Mysteries of Montreal

Melted and damaged mannequins after a fire at Madame Tussauds . London. 1925.

George Rinhart - Tourists on the top of the Great Pyramid, c. 1925. Masks on my mind.

1928 song celebrating the lack of Prohibition in Quebec, and Montreal. Sung by Fred Waring, an his band, Waring's Pennsylvanians.

Photo taken during the Houdini tour at the Princess Theatre, St Catherine's Street, east of Phillips Square (1926). This was the tour on which he took the backstage sucker punch that killed him nine days later. On October 22, 1926, Houdini was performing in Montreal at the Princess Theater. Before the show, Harry was in his dressing room laying on the couch. While relaxing backstage, a young athlete from McGill University asked Houdini if he really could withstand punches to the stomach, as he had heard. Houdini said yes and would prove it to the boy. But before he could tighten his stomach, the student started punching Houdini. Harry didn't realize it, but his appendix had ruptured. After Houdini performed in Montreal, he headed to Detroit. He did only one performance there and then collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. Harry Houdini did not die in a stunt, nor did he drown, as most people believe. The greatest magician of all time died on October 31, 1926, of peri...

DO NOT SHOW THIS TO YOUR PLAYERS. I mean, $150? They'll be asking for 2. 1926 Philadelphia Not that it'll matter against the Great Old Ones, but against a horde of cultists, ghouls or Deep Ones? Actually, now I'm picturing a repetition of the Normandy landings, with the Players in beach bunkers, and the Deep Ones coming out of the sea en masse. Or, for something more down to earth/affordable: 1920s

The GNDN blog posted this post containing various newspaper articles from US newspapers from the era 1924-29. These are sold as filler articles, but to be honest, if you put one of these beside another article, the Investigators are likely to assume they are plot hooks, not filler. Though in that case, they make great red herrings. via .

Frontenac Beer A photograph of a group of men and women drinking Frontenac Beer . This was taken by Rice Studio in Montreal. Brassiere Frontenac was located in the Mile End of Montreal from 1913 until 1926. This image was possibly used in an advertising campaign. James Bedford (Jimmy) Rice of Rice Studio was reknown for his work photographing the hockey players of the Montreal Canadiens, the Wanderers and the Maroons. Likely this was taken as part of an advertising campaign to show the men and women of The U.S. that coming north of the border to drink Frontenac Beer was one civilised way to get around prohibition. This makes a great 'before' photograph for a group of adventurers. Especially the guy in the turban!

Dominion Square, Montreal. Winter 1926. Winter is late in coming this year, but come it will, and it will look like this. No matter what else may change with progress, the seasons still come in order, and leave us to deal with the same problems and hardships.

I'm a day late with this post, as this post pertains to the happenings of the night of the 31st of March, but I only learned of it today, and it was too cool a story to pass on, or indeed wait another year. Vintage Wings of Canada is an organisation that is involved in many aspects of vintage aviation, and they are funding the search for a lesser known part of Canadian history, the lost dirigible, the HMCD Samuel de Champlain .  In her purpose built hangar in Cape Breton I'll not recount the whole story here, go read it for yourself. What I will do here is to expand upon the completely wonderful gaming opportunities for gaming the crew members of the RCNRAS (Royal Canadian Navy Rigid Airship Service), and the missions that they and they alone could accomplish, whether it is search and rescue missions in the Great White North , or on missions to destroy enemy submarines in North American shipping lanes. Both types of missions that will take the crew off the beaten trac...

I have found a wonderful Facebook page Montreal then and now , full of photos, images and other interesting links, that is an inspiration for Montreal of any era since the founding of the city, but there are frequently photos from the era pertinent to our interest, the 1920-30s. I had through to make a larger post with a few of these images, but I think I'll spread them out, and maybe have a little post for each one, with some game uses for the image, a bit like the Inspirational Artefacts series of posts. This is the first of these images. Roman catholic nuns, Bleury St., Montreal, 1924 I can easily imagine these two getting the wrong idea about the motives of the Investigators, and following them around town, getting in the way of their investigations, and otherwise being a nuisance. Otherwise, they could be a contact for the Investigators, within the Catholic church, who had a very strong presence in the city at that time, and may be working with the Investigators, m...

My second post on a subject that is without my normal sphere for this blog, Sherlock Holmes. However, I'll try to turn it back on topic by the end of the post. I was a little annoyed that my previous post on a new Sherlock Holmes story turned out to be nothing more than a heavy handed pastiche of Doyle's work, if at least a contemporary one. The first half of the interview, Doyle talks about Sherlock Holmes, and within the details spoken, we really learn nothing new, excep that we hear of Holmes from the horses mouth as you will. The second half of the interview is taken up with, in Doyle's words, "the entirely more serious matter" of spiritualism. He talks of the in-depth and varied research he has made on the subject. Again this is not news, but the attitude he takes to wards the psychical research could of course work well as a jumping off point for an investigator, or group of such researchers. Especially since his devotion to the subject after the G...

