January 1, 1900

It may seem that without television, radio, movies, video games or cars, people have very little to do for fun. Not true! In 1900, people make their own fun with social gatherings, live theatre, singers, reading and especially sports.

Live theatre is big business across Canada. American and other foreign stars regularly tour Canada in a variety of productions from Shakespeare to more modern comedies. Winnipeg's 2,000-seat Walker Theatre put on a performance 7 days a week every week of the year. The companies of the Marks Brothers - not those Marx Brothers - tour constantly across the country. Canadian actors often trek south to wow audiences in the United States.

In Quecute;bec, local professional theatre companies have just been formed. The Monument national and Théâtre des variétiés boast Francophone stars like Blanche de la Sablonnière and Juliette Béliveau. Felix-Gabriel Marchand's comedies draw full houses. The great Sarah Bernardt has performed for a 4^th time in Montreal. Will she be back?

However, entertainment is definitely a class-oriented pursuit. Only the rich, and the small but growing middle-class, can afford many of the diversions available in Canada at the start of the 20^th century.

Snowshoer clubs organized races, skating rinks proliferated and slides were erected throughout those towns and cities where natural slopes were not sufficient. During the summer, bicycles became so popular that in 1898, the city of Montréal had to adopt a by-law to control cyclists' behaviour.

Baseball is the most popular spectator sport across the country, and it attracts all classes to both play and watch. At urban commercial rinks, there are carnivals and ice shows to draw crowds. Boxing and lacrosse enjoy strong popularity.

Hockey is gaining in popularity, but its real popularity is only with the upper and middle classes. The NHL won't be founded for another 17 years. Still, the Stanley Cup has been around for 8 years, and has been won by a variety of amateur teams. This year, the Winnipeg Victorias are the champs.

Now that school is compulsory, more and more Canadians can read. Newspapers are starting to flourish. Serious and politically-oriented papers are being joined by "gossipy" rags like the Montreal Star.

Literature occupies a large part of the cultivated Francophone population. Les Soirées du Château de Ramezay had just been published, with works by such members of the École littéraire de Montréal as the poet Émile Nelligan, the painter and poet Charles Gill, the writer Jean Charbonneau and many others.

For most people, though, community events and homemade fun help them relax: church picnics, making ice cream, barn dances and poetry recitals. These kinds of diversions brought people together as friends and neighbours.

The ouimetoscope, first place devoted for cinema only (French)

The first football game was played 16 years ago between Harvard University and Montreal's McGill. The first Canadian football championship was won by Osgoode Hall just 8 years ago.

Taverns are common but not everywhere. Drinking is blamed for many of the ills of society, and anti-alcohol sentiments are on the rise. A national referendum on temperance held just two years ago found a majority voting to ban alcohol in Canada. Because the margin was so narrow, Prime Minister Laurier has left it to local governments to decide whether to allow liquor to be served.

Just 4 years earlier, in 1896, Ottawans paid 10 cents to become the first Canadians to watch a new technology developed by Thomas Edison called the Vitascope. Featured on this new moving picture machine [graphic of Ottawa Citizen coverage of the event] were short shots, including "four coloured boys eating watermelons, ... a bathing scene at Atlantic City and a coloured film of Lo Lo Fuller's Serpentine Dance." The showing provoked both excitement and moral outrage in some quarters.

In 1902, Vancouver's Schulberg's Electric will charge a nickel to customers to watch these new silent movies. These movie theatres became known as nickelodeons.

In the last 10 years, newspapers have started to add a new feature called the Sports Page. That helps fuel the growing interest in amateur and professional sports.