to foster public interest and good will generally
toward the University, reaching in its educational work the people of the
Province at large. These educators wanted to bring to the remote places
of the Province whatever cultural and entertainment values the University
could offer to encourage community solidarity, strengthen morale, and
awaken the civic conscience to better home and school conditions.
AE Ottewell, at the age of thirty had just graduated from the first
graduating class of the University of Alberta. He was headed towards the
Ministry but Dr. Tory, with his keen eye for men of quality, had another
idea about Ottewell’s future. Thus in 1917 he chose Ottewell as secretary
of the newly established Department of Extension.
Ottewell was a man of progressive spirit and experimental mind, and
whatever reputation the Department of Extension achieved as a first-class
educational institution of its kind was largely due to his vision, initiative
and boundless energy. By 1920, when he progressed to be Director of the
Department of Extension, there were close to three hundred libraries,
fifteen thousand volumes on an open-shelf library circulated by mail, a
package library system of materials for use by debating and discussion
clubs, a visual instructions service with one hundred lantern slides, and a
moving picture library with over one hundred films. Short courses were
provided, correspondence courses in economics established and lecture
courses arranged.

The Department of Extension reached out to Young Farmers
Early in the history of the Department of Extension, Ottewell organized
“Farm Young Peoples Week”. Every year, about the first week of June,
two hundred young farm people from the Province became guests of the
University of Alberta. It was really a school for training in community
leadership and many present leaders of farm movements in Alberta got
their first training in public life at that ‘school’.

80
As early as 1925 realizing that radio could be a powerful medium in man’s
education, Ottewell persuaded the Provincial Government to provide funds
for a radio station (CKUA) which was responsible for a great deal of
experimental work in radio education. In musical interpretation, drama,
the teaching of French and in the use of the radio to serve the everyday
needs of the farm people, CKUA was the pioneer in Canada.
1920 saw the addition of Donald Ewing Cameron as Assistant Director of
the Department of Extension. In 1921 he became librarian of the
University. Also in 1920 Dr. Tory left Alberta and Dr.RC Wallace became
President.
Ned Corbett joined the Department of Extension in 1928 when Ottewell
left the Department to become Registrar of the University. Although the
Department he joined was well organized he was largely instrumental in
expanding it. He added Donald Cameron to his staff in 1931 as a Lecturer
in Agriculture; this position later became known as Head of the
Agricultural Secretary’s Division.

Drama Added to Department of Extension in 1932:
Pioneering in the Haynes Years
In 1932 Dr. Wallace (Pres.) with a committee consisting of Corbett
(Director of Extension), Dr. Hardy (Classics) and Dr. John MacEachran
(Philosophy) drew up plans for a program in the Fine Arts and submitted it
to the Carnegie Corporation of NY. The Corporation granted $10,000 a
year for 3 years to the Department of Extension for the advancement of
the Fine Arts. The Division of Fine Arts was added to the Department of
Extension.
The committee decided that the best use could be achieved from the
money by training community leaders who could, in turn, train others.
In the field of drama the committee felt a special need and a special
opportunity existed. Corbett therefore appointed Elizabeth Sterling
Haynes as Instructor in Dramatics. She was to hold this position until
1938. Mrs. Haynes had a gift of rare enthusiasm and she could inspire

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people. In the middle of those Depression years, this combination of
talents was essential. A graduate of the University of Toronto, ES Haynes
had a thorough training in theatrical work under the tutelage of Mr. Roy
Mitchell at Hart House Toronto. She had several years experience with
Chautauqua work and had latterly been employed in a professional capacity
by the Edmonton Little Theatre as Director and Producer.
In her work with the University Extension Department Haynes traveled an
incredible number of miles, adjudicating, giving lectures and courses,
assisting groups of local actors in productions, extending the ever-warm
helping hand, lighting or rekindling the spark of theatre in many a lonely
and discouraged heart.
In 1932 she assisted 23 communities in putting on amateur productions.
She handled the organization of a Chautauqua in the village of Ryley,
population 245. The program consisted of art exhibits, classical dancing,
lectures, concerts, an operetta and two plays directed by ES Haynes. A
play was produced at the Provincial Mental Institutes in which all of the
sets, costumes, and properties were made by the inmates. A playwriting
competition was also held. The Department of Extension Library now held
1500 plays; 250 dramatic groups were given advice on lighting, makeup,
costume, direction, play selection, organization and general information by
letter.

The Origins of The Banff School of Fine Arts in 1932
In the Province of Alberta at this time a group of people formed the Alberta Drama
League that sponsored Provincial festivals where theatre groups were encouraged to
present their plays in competition. After one of these festivals the adjudicators, Leonard
Brockington (Solicitor – Calgary), CJ Eliphicke (Mgr. Station CJCA – Edmonton), and EA
Corbett (Dir. Dept. of Extension) decided that Canada desperately needed a theatrical
training center. So the “ Experimental School in the Arts Related to the Theatre” was
formed in Banff, financed by a portion of the Carnegie Grant. From this humble beginning
has emerged today’s Banff School of Fine Arts.

In 1932 Ned Corbett and one of his assistants, Donald Cameron, traveled
to Banff and arranged to use the local schools and the Old Bretton Hall
Theatre. Students could find accommodation in town or pitch a tent at the
campgrounds for one dollar a week in the Banff National Park. With

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teaching and living accommodations established the University now agreed
to sponsor the school for four weeks during August of 1933 if forty
students registered in advance. A registration fee of $1.00 was levied.
This was to be the entire tuition charge for the course.
Banff 1933 - EA Corbett was appointed Director of the Banff

School, Elizabeth Haynes and Theodore Cohen shared responsibility
for the implementation of the program. Imagine the pleasant
surprise of the community when not forty but over 200 students
enrolled. The majority were rural schoolteachers. For the next
four weeks they studied the elements of Stage Production,
Theatrical History, Dramatic Literature, Directing, Pantomime,
Educational Dramatics and Acting, with great enthusiasm. Of the 17
one-act plays put into rehearsal, one play – Mary Caroline Davis’ The
Slave with Two Faces - was performed before the Institute of
Pacific Relations that was meeting in Banff at this time. The school
exerted a powerful influence on community culture and it was
decided to try it again in August 1934.
In 1933-34, in the field of drama, remarkable results were achieved by
Mrs. Haynes under the Direction of Ned Corbett and financed by the
Carnegie Grant. With her leadership 40 towns and rural centers were
assisted in the production of plays. Three local Chautauqua, of 3 to 4 days
duration, were organized and successfully produced. At each of these a
central meeting place was decided upon and the neighbouring communities
produced plays for the benefit of all, the whole program being in the
nature of a musical and dramatic festival.

