WARMINGTON: Toronto Sun 1975 front page beach shot caught woman playing hooky
But 50 years later, Marnie Wilson and her husband – whom she married soon after – still enjoy summer time laughs remembering the story
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A picture tells a summertime story better than any wordsmith could ever pen – even 50 years after it was snapped.
The date was July 31, 1975, and it was a scorcher in Toronto. The high that day was 33C.
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WARMINGTON: Toronto Sun 1975 front page beach shot caught woman playing hooky Back to video
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“It was just too nice and too hot to go to work,” Marnie Wilson reminisced recently. “I thought I would go to the beach instead.”
After telling a little white lie to her boss about being under the weather, off she went to Cherry Beach – a few blocks to southeast of her apartment at Jarvis and Gerrard Sts.
Who’s going to know?
This was, of course, well before social media, which can now spread a rumour or someone’s whereabouts with one push of a button. It was also two years before the Blue Jays arrived in town and the birth of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who recently made headlines when his band’s big kiss-cam screen exposed a cheating couple during a show in Boston.
Back in 1975, people were effectively anonymous – or so Marnie thought.
“It was a perfect day for a swim,” said the woman, who just 27 years old at the time and went by her maiden name Marnie Upper.
It was also a perfect day for a weather picture. With that in mind, legendary Toronto Sun photographer David Cooper also headed down to Cherry Beach. You know where this is going.
“I was splashing around in the water when I saw a guy with a camera saying he’d like to take a picture for the newspaper,” recalled with a laugh.
What could go wrong?
“He said it probably wouldn’t even make the paper,” Marnie remembered, laughing even harder now.
Oops.
“In those days, there were Toronto Sun boxes everywhere,” Marnie pointed out.
So, there she was in her bathing suit on the front page of the paper for all to see.
“There was nowhere to hide,” she said.
Her boss saw it. Her fiancé Paul Wilson saw it. Heck, everybody in Toronto saw it.
“They even made her the Sunshine girl,” a beaming Paul said. “We got married a month later and I am still proud of that shot.”
Luckily, her employer thought it was funny and agreed it was too hot to work.
“I never missed a day after that,” said Marnie, who had a stellar career as a social worker.
The couple went on to have two children together and now are thrilled to be part of their four grandchildren’s lives. While they may not have heard the about the time their mom and grandmother went to the beach instead of going to work, they’ll certainly be aware of it now – since she’s made the paper once again.
This time, thanks to social media reach, the whole world can see it.
“I saved the print copy,” Paul said. “I am so glad I did.”
It shows the famous shot of the now retired photographic genius Cooper in black and white as the main art of the page with Marnie in a green bikini outshining and out splashing the other big story of the day – that Teamsters Union Boss Jimmy Hoffa had gone missing.
They never found Jimmy Hoffa, but they certainly found out where Marnie, now 77, was on that day.
Another neat thing about telling this story is how it’s a time capsule that allows us to look back 50 years and see how things were then.
“I just went through the 56-pages of that Aug. 1, 1975, Toronto Sun. There’s an ad for a solid-brick semi on the Danforth for $49,500. Frank Sinatra at the CNE Bandstand, tickets on sale at the box office, $6 to $10,” Paul said. “Jaws at the Highland 1. A Civic Holiday Beatles blowout at A&A Records, including Abbey Road at $3.99.”
To get down to Cherry Beach in those days, one may have walked past the Nickelodeon, Egerton’s, Doc’s, the Midwich Cuckoo, the Edison, Gasworks, Old Bavaria, the Colonial, Le Coq d’Or Tavern, Larry’s Hideaway and the Red Lion.
Now living in Hamilton, Marnie and her husband of 50 years were back in the neighbourhood on Tuesday as an early 50th anniversary lunch and enjoying some great memories of this little secret that wasn’t kept so well – then or now.
“She still glows as my Sunshine Girl today as she did back then,” Paul said.
Some secrets are just too much fun to keep secret.
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