The People's Olympics, in Barcelona, Spain was intended as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics planned for Berlin during the period of Nazi rule. The newly-elected, left-wing Popular Front government in Spain decided to boycott the Berlin Olympics and host its own games following its election in February 1936. Invitations were made to the nations of the world. Buildings built for the 1929 World's Fair were supposed to be used for an Olympic Village. The games were scheduled to be held from 19 July to 26 July and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games.
A total of 6,000 athletes from twenty-two nations registered for the games, including boxers Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack from Canada.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and Communist parties, and other left-wing groups rather than by state-sponsored committees. Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack were sent with donations from the Canadian Jewish Congress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were cancelled.
Scope and Content
Photograph of Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack in a casual boxing match on route to Barcelona for the People's Olympics aboard the SS Alaunia.
Notes
Image is located on Page 11 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Subjects
Boxing matches
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Norman "Baby" Yack was born Benjamin Norman Yakubowitz in Toronto in 1915. As an amateur bantamweight boxer, Yack won over ninety of one hundred fights. In 1936, he opted out of competing in the Berlin Olympics as a protest to Nazi rule. Instead, he travelled to Barcelona with fellow Jewish boxer Sammy Luftspring to compete in the People's Olympics, which was cancelled at the last minute due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Later that year, Yack turned professional and, under the management of Steve Rocco, became the fourth ranked bantamweight in the world. Yack retired in Toronto. He died in 1987.
Harry Sniderman was a well-known Toronto sportsman. In 1936, Sniderman organized the financial backing from the Canadian Jewish Congress that allowed himself, Sammy Luftspring, and Norman "Baby" Yack to go to Barcelona to participate in the People's Olympics. His role at the event was to act as coach and organizer for the athletes. Later in life he was the owner of the Warwick Hotel, which was located at the corner of Jarvis and Dundas Street.
Scope and Content
Photograph of Sammy Luftspring, Harry Sniderman and Norman "Baby" Yack aboard the S.S. Alaunia as they travelled to Barcelona for the People's Olympics. They are dressed casually and are standing on the deck of the ship.
Notes
Image is located on page 75 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Name Access
Sniderman, Harry
Yakubowitz, Norman
Subjects
Pitchers (Baseball)
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
The People's Olympics, in Barcelona, Spain was intended as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics planned for Berlin during the period of Nazi rule. The newly-elected, left-wing Popular Front government in Spain decided to boycott the Berlin Olympics and host its own games following its election in February 1936. Invitations were made to the nations of the world. Buildings built for the 1929 World's Fair were supposed to be used for an Olympic Village. The games were scheduled to be held from 19 July to 26 July and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games.
A total of 6,000 athletes from twenty-two nations registered for the games, including boxers Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack from Canada.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and Communist parties, and other left-wing groups rather than by state-sponsored committees. Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack were sent with donations from the Canadian Jewish Congress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were cancelled.
Scope and Content
Photograph is of Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack in a casual boxing match on their way to Barcelona and the People's Olympics aboard the SS Alaunia.
Notes
Image is located on page 19 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Subjects
Boxing matches
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
The People's Olympics, in Barcelona, Spain was intended as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics planned for Berlin during the period of Nazi rule. The newly-elected, left-wing Popular Front government in Spain decided to boycott the Berlin Olympics and host its own games following its election in February 1936. Invitations were made to the nations of the world. Buildings built for the 1929 World's Fair were supposed to be used for an Olympic Village. The games were scheduled to be held from 19 July to 26 July and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games.
A total of 6,000 athletes from twenty-two nations registered for the games, including boxers Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack from Canada.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and Communist parties, and other left-wing groups rather than by state-sponsored committees. Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack were sent with donations from the Canadian Jewish Congress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were cancelled.
Scope and Content
Photograph of Sammy Luftspring mid-ocean aboard the SS Alaunia on route to Barcelona and the People's Olympics.
Notes
Image is located on page 2 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
The People's Olympics, in Barcelona, Spain was intended as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics planned for Berlin during the period of Nazi rule. The newly-elected, left-wing Popular Front government in Spain decided to boycott the Berlin Olympics and host its own games following its election in February 1936. Invitations were made to the nations of the world. Buildings built for the 1929 World's Fair were supposed to be used for an Olympic Village. The games were scheduled to be held from 19 July to 26 July and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games.
