When Queen Elizabeth watched over the Leafs

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For many generations of Torontonians, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II will rekindle happy memories of her many visits to the city – and the day she ruled Maple Leaf Gardens.

The monarch made one memorable trip to Carlton Street in 1951 as Princess, but we’ll guess she was not amused when co-owner Harold Ballard later ordered her portrait as Queen hauled off the wall, to an unknown fate.

First to that royal tour of Canada almost 72 years ago, stopping in Toronto on the day of the Leafs’ season opener, Oct. 13. She and Prince Philip accepted the invite of staunch monarchist Conn Smythe, who’d served in two World Wars. Smythe ordered bunting and comfortable seating in and around a ‘royal box’ near centre ice and arranged with the visiting Chicago Blackhawks for an early 15-minute exhibition game against his team at 3 p.m.

In a famous photo, Leafs’ captain Teeder Kennedy was brought up to the box by Smythe and introduced to the guests with a gracious bow. Elizabeth quite enjoyed the ensuing action, remarking that she’d hoped for more hitting and perhaps seeing a penalty called. The early staging of the game allowed the couple to attend their next scheduled engagement at Riverdale Park. Proceeds from the exhibition were given to Smythe’s favourite charity for handicapped children.

Less than a year later, on Feb. 6, King George VI, died and at age 26, Elizabeth was Queen. Smythe cancelled a Leaf game scheduled that night, as he’d done when George V passed in January of 1935, two of only three Leafs contests ever scrubbed in the Gardens era.

Soon after Elizabeth’s coronation, in a generous space on the south side, Smythe hung her portrait in full regalia. The area around it was not altered for years, other than a pipe organ installed beneath it where a bandstand had once been.

Smythe maintained the connection to royalty, such as with the Gardens’ junior residents, the Marlboroughs, whose original Toronto athletic club was named in the late 1800s for the Dukes of Marlborough. That family crest remains part of today’s AHL sweater of the Leafs’ AHL farm team.

But as Smythe got on in years, his son Stafford and business partners Ballard and John Bassett became more involved in the running of the team and the lucrative multi-purpose Gardens.  They eyed putting in more seats to increase revenue.

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On Oct. 22, 1966, fans entered a new-look Gardens, in time for the season opener against the New York Rangers. There were brighter TV lights, a newly-created angled green digital time clock and changes to the seating plan that bumped capacity from 12,583 to 15,481, shortening some aisles and exits and creating the end Blue balcony seats.

But the casualty was Her Majesty’s portrait, which had Smythe and traditionalists in an uproar. When the media queried Ballard why the portrait was taken down, he shrugged and asked when the last time she’d paid a ticket for her prime viewing position.

“If people want to see a picture of the Queen they can go to an art gallery,” he said. “Smythe didn’t like me kicking her out of here, but what the hell, she doesn’t pay me, I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a Queen play?”

The decision to remove it increased ill will between Ballard and the elder Smythe. Earlier that year, against Smythe’s wishes, Ballard pushed to have Muhammad Ali get the Gardens as a venue to box when he was banned in the U.S. for refusing military duty in the Vietnam war.

In 2021, Paul Morris, the Gardens’ sound man and long-time public address announcer, recalled the Queen’s portrait had been stored on an upper floor near his booth in the north end for many years. As far as he knew, it was still there when the arena closed in 1999.

Former building manager Wayne Gillespie once saw it in a similar room for large excess furnishings in the West Reds, near an unused bowling alley, part of the original 1931 construction. Unfortunately, most long-time Gardens workers believe the portrait must have been eventually trashed.

But in 1981, the 50th anniversary year of the Gardens, Ballard thought the portrait and the royal visit were so significant in building lore that he wanted the Queen included in a commemorative poster montage of famous Carlton residents and VIPs. And on Nov. 12 of that year, the Queen sent a congratulatory telegram to mark the Gardens’ half-century.

Interestingly, a similar-sized portrait of the Queen that became an iconic part of the original Winnipeg Arena is stored in an undisclosed  Toronto warehouse. The hope of many is that the seven-piece artwork is eventually returned to the Jets new home in Canada Life Centre.

lhornby@postmedia.com