Sam The Record Man has been an institution in Toronto for as long as I can remember. His is a typical story of a humble immigrant rising to leadership and success from hard work and entrepreneurial genius. Sam's was more than just a chain of record stores. Sam Sniderman was a huge supporter of Canadian music and helped launch the careers of many talented artists. Now his chain of record stores has succumbed to the rapid advances of technology, and the flagship store, the one where I worked in the early 70's, is closing at the end of the month. I have so many memories of that place at Yonge and Gould. In my early teens, I spent many a Saturday afternoon browsing the stacks of records with my friends, and then when I was hired at the age of 17 to work in the Classical department on Sunday afternoons, well, I had the best job any music lover could have. There were many regulars who would come in to browse or purchase or just say hello. The late famous CBC broadcaster Clyde Gilmour was one of them. It's the passing of a Toronto landmark, and with sadness and fond memories, we say goodbye.
4 comments:
That is kind of sad. I love canadian music. Both the old, like Rush and the many new bands like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Metric, New Pornographers and Stars to name a few. It's the same in Sweden btw. We download all we can!
Ah, but you will now be able to download lots of memories!
I'm tracking the Great north Dog walk this week.
South Shields Daily Photo
That is sad. I bought my first LP's at a Sam's outlet in St. Catharines as a kid. I saw on an earlier post that you had a preview of the ROM expansion. Do you know when it will be open to the public? I'll be in the area for summer vacation soon and would love to bring my kids to the big smoke to check it out. I have great memories of routing around in there as a kid!
There are various parts of the museum opening at different stages. You should be able to see something if you go during the summer. Here's the website with some info.
http://www.rom.on.ca/crystal/year.php
Toronto's a great place for kids in the summer. Toronto Island is really pretty and usually not too crowded. Good luck!
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