[LINK] "Vintage Toronto Ads: Where Young Moderns Get Wrecked"

[rfmcdonald]

Over at Torontoist, Jame Bradburn reproduces an advertisement for a cool--or "cool"--hot spot at 90 Avenue Road, for dancers of ska and cumbia and that sort of thing.

During a long night of testing out the latest dance moves with local swingers, isn't it refreshing to know that hot canapes will be waiting for you when you need to step off the disco floor?

Those enticed by the trappings of the Wreck Room as presented in today's ad might have been confused once they reached Avenue Road. Based on other ads that appeared in local papers throughout 1966, whoever submitted this one got the address wrong. If you wanted to boogaloo the night away, you had to cross the road to the Regency Towers Hotel (now Howard Johnson).

We also checked the phone numbers listed above, which don't match the reservation line indicated in any other Wreck Room ads we have encountered. We found one of the numbers listed in a June 1967 Star classified ad as the morning number for a "coloured" nurse looking for a clean, three-bedroom unfurnished apartment near the TTC. Other details regarding the club match up, from its location within the building to the cocktail hour.

As the club awaited its liquor license during the spring of 1966, it was reluctant to admit to the Star if its cocktail waitresses would be of the scantily clad variety. The manager refused to allow any pictures to be taken for an article on the rise of Playboy Bunny-inspired servers around Toronto, fearing that any shots would "prejudice" the liquor board's decision.