Making the Scene: Yorkville and Hip Toronto in the 1960s by Stuart Henderson (review)

Making the Scene is an exceptional addition to the burgeoning literature that explores facets of the 1960s in Canada. By examining Yorkville, Canada's "most famous hippie centre" (6), from its emergence as a "hip" scene to its eventual remaking as Toronto's premier boutique district, Stuart Henderson has provided a richly layered history of some of the people and cultural trends of Canada's 1960s. In so doing, however, Henderson does not, for the most part, romanticize the "Village," as Yorkville was known, or the young women and men who helped to make the cultural and social scene in this community. Henderson's ability to avoid a nostalgic treatment of Yorkville is refreshing and allows Making the Scene to expose some of the complexities and contradictions of the hippie lifestyle.

The Village became a battleground over identity and the space itself. Henderson utilizes four categories to assess how Villagers were viewed by one another and by Torontonians and Canadians more generally: hippies, greasers, bikers, and weekenders. In the process, Henderson recounts the experiences of a plethora of often overlooked groups in the context of the 1960s counterculture: women; working-class youth, homosexuals, and rural transplants. While the Village was cast as a transgressive space for these "others," the individuals who called Yorkville home were, as Henderson deftly notes, resisting many elements of mainstream society but at the same time ensnared by the hegemonic discourse of material capitalism. This ironic fact of many Villagers' lived experience is what made Yorkville appear to be exotic, dangerous, and illusive to Villagers and outsiders.

Making the Scene is intended as a local history of Yorkville. By relying upon myriad published primary sources and interviews with individuals who were intimately connected to the Village, Henderson provides a marvellous description of its vibrant cultural scene. From coffeehouses, galleries, folk music, and rock and roll, to clothes, drugs, and protests, Making the Scene chronicles the pulse of daily life in the Village. And by interspersing his analysis with comments from his interviewees, Henderson underscores the multiple interpretations of who, and what, made Yorkville a hip and misunderstood place. However, Making the Scene reads more like a case study of the 1960s rather than a local history of one area. Indeed, Henderson often places the Village within the broader context of 1960s Toronto, and he compares Yorkville with other similar communities such as Haight-Ashbury. But Henderson could have made more comparisons between Yorkville and Canada's other hip communities, such as Vancouver's Gastown, in order to provide a more nuanced portrait of what Yorkville's scene was like in relation to the country's countercultural milieus.

Yorkville may have been considered by many of its residents and visitors to be a place to escape from an alienating world, but as Henderson posits, the Village was not always a safe space, especially for women and the poor. Making the Scene shows that sexuality was constantly in flux during the 1960s, and in Yorkville it oscillated between liberation and exploitation for women. For instance, Henderson discusses the disturbing gang rapes - "gang splashed" (197) - that were committed by bikers. The 1960s notion of "free love," Henderson reminds us, often translated into misogyny for many women. In order to provide a measure of safety and comfort for those women and men who endured hardship, some Villagers and city residents such as June Callwood set up missions in the Village to dispense everything from food and shelter to legal counselling. Yet these initiatives, as Henderson argues, deepened the impression that Yorkville was a place beyond redemption and one that municipal officials had to deal with quickly.

The image of Yorkville as diseased was exacerbated by the alleged outbreak of hepatitis among intravenous drug users. The "hippie disease," which Henderson rightly concludes was only a minor occurrence, helped to mark the beginning of the end for Yorkville. Making the Scene also discusses other events that...