Turofsky photographs

Admin History/Bio: Noted brothers, Nat and Lou Turofsky, began taking photos in 1907. They photographed wedding banquets, social and public events, and celebrities, but were mostly known for their sports photography and quickly established themselves as the premier photographers in the sporting world. Their diverse hockey photographs truly captured the essence of the game, all of which chronicled the Original Six era.; Lou Turofsky was born in 1892 in Chicago to Russian immigrant parents. The family moved to Toronto in 1900, and Lou began work as a photographer at Alexandra Studios in 1907. In 1910, he bought the business and in 1911, he hired his brother Nat to work with him. While Nat never married, Lou married Ruth Seigel in 1936, at the age of forty-five, and had two daughters, Carol (m. Grafstein) and Riki, who is now an opera singer.; Nat and Lou Turofsky were perhaps the most famous sports photographers of the 1940s and 1950s, due in part to their contract as the official photographers of Maple Leaf Gardens from the 1930s until the mid-1950s. They also photographed baseball games for the Toronto Maple Leaf baseball club.; Nat and Lou Turofsky died in 1956 and 1959 respectively.

Scope and Content: This series consists of eighteen photographs taken by the Turofsky brothers from the late 1940s up until 1974. The photographs depict members of the sports community in Toronto, including athletes, managers, newscasters, and reporters, as well as international athletes and celebrities such as Herb Elliot, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, and Liberace. Many of the photographs feature Spencer "Spiff" Evans, who was the publicity chief for the Maple Leaf Gardens during the 1940s and 1950s and, in 1963, became the director of public relations for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club.; The series has been arranged and described at the item level.

Notes: Associated material note: The Hockey Hall of Fame possesses a Turofsky collection numbering 19,000 negatives.