Banff 1934- Donald Cameron was actively engaged with Corbett in
the work of organizing the second “School in the Arts Related to the
Theatre” and 1934 served as Registrar. He spent much time during
the winter promoting the school and handled the formal
administration. 1934 again saw a “School of the Arts Related to the
Theatre”. This summer it ran for one month and registration was
$5.00.

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Arrangements were made to obtain the services of Roy Mitchell of
the State University, Dept. of Drama, New York City. Mr. and
Mrs. Jocelyn Taylor and Wallace House of the same institution
were also hired to assist Haynes and Cohen. That year the school
offered courses in Acting, Directing, Choral Speech, Make-up,
Costume, Stage Craft, Eurythmics and Folksong. Maxwell Anderson’s
Mary of Scotland and Dunsamy’s Gods of the Mountain were
produced in the Bretton Hall Theatre before large and appreciative
audiences.
The enrollment for 1934 consisted of 151 adults and 32 children.
These adults served as local leaders and co-operated with the Dept
of Extension by going back to work in their local communities
throughout the balance of the year and for many years after. The
students in 1934 came from many points in Alberta and from 25
centers outside Alberta. The school was already having far-reaching
effects upon the community.
In 1935 Haynes’ work became more comprehensive, dealing with stimulating
creative interests in both individuals and communities. Her position
involved community work, work in primary and secondary schools, radio
instruction, advice in the form of bulletins and letters, and the work for
the “Summer School in the Arts Related to the Theatre”. Individuals were
reached through drama schools and communities and through 12
Chautauqua.

Drama added to Experimental School Curriculum in 1935
As an experiment, teachers - at the request of the Taber School Board began instructing dramatics. The experiment enlivened the interest of
both pupils and teachers. Because of this growing interest in dramatics, it
was decided to include the course in the new secondary school curriculum;
Haynes submitted an outline for this proposed course to the Department
of Education.
Meanwhile, in 1935 Donald Cameron became Assistant Director in the Dept
of Extension and the administration of the Banff School became his full

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responsibility. The Carnegie Grant was discontinued from 31 Aug 1935 to 1
Jan 1936 while the corporation assessed the value of committing more
money to the Department.
Banff 1935 - The third Summer School continued to prosper in
1935, even without the Carnegie money. The tuition was set at
$10.00. Haynes and Cohen were assisted by Professor Wood of the
University of BC, Mike Almena Yeomans of the Brandon Normal
School and Mrs. Elsie Park Gowan of Edmonton. Classes were held
in Acting, Directing, Stagecraft, Lighting, Costume, Choric Speech,
Eurythmics and Playwriting.
Ninety adults and 45 children enrolled that year. The popularity of
the school had, by this time, grown by leaps and bounds.
Representatives were present from 25 different communities in
Alberta, 11 from Saskatchewan, 8 from BC, 3 from Ontario, 2 from
Quebec and one each from Missouri, New York and Australia.
Because of the positive accomplishments of the Department of Extension
the Carnegie Grant was extended for another two years, with the
recommendation that the University make provision for assuming full
financial responsibility at the end of that time. With the renewal of the
grant in 1936 it was felt that the time had come to introduce a greater
centralization in the dramatic instruction afforded by this Department.
The first three years had been spent in fostering an interest in community
theatre by practical assistance, in discovering and administering the needs
of different localities and in awakening the people of the province to a
realization of the important contribution Drama can make to community
life. At the end of three years this had been achieved.
A certain homogeneity of knowledge and ambition could be seen in the
many dramatic groups with which the Department had contact. It was felt
that centralized instruction would have the advantage of reaching more
people, of addressing a more diverse range of dramatic problems with farreaching benefits and of providing the stimulus that planned instruction
and discussion can give to a group of people drawn together by a common

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interest. The resultant economy of time and money would make it possible
to do more progressive work than previously.

Establishment of the Dramatic Schools
The plan for centralization was realized in the organization of several
intensive dramatic schools of three days or one-week duration and held in
towns where some form of theatrical enterprise had become an integral
part of the community life. These Dramatic Schools were run successfully
by Elizabeth Haynes and Teddy Cohen. Haynes’ expenses were paid by the
Department of Extension while the communities paid Teddy. It was felt
that a school of this kind, in a town where interest was keen, was one of
the most successful projects yet undertaken.
Haynes still continued community work, assisting in forty adult plays, giving
19 lectures, adjudicating and making visits to schools. The schoolwork was
largely experimental and was designed to further the purpose of the new
curriculum that included dramatics as a part of the course of study.
Also in 1936 EA Corbett was asked if he would become Director of the
Canadian Association for Adult Education. Donald Cameron became Acting
Director of Extension and Acting Director of the Banff School.
The Department of Extension decided to broaden the fourth “Banff

School in the Arts Related to the Theatre into a School of Fine Arts”.
Accordingly intensive programs in music and art were added to the
curriculum.
Banff 1936 - The theatre division of the 1936 school was again
headed by Elizabeth Haynes and Teddy Cohen, assisted by
Alexander Koiranski and Professor F. Smith. Koiranski had, at one
time, been a co-worker with Stanislavski in the Moscow Art Theatre,
and in 1936 was Director at the Cornish School in Seattle.
Professor Smith, at that time, was a member of the Department of
Speech at the University of Washington. The 1936 registration was
120 adults and 60 children.

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In 1937 EA Corbett, Director of the Department since 1928, resigned to
become Director of the Canadian Association for Adult Education and
Donald Cameron remained Acting Director of the Department of Extension.
The Carnegie Corporation Grant terminated at the end of August 1937.
This meant a curtailment in the work of the Fine Arts Division and a change
in staff. As the Carnegie monies were exhausted, Elizabeth Haynes could
not be retained and so she left to accept a position with the Department
of Education in the Province of New Brunswick.

