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Pierre Berton
- Family, friends pay
tribute to beloved Berton
- Historian-author remembered
for defining Canada's cultural identity
ANDREW DAVIDSON, Globe and
Mail, Dec 8, 2004
With piercing eyes glancing
outward and a trademark bow tie undone around his loosened collar,
Pierre Berton's image towered formidably in a giant black-and-white
portrait over hundreds of friends, colleagues, family and fans
who gathered last night for a public celebration of his life.
Dozens of family members wore
bow ties in tribute to the fiercely prolific writer, journalist,
popular historian, television personality and Canadian icon who
died last week at 84.
Friends delivered brief, humorous
testimonials during the two-hour ceremony in the Barbara Frum
atrium of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. building in downtown
Toronto.
Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson
hailed him as "a comrade, ally, friend and colleague"
and praised his contribution to the nation's culture and identity.
"He gave us our story," she said. "He has helped
to create our image of ourselves."
Others recalled a more mischievous
streak.
Rick Mercer recalled Mr. Berton
rolling a marijuana joint on his show, Monday Report,
in what would be one of the author's last appearances on the
network after more than 40 years of contribution.
The comedian said Mr. Berton
agreed to the idea, adding only: "Bring the pot."
Then, as the television crew
packed up to leave, Mr. Mercer thanked the family for their hospitality.
"Leave the pot," Mr. Berton said in parting.
Authors Margaret Atwood and
Graeme Gibson paid tribute to his support of the Writer's Development
Trust. Penny Dickens, former executive director of the Writer's
Union of Canada, spoke of Mr. Berton's unwavering support of
younger Canadian writers. "He was a great ocean liner with
an enormous wake for smaller crafts to safely ply their trade
in," she said.
Several speakers discussed
his love of the outdoors, especially the North, where he was
born and raised. "The fact that he was from the North meant
that he was forever a part of it," Ms. Clarkson said.
Mr. Berton's sister, Lucy Berton-Woodward,
recalled the games the two used to play growing up in Dawson
City, including one he invented and was inclined to win called
Be a Boy.
She also described him as a
Peter Pan figure. "He never grew up, and he never lost his
sense of curiosity, nor his sense of adventure."
Former Toronto Star publisher
John Honderich spoke of Mr. Berton's four years at the paper,
during which he penned more than 1,000 columns, at the staggering
rate of five a week, about "anything that came into my head."
"He was absolutely fearless,"
said columnist Allan Fotheringham.
Author and journalist June
Callwood told the crowd of a Maclean's magazine get-together
in the fifties, in which Mr. Berton recited all 11 verses of
Robert Service's poem The Shooting of Dan McGrew, before
clutching his heart and collapsing to the floor in full dramatic
fashion.
John Neale, chairman of Mr.
Berton's publisher, Random House of Canada, marvelled at his
tireless efforts in promoting the 50 books he wrote in his lifetime.
Mr. Neale also joked about
Mr. Berton's request to have his typewriter brought to his room
at Sunnybrook hospital in the final weeks before his death.
"He wanted to write poetry,
a publisher's worst nightmare," he said with a laugh. "Pierre
maybe left us at the right time."
Hundreds gather for celebration
to remember prolific author Pierre Berton
JOHN MCKAY, Macleans, December
7, 2004 - 20:06
TORONTO (CP) - The Governor
General told some backstage tales. Publisher John Neale hawked
some of Pierre Berton's books. And curmudgeonly columnist Allan
Fotheringham wept.
It was the kind of night Berton
would have loved, from the sentimental to the irreverent. Some
500 people - friends, family and just plain admirers - came in
out of a mild autumn rain and crowded into the atrium of the
CBC broadcasting centre Tuesday evening for a public celebration
of the life of the broadcaster, journalist, author of more than
50 books and, all agreed, a one-of-a-kind nationalist who will
be greatly missed.
Berton died of heart failure
Nov. 30 in hospital at the age of 84, triggering a national outpouring
in recent days that culminated in the event, A Celebration of
Pierre Berton, with a who's who in Canada's cultural and literary
establishment present. Speakers at the gathering included Gov.
Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, Margaret Atwood, June Callwood, Lister
Sinclair, Betty Kennedy, Rick Mercer, John Honderich as well
as members of the immediate Berton family.
"You'll never die, Pierre,"
Callwood said in a voice that shook slightly with emotion. "You're
gone, but you'll never die."
Fotheringham told a story of
the night a teenage Berton got drunk, stole a car and got arrested
in Dawson City, convinced his life was over, and how in later
years one historian accused the writer of making Canadian history
interesting just as a ploy to sell books. But as the laughter
ebbed, Fotheringham began to choke up on his closing words.
"One of a kind, and there'll
never be another Pierre Berton."
Back on the lighter side, Neale,
chairman of Random House Canada, held up a copy of Berton's last
book, Prisoners of the North.
"With the collective will
of all of us in this room, I know this book will be back on the
top of the (best-seller) list very soon," he said to laughter.
"I'm a salesman. Crass commercialism, yes. Pierre would
have wanted me to do this."
A giant black and white photo
of the smiling man of honour, with arms crossed and trademark
bow tie untied, served as a backdrop for the stage.
Clarkson shared personal stories
of their friendship, talking about the time she was a guest panellist
on Front Page Challenge, Berton's birthday party at Rideau Hall
and get-togethers at his home in Kleinburg, Ont., where he barbecued
"to a crisp all those sausages."
"He was really a remarkable
person and I think of him always as a comrade, an ally, a friend
and a colleague," Clarkson said.
"We were allied in all
sorts of battles together, as many of you were, against capital
punishment, against the libel laws, but the causes were always
many and we were always, I'm happy to say, on the same side."
Berton's longtime manager Elsa
Franklin took the stage wearing what she called a "silly"
bow tie, and described him as a "dynamo."
"He wrote and he wrote
and he wrote and he wrote," she said. "For Pierre,
family and friends came first, after writing."
Author Margaret Atwood recalled
a long-standing rumour in the literary community that Berton
was the only writer in Canada who had his own "forger"
- someone who supposedly sat in a back room in a Vancouver book
store filled with Berton books and signed them.
Singer Dinah Christie played
her guitar on stage, and sang what she said was the first folk
song she ever learned - one Berton taught her.
But it wasn't all praise. His
shortcomings as a singer, poet, artist and motorist were eagerly
referenced, too.
Comic Rick Mercer got the final
laughs, describing how he and a TV crew went to Berton's house
in October to tape the now-famous sketch in which Berton taught
a lesson in how to roll a marijuana joint.
He said Berton willingly agreed
to the idea, adding only: "Bring the pot."
As they packed up to leave,
Mercer thanked the family for their hospitality, and Berton's
parting words were: "Leave the pot."
Mercer said Berton was not
only a shit-disturber but "the Wayne Gretzky of shit-disturbers."
Berton's widow Janet, recovering
from a broken hip, looked frail in a wheelchair but was smiling
and serene as she spoke to VIP well-wishers paying their respects
before the event began.
"This is overwhelming,"
she said. "It's so sweet and warm, and very difficult."
Berton's sons and grandsons
all wore bow ties in honour of Berton's famous neck attire.
Some quotes from A Celebration
of Pierre Berton, held Tuesday night:
"He just couldn't stop
writing. It was compulsive, obviously. And he had, luckily for
us, the talent to go with the compulsion." - Gov. Gen. Adrienne
Clarkson.
-
"Pierre was in fact a
Peter Pan sort of person. He never grew up, he never lost his
sense of wonder and curiosity and his love of adventures. It
was what made him a great storyteller." - Berton's sister,
Lucy Berton-Woodward.
-
"He had a great reverence
for life. For his family, for begonias, for cats, for dogs, for
rascals, losers and friends, often the same person." - June
Callwood.
-
"Pierre was big. He was
big in every way. He was big in physical stature and he had a
heart to match the frame. We shall miss him dearly." - Betty
Kennedy.
-
"As you can see, the banana
is very odd and the grapes are questionable. And I'm very glad
he stayed with the writing! It's of course worth a fortune."
- Vicki Gabereau, holding up a painting Berton the amateur artist
once gave her father.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
