Last day of the famous Simpson Brothers Studio, Toronto
Toronto. The photo at left shows closing day at Simpson Brothers in Toronto. The year was 1955 and it was the end of the skylight and dry-plate era. Since the 1800s, photo studios clustered around the Yonge-King-Queen corner of Toronto. Editor Ev Roseborough shows his amazing depth of photographic knowledge in the issue 14-1 article he wrote titled, “Sammy Kay and Simpson Brothers – The end of the skylight and dry-plate era”.
Ev himself had a studio until well after retirement age called ERA – Ev Roseborough and Associate (there never was an associate as he once mentioned to me). The Simpson Brothers studio began in 1881 and changed hands (but not its name) in 1918 when Sammy Kay took over.
Ev begins his story, “Sometime in 1881, 357 Yonge Street, just north of Dundas Street in Toronto, became a photographic portrait studio. This in itself was not unusual, since there were many such establishments in the King-Queen-Yonge area of the city. This one was unique in that it established an excellent reputation, survived the Great Depression and continued in an elegant and highly professional manner to the end .”
Members back in May of 1988 enjoyed Ev’s article in the hard copy of issue 14-1 mailed to all PHSC members. The more recent members received a copy of the PHSC DVD and could read the pdf version of issue 14-1.
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Note: this story reminded me of the Leonard Cohen song “Closing Time” sung here by Cohen himself. The late Leonard Cohen of Montreal was a terrific poet, song writer and singer. Late in life he performed a final tour which I had the pleasure of attending here in the big smoke.
