Blog Post Series

A while back…like several posts ago I mentioned that I picked up this awesome book called “Let’s Dance: A Celebration of Ontario’s Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions” by Peter Young and was going to visit and blog about as many as I could. I have currently written a few posts on the Vintage Dance Hall topic and today I am writing about the venue “CNE Dance Tent/Dance Pavillion“.

The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Dance Tent

The History & Vintage Photos

The CNE stands for “Canadian National Exhibition“. It is an annual event at the end of summer held in Toronto and with approximately 1.3 million visitors each year, the CNE is Canada’s largest annual fair and the seventh largest in North America.

Canadian National Exhibition 1940s vintage ad for the Toronto - TTC. Go and visit the CNE in 1947.

The CNE Tent was only open during the couple of weeks while the fair was on for everyone’s dancing pleasure. It measured 80 feet by 260 feet and was created in Chicago just for this particular event. It was located south of the coliseum and just west of the electrical building (the big tent in them middle of the picture).

Vintage Photo of the CNE grounds in Toronto. The CNE dance tent is in the middle. — Source: CHUCKMAN’S OTHER CHOICE OF WORDS

During my research I actually discovered that the CNE Tent was not the first dance floor to have stood on the grounds of the fair. In the 1930s, when swing music was at the height of its popularity, the Automotive Building (seen below) for two years (1934-5) contained the Ballroom, where the dance bands of Duke Ellington, Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo, and others played to overflow crowds. Later in the 1930s a large marquee (tent) with a dance floor was erected to house the bands and their audiences. The CNE tent was born (Source).

1930s Vintage Photo: Guy Lombardo in the 1930s visited Toronto's CNE to perform his big band music for dancers and lovers of swing music alike. Here is the automative building where he performed. — Source: CNE Archives

Great 1937 advertising mentioning Guy Lombardo and dancing on Canada’s largest dance floor amongst many other exciting activities to do at the CNE.

1930s Vintage Ad: Canadian National Exhibition 1937 vintage advertising featuring all the things you can see at the CNE including Guy Lombardo — Source: Torontoist

The Tents official opening was in 1938 and its first year featured Benny Goodman, Buddy Rogers, Guy Lombardo and Tommy Dorsey on the dance floor. Could you imagine dancing to all of these bands in one year??!! The Lindy Hopper in me is kind of losing it just thinking about it.

1930s Vintage Photo: CNE dance pavillion late 1930s featuring a packed dance floor dancing in Toronto. — Look at all the lovely dancers! Source: CNE Archives

In 1940 a great advertisement appeared in the CNE official program stating:

“Dancing! Dancing – in the great, airy pavilion on a satin-smooth floor. Dancing – to the world’s finest dance bands. Dancing – toe-tickling tunes by music-making masters of rhythm ‘sweet’ and ‘swing.’ Dancing – to the bands you’ve dreamed of, now a reality in the Dance Pavilion.”

(from the C.N.E. Official Catalogue and Programme 1940, pp 23 & 49-Source).

1938 was not the only time the CNE Tent brought in top-notch performers, Torontonians made special trips just to see their favorite acts like:

Duke Ellington, Abe Lyman, Guy Lombardo, Rudy Vallee, Horace Heidt, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rogers, Glen Gray, Tony Martin, Artie Shaw, Eddie Duchin, Sammy Kaye, Al and Bob Harvey, Ina Ray Hutton, Benny Goodman, Tony Pastor, Vaughan Monroe, The Modernaires, Gene Krupa, Trump Davidson and Spike Jones all thru the 1940s.

A famous Canadian Judge – Hon. John Arnup shared a story of his visit in August of 1940.

“The Canadian National Exhibition in the late 1930s and early 1940s had a huge tent covering a dance floor, with tables around its perimeter. In late August, 1940, I took ‘my girl’ to hear and dance to Duke Ellington. At 1am outside her apartment I proposed to her and accepted. We were married a year later and have been happily married for 53 years (in 1994)” (Source).

1940s Vintage Photo: The famous CNE dance tent in the 1940s in Toronto Ontario Canada. — CNE Tent 1940s

Other exciting information about the CNE Tent…

Tommy Dorsey makes history before playing at the CNE-September 8th, 1939

Toronto has a city airport now called “Billy Bishop Airport” but back in 1939 it was originally named Port George VI Island Airport in honour of an upcoming royal visit The first commercial passenger flight to the airport was a charter flight carrying Tommy Dorsey and his swing band for a two-day engagement at the Canadian National Exhibition on September 8, 1939. It was also the first airliner from the United States to arrive in Toronto. To mark the historical moment Tommy and his band played a few tunes right at the airport (Source).