Change in Role of Extension Specialist in Drama
In September 1937 Ronald Elwy Mitchell succeeded Haynes as Extension
Specialist in Drama. He was a Shakespearian lecturer in the Department
of English halftime and worked with the Department of Extension halftime. Mitchell’s main problem from September 1937 to April 1938 was
adapting the amount of work possible to the limitation of a part-time
office. He performed the same work as Haynes but to a lesser extent as
he was only able to devote 2 ½ days a week to Extension.
Banff 1937 - Banff’s 5th season in 1937 went well, with the Drama
Division still being run by Elizabeth Haynes and the school still under
the direction of Donald Cameron.
In 1937 Dr. Fredrick Koch, head of the Department of Dramatic Art,
University of North Carolina, was hired to instruct playwriting. He
possessed the rare quality of being able to inspire confidence in the
individual. He instructed Gwen Pharis who went on to further her studies
at the University of North Carolina. Other authors influenced by Koch
were Elsie Park Gowan and John MacEachran. (Elsie Park Gowan had reservations
about the ‘backward looking’ direction encouraged by Koch… she preferred to write about current
social problems…)

In 1938-9 the Drama Division in the Dept. of Extension still suffered
because Mitchell was still only a part-time employee. The field work was
mainly adjudication. Mitchell also lectured twice weekly in the Department
of Education on Dramatics and directed on campus.

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Banff 1938 - During the 6th session of the Banff School of Fine
Arts (1938) enrolments increased, especially since credits were
being accepted by Departments of Education and universities across
Canada.

The War Years: 1945-1949 Gwen Pharis, Sydney Risk,
Helen Stewart – Maintaining the Momentum during Difficult
Times
In 1939 Mitchell resigned as Drama Specialist with the Department of
Extension to accept a position at the University of Wisconsin and in
October Gwen Pharis, who had just completed two years of post-graduate
work for her MA in dramatics at the University of North Carolina, was
appointed as Dramatic Supervisor on a full-time basis. She was there for
1939-40. Work still continued in adjudicating and correspondence and
Pharis gave daily classes for 12 days at Olds School of Community Life.
A large part of Extension work in the year of 1939-40 was done with
inexperienced groups having no previous training. Much of the activity of
experienced groups seems to have ceased, probably because of the War
and the accompanying decision to postpone the Provincial Drama Festivals.
The most successful event was a four-day intensive School of Drama at
Cardston with 10 communities represented. Also new were Youth Training
Schools and 11 half-hour broadcasts of high school-written plays read and
discussed by students. The programs were sponsored by CKUA with the
assistance of Dick MacDonald. Much of the combined effort of
MacDonald and Pharis was performed over the educational network CKUA
under the title “So You Want to be an Actor”.
In the year 1940-41 Gwen Pharis (now Ringwood) remained as Drama
Specialist in Extension until December 1941. In January Sydney Risk was
appointed as Assistant in Dramatics on a sessional basis. He was a
Vancouver boy who had spent some years in England around the London
stage. He carried on Pharis-Ringwood’s work, holding a three-day Drama
School in Barrhead. He also adjudicated school and community festivals
and offered a course in Acting every second Tuesday, under the auspices
of the Edmonton Little Theatre.

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Banff 1940 and 1941 - The 8th session of the Banff School of Fine
Arts in 1940 was held under the direction of the Department of
Extension in co-operation with the Institute of Technology and Art,
Calgary. The 9th session in 1941 had no changes in personnel or
activities. The war went on and students were scarce.

In 1942-43 Miss Helen Stewart joined the staff as Supervisor of
Dramatics, Department of Extension, to substitute during the absence of
Sydney Risk. He was pursuing post-graduate work in Drama at Cornell
University on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Most of the
supervisor’s work was directed toward the high schools, as community
drama groups had not carried on their usual schedule of plays because of
the lack of young people, especially the lack of men. There was a loss of
directors and key people in organizations, accompanied by a lack of time
and ongoing transportation difficulties. This made Stewart’s job difficult.
The Department tried to keep the community groups organized so at the
end of the war they would be able to revive their former activities and
meet the needs of the reconstruction period. Therefore, questionnaires
were sent to the groups and a file compiled from the replies that indicated
the extent of the group’s activity, its leaders and its staging facilities. A
monthly publication, Stage Door, was circulated announcing drama news in
the Province. It maintained contact with the drama groups during those
times.

Banff 1942 - During the 10th session of the Banff School in 1942
the War affected the drama section more than any other division in
the school. This was because of the enlistment of a large number of
teachers in the Armed and Associated Services.
Back at the Extension Department, Helen Stewart left in June 1943 and in

July Sydney Risk resumed his duties as Drama Supervisor with the
Department of Extension. Again the main emphasis was on assisting
dramatics teachers, but requests for assistance also came in from the
Armed Forces and correspondence doubled. That year sixty people had
personal interviews for advice and nine regular issues of Stage Door were
published.

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Banff 1943 and 1944 - The 11th Banff School (1943) was held with
an increase of 16 registrants, 204 total. In the 4th year of war this
was a good demonstration of the solid roots the school had
established in Canadian life. In 1944 there were no changes in the
12th Banff School.
An added service in the Department of Extension, in the year 1945-46, was
an arrangement whereby the Drama Supervisor acted as Faculty Advisor to
the University of Alberta Drama Society. With the war over the
communities made greater demands while the schools continued their
ongoing demands. The Department of Fine Arts at U of A offered degree
programmes in drama and the concept of professional careers in theatre
began to take hold.

Banff 1945 - During the 13th Banff School of Fine Arts, 1945,
registration was limited because accommodation was scarce.
However, this year marked the beginning of what would ultimately be
a large-scale permanent development of the Banff School:
assistance was secured through private funds.

Sydney Risk resigned at the end of September 1946 as Drama Supervisor
in the Department of Extension to go into private work. He was to found
the Repertory Company “Everyman”, and the Department of Extension
could not find a suitable replacement. So Mr. Robert Orchard, Assistant
Professor of Drama in the Department of Fine Arts at U of A made a few
Extension trips to provide advice and to do some festival adjudication.
Elsie Park Gowan assisted the Department with Stage Door.
Banff 1946 - The 14th Banff School was lengthened to 5½ weeks,
from the previous 4½, in 1946. In 1947-48, Rae Whitehouse became
Supervisor for Drama in the Dept. of Extension. He was from the
Department of Fine Arts. A Saskatchewan boy who grew up in BC,
he received his training from the University of Washington. He was
assisted by Bob Orchard. Whitehouse acted as Editor for Stage
Door, in association with Elsie Park Gowan.

