Boris Spremo C.M. to be inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame.

Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos

Retired Toronto Star photographer Boris Spremo, his career spanned four decades,will be inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame in October.

Here is just a very small sample of his images over the years.

Sorry for the lack of captions on some of the images, they were scanned very quickly. 

We included a couple from Boris' favourite subjects, Trudeau and the CN Tower!

Also Chris So interviewed Boris after the announcement, see it here.

Boris Spremo with his 1959 Cadillac outside Queen's Park Monday afternoon. - David Cooper

 

Private David Juliusson cleans his Liverpool Muscat at Fort York. Juliusson is dressed in the 8thRegiment uniform from the 1813 Battle of York.

 

Boris loved to get the high angle, construction of the Toronto Dominion Centre.

 

Angelo Tramonti polishes the statue of Queen Victoria, the nine bronze statues at Queens Park get an annual cleanup.

 

Snow Birds fly over Niagara Falls.

 

Sir John A. Macdonald monument in Queen's Park.

 

Expo 67 Montreal.

 

In an emotional outpouring of joy that even heavy rain could not dampen, Toronto fans went wild at the return home of Team Canada after winning the Summit Series in 1972. Here, as they festoon themselves along the concrete arcs over City Hall pool in Nathan Phillips Square last night, they cheered themselves hoarse for their hockey heroes, who beat Soviet national team by four games to three after a disastrous start to the eight-game series that made many experts fear possible defeat and humiliation. 

 

Johnny Bower. September 11, 1968.

 

Harold Ballard on ice, March 29, 1984.

 

Harold Ballard and wife Yolanda, June 27, 1989.

 

Harry Rosen flashes a new line of coats  at his Bloor Street location.

 

Stompin' Tom Conners in procession on his way to Convocation Hall to be hooded.

 

Alfred Hitchcock. July 9, 1970.

 

Garth Drabinsky back at centre stage -``I've been involved in the varied facets of the arts for the last 25 years, and I expect to be involved for at least the next 25,'' Former LIVENT boss Garth Drabinsky tells very few media representatives at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Drabinsky confirmed he will mount Athol Fugard's "The Island".

 

Robbie Robertson, December 3, 1987.

 

John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Press Conference at the Ontario Science Centre. December 17, 1969.

 

Alice Cooper at Varsity Stadium September 2, 1972.

 

Toronto Star photographer Boris Spremo's NNA award winning picture of John Diefenbaker in Barbados. Diefenbaker is pictured in silhouette reading in a lounge chair during this period when he was writing his memoirs. 

 

Mel Lastman debates at Metro Council, March 29, 1988.

 

Mel Lastman dresses as a Matador for the running of the moose on Bay Street.

 

David Crombie on the Polson Street Pier.

 

Trudeau

 

Pierre Trudeau in his office.

 

Margaret Trudeau balances trays of sandwiches as she hops a fence, April 12, 1977. She was staying at her sister's house in Winchester, a suburb of Boston.

 

Trudeaumania:  During his first term as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau draws a crowd as he approaches Toronto City Hall for a rally.

 

Pierre Trudeau plays frisbee.

 

The young Princess of Wales was charming and glamorous at a state dinner in Halifax hosted by the Prime Minister. She and Prince Charles were making their first official visit as a couple in 1983.

 

Pierre Trudeau hams it up with media on an airplane.

 

The Queens Park riot.

 

Spremo got knocked over and his pants ripped in the riot.

 

 Sam Kank studies the sculpture "Draped Reclining Figure" made by Henry Moore-1953, at the Henry Moore sculpture centre at Art Gallery of Ontario.

 

Spremo and the Pope, or as the Pope.

Pope John Paul II - Quebec City: Sept. 10, 1984 - The Pope kisses a young boy on the forehead during a walkabout. 

A quick story about Boris on this Papal tour...

