Huron-Perth Boomers Summer 2024

y Elizabeth Bundy-Cooper
SPOTLIGHT
and help the ailing economy. Laura said many
people dismissed it despite the CNR railroad repair
shops recently announcing it was shutting down. In
January 1952, while writing for Maclean’s, Patterson
received a small loan from city council – $125 – to
go to New York City to talk to Sir Lawrence Olivier
to help bring his idea of a Shakespearean theatre
to fruition. Unfortunately, he failed to connect with
Olivier. Canadian theatre pioneer Dora Mavor
Moore subsequently put him in touch with legendary
British director Tyrone Guthrie. Intrigued, Guthrie
flew from England to Stratford to see if Patterson’s
idea might be viable. He ended up becoming its
first Artistic Director. Guthrie then persuaded Alec
Guinness and Irene Worth to take the lead roles in
Richard III. They both agreed.
“Guthrie didn’t want an open-air theatre however,
he wanted it under a tent,” Laura said. “But he
wanted it surrounded with beautiful gardens so
people wouldn’t think it was circus!”
When Patterson’s idea of a Shakespeare summer
festival became a reality, the tickets to the performances
sold out. He didn’t know where all the tourists would
stay. There were only two small hotels in the city at the
time, The Queens and The Windsor.
“Tom approached my parents in a panic, asking if
they would allow tourists and artists into our home,
just for the festival. My mother, reluctant at first, as
she had four children at home at the time, responded
by offering rooms,” Laura said. “Then she phoned
all her bridge friends and asked them to do the same.
I was quickly put to work to help out. I guess that’s
how the hospitality industry in Stratford began!”
The Festival soon changed lives, outlooks and
opened new doors. Laura recalled Guthrie standing
in the front hallway of their home and telling her
mother never to refer to people who come here as
tourists, but rather as theatre guests. “And I have
never forgotten that,” she said.
Not long after the Smiths started taking in guests,
they began offering breakfasts too. Haidee would
see people struggling to find a place to eat breakfast
because the city didn’t have a lot of restaurants at the
time and going out for breakfast wasn’t common in
the 1950s. She said her mom soon began by putting
on a pot of coffee and serving cereal topped with
raspberries from their garden.
Laura’s eyes danced as she reminisced about that
first opening night, on July 13, 1953.
“My brothers were ushers and it was sold out of course,
so they lifted the tent flap and let me in. I sat on the
steps of Aisle 6 and watched Alec Guinness come out
on stage as Richard the Third. At 10 years of age, I
did not understand the play, but I did remember the
uproar of the audience at the end. I knew something
very special had happened in Stratford.”
The next year, the season was expanded to eight
weeks and the number of plays presented grew to
three. Early on, the refreshments available to theatre
patrons were juice and ice cream. Laura worked
on the juice cart and had to stay up late for the
SUMMER 2024 • 11