For a child coming upon the INCO Employees Club, with its long, imposing, fort-like structure stretching for more than a block along Frood Road, one would be remiss to dismiss their belief, as Jack Walton wrote, “likening it to a fortress.”
As we have discovered from the memories elicited from the previous article, this citadel of Sudbury’s social scene for so many seasons holds strong memories (stronger even than the battlements of a fortress) for a great many people.
It is interesting to note when sifting through people’s memories of the INCO Club, the vast majority of them fall within the two camps of childhood memory: the happy memory (INCO Christmas parties) and the dreadful memory (a trip to see the company doctor). As Mary MacLachlan wrote, “I recall going there as a child in the 1950s and 1960s for needles and Christmas with Santa” to which she added cheekily “gifts preferred over needles.”
With that being said, the list of activities that went on at the Club over the years is a long one because, as reader Johnny Boyer put it so well, “it was crazy in that INCO hall.” And, many a youngster, such as Donald Lawrence, knew every inch of that building, essentially growing up there, as his “parents taught round and square dancing there, and I ran all over that building.”
As mentioned in the previous article, every December, the Inco Employees Club was the scene of many children’s Christmas parties for company workers. In order to facilitate this, no outside bookings were taken during the month, as the club was donated to each of the plant associations.
From the start of the countdown towards Christmas, employees’ children would look forward to that special day, when they would get together with their friends and the countless other sons and daughters of their parent’s co-workers, to collect their gift from Santa.
As reader Mike Lemieux put it, “Santa had an easy job there. All the boys got a hockey stick and all the girls got a doll.” Though, in fact, it is interesting to note that in an issue of the INCO Triangle from 1951, two employees were photographed diligently playing Santa’s little helpers, cataloguing the gifts which were to be given out at one of that year’s Christmas parties.
Vicki Thurlow remembers her father “pulling my brother and I on a toboggan from our house on Victoria Street to the INCO Club to see Santa at the INCO Staff Children’s Christmas party” where “my brother got a truck and I got a beautiful baby doll.” Of course, since her father “was good friends with Santa-Wilf Salo (he) would call us by name and knew so much about us.”
Now, speaking of Santa, another one of his yearly duties while in town was participating in the annual Santa Claus Parade (post-1958). Donna DiFillippo Mancini, whose father worked in the building as an X-ray technician, “remembers going there (to the Club) as kids and having a prime warm viewing spot for the Santa Claus parade which would go right past this building.”
Bobby Joanie Martin’s main memories of the INCO Club were the Saturday night dances that attracted the teens and young adults from far and wide across the Nickel Belt.
Jacquie Roney also remembers the Saturday dances (albeit from a different vantage point). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, her sister and her friends had great times there, “poodle skirts, bobbie-socks and saddle shoes is what I remember them all wearing, when they all left together to meet at the Inco Hall.”
Evidently, great memories were had by all, even when one wasn’t of age to participate.
Rosanna Parker wrote in that her future was directly shaped by one event at the club, when her future husband, Wayne, took her to a dance there for their first date. As she added, they are “Fun memories!”
Joan Horner Groulx and Sandra Mosurinjohn both remember the record hops on Saturdays in the 1950s and 1960s, with Sandra adding that it was a “nice floor for dancing.” A reader over at Sudbury.com remembers that “in the early 1960s … on the weekends we could dance all weekend as teenagers. That made Saturday in the winter a place to dance … (which) was where I won something for the first time … an Elvis Presley long playing record that I still own.”
Along with her memories of dances, Sandra Mosurinjohn also related another event held at the club that didn’t turn up in previous research. As she wrote, in the early 1960s, “they held the Miss Northern Ontario beauty contest there and (her) girlfriend Mary Millikangas won.”
Actress Yvonne De Carlo, who performed at the INCO Club in the Sudbury Theatre Centre production of the musical “Ship Ahoy!”, is remembered by Charles Booth for continually referring to the club as “the Sweat Gym.” He also recalls that “she would come to the Peter Piper for dinner every night, complaining about the city, the audience and telling (him) how beautiful she once was.” (Remember, of course, that she insisted on having a drink of vodka with a fresh rose in it before going on stage every time.)
Bill Petryshyn attended a performance of the production featuring Miss De Carlo during high school, but only “remember(s) a bit of the play, mostly because of the disruptive behaviour of one of our classmates.”