A total of 6,000 athletes from twenty-two nations registered for the games, including boxers Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack from Canada.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and Communist parties, and other left-wing groups rather than by state-sponsored committees. Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack were sent with donations from the Canadian Jewish Congress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were cancelled.
Scope and Content
Photograph of Sammy Luftspring aboard the SS Alaunia on route to the People's Olympics in Barcelona.
Notes
Image is located on page 22 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
The People's Olympics, in Barcelona, Spain was intended as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics planned for Berlin during the period of Nazi rule. The newly-elected, left-wing Popular Front government in Spain decided to boycott the Berlin Olympics and host its own games following its election in February 1936. Invitations were made to the nations of the world. Buildings built for the 1929 World's Fair were supposed to be used for an Olympic Village. The games were scheduled to be held from 19 July to 26 July and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games.
A total of 6,000 athletes from twenty-two nations registered for the games, including boxers Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack from Canada.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and Communist parties, and other left-wing groups rather than by state-sponsored committees. Sammy Luftspring and Norman "Baby" Yack were sent with donations from the Canadian Jewish Congress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were cancelled.
Scope and Content
Photograph features Sammy Luftspring with an unknown child on his way to Barcelona to participate in the People's Olympics aboard the SS Alaunia.
Notes
Image is located on page 17 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Subjects
Children
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
This accession consists of one photocopy of the diary of Sammy Luftspring, recounting an aborted trip to Barcelona, Spain for a competition during his boycott of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Sammy Luftspring (1915–2000) was a professional boxer and Canadian welterwight champion. Luftspring married Elise and together they had two children, Brian and Orian.
Scope and Content
Sammy Luftspring was fourteen years old at the time of this photograph.
Name Access
Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000
Subjects
Boxers (Sports)
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Sammy Luftspring was born on 14 May 1916 in Toronto's Ward neighbourhood. His parents were working-class Jews who emigrated from eastern Europe. Sammy began training as a youth at the Brunswick YMHA. He lived in Kensington Market and attended B'nai Brith summer camp as a youngster. In 1932 he started entering boxing matches. He competed in 105 fights and only lost five bouts, capturing the Golden Glove tournaments in weight classes ranging from bantamweight to welterweight. Sammy became famous for his fighting prowess and Jewish pride, always sporting a Star of David on his boxing shorts.
By 1933, he became the Ontario lightweight champion, representing the Elm Grove Athletic Club. That same year, he took part in the Christie Pits riot. Because of his accomplishments in the ring and his contribution to his community, he became a highly respected athlete within the Jewish community.
In 1936, he was selected for the Canadian team to take part in the Berlin Olympics that year. Although he was eager to compete, his parents and the community pressured him to boycott the games in protest over the Nazis' treatment of Jews in Germany. Luftspring and "Baby Yak," another famous local Jewish boxer, decided to participate instead in the alternate games in Barcelona, Spain, called the People's Olympics. After making the trip to Europe by ship, the two faced the disappointment of having the event cancelled after the Spanish Civil War broke out on the eve of the opening ceremonies.
After his return to Toronto, Luftspring began to box professionally. In 1938, he won the Canadian welterweight championship after a fifteen-round fight where he defeated Frank Genovese. He held the title for two years. During a fight in New York against Steve Belloise, Luftspring was poked in the eye, resulting in a detached retina. This injury left him blind in one eye, ending his boxing career.
By 1948, he began a new career as a boxing referee. He refereed for several decades, overseeing some of the most celebrated fights of that time. He also ran a nightclub in Toronto called the Mercury Club with three partners. It attracted famous entertainers such as Henry Youngman, Vic Damone, and Tony Bennett. He subsequently ran other nightclubs such as the Tropicana.
In addition to his boxing career, Sammy was also a devoted family man. He married his wife, Elsie, in 1938 at the McCaul Street synagogue. Three hundred and fifty people attended and hundreds waited outside of the synagogue to wish them well. They had two children: Brian and Orian.
