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14 -- PORT PERRY STAR Wednesday, Sept, 22, 1971 300 Attend Plaque Unveiling Coatinued from page | crowd from the museum's stood mutely in the front} wall yard of the Scugog Gases) A touch of variety was also Museum. ' |added to the program as a Jimmie Prise richly | choral group sang "Take Me deserves to be remembered |Back to Birdseye Centre" The joy and laughter he) oor the the brought to thousands with his | ..-emony Birdseye Centre" cartoons) Phe song was published in will never be forgotten Archie and the Moose' or | who designed the cover for the the captain of the 'Noazark'| joo music are still remembered by those | who have read the Star Weekly in which Jimmie's cartoons appeared for over quarter of a century beginning start of The plaque was officially unveiled by Jimmie's son, John speaker spoke his praise of the life and works of the great a im 1912 | cartoonist Surprisingly, but not really So} william Cranston, chair when you think of it, the moose) 1.55 of the Ontario Ar showed up for the ceremony) chaeological and Historic Sunday Sites Board, told of his per And the big, comical) sonal associatin with the late looking animal with a halter, wR Frise the died in seemed to contain a impish) 1948 He was one of a grin as he overlooked the} wonderful group of writers | 1927 and it was Jimmie Frise} and artists who worked with my Dad in the heyday of the Star Weekly said Mr Cranston "Jimmie Frise was one of those men whose work mirrored our society with gentle humor at a time when a dread depression stalked this nation and this world "He helped us walk lighter | and laugh more | Mr. Cranston said Jimmie's | humor wasn't only celegated but not before each/| to the cartoon strip ad told! }the. audience of his "hat | trick". | Jimmie' said Mr. Cranston would take his hat and place it on the sidewalk and then continue to look under it until 'he had a crowd Then he would pick it up, put it on his head, and walk away leaving a dumbfounded lin his wake Dr. Matthew Dymond speaks to the audience at the unveiling ceremony. In the background (entre) is Leslie Frost, former premier of Ontario SPECIAL - | WEEK ONLY! POLL LLLCLLLLPPPEOLL POO OLLIE > 4 1972: PESOS REGULAR $995.00 27 h.p. Manual "845." PLS LLLLBLLPPPPPPPLLP PE OLLPEOR PPL LLLP) COME SEE US and "FLY the BLUE ONE" Mr. Cranston illustrated the ruse to the delight of the/ audience | Mr. Cranston compared} Jimmie with the famous Group of Seven painters and said he was "'a group of one." "It really didn't matter to his readers and viewers! whether he came from a farm near Fingerboard, or whether Seagrave or Port Perry was Birdseye Centre 'I didn't matter because Jimmie Frise was one with all of ys,"' said. Mr. Cranston "He helped us to put our lives and those of fellows in perspective Mr. Cranston added that he wished he could find him today in our press and political life, bringing ; "humility and humour to a | nation that seems too often to 'have lost its joie de vivre." Leslie Frost, former premier of Ontario, told the' audience he had known the) Frise family when he was a! lawyer in Mariposa and) reminisced about some of his| experiences with them | Mr. Frost praised Jimmie Frise as a "great person, a great Canadian and a great} cartoonist." } The former premier said) Trent University will be| writing a history on this part! of Ontario in the near future} and Jimmie Frise would be} among the notables included in it MPP Dr. Matthew Dymond said that in the research for the plaque he didn't know of a man who had been born in so many places." Some say he was born in Seagrave, Sonya, Claremont and others, at Chalk Lake, Port Perry and Scugog."' Dr. Dymond said that in paying tribute to Jimmie Frise, "'we are beginning to show a greater sense of pride in our people." Jimmie Frise presented the folklore of our community, Dr Dymond said, and his pictures were worth a thousand words, "His was a particular type | of artistry he taught us to look in a mirror and see ourselves "There was something in his art that made us look inside and say that is me!" Dr. Dymond said that while Jimmie poked fun "he never was cruel."' He taught us to laugh at ourselves and through his pictures he taught us never to take ourselves too seriously because if we did we were in trouble MP Norman Cafik told the audience that Jimmie's work did not only belong to this area } but "typified all Canadians! Mr, Cafik said there is no} other animal than man who is; able to wonder and laugh, | "and I thank God for giving us great men like Frise." M.J.Mowbray, chairman of the Ontario County Board of | tartan Education, said Jimmie's cartoons always had a refreshing humour "they were not just funny but they | were true too." Mr. Mowbray said Frise captured an element of life in rural Ontario "'when we had; immediate success. By @ stroke of genius on his part, Jimmie proceeded to make me just another of his® characters, the inventions of his great humorous mind. He put a pork pie hat on me in the cartoons, so I bouught a pork pie hat. My little white sideburns 'he grew to great proportions down my cheeks So I grew my white sideburus away down.my cheeks. He put outlandish tartan scarves .0 me, so I bought outlandish scarves. Month by month he created an image for me, He was the tall skin-° ny innocent country boy. | was the short fat pompoys city slicker. And thus in the course of a year or two, he had added me to Old Archie, Pigskin Peters, Eli Doolittle and all the inhabitants of his remarkable community The great depression from 1930 to 1939 never set its ugly foot in Birdseye Centre. Jimmie Frise cheered that whole generation through a period of natinal tribulatition. 'Bere has never been @ successor to Jimmie Frise. No time for people to be) cartoonist has risen to com- characters. | pare with him for humour, "These truths as well as his| compassion and tender irony, Mymour are particularly) He was the greatest. And it is valuable in his work." { Although he was too ill to attend the ceremony, Gregory| Clark, humorous writer and/ long-time friend of Jimmie's,! sent a written tribute Part of his text follows My Dear Friends Age and infirmity deny me the privilege and the duty to be with you today. Jimmie Frise was already a firmly established cartoonist and humorist in Canada when the depression struck in 1930. Within a month, the editors of the Star Weekly realized that the only cheerful item in their fast growing publication was Jimmie's _ Birdseye) Centre cartoon They! promptly set about getting al second piece of Frise art in the} paper. Five writers on the! staff were given the chance to supply a story for Jimmie to cartoon.. When my turn came, by a stroke of genius, I chose for partner in my effort Jimmie himself. It was an ONTARIO FEDERATION fitting that a memorial should be unveiled to him in the neighborhood that gave him birth and inspired his incomparable gift. OF AGRICULTURE OFA has recommended to the Provincial government for several years the estab- lishment of a separate cate- gory and license fee schedule for farm trucks. This caté. gory would apply only to trucks used by farmers for their own use. Trucks fcr hire would not be eligible. OFA President Gordon Hill said recently that "informa- tion from DBS states farm trucks are empty 66% of the time. The average annual mileage is 3,700 miles and estimated capacity utilization is 249%. Therefore", he continued, "OFA believes , farmers should pay only 25% of the rate charged trucks for hire which are fully loaded a larger portion of the time and are in con- stant use. » William Cranston, of the archaeological and historic sites board of Ontario, illustrates how Jimmie Fise did his hat trick during speech at the unveiling of plaque at the | MP Scugog Shores Museum on Sunday. Looking on is Norm Cofik, »