One half of Sudbury's own Bluez Brotherz, Vic Thériault, worked in that building for three years for INCO. (Just think, Vic, if you could have performed there, it could have been your very own “Palace Hotel Ballroom” up at Lake Wazzapamani). Jim Dunn played “uncountable gigs there” in the “wrestling ring.” And, Jack Walton “caught a few local bands (Coppertones, Untouchables) while “also play(ing) a couple of gigs myself on the wrestling stage with the Fendermen (in the) mid 1960s.”
Rick Eles remembers witnessing that rarest of bowling feats when he “watch(ed) my dad bowl a perfect game in an INCO league five-pin bowling match in the 1950s.” And he even recalls that unlike the more advanced technology that came later, “the pins were set manually by pin boys.”
Unlike Eles, reader Michel Roussel recalls the Sudbury Saturday Nights of his childhood being “dragged to bingo nights with my mother, where I would have the run of the place for a couple of hours.” (I would imagine the boys were getting stinko at the same time?)
Reader Mike Lemieux was lucky enough to meet the friendly giant of wrestling while attending what he believes was “the best wrestling ever” at the club. It was there that he saw for the first time and shook hands with André Roussimoff, who was then billed as “Jean Ferré”, but who later became known worldwide as the immortal André the Giant.
Gerald Bronson recalls another big-name participant who wrestled at the club, Mad Dog Vachon.
“The guy was a beast and would do anything it took to win,” Bronson said.
Vicki Thurlow related that she would only catch “a brief glimpse of a wrestling match where the Christmas parties were held” (usually when departing the bowling alley with her father). She was never allowed to attend as her “Dad said young ladies didn’t go to watch wrestling matches.”
One of the strangest sights at the INCO Club, which was mentioned in the previous article, the now archaic entertainment of bear wrestling jogged the memory of reader Joe Davie who wrote in to say that he witnessed it in the 1960s, “sitting in the front row, when (the) bear went up against the ropes, (it) scared the living daylights out of me.”
Many of the INCO company doctors were centred in the medical centre located at the club, dating back to its inception. And, Merle Smith remembers, “cutting my tongue really bad on adult monkey bars and going there to get it sown up.” Another reader, Hellen Frost, who lived in the Donovan, remembers that she “had (her) tonsils out there during Grade 2.”
Glenn Scott wrote with a reminder the previous article didn't mention the INCO employment and training offices being there (my apologies for that oversight). He continued that he “guarantee(s) that most of Generation X’s parents who worked for INCO got their jobs in that building and they probably knew these awesome ladies, Isabel Scott (his mother) and Wilma Zahavich.”
Due to the presence of those offices, as well as the Doctors’ offices, in the building, both Al Pilszek and Grant MacKinnon (among many others who responded) remember having to go to the Medical Centre at the club for their first physicals after being hired by INCO.
One of our regular commenters over at Sudbury Then and Now, Geoffrey Lee, worked in the basement of the club during the summers of 1975 and 1976, and remembers they were “great people to work with.” A reader who left a comment at the Sudbury.com page concurred with that assessment as they remember being “told by the maintenance people that they would leave the window cracked open on the boiler room (in the basement) on Evergreen Street so the homeless people had somewhere warm to go in the winter.”
Some readers, such as Michel Roussel (the ill-fated lad who was dragged to bingo by his mother), could say that not only did they participate in the endless number of activities, but literally grew up with the club. As he counted up through the decades of the club’s history, “I remember going there to see the company doctor with my mother (…) I would also go with my dad to see my uncle from southern Ontario wrestle there. I had my wedding reception there and I remember bringing my kids to the Christmas parties.”
Vicki Thurlow presents us with another example of the club’s importance to a family’s social activities across the decades.
“Three generations on both sides of our family used the facilities at the club. Grandparents on both sides of the family attended dances and parties there, as well as the doctors’ offices … . Our family doctor, Dr. Prince, had his office there. As a married couple, my husband and I often attended INCO dances … . The last function I attended there was a wedding in the upper hall when it was operated by the Cambrian Foundation.”
Well, dear readers, the band has played its final note, packed up their instruments and our dance card full of memories has reached its end. I’d like to close this topic by sharing my agreement with Vicki Thurlow, who stated in concluding her memories of the club (many of which are shared above) that we are “grateful that it is still standing when (we) think of all the iconic edifices (that have been) torn down.” Thank you to everyone who shared their memories with us of the INCO Employees Club. We’ll see you back here again next week with another timely topic.
Jason Marcon is a writer and history enthusiast in Greater Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Memory Lane is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