His biography, Call Me Sammy, was published in 1975. Luftspring was given the great honour in 1985 of being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. He passed away on 27 September 2000.
Custodial History
The scrapbooks were created by Sammy Luftspring. He kept them at his house and when he passed away they were safeguarded by his son Brian.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of two scrapbooks that reflect Sammy Luftspring's personal life and various careers as a boxer, referee, author, and nightclub manager/owner. Scrapbooks contain correspondence, ephemera, newspaper clippings, brochures, autographs, coins, and approximately seven hundred photographs.
Personal records include photographs of Sammy and his family during his childhood, family weddings, trips and vacations, and other family events, such as birthday parties and his son's bar mitzvah. There are also letters and cards from Sammy's wife, children, grandchildren and friends, and other ephemeral items Sammy collected, such as ticket stubs from baseball games.
Professional records include images of Sammy training for upcoming boxing matches, portraits of Sammy posing in his boxing attire, images from the grand opening of the Mercury Club, photographs of Sammy as a referee, as well as photographs of Sammy at various celebrity boxing matches. There is also correspondence and a brochure documenting Sammy's incorporation into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and some correspondence regarding the publication and promotion of his book. Finally, there are numerous newspaper clippings relating to all of Sammy's professional endeavours.
Name Access
Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000
Subjects
Boxers (Sports)
Physical Condition
The scrapbooks are in poor condition. Many of the photographs, documents and clippings were glued to the pages and the pages have almost all fallen out of the bindings.
Related Material
1981-1-7
Arrangement
The scrapbooks have been kept intact and no arrangement has been done. However, some of the key images have been scanned and item level descriptions have been completed for them.
Item is a photograph of members of the Luftspring family at the Slipia Synagogue Section of Dawes Road Cemetery in Scarborough, Ontario. Sammy's mother, Bella Luftspring, passed away on 24 March 1940. The family is standing around her grave stone. Sammy Luftspring is seen on the left side of the image.
Notes
Image is located on page 35 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Subjects
Sepulchral monuments
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
This item is a scanned photograph of Bella Diamant (fourth from right) aboard the S.S. Estonia en route to Canada. Included is a scan of the recto and verso of the photograph. Written on the back in Polish are several names including Turek and [Mr. Wasszawski?] and the address Reid Ave. 295.
Notes
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION NOTE: Digitization of the original photograph was done by the OJA Archivist. Both recto and verso were digitized as tiff files and a jpg access copy was made.
Sammy Luftspring (b.1915-d.2000) was a professional boxer and Canadian Welterwight Champion. Luftspring married Elise and together they had two children, Brian and Orian.
Name Access
Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000
Subjects
Boxers (Sports)
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Group photograph of Sammy Luftspring and his campers while Sammy was a junior counsellor at Camp B'nai Brith in Orillia, Ontario. Also pictured is Neddie Adler, another counsellor.
Notes
Image is located on page 50 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Name Access
Camp B'nai Brith (Orillia, Ont.)
Subjects
Camps
Portraits, Group
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Item is a tintype of Sammy Luftspring and Elsie Goldman (m. Luftspring) at Sunnyside Beach. This photograph was taken while they were still dating. They married in 1938. Item would have been produced as a souvenir.
Notes
Image is located on page 13 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Subjects
Couples
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Item is a photograph of Sammy Luftspring, Muhammed Ali, and Murray Pezim in Vancouver. Murray Pezim was a Vancouver business person and promoter. He had organized the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Chavulo, the event at which the photograph was taken.
Notes
Image is located on page 29 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Name Access
Ali, Muhammad, 1942-2016
Pezim, Murray, 1921-1998
Subjects
Businesspeople
Repro Restriction
Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.
File contains records related to the planning and organization of the route, including checkpoints along the way and necessary permissions. The records include lists, correspondence, schedules, a park use application, letters to agencies confirming UJA's use of their land for checkpoints, permission to hold a parade and sample thank you letters. There are also route maps for the following years: 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992.
Jack "Spider" Armstrong was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but he made Toronto his home. He became the featherweight chamption of the world in 1940. He died in 1990.
Scope and Content
Photograph of Sammy and Jack "Spider" Armstrong play-boxing at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary while on a boxing tour.
