Edmonton

The Muttart Conservatory is a botanical garden located in the North Saskatchewan river valley, across from downtown Edmonton. The conservatory... consists of four glass, pyramid-shaped structures that showcase plants from arid, tropical, and temperate climates, providing a welcome oasis of warmth during winter. The fourth pyramid hosts a theme that changes throughout the year. A donation from the Gladys and Merrill Muttart Foundation provided momentum for the conservatory's construction, with the remaining monies supplied by the Province of Alberta and the City of Edmonton. The conservatory is staffed and operated by the Edmonton Parks and Recreation Department. The conservatory's unusual structure, designed by architect Peter Hemingway is composed of four glassed pyramids built around a central service core. The two larger' pyramids are 660 square meters in area, and the two medium-sized ones are 410 square meters in size. Three of the pyramids are devoted to displays of plants from the tropical, temperate, and arid regions respectively, the fourth being used for shows that change with the seasons and which feature massed displays of ornamental flowering plants.
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The Citadel Theatre is the major venue for theatre arts in the city of Edmonton, located in the Downtown Core on Churchill Square. Originally located... in a former Salvation Army Citadel bought by Joseph H. Shoctor, James L. Martin, Ralph B. MacMillan, and Sandy Mactaggart, the theatre's first production to be performed was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The theatre was founded on October 12, 1965 with its first opening night on November 10, 1965. In its current location The Citadel has the distinction of being the only venue where the Jule Styne musical Pieces of Eight has been produced. The organization moved to its current building just off Churchill Square in 1978. Architect Barton Myers designed the structure. The building itself houses the Maclab, Shoctor and Rice Theatres, Zeidler Hall , the Tucker Amphitheatre, and the Foote Theatre School. The Maclab and Tucker are part of the Lee Pavilion, a luscious greenscape right in the middle of Edmonton.
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Fort Edmonton Park is an attraction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Named for the first enduring European post in the area of modern-day Edmonton, the... park is the largest living history museum in Canada by area. It includes both original and rebuilt historical structures representing the history of Edmonton , and is staffed during the summer by costumed historical interpreters. The history of Fort Edmonton Park's conception goes back as far as 1915. In that year, the remains of the old fort next to the Alberta Legislature Building were torn down, amidst opposition from citizens who wished to see the old structures relocated so that they could be cherished for their heritage value. A renewed interest after the Second World War began the momentum that saw the park begin construction in 1969 under the direction of the Fort Edmonton Foundation. The Foundation's Master Plan of 1968 envisioned a park that would present a cross-section of the Edmonton area's history from the distant geological past, to the areas that it currently embodies, and even an area that would prophesy Edmonton's future.
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Michael Andrew Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, celebrity, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career... spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City , for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure. This led him to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and on March 5, 2010, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet gave him a honoris causa doctorate for his work in advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease. Since 2000 Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and taken guest TV roles such as in Boston Legal, The Good Wife, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me.
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Candas Jane Dorsey is a Canadian poet and science fiction novelist. Born and still living in Edmonton, Alberta, Dorsey became a writer from an early... age, and a freelance writer since 1980. She writes across genre boundaries, writing poetry, fiction, mainstream and speculative, short and long form, arts journalism and arts advocacy. Dorsey has also written television and stage scripts, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews. Dorsey currently teaches, does workshops and readings. She has served on the executive board of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and is a founder of SF Canada. In 1988, Dorsey received the Aurora, Canadian science fiction and fantasy award. Dorsey was editor-in-chief of The Books Collective from 1992 through 2005.
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William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well known for his novel Shoeless Joe , which was adapted... into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work has often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and other Canadian issues. William Patrick Kinsella was born to Irish American parents John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton. He did not go to school until the fifth grade, and did not attend university until he was in his mid-30s. Kinsella was not exposed to literature in school, claiming in a 2010 interview, "One Shakespeare play and one J. M. Barrie play was the total literature of my high school years." Kinsella's literary education in his formative years came from reading and by attending all the plays at high school and any theatrical productions that made it to Edmonton.
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Thomas B. Kin "Tommy" Chong is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, activist, and musician who is well known for his stereotypical... portrayals of hippie-era stoners. He is most widely known for his involvement in the marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy movies with Cheech Marin, as well as playing the character Leo on Fox's That '70s Show. Chong was born as Thomas B. Kin Chong in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Lorna Jean , a waitress of Scots-Irish and French ancestry, and Stanley Chong, a Chinese truck driver who emigrated to Canada from Guangdong province, China in the 1920s, where he first lived with his aunt in Vancouver. While he was still young, Chong's family moved to Calgary, Alberta to a conservative neighbourhood Chong refers to as the Dog Patch. He says that his father had "been wounded in World War II, and there was a veterans' hospital in Calgary. He bought a five-hundred dollar house in Dog Patch, and raised his family on fifty dollars a week." He later dropped out of Crescent Heights High School in Calgary, Alberta.
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Robert Gerard Goulet was a Canadian American entertainer as a singer and actor. He is probably best known for originating the role of Lancelot in... the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot and his numerous appearances in Las Vegas. Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the only son of French Canadian parents Jeanette Gauthier and Joseph Georges André Goulet, a laborer. Through his father he was a descendant of Zacharie Cloutier as well as Jacques Goulet. Shortly after his father's death, 13-year-old Robert moved with his mother and sister Claire to Girouxville, Alberta, and he spent his formative years in Canada. Due to the Canadian citizenship law at the time, Goulet was not awarded Canadian citizenship despite his Canadian parents, making him a Lost Canadian. A 2008 law allowed him to retroactively be rewarded citizenship, but he died before it was received. Goulet's rise to fame started at the age of five when his aunts and uncles blackened his face with burnt cork and prompted him to do Al Jolson impressions.