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Banff 1947 - The 15th Banff School in 1947 represented a sizable
administrative task due to the increase in involvement and lack of
facilities.
In 1948-49 Rae Whitehouse resigned as Supervisor of the Drama
Department of Extension to work for the CBC. He was replaced by Robert
Stuart, who was also with the Department of fine Arts and who acted as
Extension Specialist in Drama. Stuart had adjudicated the Dominion
Drama Festival that was held in Alberta that year. He spent little time in
the field of community drama because of his course work on the campus.
Banff 1948 - During the 16th session of the Banff School of Fine
Arts, 1948, Mrs. JH Woods of Calgary made a gift of $125,000 to
the Banff School to be used for the purpose of erecting two
permanent chalets. This helped solve some of the facilities
problems.

A Re-emphasis on Drama Outreach:
1949-62 The Esther Nelson Years
In the 1949-50 year Esther Nelson was added as Extension Specialist in
Drama. Nelson held this position until it was no longer required in 1962.
Her primary task was to initiate new programs since the War Years had
been quite an inactive period with little drama activity in the Province
except the occasional high school drama festival. Her main job was to
revive the Dominion Drama Festival. This was an annual festival composed
of entries from all provinces across Canada. To this end, she worked with
Dick McDonald, who was the representative of the Cultural Activities
(Development) Branch that the Alberta Government formed in 1946.
This was the most active year since the War. Extension combined forces
with the Cultural Activities Branch of the Department of Economic Affairs
and the Alberta Drama Board in arranging a tour of 30 Alberta centers by
a group of university students known as ‘The Provincial Players’. This
organization had been inaugurated by Sydney Risk.

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Esther Nelson continued with school and community work, adjudicating
festivals and holding drama workshops. The highlight of 1950 was a tour
of the Provincial Players that performed in 31 centers. Sponsored by the
Department of Economic Affairs and the Alberta Drama Board, the tour
was arranged and organized by the Department of Extension.
Miss Nelson was also active with the Alberta Drama League as
corresponding secretary and was involved in the Alberta Regional Festival
and the Provincial One-Act Festival - two main projects of the Alberta
Regional Festival. She also sat on an appointed board called the Cultural
Activities Board, which attempted to interest the government in granting
money to the Extension Programs and Fine Arts in general.
When Dick McDonald left to work full time with the Dominion Drama
Festival he was replaced by Blake MacKenzie who also worked with the
Board to obtain funds. MacKenzie was so successful that he managed to
create three new governments positions in drama, music and crafts.
It is interesting to note that the University foresaw the necessity for
these positions several years before, but for undisclosed reasons the
institute decided to postpone further differentiation. Perhaps it was
logical for the government to initiate programs; traditionally the Extension
Department pioneered and tested activities that the government then took
over. The government eventually disposed of the appointed board and
when Esther Nelson resigned in 1962 her position was dissolved.
Banff 1950 and 1951 - During the 18th session of the Banff School
of Fine Arts in 1950 Banff facilities began to be used for
conventions and short courses. In 1951, the 19th Banff School was
given the Henry Marshall Tory award as the institution that made
the most outstanding contribution to adult education in Canada in
the academic year 1950-51.

In 1956 a major reorganization of the Department of Extension took
place. The Banff School became and independent body with a campus
of its own. Donald Cameron continued as Director and Duncan Campbell
succeeded to the position of Director of the Department of Extension.

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Esther Nelson resigned as Drama Supervisor for the Department of
Extension in 1962. She felt that she was performing all she could and
needed more personnel. Duncan Campbell seemed reluctant to add more
Drama personnel to the Department of Extension. Esther saw there was
no hope of advancing the drama area beyond the point where she had
brought it to date, therefore she resigned.

Conclusion
In retrospect the Department of Extension could be divided into four main
periods. The Haynes years were the pioneering days, then the War Years
with Sydney Risk saw the Department at a virtual standstill. From 1945 to
1949 a new emphasis evolved with the formation of the Department of Fine
Arts. Courses were taught at the University during 1945 on a scale that
hadn’t been possible before. As a result a kind of trust emerged in
professional theatre because many of the students who came for a
Bachelor of Arts in Drama were hoping for a career in theatre.
The final period would be the Esther Nelson Years from 1949 to 1962.
These years brought the Department of Extension full circle as Nelson’s
main thrust was ‘in the field’. At the end of her 13 years it is important to
note that the rural areas had changed drastically and the need for an
Extension person in drama was no longer the same. Alberta Culture
gradually put more and more money into its programme and the Director of
the Department of Extension and Duncan Campbell seemed reluctant to
build up the Extension Department with more drama personnel. Thus
Esther Nelson’s job was at a standstill.
It should also be noted that in any Institution of Drama both
administrators and creative personnel are needed. The Banff School of
Fine Arts was founded by Ned Corbett as administrator and Elizabeth
Haynes as teacher-creator. Donald Cameron, following Ned Corbett,
became the builder of the new Banff School.
It is hoped that the information in this presentation will be of assistance
to those wishing documentation of the History of Drama in Education in
Alberta. Certainly the impetus for Drama Education originates with the

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University of Alberta Department of Extension. In just 70 years that
first creative impulse has expanded to include drama education programs in
two other universities within the government and resulted in the creation
of what we know as the Banff School of Fine Arts today. In a very short
span of time Alberta has emerged as a leader in Drama Education
programs.
The chronology of this history highlights all the change and the many
revisions to Drama education that have transpired. Many of these have
been beneficial: however, change can often be an indication of the
positioning of the political and public sectors. In this respect there would
seem to be a growing awareness of the performing arts in general in
Alberta.
Experimentation, and the changes which must inevitably accompany it,
could be viewed as the reflection of ‘awareness’ in our community.
Hopefully Alberta will continue its forward thinking and her Drama
Education will continue to reflect that progressiveness.

