For this week’s Cabbagetown history, we’re featuring a National Film Board film from 1953 about the transition of Oak Street as a place in Cabbagetown (as it was then known) to Regent Park after it had been re-developed. Cabbagetown, north of Gerrard St. East, was similar in many respects at this time, to the pre-development era that is depicted in the film, and was slated to be developed in a similar manner.

A warning… this video is full of eyebrow-raising stereotypes that were obviously included to reinforce the prejudices and views of the authorities at the time.

The narrator of the video is famed Canadian actor Lorne Greene (“Pa” from the TV show Bonanza as I remember him, but also “The Voice of Doom” for CBC listeners during the Second World War).