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Arthur Hiller, OC is a Canadian film director. His filmography includes 33 major studio releases, including the 1970 film Love Story. A film... festival in Hiller's name was held each spring from 2006 until 2009 at his alma mater, Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts, in tribute for his continued support of the school. Hiller was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and graduated from University College, University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947, a Master of Arts degree in psychology in 1950 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1995. Hiller began his show business career in television for the CBC in Toronto in the 1950s, and was a successful television director before moving into films and Hollywood. In the 1950s Hiller directed an episode of the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled "Disappearing Trick" which starred Betsy von Furstenberg and Robert Horton. He also directed a number of episodes of Thriller. In an interview with journalist Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life, Hiller noted the film Rome, Open City to have had a strong influence on his career. It just felt so real to me and so good.
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Candas Jane Dorsey is a Canadian poet and science fiction novelist. Born and still living in Edmonton, Alberta, Dorsey became a writer from an early... age, and a freelance writer since 1980. She writes across genre boundaries, writing poetry, fiction, mainstream and speculative, short and long form, arts journalism and arts advocacy. Dorsey has also written television and stage scripts, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews. Dorsey currently teaches, does workshops and readings. She has served on the executive board of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and is a founder of SF Canada. In 1988, Dorsey received the Aurora, Canadian science fiction and fantasy award. Dorsey was editor-in-chief of The Books Collective from 1992 through 2005.
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William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well known for his novel Shoeless Joe , which was adapted... into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work has often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and other Canadian issues. William Patrick Kinsella was born to Irish American parents John Matthew Kinsella and Olive Kinsella in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinsella was raised until he was 10 years old at a homestead near Darwell, Alberta, 60 km west of the city, home-schooled by his mother and taking correspondence courses. "I'm one of these people who woke up at age five knowing how to read and write," he says. When he was ten, the family moved to Edmonton. He did not go to school until the fifth grade, and did not attend university until he was in his mid-30s. Kinsella was not exposed to literature in school, claiming in a 2010 interview, "One Shakespeare play and one J. M. Barrie play was the total literature of my high school years." Kinsella's literary education in his formative years came from reading and by attending all the plays at high school and any theatrical productions that made it to Edmonton.
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Thomas B. Kin "Tommy" Chong is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, activist, and musician who is well known for his stereotypical... portrayals of hippie-era stoners. He is most widely known for his involvement in the marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy movies with Cheech Marin, as well as playing the character Leo on Fox's That '70s Show. Chong was born as Thomas B. Kin Chong in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Lorna Jean , a waitress of Scots-Irish and French ancestry, and Stanley Chong, a Chinese truck driver who emigrated to Canada from Guangdong province, China in the 1920s, where he first lived with his aunt in Vancouver. While he was still young, Chong's family moved to Calgary, Alberta to a conservative neighbourhood Chong refers to as the Dog Patch. He says that his father had "been wounded in World War II, and there was a veterans' hospital in Calgary. He bought a five-hundred dollar house in Dog Patch, and raised his family on fifty dollars a week." He later dropped out of Crescent Heights High School in Calgary, Alberta.
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Arthur Hiller, OC is a Canadian film director. His filmography includes 33 major studio releases, including the 1970 film Love Story. A film... festival in Hiller's name was held each spring from 2006 until 2009 at his alma mater, Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts, in tribute for his continued support of the school. Hiller was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and graduated from University College, University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947, a Master of Arts degree in psychology in 1950 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1995. Hiller began his show business career in television for the CBC in Toronto in the 1950s, and was a successful television director before moving into films and Hollywood. In the 1950s Hiller directed an episode of the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled "Disappearing Trick" which starred Betsy von Furstenberg and Robert Horton. He also directed a number of episodes of Thriller. In an interview with journalist Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life, Hiller noted the film Rome, Open City to have had a strong influence on his career. It just felt so real to me and so good.
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Brian Lee Harvey is an English musician and former lead singer of pop band East 17. Harvey was born in Walthamstow, London, and attended Sir George... Monoux School from 1988-90. Harvey was initially slated to be a backup singer and dancer for East 17, but during the initial recording session he was heard singing along by the recording staff and was promptly instated as the lead singer of the band. Harvey's vocal style emulated R&B and New Jack Swing vocalists from the U.S. His vocals put him into a position of the band's frontman, or main member, which was shared with the band's creator, songwriter, instrumentalist, rapper and singer Tony Mortimer. Throughout the course of the band's career the two leads had many disagreements, from how to vocalise songs to their behaviour in public. This tore the band between spiritual pop/hip-hop and R&B which would eventually lead to Mortimer leaving the band and Harvey becoming the only lead singer. Harvey was sacked from the band after making comments in a radio interview that appeared to condone the use of the drug ecstasy.
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Mark Douglas Messier is a former Canadian professional ice hockey centre of the National Hockey League and current special assistant to the... president and general manager of the New York Rangers. He spent a quarter of a century in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Vancouver Canucks. He also played professionally with the World Hockey Association 's Indianapolis Racers and Cincinnati Stingers. He was the last former WHA player to be active in professional hockey, and the last active player who had played in the NHL in the 1970s. Messier is considered one of the greatest NHL players of all time. He is second on the all-time career lists for regular season points , playoff points and regular season games played . He won six Stanley Cups, five with the Oilers and one with the Rangers, and is the only player to captain two different professional teams to championships. His playoff leadership while in New York, which ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994, earned him the nickname "The Messiah".
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