Beauty Contest held at the CNE Tent

Beyond dancing the CNE Dance Pavillion/CNE Tent also hosted a beauty contest on September 4th, 1940 with the famous dance band leader “Tommy Dorsey” awarding the winner. Then later Dorsey, Al and Bob Harvey and their Canadian Coster Band, with Patricia Bailey played from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Cost $1.00 per person (Source).

Here are some of the contestants from the contest that year. All beauties!

1940s Vintage Photo: CNE Beauty Contest held at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition on 4 September 1940. Photo from the Halifax, Nova Scotia newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, Tues. Sept. 10, 1940. — Source: Oakville Public Library

Note: I previously did a post on Miss Toronto contest which was held at the CNE as well but I cannot find information that this was that same contest.

A big act comes to the tent to perform….

Frank Sinatra played in Toronto in 1948.

Update: July 18th, 2023-this event might not of happened at the date stated below (see comment section)

In 1948 Frank Sinatra performed under the big tent.

I found this GREAT post on a Sinatra family forum page about his visit thru the eyes of an attendee, which I will share with you now.

I was able to retrieve a couple of memories from my Mom about the 1948 Concert held under the big tent at the CNE in Toronto.They are wonderful memories of a time totally lost. I asked her to try and write everything down when she feels up to it.

The tent was jammed to the limit with fans, and not one speck of trouble occurred. My mom remembers the wood floor that was layed out for the dancing. Can you imagine trying to pull that off nowadays? If we could only have times like that today!

She remembers his famous bow tie, and how all the girls were just swooning at the front of the stage.She had the best time. My parents’ seats (they were newly engaged at the time), along with my Uncle and Aunt were quite a distance from the stage, but the minute Frankie came on my Mom and Aunt were off like a shot, my Dad and Uncle following. As I mentioned before, she was right up to the stage, and loving every minute.You can imagine her excitement, as she’d been a bobby soxer through and through, buying every magazine, and record. And here she was FRONT AND CENTRE STARING UP AT HER IDOL! Hopefully she’ll be able to write her memories of this great time down.

Take Care,from the Second Generation of Sinatra Fans-Ann

I had a bit of a laugh last night, as my Mom recalled another interesting fact about the concert in Toronto.

There was a dance floor put up in front of the stage, and the guys were wanting to dance. The girls on the otherhand were just standing there staring at their beloved Frankie!!!! But then again what else would one expect! He was sooooo cute!!!
-Ann-

And there you have it friends an overview of a historic dance hall in Toronto that sadly no longer stands. I hope you enjoyed the post as much as I did researching information about it. And if you get a chance you really should read Peter’s book, it is truly a good read.

FURTHER READING:

Vintage Toronto Blog Posts Archive
Vintage Advertising for the CNE – Canadian National Exhibition
Canadian National Exhibition is Here! The Vintage Edition (vintage images)
Step Back in Time with The Canadian National Exhibition (vintage images & advertising)
‘Let’s Dance’: The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Dance Tent
Exhibits & Displays Seen At The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) From The 1920s-1960s

Liz 🙂

What is the book about:

“Let’s Dance: A Celebration of Ontario’s Dance Halls and Summer Dance Pavilions is a nostalgic musical journey, recapturing the unforgettable music of youth and lasting friendships, the days when the live mellow sounds of Big Bands wafted through the air — Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers, Bert Niosi, Art Hallman, Johnny Downs, Mart Kenney, Bobby Kinsman, Ronnie Hawkins ….

Throughout the 1920s to the ’60s, numerous legendary entertainers drew thousands of people to such memorable venues as the Brant Inn in Burlington, Dunn’s Pavilion in Bala, the Stork Club at Port Stanley, to the Club Commodore in Belleville and the Top Hat Pavilion in North Bay — and the hundreds of other popular dance venues right across Ontario. From the days of jitney dancing through the introduction of jazz and the Big Bands era to the sounds of some of Ontario’s best rock groups, people of all ages came to dance and some to find romance on soft summer nights.”

The book was a wonderful read and especially since I’m a Lindy Hopper and I love all things Nostalgic around that era. So the book gave me the urge to:

A) Want to visit these places, existing or non existing;

B) Share some of the history with my readers and with the Ontario Lindy Hop dance scene as well.

So I thought I would do a blog series on many of these places, so here we go with our first post (scroll to the end to see the other posts I have done in this Series).

Changing with the Times

By the mid-50’s the Pier had to change direction to keep alive so they started booking country acts like Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash which ended up being very successful (“Let’s Dance” by Peter Young, pg 15). Also during the week they would book Bingos, Boxing matches, political rallies, proms and such to help pay the bills to get them to the weekend where they were still seeing around 1000 attendees coming out to celebrate music and dance.