Compiled by Esther Nelson 2005
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Banff School of Fine Arts

Perspective in 2010

The BSFA is now the Banff Centre. It is now a place for professionals to
come to create, experiment and improve their work. The idea of a school
to train new leadership for amateur theatre is no longer its mandate.
Acceptance of the urban model of professional theatre is the norm.
Amateurs are no longer important. But if we have another deep depression
where do they go? As a senior, even if I had my hearing I could not afford
to go to the professional theatre. Irene Pratheroe who was director of
Theatre Calgary, the first professional company in Calgary, admitted she
was in the same boat.
As Drama Specialist I did my best to develop new directors, leaders who
would commit themselves to developing theatres for their communities. I

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enabled them to return to Banff year after year to become more confident
in their craft and to contribute to the level of work at the school. One
example was Alex Burton who returned to Banff several summers to
strengthen the casts of plays. Alex played in two of my productions after
he graduated from the school. He also came to play in Bette’s production
as well as become a reliable member of her Theatre for children. He later
moved to the States but continued to be active in theatre.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Banff summer 1945? Blanche, friend of Faith, Faith and Bernice with Larry Bernice sobbed with relief when the Banff church bells rang that the war was
over and Hank would be coming home from his service ‘overseas’.

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NORMAL SCHOOL – Preparing Alberta Teachers
This article from the Alberta Teachers’ Association News 2011 was written
about the Calgary school, but it describes what was true in Camrose too.
Also look up: “Just a Teacher” Who Made a Difference: The story of
Donalda Dickie One of the remarkable people who made Alberta Normal
Schools work – including Camrose.
See: “The Way it Was: Vignettes from My One-Room Schools” by Edith
Van Kleek

Gordon Campbell
The term normal school was derived from teacher training schools in
France called école normale, and in Austria, normalschule were designed
to inculcate the norms, models or standards of the culture. The
translation of normal school also refers to such schools in the People’s
Republic of China. When the Calgary Normal School was established in
1905, the public school standards to be inculcated were presumably
British. In the multi-ethnic Canada of today, the designation normal
school is archaic.
The Calgary Normal School 1940/41 class was caught between two
devastating world events. The first event—the Great Depression—
preceded the class and continued to devastate society up to the outbreak
of the Second World War. The provincial election of 1935 saw “Bible Bill”
Aberhart, a high school principal and evangelist, elected premier along
with his innovative platform of Social Credit. The theme song of the
movement, “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” was a timely message. The
second event—World War II—shrouded everything, including teacher
training, in uncertainty, perhaps calamity. Who could know?
Prior to the discovery of Leduc No. 1 oil well in 1947, Alberta was one of
Canada’s poorest provinces. “Normalites” of 1940/41, of course, shared
in that poverty. Family funds for professional training were as scarce as
hens’ teeth. In our family of four boys, my parents could afford only for
one boy to have one year of post–high school training. My oldest brother

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defied the probabilities and elected to go to university. With summer
work, he saved enough money to continue at university as well as
provide tuition for me to attend normal school. Most students were in
similar distressed circumstances. There were no residences. Lodging
was found in boarding or rooming houses. Many students lived on $25–
40 a month sent from home to cover food, rent, streetcar and bus fare,
and extras. Two male students had somehow scraped together enough
money to pay their tuition ($100) but had little left for survival. They were
regularly evicted from their lodgings and often ate in soup kitchens. One
of those two students, however, eventually became a heart specialist in
the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine. Most students coped well
enough and loved the excitement of change. For them, normal school
was a transforming experience of great importance in their lives.
Most normalites came from towns, villages and farms. There were only
38 men in a total enrolment of 186 students: six classes of women, one
of men. For most of these men, joining the military was only a matter of
time. The departure of men for the armed services made available betterpaying jobs for women in defence industries. As a result, there was a
smaller pool from which to choose normal school students. None had any
university education—education beyond Grade 12 was a privilege
attained by a few. What some students may have lacked in intellectual
sophistication, they compensated for in dedication and sincerity—the salt
of the earth. However, principal W. H. Swift was not impressed with the
cultural background of the students. He complained of having “but a
single student” from a professional home. Many were from families of low
socio-economic status. In trying to decide who would make good
teachers, however, preliminary tests were shown to be practically, if not
entirely, useless.
Today’s four-year education degree, designed for computer-literate
teachers, can scarcely be compared to a normal school diploma. Today’s
technology—TV, cell phones, computers and satellites—now universal,
was, in 1940, the stuff of science fiction. Children were read fairy stories
to deal with everyday practicalities of K–12 classroom teaching and
school management. Later, the need for teachers was so desperate that
teachers were trained in six weeks. My first classroom assignment was
Grade 1. One youngster became visibly excited by the presence of a new

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(male) teacher, judging by the puddle under the student’s desk. (I turned
lobster red with embarrassment.) The regular teacher watching from the
back of the room pointed diplomatically to the dustbin and broom as a
way to tidy things up. In my second school, I taught five grades in one
classroom. Fortunately, the local school board evaluated me not on the
basis of my teaching performance but on the quality of the Christmas
concert.
The curriculum of the normal school appealed to students who knew
about a work ethic, whose agricultural background taught them how to
survive and cope—they were practical folk. Complementing methods
classes in English, math, music, science and art were extracurricular
student-managed activities that enhanced competencies and helped
provide a social life. With a $70 allotment, for example, the student chair
of athletics successfully operated two basketball teams, a hockey team
and a boxing club using the facilities of city high schools. There were folk
dance groups, a choral society, drama groups, an international affairs
club and tumbling clubs. Christian Fellowship and Catholic and Mormon
groups for students were represented. Special events included Sadie
Hawkins and Hard Times dances, swimming and skating parties. In the
absence of a campus, the collegiality of these activities in wartime built
an esprit de corps and also enriched the professional preparation for the
life of the new teacher.
Normal school graduates could not expect to sail into comfortable city
jobs. For example, of all the students from Lethbridge, only one was that
lucky. The remaining graduates were posted to the country or small
towns. A typical rural destination might be River Junction School near
Lethbridge: one room with a large coal-fired stove at the back for heat.
Behind the school were boys’ and girls’ outhouses. Nearby was an
outdoor pump or a cistern for water and a barn for the horses that
brought students to school. Buses were often farm-built affairs—large
boxes on a farm truck chassis. A high-grade gravel road was rare. Some
teachers found room and board with nearby farm families. Others were
provided with rather primitive teacherages on the school grounds. The
Whoop Up Ladies Club annually prepared a Christmas turkey dinner
served prior to the school Christmas concert. To accommodate the
performance, desks were stacked against the wall. The warmth and

