Rockin’ the Archives
By JIM HURCOMB Mention the word “archives” and it conjures
up images of Gandalf the Wizard leafi ng intently through a stack of ancient, dust-covered books bound in Orc-Skin in the deepest depths of some spooky, mountaintop castle. There’s probably an old caretaker there, too, with hunched shoulders, a raven on his shoulder and a wart on this nose. He’s working by candlelight in the corner. Gladly, the reality doesn’t match the fantasy. The new Ottawa Archives building in
Centrepointe, Nepean, is ultra modern, bustling with activity, and not a raven in sight. They even fi red that old caretaker years ago. You can say the Ottawa Archives “rocks” these
days, in more ways than one. Beginning in October and running to December,
the Archives is presenting a new feature exhibit called “Ottawa Rocks”. It’s a multi-media trip into the Ottawa rock and roll scene from 1954 to 2000. This exhibit is not what you’d expect from the
Archives. Previous exhibits have focused on what some might call the “drier” side of Ottawa history, including features on royal visits, the early years of Bytown and the building of the Rideau Canal. (I think I saw Gandalf at that one.) These shows catered to hardcore history buffs but lacked broad, public appeal. They did little to dispel the old image of the sidewalks being rolled up at 5 o’clock in boring old Ottawa. But then came the “ah-hah!” moment. The
Archives put together an exhibit focussing on hockey, and then the history of the CFL in Ottawa. The result? More hips through the turnstiles, more
48 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
Sharing the memories of Ottawa’s rock ‘n’ roll
smiles and double the attendance. To keep the pot boiling, and to showcase the new building and viewing gallery, Gallery 112, the City of Ottawa Archives is working on “Ottawa Rocks”. “Ottawa in and of itself is interesting, and there
are stories in Ottawa that need to be told,” says City Archivist Paul Henry. “It’s our hope that having an exhibition that’s a little bit fun and interesting will bring non-traditional audiences, people who have never been across the threshold of an archives before, and that they will want to continue to come to the archives to see what else we’re going to do.” Henry and fellow archivist Glenn Charron are
sifting through the relevant bits and pieces already in the Archives, and have found some amazing items. “We’ve got a scarf that was thrown by Elvis
into the crowd when he came in 1957, and we’ve got a large collection of photographs from the famed Andrews-Newton collection, which is one of our largest photo collections at the archives. It comes close to topping two million photos.” That Elvis show, and those Andrews-Newton
photos, as regular Bounder readers recall from a few issues back, captured an amazing time in western culture. While Elvis shook his hips and the girls swooned, the “establishment” fought back to make this “evil” rock and roll go away and return things to normal. In the case of Elvis, his scheduled show in
Montreal was cancelled when the Roman Catholic Church voiced objections, so we got two shows here in Ottawa. According to Paul Henry’s research, “At school the next day kids were asked whether they had attended the concert, and when they said yes,
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