The Pulse: June 14, 2023

As part of Edmonton's Summer of Pride, the beacon that adorned the famous Flashback nightclub will be added to the Neon Sign Museum downtown.

The Relight The Neon event at 2pm on June 17 will see the iconic piece of Edmonton's queer history unveiled at the outdoor museum at 104 Street and 104 Avenue, not too far from where the club stood before it closed in 1992.

"So much of our history just gets erased," said Matthew Hays, a journalist, advocate, author, and university instructor who is working with his brother Peter Hays of Tangerine Productions on a documentary about Flashback. "I think now that people are more accepting, I think it's beautiful to commemorate those historical moments in those places."

The film is meant to touch on what made Flashback more than just a piece of the nightlife, said Hays, a former Edmontonian now based in Montreal.

"You want to be with people who you don't have to think about anything with, you just want to let your hair down and be yourself," he said. "That's what Flashback often was."

John Reid, who is expected to be at the sign installation, established the popular nightclub in 1975 in opposition to strict entrance requirements at other gay clubs in the area, aiming to create a space "for gay people and their friends," as a sign in the foyer read.

"It's one of those instances where the underground culture had an influence on the mainstream," Hays said.

• The city is deactivating its extreme weather response and poor air quality response as of 8am on June 14. The fire hydrants across the city that were modified to be water bottle-filling stations will remain in place until Sept. 30.
• A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect for parts of central and north-central Alberta including Edmonton on June 13. The storms were expected to bring heavy rain, hail, and potentially damaging wind gusts. There was also a slight risk of a tornado developing before the end of the day.
• The city announced that it won the 2023 Transportation Association of Canada Technical Achievement Award along with its partners Empower Me and the Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta. The award recognizes the Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Expo held at the Edmonton EXPO Centre, which was a free two-day public event that drew nearly 6,000 people to learn about zero-emission vehicles last September. Edmonton's Electric Vehicle Strategy was approved in 2018 and aims to identify how to make it easier for residents to own electric vehicles, particularly plug-in light duty EVs, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The city has declared the Magrath Mansion, located on Ada Boulevard in the Highlands neighbourhood, as a Municipal Historic Resource. Completed in 1913, the building is considered unique for its connection to Edmonton's early development. The home was owned by Ada and William Magrath, the latter of whom co-owned the Magrath-Holgate Company, which sought to buy up land in what is now Highlands to create a suburb for affluent residents. Its design is influenced by the Classical Revival style and features a wide central staircase and two-storey colonnade. Today, the Magrath Mansion is owned by Concordia University of Edmonton and is used for alumni and fundraising events, among other activities. It has been a designated Provincial Historic Resource since 1975.
• The Brighton Block, a historic Edwardian-style building located at 9666 Jasper Avenue, has been caught in a web of financial and legal battles. The building, which has been mostly vacant in recent years, was restored by Primavera Development Group before the pandemic, but the company's owner said the pandemic ruined leasing opportunities. CBC reported that the sale of the building to a numbered company was approved in November 2022, while Brighton Block Inc., which is owned by the president of Primavera Development Group, filed an appeal of the sale. Future plans for the building remain unclear. "The stage is set for a tenancy in the building," said David Johnston, the city's principal heritage planner, who said the Brighton Block could be a "cornerstone" of The Quarters Downtown.
• Claire Pearan, an organizer with the Pride Corner on Whyte Avenue, is facing a third restraining order from street preachers who allege that Pearan has been harassing them. The latest restraining order was filed by Christian missionary Olga Podgornaja 18 days after a judge dismissed the second restraining order, also filed by Podgornaja. The first restraining order, filed by Fawn Lamouche in October 2022, was lifted in March 2023. Pearan claims the orders are all part of a coordinated effort to prevent her from protesting against homophobic hate speech from street preachers who are connected with Podgornaja and Lamouche. Justice Martha Burns has warned Podgornaja she will face costs if she continues to file new orders rather than appeal past decisions and moved the case to July so Podgornaja, who has been representing herself, can find a lawyer.
• The Edmonton Oilers have extended forward Derek Ryan's contract in a two-year deal worth US $1.8 million. The 36-year-old joined the Oilers as a free agent in July 2021 and had 20 points across 80 games during the 2022-2023 season.
• The wildfire near Edson remained out of control as of June 13 after firefighters worked overnight to battle the flames. The fire, which has burned more than 204,000 hectares since it was detected on May 4, is expected to take weeks or months to extinguish. The town's 8,400 residents, along with some residents of Yellowhead County, have been under a mandatory evacuation order since June 9.
• In her first news conference since the May 29 provincial election, NDP Leader Rachel Notley indicated that there are no timelines for a leadership change and pointed to the "tremendous amount of ground" made by the NDP despite losing the election. Leah Ward, vice-president of Wellington Advocacy and a former NDP staffer, suggested Notley is likely thinking about the party's next leadership review, which is scheduled for 2024. Notley said her focus now is to push Premier Danielle Smith to govern from a centrist position, improve healthcare, hire thousands of teachers, and address affordability issues. She also said she is "deeply concerned" about Adriana LaGrange's appointment as Minister of Health because LaGrange has previously been closely involved with anti-abortion groups.

On this day in 1934, the Edmonton Senior Amateur Baseball League was set to host the famous House of David team.

House of David, part of a Michigan religious commune of the same name, was a baseball sensation at the time, partly because of the lifestyle that the commune members kept, which prohibited meat, alcohol, sex, tobacco, and shaving. They also drew crowds due to their impressive skill as well as gimmicks such as hiding the ball in their beards and even playing on the backs of donkeys at times.

The House of David barnstormed across North America for decades, and Edmonton was a somewhat frequent stop. The hirsute team had been through in 1929, before their 1934 game against Webb King's Royals. Then in 1948, at a time when the game was highly segregated, the House of David played in Edmonton against the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the most successful franchises in the Negro Leagues. The game at Renfrew Park, now the site of RE/MAX Field, drew up to 4,000 spectators.

While Edmonton might now be known as a hub of hockey fandom, the city has been home to several baseball leagues and professional teams. The Edmonton Legislatures, the city's first team, began playing in fields in the Rossdale Flats around 1884. A little over two decades later, they would become a professional team — the Edmonton Grays — and play in the newly opened Diamond Park in Rossdale.

The sport would continue to be a popular pastime in Edmonton, although professional baseball would be on hold for most of the 1910s due to the First World War. When pro baseball came back, it did so in spectacular fashion — during the 1920 home opener of Edmonton's new team (which shared the same nickname as the city's recently renamed CFL team), flying ace Wilfred "Wop" May swooped overhead and dropped a ceremonial ball on the field.

The team would play in the Western Canadian League for three years before shutting down. That would mark the end of professional baseball in Edmonton until 1950. However, amateur leagues continued to entertain eager audiences. In 1933, the Senior Edmonton Amateur League took over the lease at Renfrew Park.

During the Second World War, many of the young men who might have played baseball were instead shipped off to the battlefields of Europe. The game's popularity ebbed and flowed for the rest of the 20th century, perhaps peaking with the arrival of the Edmonton Trappers, a Triple-A team that played here from 1981 to 2004.

The last couple of decades have seen more changes to the baseball landscape, with new teams rising and falling. Last week saw crowds return to RE/MAX Field for the opener of the Edmonton Riverhawks' second season in the West Coast League. Meanwhile, the Edmonton Prospects will skip this year's season due to construction delays at their new Spruce Grove ballpark.

This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.