GOODBYE, PADDLEWHEEL
It was once Winnipeg’s prime teen
hangout, but big wheels don’t keep on
turning forever.
THIS Thursday, the Paddlewheel restaurant
at the Bay’s flagship downtown store will
close its doors for good. With it
will go decades of memories and a piece of
Winnipeg history.
Opened October 29, 1954 as The Paddle
Wheel Buffet, the sixth floor restaurant
with its riverboat and prairie landscape
motif (which hardly changed), complete
with spinning paddlewheel and wishing
well, quickly became a popular lunch spot
for shoppers. Unescorted ladies
could sit in the Crinoline Court
surrounded by a picket fence while the
glassed-in elevated riverboat was for
several years a gentlemen-only club.
The majority of patrons simply took a
table in the main dining room.
For many of us, our initial Paddlewheel
experience was likely dessert glasses
filled with Jell-O (with a dollop of
whipping cream) or vanilla ice cream on a
shopping break with parents.
“When I was young, I loved to go with Mom
to the Paddlewheel at the end of shopping
or after going to a movie,” Lenore Clemens
remembers. “It was a big treat to
stop there before taking the bus
home. I loved the magical
paddlewheel and always wanted to make a
wish in it.”
Adds Kate Ferris: “It was my first
experience with a cafeteria. I
remember feeling very ‘grown up'.”
By the mid ’60s, the place had taken on a
funky chic as a hip Saturday afternoon
teen hangout. Plates of French fries
smothered in gravy alongside a glass of
Coke supplanted the Jell-O, with Keds and
corduroy trousers replaced by Beatle boots
and skin-tight Tee Kay jeans. For
rock ‘n’ roll-crazed Winnipeg teens, the
rechristened Paddlewheel Restaurant was
the place to be. Here bands and fans
met.
“All the other bands were there,” recalled
The Deverons’ Bruce Decker. “You
could meet the DJs there, hang out with
other musicians, or talk to fans.
The conversations started with fans after
a gig Friday night were finished the next
day at the Paddlewheel.”
Indeed, I can recall bands concluding a
Friday night community club dance with
“See you tomorrow at the Paddlewheel.”
Crescendos’ singer Glenn MacRae remembers:
“We would show up on a Saturday afternoon
and pose. On one side of the dining
room sat Crescendos fans and on the other
side were Deverons fans and they’d sneer
at each other.”
The Fifth’s Richard Gwizdak adds: “We
would get notes from girls there saying,
‘Why don’t you talk to me?’.” Some
guys even took to carrying drumsticks in
their back pockets or empty guitar cases
borrowed from real guitar players just to
attract the girls.
But if the guys were eyeballing the girls,
they, too, were checking out the
action. As Patti Ireland recalls,
“Me and my two best friends would stroll
in, sit down and scout out who was
there. There was always a who’s who
of band guys. I once saw Burton
Cummings sitting there but I was too shy
to go over and say anything to him.”
“I lived there every Saturday,” says Susan
Guindon. “It was our social scene.”
Roni Jones remembers her Saturday
routine. “The girls would get ready
to go downtown at my place – makeup,
clothes – and finish off at the makeup
counter at the Bay (perfume, makeup
samples) then head to the Wheel and hang
out until it closed.”
From time to time, the Paddlewheel hosted
live radio broadcasts and teen events
(anyone remember Piccadilly A-Go
Go?). In August 1971, I played a
back-to-school fashion show there with
Fabulous George & the Zodiacs.
 But my ultimate
Paddlewheel moment came on the afternoon
of June 27, 1987 when the venue hosted the
launch of my book Shakin’ All Over: The
Winnipeg Sixties Rock Scene sponsored by
the Variety Club of Manitoba. At a
table near the Crinoline Court I sat elbow
to elbow with Neil Young and Burton
Cummings, two Paddlewheel habitués from
days gone by, signing hundreds of copies
of the book for a long lineup of fans that
packed the restaurant. Several
reunited ’60s era bands played, draw
prizes were given out, and a media circus
surrounded the two mega stars who
reflected warmly on their embryonic music
days in Winnipeg and at the Wheel.
Nostalgia, however, wasn't enough to keep
the place going, and in recent years the
Paddlewheel fell on lean times.
Local filmmaker Guy Maddin employed the
iconic restaurant, complete with
references to orange Jell-O, for a scene
in his acclaimed film My Winnipeg.
In 2011 the Bay announced the revamping of
the Paddlewheel into an upscale eatery
under the Oliver & Bonacini
banner. The move was met with an
unexpected backlash, prompting a national
Maclean’s magazine story. In the end
the company backed down, though it was
merely a temporary reprieve.
A revived Paddlewheel would make a fitting
location for a Manitoba Music Hall of
Fame/Museum. But that’s a whole
other story.
If you get the chance, drop by this week
and bid the once great Paddlewheel adieu.
John Einarson Remembers
Winnipeg Free Press January 20,
2013 |
|
