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Toronto. Anyone living in the 1950s remembers the excitement created by a teen-aged Marilyn Bell when she became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario the late summer of 1954.

At left is a Bob Lansdale photograph of young Marilyn being hugged by Shirley Campbell a year later on her return to Toronto fresh from conquering the English Channel.

Nearly Half a century later, in June of 2000, the late Bill Belier in his Photographic Canadiana column a Treasure from my Collection… featured the 1949 Pacemaker Speed Graphic and Multiblitz Press Strobe owned and used by editor Bob Lansdale. While the article (Photographic Canadiana Vol 26-1) was camera based, it also used photographs of Marilyn Bell taken by Bob when the young Toronto girl made further history by crossing the English Channel in the summer of 1955.

Bob’s son and namesake has written a much more extensive article focussing on the Marilyn Bell story and posted it on Facebook with photographs by his famous father. Click here to view the story!

While you are viewing the Facebook page, be sure to take a close look at each photo and its accompanying cut line. Near the end of the photos, the original article from the Photographic Canadiana of 15 years ago is reproduced.