Notes
Image is located on page 50 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Name Access
Armstrong, Jack
Fairmont Palliser Hotel (Calgary, Alta.)
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Item is a photograph of Sammy Luftspring at Niagara-on-the-Lake when he was serving with the reserves as a trainer. He was a member of the Toronto Scottish Regiment. He was unable to enlist for active duty because of the injury to his eye and resulting blindness. As a result, his only participation in the World War II was as a trainer in Ontario.
Notes
Image is located on page 15c of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Davey Paul (né Peters) was born in 1916. He was a Canadian featherweight boxer who boxed from 1935 to 1938. Paul won Canadian Golden Gloves flyweight title in 1935. He is a member of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame and had over fifty professional fights in his career. He also was a physical training officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. After the war he went into the retail business. He died in 1998.
Scope and Content
Item is of three boxers photographed together.
Notes
Image is located on page 32 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Photograph is of Sammy Luftspring in what is known as a "ready pose" in boxing: he has one foot behind him and his fists up. He is pictured in the backyard of his family home on Nassau Street in Toronto.
Notes
Image is located on page 50 of the 65 x 48 cm scrapbook.
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Sammy Luftspring (b.1915-d.2000) was a professional boxer and Canadian Welterwight Champion. Luftspring married Elise and together they had two children, Brian and Orian.
Scope and Content
Item consists of a copy of an advertisement for Adam Hat, featuring Welterweight Champion of Canada Sammy Luftspring.
Name Access
Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000
Subjects
Boxers (Sports)
Repro Restriction
Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.
Accession consists of flyers regarding the mass meeting held at Maple Leaf Gardens on the occassion of the establishment of the State of Israel. The meeting followed a parade by the community down College St. There are also news stories and correspondence from the Jewish Agency For Palestine concerning the issues of the Irgun, the Haganah, and the attack on the Altelena ship on the beach of Tel Aviv.
Subjects
Israel--History--Declaration of Independence, 1948
Accession consists of an Arts Theatre Club Trophy. This trophy has a wood base, on the left are theatrical masks in gold, on the right is a taller wood block with a plaque on the front, on top is a silver statue. This item has been deaccessioned and removed (11/24/15)
Accession consists of two Yiddish broadsides and two fans from Tip Top Tailors. The broadsides are from performances at Massey Hall and Centre Theatre at Dundas Street and Markham Street.
The Massey Hall broadside is for a November 1942 performance of Judas Maccabaeus, which included contributions by Jack Reid, Emil Gartner, Virginia Dobson, Igor Gorin, Irving Levine, and Ernest Shaeffer.
The Centre theatre broadside is for Joseph in the Land of Egypt, ca.1931.
Custodial History
The donor purchased the broadsides and fans at auction and therefore the custodial history is unknown.
This accession consists of textual records related to Toronto Jewish businesses and organizations including business receipts, United Jewish Appeal certificates, a Canadian Jewish Congress program and a U of T Jewish Studies program booklet.
Custodial History
The records were bought at auction by Morris Norman and then donated to the Archives on 4 December 2008.
A four-page edition of the Canadian Daily Record from December 23, 1918; a 1938 report by the Canadian National Committee on Refugees and Victims of Political Persecution, entitled "Should Canada Admit Refugees? Some considerations and arguments submitted for the consideration of the people of Canada"; "Notes for an Address by the Honourable R[ichard]. A[lbert]. Bell, M.P., Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada," from January 20, 1963; and The Dynamics of Economic Adjustment of Canadian Jewry, an essay by Dr. Joseph Kage, [196-].
