Garden Parties were held at the old Band Shell
Barbara A. Martindale- For What It's Worth August 6, 2013
Since the gazebo appeared in Caledonia’s Kinsmen Park, the question is often asked about the Band Shell, also in Kinsmen Park at one time. Where was it and what kind of entertainment might one find at the Band Shell.
A Sachem article explained the entertainment in 1948. The heading on the article was "Program Excellent at Local Garden Party.”
Although it was the year before the Band Shell was built, the 1920s, ‘30s and early ‘40s saw Garden Parties being held on Dominion Day, July 1, on a platform at the back of the Town Hall on Edinburgh Square. The last few years of the ‘40s, Garden Parties were held at the fairgrounds.
Then in 1949, the Band Shell was built, located approximately across Kinsmen Park from today's gazebo with its back to the Caithness Street West bank. There were steps coming down in that area from the street to Kinsmen Park.
Memories of those garden parties were much the same as the one described in the 1948 article. Yes, the Band Shell was primarily built for Garden Party entertainment and was officially opened July 1, 1949 with a Garden Party complete with a finale of fireworks put on by the Caledonia Hunters & Anglers. Hay bales with planks were seats for the audience.
Jessie McGregor's Caledonia Bureau gathered the entertainment as she had been doing for some 30 years before. Her bureau put on many garden parties all across Ontario.
The Caledonia Concert Band had just formed about 1947. In fact, uniforms for 38 men cost $2,086.41 and the announcement came that "Caledonia again has a band after many years.” Majorettes were included. The Band Shell was for their concerts, too.
So, in 1948, the Caledonia Concert Band put on a concert from 7 to 8 p.m. before that year's Garden Party. On a platform in front of the old grandstand at the Fairgrounds, they played periodically, interspersed with Jessie MacGregor's entertainment.
"The act which appealed to the audience most was Ben and Margaret who specialized in instrumental comedy. Margaret with her accordion and Ben with his violin possessed a dynamic personality. They were called back again and again and really brought the house down with their final number, ‘I'm My Own Grandpa,’" reported the Sachem.
Another comedian, Claire Rouse, played about a dozen different musical instruments. The Four Chorders, a barbership quartette from London, sang a variety of numbers without accompaniment. And Ronald Stewart, a popular Garden Party singer, was on stage, too, with his constant smile and ease of delivery.
In 1949, the July 1 Garden Party at the new Band Shell had magician Scotty Lang on the program and Miss Winnifred Stewart accompanied tenor Albert Mason. Audrey Meredith of Toronto was on stage, too, with her tap dancing and acrobatics. Audrey's father was born in Caledonia. Audrey visited Caledonia a couple of years ago. She was in Caledonia looking for information on her family, and she left some historic pictures.
Audrey said at that time that she often talked to Zena Cheevers, who brought entertainment to Caledonia's Garden Parties in the 1950s.
Zena was well known in Caledonia following Jessie MacGregor's sudden death of a cardiac seizure at her home on July 20, 1951.
By the 1960s, the Caledonia Concert Band days were coming to an end. The Band Shell where they performed in concert other than Garden Parties was by the mid to late 1960s in disrepair and was taken down in the early 1970s.
That era was of another time.