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support extended to the teacher by the community more than made up
for the often stringent circumstances.
Learning advantages currently realized in modern multi-age classrooms
may have had their genesis in the one-room schoolhouses of days past.
The normal school graduate teacher seldom questioned (and perhaps
never fully appreciated) the rich benefits of having children of various
ages in the same room. But benefits there were! Children in lower grades
were greatly enriched by exposure to the lessons meant for more
advanced students. Similarly, older students who may not have fully
mastered the concepts and skills of earlier grades had an unobtrusive but
effective way to have their earlier deficiencies removed and skills
sharpened while listening in on the lessons intended for the younger
students.
Little did normal school graduates know that the learning methods they
used in the multi-graded classrooms were the forerunners to today’s
pedagogical techniques: cooperative learning (students working in
groups, helping each other, learning together); peer-tutoring (older
children assisting the younger to master the intricacies of reading and the
magic of arithmetic, and child-centred learning activities (helping children
learn) rather than teacher-centred lectures.
The war turned the traditional normal school into a makeshift state of
affairs. The commodious quarters of the normal school on Calgary’s
North Hill were requisitioned for use in the “war effort of the Dominion.”
Temporary facilities were found in the old King Edward School. Deputy
Minister of Education H. C. Newland said to incoming students: “Though
the removal of your school to new quarters will undoubtedly impose
certain hardships with respect to training, it should at the same time
serve to remind you of the terrific importance of our struggle against the
evil thing that is called ‘fascism.’” In addition, there was a change in
leadership; after a 30-year career as the first principal, E. W. Coffin
retired. He was succeeded by an inspector of schools, W. H. Swift.
Swift’s immediate task was to reorganize a reduced staff for a less
extensive service in a severely restricted facility.
The metamorphosis from a 10-month normal school to a four-year faculty
of education university degree not only reflects the complexity of current
life; it shows how profoundly education in its many dimensions has grown

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with Canada. Tens of thousands of citizens have been nurtured by the
province’s normal schools and universities. The dynamism and prosperity
of the province are illustrative of how well these two institutions have
done their work. In 1949, one student, during her normal school
valedictory address, spoke about her experience in these terms: “We
have found more than friends, we have found ideas. We have found
values both new and old and we have found a new happiness.”
Author’s Notes
I am indebted to Professor Robert Stamp for his recent and excellent study of teacher
education in Calgary—Becoming a Teacher in 20th Century Calgary (Detselig Enterprises,
2004). I am also indebted to Earle Warnica, educational consultant, now in Oman, for his
insights.
A more detailed account of teacher education in Alberta can be found in the 55th Annual
Report of the Department of Education of the Province of Alberta, 1940 (King’s Printer, 1941).

The Lewis Gang
- Ponoka, 27 June 1941
(Esther shared Mrs. Lewis’ Rooming House with these friends)
(L-R) Arlene Truman, Marie Lamie, Irene Falkinburg, Pat
Stewart, Marie Stewart, Jean Dick
(on knees) Lorraine Kroening, Wilda Caswell, Esther
End of the first year at Ponoka High School and one year
to go before Esther entered NORMAL SCHOOL!

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Esther’s response to Ralph Kline’s Health
Reform Proposal - 2006

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Retirement

The ‘Monday Group’ skated Monday mornings
at the Optimists’ Arena from 1987 to 2010.
Unhappily, 2011 saw the group accept that
there had to be a last skate one day…

The ‘Monday Group’ meet for lunch at the Skater’s Annual
Picnic 2011: Marjorie Kidd (founder), John Meehan, Lou
Broadbent (founder), Catherine Meehan (sunglasses)…

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After retirement in 1987 I joined a class in cross-country
skiing for seniors – two years. I’m in the front row wearing
a white sweater. I skied from 1987 to 2002

1981 Anthony Hill Reunion
L-R: Elsie Westman, Mary Kramer, Nellie Harris, Esther Nelson.
Missing is Vienna Mails. We five went from Grade One to Grade
Nine together at Anthony Hill.

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The Swedish Cousins

Around 1935: Nils-Pauli Persson, Alma Persson, and Arne Bjerhammar, on
the North Sea beaches of Bastad, Sweden – Elof’s sister and her two sons

My first contacts with Elof’s family in Sweden were when I was a child – I
could recognize Arne and Nils in their pictures, all carefully put away in
Elof’s black box on the top right-hand shelf of the large cupboard.

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Memories of Thea urging Elof to write to his sister (he usually owed her a
letter) are very clear. Finally Blanche started to write to Elof’s youngest
nephew, Arne, which helped fill out our knowledge of their lives, but they
were certainly different from our ‘Norwegian Cousins’ who lived just down
the road. Our Swedish Cousins were very far away.
Then in The Geophysical Year (1 July 1957 to 31 Dec 1958) Arne
was on a speaking tour of Canada and the US (a Wikipedia search of Arne
Bjerhammar reveals his academic credentials). This is the year the whole
Bjerhammar family came to visit at the Ed Nelson farm. Mel brought Pop
and Arne to Banff where I was teaching but I don’t remember anyone else
with them.
(I’ve seen photos taken by Mel of Arne and Carin at Banff with the Buffalo, so Carin must
have been along on that summer 1957 ? trip to Banff.) We also have photos of Mel with
Joan holding Eric in Banff – with Thea and Maria??. As Eric was born in March 1957, and
he was a babe in arms in the photo, this should be about August 1957?

Left: Mel & Joan and family visiting Esther at
Banff 1957 ?… Above: Thea and Maria with Joan
and Karen at Banff? (rustic doorway?) in 1956?
(Karen looks younger in coloured photo than in b/w
picture and Joan’s hair is different… )

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Lena, Agneta and Eva Bjerhammar visiting at the Nelson farm in the summer of 1957.
Linda and Eva in the left photo, with Ken holding our lazy horse Tony; Lena and
Agneta on Tony in the 2nd photo

Arne was not impressed with the Alberta universities – they had no
geodesy departments! I remember feeling somewhat foolish in that Arne
could speak English and I had not one word of Swedish. Mind you, Arne
often expressed displeasure at having to spend so much time on languages
rather than on science (which was the only thing that mattered!).
By 1957 Marilyn and I had decided we needed a break, both having spent
our summers for many years working long hours at Banff. I realized that
Thea was not well and would never realize her dream of seeing Norway
again. With this in mind Marilyn and I spent the year planning a trip to
Norway and Sweden, and as much of Europe and England and Scotland as
we could manage in five weeks. The visit to Norway especially would be for
Thea as well as for our own pleasure.