The Canadian maple leaf flag (or l'unifolié apparently) is 50 years old (well, it was yesterday, but really, who's counting). Famous for being carried proudly around the world by Canadian backpackers (and Americans claiming to be Canadians, to avoid getting shit). I find it completely weird that the maple leaf flag is only 50 years old. I guess it's just one of those things you take for granted in Europe, that your flag's history is pretty old. I mean, 50 years isn't that much older than me, at least in flag years! Take, for example, the Scottish Saltire . That thing has been around in Scotland in various official ways since 1180s, with the Union Flag being a modern addition to the flag world, being introduced in it's current form in 1801. So, for all those running a game based in Canada, during non-modern eras, beware of anachronistic flag usage. Make note of the flag that would be used during the time you base your game . Out of interest, the flag ...

A Quebec folk song by La Bolduc written during the prohibition-era of the 1920`s and 30`s. From my new best source of Montreal History, The Montreal Then and Now Facebook group. Otherwise, I know nothing of the singer, or the song, however, there are a few videos by the same artist available to listen to on Youtube. Great for some contemporary background music.

Today's Google Doodle is to celebrate the 16th Birthday of Henrietta Edwards , a Montreal native who went on to have a huge impact on Canadian Politics, and Woman's Suffrage in general. Not to steal the thunder of the Watch House , who usually takes the Google Doodle as a starting point for gaming inspiration, but I felt I could not allow this one to pass, due to direct link of this personage to Montreal, and the 1920s. Henrietta came to be known around Canada as one of the Famous Five . For those outside Canada, that is not from the books by Enid Blyton, but a group of 5 women who fought for, and won, the right of Canadian women to be considered as persons in 1929. Amongst her other life works, she was also an author, and the founder member of the Victorian Order of Nurses . She was born in Montreal in 1849, and lived there until she moved with her family to Saskatchewan in 1883. From there she lived in various parts of Canada (the Famous Five all met and worked in...

What it says in the title really, the MTL Blog has posted a scan of an old tourist flyer from 1925 . The original pdf can be downloaded from the Archives de Montréal  here . A great little handout for gamers from out of town, as well as a source of local information for players and Keepers alike.

  There was a haunted house for sale in Montreal . The original sales post has long gone, as indeed has the estate agent's website, but the text was saved in the article linked above, suggests it was on the market for over a year with no buyers. (original CTV article from 2012 here). Why the interest in the house? well, some visitors said the place was eerie and emits a ghostly aura, and that's about it. However, the house was built in the 1910-20s, but the decor inside had not been changed since. The images supplied by the realator were an amazing look into a time capsule of a house. If this were still on the market, I would be looking to go have a nosey around and take some pictures of my own. The four bedroom house in Rosemont can be found on google maps here . I post here the pictures of the interiors, as they are exactly right to be used in a Montreal based game as props for interiors.  Backyard Den Den Dining Room Dining Room...

You may notice I have a new header image. I had been on the lookout for an image of the skyline of Montreal fro the 1920s or there abouts. I found what I have been looking for in a flickr stream of pictures on Montreal from the air between 1925 and 1935 . Photos aériennes prises pour la Ville de Montréal par la Fairchild Serial Surveys Co. (of Canada) Ltd de Grand-Mère, Québec., entre 1925 et 1935. Ces images nous offrent un aperçu exceptionnel d’un Montréal en pleine expansion, entre 1925 et 1935. La vague d’annexions qui s’est terminée en 1918 confère à la cité agrandie une allure parfois rurale, du fait du grand nombre d’espaces non construits. Les nouveaux quartiers vont se remplir peu à peu de nouveaux habitats, parmi lesquelles le multiplex domine. Les terrains cultivés cèdent progressivement la place à ces constructions, aux installations industrielles ou aux infrastructures routières. Ce lot de photos sur plaque de verre montre notamment les secteurs des usines Angus, du cen...

There are a great number of cinemas or movie theatres in Montreal, many of them dating from the golden age of cinema. Including the Ouimetoscope , the first Canadian theater dedicated exclusively to showing movies (opened in 1906), and which was situated right round the corner from my house (and is currently being transformed into a block of appartments). Showing local productions, including his own, news movies, French and translated American movies, the theater would remain open for eighteen years until, in 1922, Ouimet's financial difficulties forced him to sell the Ouimetoscope, which closed two years later. Another is the Rialto Theatre  ( official site ), built in 1924, and although it stopped being a cinema in 1990, the building is protected as a Candian Heritage Site. You can see a few pictures of the wonderful interiors here . It would be remiss of me, being a Call of Cthulhu Blogger, if, whilst on this subject, I did not mention the tra...

Camillien Houde  Médéric Martin  Camillien Houde was elected as the new Mayor of Montreal. The Conservative Deputy won by 20 000 votes over his rival, the previous Mayor, Médéric Martin , who had held the post since 1926 (and for ten years between 1914 and 1924). It seems both men went on to be big in Canadian politics, rather than just staying in local/city politics, being elected into the House of Commons after serving as mayors. I can't see any of the modern equivalents being able to do so, especially after recent scandals.