The Old Brewery Bay: A Leacockian Tale

By James A. "Pete" McGarvey

Here we have the personal account of the misadventures that preceded the opening to the public of the Leacock home in 1958. Forty years ago, in October 1954, a committee was formed, chaired by Pete McGarvey, to acquire and preserve Stephen Leacock's summer home, known as The Old Brewery Bay. Four years later a golden key opened the front door of the home, allowing Leacock fans to pay homage to the humorist in a setting he had prized above every other. As the years have passed, appreciation of Leacock's genius has grown and today the Leacock Museum is open year-round to visitors from all parts of the globe. The Old Brewery Bay is a Leacockian yarn full of ironies, the greatest one being that the salvation of Leacock's home was accomplished not by a national campaign involving governments, philanthropists, McGill alumni, and foundations (all of whom were approached in a spirit of urgency and all of whom backed away), but by a gang of naive and stubborn Orillians, using old-fashioned political moxie. Leacock would have loved that - his Mariposans showing the big sophisticated world how to get things done.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550022164
• ISBN13: 9781550022162
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A superb story about the rescue of a Canadian hero

Canada is a land without heroes but with some very remarkable citizens, as this book about saving the summer home of Canada's most distinguished humourist makes abundantly clear. One of those remarkable citizens is Pete McGarvey, who came to Orillia in 1947 as a 19-year-old high school graduate to work at a just established and definitely struggling tiny radio station located in cramped quarters above Loblaw's little grocery store. Ten years later McGarvey was honoured as Orillia's "Citizen of the Year" for his success in saving the Stephen Leacock Home and helping make it the town's most enduring and famous attraction. It's a book written in the kindly spirit of Leacock, who in 1912 portrayed many of the leading citizens of Orillia in 'Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town'. It's Canada's version of the hit musical "Carousel" without the dark elements. Not everyone in town was amused in 1912, or by the time McGarvey arrived on the scene; he and a dedicated few had a long uphill task to persuade town officials to recognize the national stature within their midst. By the mid-1950s, the Leacock home was abandoned and open to every hobo who wanted a free place to stay. In the winters, as a teenager then, I remember walking across the ice on Lake Couchiching to it and going in to get out of the cold. Leacock's personal library was still there; the hobos didn't consider books worth stealing, and even as a teen I thought i was on sacred ground. It's not that Leacock was forgotten. Every year, math teacher R. B. Laing read Leacock's witty story about A, B and C to introduce his Grade 10 class to algebra. But most of the snooty set regarded 'Sunshine Sketches' as the ramblings of a local drunk who made fun of the town's most honorable, upright and proper citizens. It's little wonder McGarvey and a dedicated few local citizens had an almost impossible task to rescue and preserve Leacock's home. Granted, I knew about half the people cited in this book. I used to babysit McGarvey's children. I listened to him every day on the radio, worked at CFOR when I was in high school (which by then was right across the street), and he offered me a permanent job which I turned down to work at the local newspaper. McGarvey was legendary; when it came to writing news stories or taking news over the phone, he was the fastest two-finger typist in Canada. My goal was to be a writer, not a broadcaster (but I am a two-finger typist). McGarvey's career included being one of the best broadcasters in Orillia, and later Toronto, and a superb writer as this book shows, plus the guiding spirit in persuading Orillia to preserve a memorial to one of Canada's earliest humourists. This book tells a story I grew up with, and fills it in with a wealth of the background efforts needed to make it come true. It is a testimonial to two Canadian heroes -- Leacock, and McGarvey who kept the legend of Leacock alive in the town he made world famous. Surely, someday,