Rewind
with Michael Enright

Pearson Pennant - The alternative design for the Canadian flag championed by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and designed by Alan Brookman Beddoe

Today on Rewind the great Canadian flag debate. The flag that is recognized around the world with its red bars and stylized maple leaf on a white background is about as Canadian as you can get- right up there with maple syrup, lumberjacks and the Rockies. Next week, on February 15, it's officially National Flag Day. And so today we celebrate our flag with a look at its rather rocky inception and birth.

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(All photos courtesy of CBC Still Photo Collection)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today on Rewind we take a loving look at Allan McFee- a true original and one of the characters of CBC Radio who made his mark with listeners for more than 52 years. He began his career with the CBC in 1937 and - except for a three-year stint in the army during the Second World War - stayed there until he retired in 1991.

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Today on Rewind The Dumbells. They were the most popular group of entertainers in Canada during the First World War.

The Dumbells were a group of muddy soldiers who had been plucked from the trenches by Captain Merton Plunkett, who knew the war weary troops needed a morale boost.

They sang and danced and played their way around the fields of Flanders in 1917 and 1918. And they became a part of Canadian folklore when they returned and performed in Canada after the war.

 

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Today on Rewind a remarkable historical piece that features two American icons who clashed over issues of corruption and misappropriation of funds in the 1950s and 60s. They are Robert Kennedy- former Attorney General of the United States, but at the time Chief Investigator of the Rackets Committee for the United States Senate, and James Hoffa- head of the Teamsters Union. Kennedy was convinced that Hoffa worked with mobsters, extorted money from employers, and raided Teamster pension funds.

Rewind presents conversations with both men from February 1959 on the program Project 59.

      

On the show today an hour of Kierans Camp and Lewis.
They came to be known as the three wise men. Every Tuesday morning off and on between 1983 and 1993, Eric Kierans, Dalton Camp and Stephen Lewis would gather on the radio on the program Morningside with Peter Gzowski to discuss politics. Stephen Lewis has said that those debates were some of the most civilized and engaging conversations of his life. KCL, as it was quickly dubbed, was a must-listen not only for Canadians across the country, but also for the politicians on Parliament Hill.
Eric Kierans had been a Cabinet Minister in Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government, Dalton Camp, a strategist for the Conservative party and Stephen Lewis, leader of the Ontario New Democrat party. The three created radio magic with insight, wit and civility in equal measure.  

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CBC Still Photo Collection

Now that the holidays are over, life just seems a little darker and more sombre. Winter stretches ahead endlessly and the prospect of sun combined with warmth seems remote. So how about if for the next hour we scare away the winter blues with an old fashioned sing-along? In the winter of 1991, the program Morningside gathered a group of musicians for a cross country hootenanny of old favourites. They included Joan Besen, who plays keyboard and writes songs, most often for the group Prairie Oyster. She was in Vancouver. The singer and songwriter Valdy was in Ottawa, songwriter and performer Leon Dubinksy was in Sydney, and country and folk singer Colleen Peterson and roots and gospel musician Ken Whiteley were in Toronto. To introduce them: Peter Gzowski. 

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A radio play for the New Year. It first aired in 1950, and it tells the story of a strange little creature called a squowse. It was written by Ted Allan.

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CBC Still Photo Collection

 

Are you tired of holiday shopping and wrapping, planning and baking? Well, here's a suggestion- pour yourself a cup of eggnog, pull a chair up to the warm glow of the radio or computer monitor and embrace the season from years gone by right here on Rewind.
We'll talk about food and toys, warm hearted stories and controversy.

From a piece from 1943 that offered advice to homemakers who were worrying how food shortages would affect their traditional holiday dishes, to the story of a girl and a Christmas treein 1947, Virginia O'Hanlon's letter to the New York Sun about Santa Claus, Max Ferguson's Christmas cake, Lorne Greene reminding listeners in 1956 that death never takes a holiday, an art professor who saw smut in the Eaton's catalogue, and through the toy crazes of hula hoops, pet rocks, Trivial Pursuit and Cabbage Patch kids, you'll hear it all.

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Charles Winter and Rod Coneybeare (CBC Still Photo Collection) 

Today, the Rod and Charles Show. Almost since its beginning, CBC Radio aired programs for children. There was Maggie Muggins, Kindergarten of the Air, Playroom and Just Mary, among others. But by the early 1960s, most of those children had started watching television, rather than listening to the radio. Problem was, CBC Radio was still mandated to do children's programs. Rod Coneybeare was a successful puppeteer and voice actor who was working as the voices of Jerome the Giraffe and Rusty the Rooster on CBVC Television's The Friendly Giant. He recalls the dilemma of what to do with children's programming this way:

"Charles Winter was a teacher who wrote and narrated a weekly fifteen minute story for children for CBC Radio's Youth and Schools Department. His producer, Dan McCarthy, needed to fill a half hour slot with a program for older kids--with a pleading from the Head of Radio to try to do something a little more exciting than the usual pedantic educational fare. Dan liked Charles' program, but felt he could do something a little more fun. And he admired my work on The Friendly Giant. He convinced the two of us to create a program that became the Rod and Charles Show."

The result was a fast paced, quirky and engaging show that became as popular for adults as it did for children.

We have two episodes for you today- they're both from May 1961.

For 12 years- between 1978 and 1990- CBC Radio's The Food Show took listeners inside the food business, exploring news and trends in food production, marketing and consumption.

Its first host was Jim Wright, a former circus ringmaster. He navigated through the gastronomical gamut as listeners learned all about the food business. From important news, to tips on camel-milking or microwave cooking, The Food Show offered a wealth of information on anything food-related.

During this hour we'll bring you some of the tastiest segments from the show's first season in 1978.

Jim Wright - Host of The Food Show

(CBC Still Photo Collection)