Pinball was illegal in Montreal
Nice Daily Hive bit about how pinball was once illegal in Montreal. No mention of onetime vice squad chief Steve Olynyk, who was rumoured to take the machines out to a field and run over them with a backhoe, or something to that effect, but presumably Olynyk was acting as Jean Drapeau’s deputy in this matter.
Robert H 13:50 on 2022-04-23 Permalink
Hilarious! Today I learned something new. Really, this city has a reputation to uphold: corrupt politicians and clerics, blank envelopes of cash changing hands, alcohol and cigarette smuggling, strip clubs and biker bars on les rues principales, pornography studios, slumlords squeezing every last dollar out of dingy firetraps, c’était tout dans l’ordre des choses. But there was no threat to the populace at large and to our youth in particular greater than (drumroll) PINBALL! Think of the children! Imagine, Jean Drapeau as a sort of québécois Harold Hill come to rescue the Capital of Canadian Vice from…Vice! “Oh boy we’ve got Trouble! Right here in River City! With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for…”
Kate 15:36 on 2022-04-23 Permalink
No kidding. Look up Pax Plante sometime. It was a whole era.
dhomas 06:29 on 2022-04-24 Permalink
Pax Plante has a Wikipedia entry, but Steve Olynyk does not. I found this interesting article about him, though:
http://coolopolis.blogspot.com/2007/03/montreals-fanatical-anti-pinball-fetish.html
MtlWeb 06:53 on 2022-04-24 Permalink
The ‘City Unique’ book by William Weintraub is a fabulous and detailed look back at the city’s nightlife activities during the just before WW2 period to the late 50s.
Kate 09:13 on 2022-04-24 Permalink
dhomas, cool. I knew Kristian had written about him somewhere.
My mom grew up next door to Steve Olynyk so I heard about him first from her.
Robert H 12:54 on 2022-04-24 Permalink
At first I was confused. What do you mean “Pax Plante?” Isn’t it a little too soon to apply such a definitive term? After all, her administration hasn’t even concluded. And how could she be responsible for a legacy of civic malfeasance? So I did have a look…I am abashed! What’s more, this was not quite the tale of bluenose busybodies spoiling everybody’s fun I had imagined. Pacifique Plante seems heroic, a crusader for integrity and fair-dealing. And the rot went so deep that I could imagine voting for Drapeau in 1954, long before his l’État C’est Moi phase. It hadn’t occurred to me that there were previous clean-up commissions before the Charbonneau. All of this including Dickensian characters like Steve Olynyk, the Carrie Nation of Montreal; Gravenor was right about him giving good quote. It was indeed a whole era. I’ll have to check out Weintraub’s book. Pardon my ignorance, my education continues.
P.S. The photographs I’ve seen make Plante and Drapeau look like brothers.