24heures calculated what Jean Drapeau’s big projects would cost in today’s dollars but it’s the visual details that caught my eye.
In February 1961, there was a ceremonial sod‑turning for the first part of Place des Arts. In the photo all the men are wearing hats – not winter hats, but the kind of hats most men stopped wearing shortly after that time. (I’ve read that it was JFK’s shunning of the masculine hat that put it permanently out of fashion.)
In October 1966, the initial parts of the metro were inaugurated, and there’s a photo showing Drapeau in the driver’s cab along with a couple of other men (no hats, but they’re indoors) and Cardinal Léger. In 1966 it still seemed normal to invite a prelate to bless the metro. That impulse too was coming to an end.
So then there’s Expo 67, and following from the previous, I’ve never found out who decided to call the artificial island Île Notre‑Dame. A year or two later, it probably would have been given a different, nonreligious name.
Orr 18:16 on 2023-11-11 Permalink
Speaking of Jean Drapeau, on 12 august (the anniversary of his passing) we go to his statue across from city hall and leave a little homage to the man who made modern Montreal, then went insane (according to my friend’s MD mom).
We leave what we call “a little bag of crazy,” which we tape to where the back pocket of his trousers would be, which is where we figure he carried it.
If there are tourists nearby we make a little speech about how Jean Drapeau liked to talk about a man having a baby.
True story. You’re all welcome to join us next 12 august.