While Boris Spremo was covering the Papal visit in 1984, he was on a the Pope John Paul II's train that ran from Sherbrooke to Trois Riveries.  The day was cold and people gathered at the stations to catch a glimpse of the Pope pope who was in the last car of the short four car train. The Pope was sitting by a window with a light on him so that people at the stations could see him as the train crawled past. The media were in the first car of this train and quickly became bored. Spremo folded up one of the blow up cushions into a shape similar to that of the Pope's Mitre. He was egged to go to the window and a table cloth was draped over him, a monopod was placed in in his hand as a staff and one of the TV crews provided a light. Boris provided a Papal wave. So as the train would slow down for the stations, people, cold and wet, would take a picture of the "Pope" in the first car and then turn away before the last car reached them.  Well, officials figured out why people were turning away and Spremo got in some trouble, he was worried for his job.  The incident was told in a Toronto Sun column and some TV picked it up too. The long term effect, Boris was hired just after he retired in 2001 to shoot a book on the World Youth Day Cross for the Vatican.

 

 

World Youth Day Cross, entrusted to the young people of Canada by Pope John Paul II made the journey across the Canada in preparation for World Youth Day which will was held in Toronto. 

 

 

George Chuvalo. Spremo and the Champ were quite close. Boris even gave the heaveyweight some lessons and George loved to take pictures.

 

George Chuvalo fights Muhammad Ali at Maple Leaf Gardens.

 

Terry Fox

 

March 17, 1984.

 

Boris and the CN Tower.

Perched 440 meters above Toronto and 9 meters out from the growing CN Tower iron worker Larry Porter pulls at the hook of giant crane as he installs the outriggers that will be used to lift the restaurant.

 

 CN Tower construction with the Flatiron in the foreground.

 

 

 

 

 

Spremo on assignment May 1965.

 

Other Retired Toronto Star Photographers

Rick Eglinton

Ken Faught

Mike Stuparyk

Tony Bock

Jim Wilkes 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Favourites from May 2013: Jays, Leafs, Ford

 

RICK MADONIK - Mick Jagger, of The Rolling Stones, on tour in their 50th year of playing as a band. More on the Rolling Stones!

 

The Rolling Stones and me

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer - @Rmadonik

The Rolling Stones, from left, Ron Wood, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. On bass, is tour bassist Darryl Jones.

Ok, I have to declare, off the top, I have a bias.

The Rolling Stones, circa 1975, was the first concert I ever went to. Maple Leaf Gardens in the 70s, for a concert, well you could easily be corrupted by the contact "high" of the cloud of smoke. With centre ice floor seating, it was a wide, almost rude, awakening for a 15-year-old who was still a virgin to certain corruptions.

Our April, Trudeau wins, Leafs playoff bound and Jays are back, kind of...

 

DAVID COOPER - Justin Trudeau walks into the federal Liberal showcase at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

 

Rockin' Out At The Star

Richard Lautens - Staff Photographer - @rlautens

It's funny how assignments can work out.  I hadn't shot a lot of sports this year so far and last week I shot the TFC one day, the Raptors the next shift and the Jays home opener the next day.

This week I shot the band Muse at the ACC one night and my next shift was Green Day.  Muse had a much cooler stage but Green Day had way more energy and fun about them.

Typically the photogs get the first three songs to shoot with no flash from a pit at the foot of the stage and then the security guys kick us out although for Green Day we only got 2 songs.  It's amazing how many frames you can shoot in just a couple of songs.

Here's a couple of pix from Muse:

Cool stage

Classic rock pose from Matthew Bellamy

It's hard to get the whole band in one frame when they don't get together

Matthew Bellamy under the spotlight

Now a couple from Green Day:

Drunk Bunny comes out to warm up the crowd before the band

The crowd loves the bunny.  The quality is a little rough as I had to shoot at about 50,000 iso and still only got 1/60 sec at f2.8.

It used to be that there would be 4 or 5 photogs at these things and now occasionally you get up to 20 or 30 (as we had for Green Day)-I guess they're bloggers.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong does his thing on stage.

Billie Joe with the crowd.

Billie Joe-I loved the Green behind him.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong (left) poses for a photo with a fan who he brought on stage, to the right is bassist Mike Dirnt running in for the photo.

Rock On Toronto!

Richard Lautens-Toronto Star

No Fooling, we had a great March!

 

DAVID COOPER - Leafs  Frazer McLaren decks Senators Dave Dizurzynski during the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators  at the Air Canada Centre.

Swedish House Mafia at Rogers Centre

Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos

 

Glow sticks was on the fashion list as the Swedish House Mafia plays at the Rogers Centre.