A First Trip to Scandinavia – July 1958
We set out in early July. In London we were met by my friend Lois McLean
who had been working in London for some time. We spent a few days there
and saw a little of London. Then Marilyn and I were off by boat to Paris
where we picked up our rental car, a Peugeot that gave us much trouble – it
turned out to be a need for new sparkplugs. Marilyn was a good driver and
preferred to be behind the wheel. This gave me the advantage of being a

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passenger. Mel had loaned me his old camera, so we were ready to ‘do’
Europe.
We drove through France to Denmark via Brussels, Antwerp, Hamburg. We
did the old Tivoli in Copenhagen. There, I remember a strange game of
football played on a large table, by mice. The ‘football’ was a very small
balloon. When I returned to Copenhagen in 1991 with Blanche and Don the
mice were gone – to whatever reward awaits mice who learn how to play
football with their noses.
At Copenhagen we put our difficult little French car on a boat (ferry) to
Oslo, then we drove north to Lillehammer. A great heritage park there
gives insight into what life was like for our Viking ancestors (one item I
particularly felt drawn to was the beds. These were short – not because
the old Norse were short but because in this ‘crib’ one slept in a sitting
position to enable a quick reaction to night-time invaders). That was well
worth the visit, and from there we drove to Vinstra where we stayed at
the Vinstra Hotel. In the hotel dining room the head waiter mistook us for
Americans and put an American flag on our table. When we explained we
were Canadian he rushed away and set up a Canadian flag. It turned out
that he had homesteaded in the Peace River area. Before war broke out
his mother became very ill. He returned to Norway and was caught – the
invasion made it impossible for him to return to Canada, so he lost his
homestead.
Thea had drawn the map you have seen (Thea made a line drawing of the area
around Baekkesletten for Esther’s first trip to Norway in 1957. See Book 2 – The Paulson
Story to see the map) of the area around Kvikne. When I showed the waiter

Thea’s map he was impressed. Everything was exact and correct except
for changes that had occurred after she left Norway 50 years before. It
was those changes, and the unchanged, that I wanted to show in my
photographs. If you look carefully at Thea’s map you’ll see numbers. Those
faint numbers on the map are a record of the pictures I took for Thea.
From Vinstra we turned off onto a rough road and came to the Kvikne
Church – the church that my mother and grandparents had attended while
the family lived at Baekkesletten. Later I found that most of our relatives

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from 1764 are recorded in this old church. How many more ages do our
line of ancestors extend back in this mountainous area of central Norway.
We drove the ½ mile further to the road leading up to Baekesletten. As
Marilyn was feeling unwell, I walked up the steep trail to the farm alone. I
cannot begin to describe my feelings on seeing the buildings for the first
time. A middle-aged man was working in the yard. I took as many pictures
as I could, but without Norwegian I hesitated to speak. As I turned to go
a woman came up the path: Magdelene Ungstad, whose relatives lived just
across the highway, had spent a year in Norway and was just coming up to
say her farewells. With her good English, we spoke about my visit and she
introduced me to the current owner. I was disappointed to not be invited
into the house, but I took more photos, then went back down to Marilyn.
We continued up ‘the Vinstra Road’ taking the numbered photographs as we
went so that my Mother could follow our progress along a road she had
travelled so often in her youth.
After our visit to Baekkesletten we went back toward Oslo and then drove
across country directly to Stockholm. We were met there by Carin and
Arne, and visited at their home. They were very gracious, warm and
hospitable, and showed us the university and other sights. I had met Carin
and Arne that one time before, when Mel brought them to Banff with Elof
while I was teaching there, but it was special to meet them in their own
world.
The children, Eva, Agnetta and Lena, were lively and interesting – Marilyn
was always good with kids - so we had a very pleasant time getting to know
them all. After a couple of days they took their car and joined us for a
visit to Baastad where Arne and Carin had a summer home. We visited with
Runa, Nils and their two girls, who still lived at Lykabo - the home Alma
(Elof’s sister) and her husband John had kept as a summer hotel for many
years, and which I had only ever seen in photographs.
When talking to Arne I discovered he had certain mannerisms that
reminded me of Mel. Nils reminded me of Ed, physically and in expression,
open, friendly and warm. He ran a radio shop and according to Arne was
given to experimental projects that did not always succeed. That reminded
me of the winter that Elof decided to build a generator for power starting

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with a windmill he made from scratch, mainly in the living room. The blades
were wooden. The parts were second hand. He never quite got it to work.
Perhaps the drive to make something new was inherited by Alma’s sons as
well as by Elof’s.

Esther, Arne and Carin
in Bastad Sweden

The high point of my time in Sweden was a visit to the Nilsson farm where
Elof had been born in 1882. Unfortunately the house had burned down a
few years before. The apple tree Elof planted when he was there still
lived. The house and yard were at the south west corner of the very flat
field – about 40 acres. Runa came with us. She grew up on a neighbouring
farm and knew a great deal about the local history and about the Nilsson
family. Again, we were shown the local highlights. Elof had provided me
with a map – much less complete than Thea’s - and I saw where he went to
school as well as visiting Grevie (a small village) and the church where Elof’s
mother and father were buried. Now, as the graveyard is full, the graves
have been replaced by others and head stones – theirs included – have been
moved to become part of the fence around the cemetary.
All in all it was a lovely and lively reunion and I remember it with great
pleasure. I particularly recall the children (Arne and Carin: Eva, Agnetta

