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Andersen Etude
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Buster Keaton, or maybe it was Charlie Chaplin…one of them did that famous stunt hanging from the hands of the clock tower.
In the early stages of Urban Flute, as I scouted out sites to record in, I was drawn to spires and towers (including the Clock Tower at the Summerhill LCBO) – places that offered a vantage point & unique historical ambience.
One cold fall day, I was welcomed in to the exquisite Yorkville Fire Hall and set up to record in the unheated Clock Tower – just as I was about to play, footsteps are heard descending the metal stairs from above…it was one of my first recordings for Urban Flute, and only today did I return to successfully get the images I needed to complete this entry.
With the same warm welcome from the staff – and, no, I didn’t have to submit to an intensive security check! – I was invited to take a few photos from up in the tower, and ascended the steep stairs into the darkened heights where lengths of hose are stored [see ‘Toward the Taj’]…through a small trap door, a four-panelled translucent chamber invited me a little higher.
I guess this is what you might call a Buster Keaton kind of a moment!
My thanks to all the staff at District 31, Yorkville.
NOTE: A visitor to Urban Flute has set me straight: it was Harold Lloyd who starred in the famous Clock Scene…
“I feel that to be a comic is as vital and important a mission as being a physician, healing other wounds”.
Harold Lloyd 1928
You might be equally surprised to learn that Harold Lloyd was more popular than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton combined!
Despite massive changes in Yorkville, this is a link to the strict code of guidelines for development, including historic maps on pages 9-11.
