They Put A Topper On It

A couple thoughts for John Candy, on what would have been his 66th birthday.

The boyhood home of comedy legend John Candy, at 217 Woodville Avenue in East York, was once a bungalow. Now it’s not.

It’s been built up, basement dug out and totally redone to the taste of the current owners – a million miles from the 1930s dwelling it once was. It seems most area 30s and 40s bungalows are meeting this fate. I suppose it's understandable when you consider our plush modern sofa sets, giant TVs, bottomless pantries, Thomas The Tank Engine playsets, growing wardrobes and king-sized beds. We accumulate so much shit that it's unfathomable to think a family can comfortably live in 800 square feet.

But they used to. In fact, the Candys did it with two boys - big boys - John and James. 

John grew up in that house on Woodville and he stayed until 1968, when he moved away for school. The family owned it for another 43 years. In 2011, two years after John's mom died, his brother sold it.

In 1994, when he was only 43 years old, John died in Mexico while filming the movie Wagons East! By then, after starring, supporting and having cameos in dozens of comedy classics, like Stripes, Vacation, Uncle Buck, Spaceballs, Home Alone and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John was universally loved. He was the hilarious everyman - physically, a modern Oliver Hardy, with a sweet, pitiable Chaplin-esque pathos. 

And it started in that house, in that little working class, East York neighbourhood – so close to the Donlands Theatre (now Pie In The Sky Studios), where John would nurture his love of movies.

I pass the house often. Every time, knowingly - thinking about the history of a place that isn’t really there anymore.

The current owners of 217 Woodville Avenue can do whatever they want, of course. It’s their house. They paid a great deal (I assume) for it and invested a great deal more. It’s not on them to make a shrine to a (great) dead actor.

But, in the absence of a plaque or some sort of formal heritage designation, I offer the only thing I can to John, on his birthday: a blog post.