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and Lena and Nils’ and Runa: Maria and Cecilia) were all about the same age.
They decided, so that we would have a taste of Swedish custom, that we
should dance around the Maypole. Good memories.
While in Stokholm Marilyn and I made a trip to Drottningholm, the summer
home of the King and Queen. I wanted to see the theatre, built in 1766
for royal entertainment. It had been unused for years, treated as a
storeroom. A few years before our visit the theatre in the palace had
been discovered and returned to its original state: an 18th century theatre,
complete with the scenery of the period and all of their methods of
producing technical effects . I had read about these ancient techniques
but this was my first chance to see them in action. Life is much easier
now. For me this visit was simply magical. An unforgettable experience.
With this, Arne had our car fixed with new spark plugs, we said our ‘good
byes’ and we went on our way through Germany, heading for Saltzburg.
There we visited the usual musical sites and saw an indoor production of
Everyman - because it was raining. Then on to Bonn and Lake Como. We
returned our car in Paris then, back to London where we rented another
car. Lois had arranged for me to join her in doing a commercial while
Marilyn took the car off on her own. By the time we were ready to leave
London she was proficient at driving on the left side of the road and off
we went to Stratford. They were doing Pericles, not Shakespear at his
best. I was rather disappointed in the acting. Lois went back to London
and we went on the visit Marilyn’s cousin’s widow (the cousin had been killed
in the war). Scotland was beautiful, green and damp. Our hostess later remarried and the two of them visited us in our Calgary house which we
bought in 1962.
The trip was a good test of whether we could get along. Marilyn was
always good company, cheerful and interesting. A long trip is a good test.
That fall (1958) I bought a small house in Edmonton which I sold in 1995.
After I gave up my ‘perks’ at UofA I realized that the house would be my
retirement package. Fortunately, the house finally sold for much more
than I paid for it.

Second Contact – in Columbus

The next visit I had with the
Swedish cousins was in the 80s. Arne and Carin were in Columbus Ohio at

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the University where Arne had been invited to explain some of his esoteric
theories (Google Arne Bjerhammar to see his Wikipedia description).
Again they tried their best to show their Canadian cousins a good time.
This was the first trip Blanche and I had taken together since 1945 when
we took an early departure from a convention and played hooky at Sylvan
Lake. (photo of E&B in row boat)

Back to Scandinavia 1991
In 1991 Marilyn Hoar persuaded Blanche and Don to take a Scandinavian
tour and they asked me to go too. I had always wanted to see North Cap
and realized I could be useful to Blanche and Don in the tour they had in
mind in that I had been to Norway before so could guide a little. I also by
this time had a couple of years of night courses in Norwegian and could
make some sense out of newspapers and signs.
On June 21st1 1991 I achieved my ambition and we were in North Cap - along
with heavy fog. Oh well. We went on to the next stop – and found were
were given a cabin for that night on a snow-covered mountainside. From
the porch we had a niew of open water. At midnight on June 22nd I got my
perfect picture of the midnight sun.

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The tour ended in Oslo. I don’t like being ‘organized’ by a tour but I found
it generally interesting. From there, on our own, we rented a car and drove
to Vinstra. We stayed at the Vinstra Hotel (now a little worn compared to
my first visit). A nice young woman worked there. It turned out that she
went to Kvikne Church. I had not seen the inside of the church on my first
visit. She arranged with the caretaker to come and let us in when we got
there. He did and I got my pictures.

Back to Oslo, where we took the train to Baastad, again we spent time with
Carin and Arne at their summer home. Eva and her two very bright boys
came for the day. On another day we had dinner with Runa and Maria and
her 2 children. I was sorry not to have seem Cecilia. We all, except for
the children, went to the Nilsson farm.
This time, as we visited with our cousins I was able to produce the
translation of Alma’s letters – Arne’s mother. With some emotion, Arne
produced all the letters that Elof had writte to Alma – all saved as he had
saved her letters. That winter he translated Elof’s letters and thus I was

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able to have a complete set (except for the some that Runa and Maria
translated later).

1991 Esther, Blanche and Don
Hoar visit with Arne and Carin
Bjerhammar
Above left: Solving a technical
problem, the Nelson way.
Above right: Carin and Blanche
sharing family photos.
Bottom right: Carin and Arne
with their son-in-law Berndt
(Eva), and Arne in front of one
of his old schools.
Left: Arne with Eva and her two
sons at Bastad

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While in the area of the Nilsson farm, Arne took Blanche, Don and Esther to see
the many Viking grave mounds of that district.

Back in Calgary I presented the full set of letters to a project at UofC
called ‘Legacies Shared” – an attempt to gather unpublished material in
Alberta that provided insight into the history of the Province. When I
contacted them about the letters they were happy to have them. The
project is now complete and the results obtained have been turned over to
the library – I knew of the first article that used the letters. A second
article which I have not read resulted after the letters were sent to the
archives.
You may or may not approve of my having the family’s letters included in
these historical projects. Arne’s background made his approval inevitable.
Also, I was well aware of Elof’s love of history. Runa had given me the book
that Elof bought with the first money he earned as a boy in Sweden. It
was a history book, and it was typical that this would be his choice for his
first purchase. In the end, it seemed that the family sense would probably
favour history.
So, I met my Swedish Cousins four times. After that it has been a
question of Christmas cards and letters – better than no contact, but not
quite the same as being together. All in all, I wanted to tell you how much

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richer I feel for having got to know the Swedish cousins. Runa and Carin
were especially helpful. I treasure Runa’s comment in her last letter: “I
wish you hold closer.”… and how wonderful of Carin to send me a detailed
picture of a family reunion , identifying each member of their family.

May 2008 Carin and Arne’s family

Left:
Runa and
Nils-Pauli

Right:
Arne and
Carin

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(Above) 1991 – L to R: Maria, Anna-Maria and
Runa (Nils’ daughter, granddaughter, and widow)
in front of Lyckebo. Runa lives on the top floor,
and Maria and her family live on the ground
floor.

(Right) 2010 – Maria with son, daughter and
husband

Lyckebo today, still Runa’s home

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Left: The grandchildren and Right: the children celebrate Runa’s 90th birthday

Maria, daughter of Runa and Nils-Pauli, has made a great effort to keep the
family contact open with our Swedish Cousins. She and Runa are now in the
process of translating a collection of letters from Alma to Elof, which were
found recently. The letters will not make any great revelations, but just to
‘hear these voices from the past’ is of great value to the family.

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Arne and
Carin’s family
on a sunny
beach…

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For more pictures and data see
Book 1: Elof’s Story

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