Accession consists of a Tip Top Tailors wall clock and five tzedakah boxes from Israel. Also included is a postcard of the Mossington Park resort on Lake Simcoe featuring a Gentiles Only sign, several copies from the mid-1940s of the CJC Committee on Social and Economic Studies Information and Comment bulletins, as well as a programme for the twenty-seventh anniversary celebrations for the Soviet Union, held at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1944. The program included a message from the prime minister, W. L. MacKenzie King, and a broadcast from Paul Robeson. The master of ceremonies was Lorne Greene. The content of the CJC studies include: research projects of the CJC (1946), racial discrimination and public policy (1946), the use of the terms "racial origin" and "religion" in the Canadian census (1946), opinion polls and social control (1946), intermarriage and children of intermarriages (1946), prejudice and Canadian unity (1946), comparative occupational distribution (1947), community action versus racial prejudice (1947), audience reaction analysis to the film "Don't Be a Sucker" (1947), Fair Employment Practices Laws for Canada (1947), age distribution of Jewish population in Ontario (1949), Immigration of Jews to Canada (1948), Saskatchewan Bill of Rights Act (1949), Jews in the professions in Canada (1949), answering the bigot: a summary of the Incident control project (1949), Canadian public opinion on racial restrictive covenants (1949), anti-minority discrimination and the law: a Canadian progress report (1950), immigration to Canada 1945 to 1949: official figures, refugee industries in Canada: latest available statistics (1947), and from juvenile immigrant to Canadian citizen (1950). Authors of CJC reports include Dr. A. F. Citron, Dr. J. Harding, Dr. Louis Rosenberg, Dr. Manfred Saalheimer, Professor F. R. Scott and Dr. Morris C. Shumiatcher.
Custodial History
The items were bought by Morris Norman, a collector of Judaica, and donated to the archives on 3 June 2009.
Subjects
Human rights
Discrimination in employment
Name Access
Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region (Toronto, Ont.)
Accession consists of a typed letter, written and signed by Dr. Otto Strasser, regarding an order for an article titled, "Memorandum for shortwave propaganda to Germany."
Custodial History
The item was bought by Morris Norman, a collector of Judaica, and donated to the Archives in December 2009.
Administrative History
Otto Strasser (1897-1974) was a German politician and member of the German Nazi party. He was expelled from the party in 1930 for creating and leading a leftist faction called the "Black Front," and was exiled from Germany until 1955. He spent his years in exile in various countries. In 1941 he immigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal and later Nova Scotia. As a dissenting Nazi, he sought the downfall of Hitler by heading the Free German Movement and writing articles on the Nazi leadership for newspapers in Canada, Britain and the U.S.
Accession consists of one photograph of Norman Gulko that was taken in Holland near the end of the Second World War and Norman's unpublished war memoir entitled "A Toronto Boy Goes to War."
Administrative History
Norman Gulko was born in Toronto on 4 March 1923. He was conscripted into the Royal Canadian Army in late 1942 and joined Canada's active service in 1944. Norman was initially stationed in Italy but was moved to various other cities in France, Holland, and Germany. After the war, Norman received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and worked as a social worker in Toronto from 1952 until his retirement in 1988.
Use Conditions
Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
Descriptive Notes
Availability of other formats: Digitized material.
5 photographs : col. and b&w ; 40 x 26 cm or smaller
Date
[ca. 1950]-[ca. 1999]
Scope and Content
Accession consists of photographs, business cards, and a one-page history documenting Norman Sharpe and his department store, which was located on Dundas Street West in the Junction.
Accession consists of photographs of the Hersch family, a screenplay by Phillip Hersch, school certificates from Landsdowne School, Canadian naturalization certificates, thank you notes, a New Year's greeting card, and a Polish passport. Included are photographs of weddings, Europe vacations, class photos, houses in Toronto, bar mitzvah, Niagara falls, Channukah, Farms, studio sets, the beach, and snow scenes.
Custodial History
The records were in the possession of Norman Hersch until his death in the mid-1980s, at which point the donor took possession of the records and stored them until donating them to the OJA in March 2015.
Administrative History
Norman Hersch was a special effects technician for the CBC from the early 1950s until his retirement in the mid-1980s. He was married to a French woman from Western Canada named Margaret. He is buried in the Mount Albert area with his wife. He served in the Canadian military during the Second World War and graduated from Central Technical School upon his return. In later years, he started P & M Display in Yorkville. Norman's older brother Phillip was a screenwriter in Toronto. He wrote the CBC series Wojek. Their mother Lily (Polish) volunteered at Mount Sinai Hospital. Their father Alexander (Romanian) worked in stainless steel manufacturing. They lived around Cecil Street. Doug Wardle was a friend and colleague of Hersch's at CBC in the Special Effects Department.