Bruno Gerussi's Celebrity Cooks with guest David Letterman (1977)

In the Round with guests Duke Ellington and ABBA (1976)

Hits-a-Poppin (1967)

The Larry Solway Show with guest Edgar Bergen (1972)

Take 30 with guest Bill Cosby (1969)

Close-up featuring Woody Allen (1967)

90 Minutes Live with guests Gilda Radner and Lorne Michaels (1976)

Let's Go (1964)

The Oral History of Hockey Night in Canada's Bob Cole

John Shannon, Producer: Bob Cole is one of my favorites. Bob Cole is a consummate entertainer. Bob Cole knows what the hockey fan wants and, to this day, no one has the ability to rise to the occasion and to tell the person at home, “This is the time to be excited. Hey, watch out, something big is about to happen,” and deliver the punch. That’s what Bob Cole does. I do a lot of teaching now – production seminars with different clients. The way I describe it is – hockey is exciting on a routine basis, but you have to learn how to sell the ‘wow factor.’ Bob Cole can deliver that ‘wow factor’ better than anybody. Really, in order to do a solid television production, you need three ‘wow factors’ in a night. Well, Bob did more than three – Bob had as many as was needed and often times he was ahead of where the officials were, the players were – he had a greater sense of anticipation than anybody else. He played the game at a high level in Newfoundland, but he also had the ability to use the English language in its simplest form, so there was no bull - just the facts with that great voice.

Howie Meeker, Analyst: He did all the hockey in Newfoundland and I knew him from day one. In fact, he was out there at the airport the first time I went there. 1956-1957 – somewhere in there. I know Coley very, very well. He was on a radio station. He was a reporter when I got there. Real good guy. He was a pretty good hockey player as well and a hell of a curler. He represented Newfoundland in the Briar one year as “Skip” Cole.

Frank Selke Jr, Exec: When he first started, he used to come up to the broadcast booth at the Forum … he’d come in and he’d hang around the booth like a starry eyed kid. When he got the Sunday night broadcasts, the CBC broadcast radio, you’d have thought he’d died and gone to heaven. He was so thrilled. He put his heart and soul into it and I think developed into a very capable broadcaster. He had his own style.

Jim Hughson, Play-by-Play: What is there to say about Bob Cole other than he’s legendary in the industry? To do 28 straight Stanley Cup Finals? I think that speaks volumes.

Gary Dornhoefer, Color Man: He was very intense.

Doug Beeforth, Producer: Coley was very intense as a broadcaster. He took his job very seriously and he did not want distractions. He wanted to be able to focus on what he was doing. He would be one of the most intense broadcasters I’ve ever worked with. His intensity is what makes him as good as he is.

Dick Irvin, Color Man: That’s the thing about Bob. Once the game starts, he’s all business. He gets so intense.

Mark Askin, Producer: Bob’s a tough judge. Bob is ultra-serious about his job. Bob takes life that way too. That’s what Bob was like. He was dead serious about life.

Steve Lansky, Producer: Very, very serious about his job and his business.

Dick Irvin: You want me to tell bad stories about him?

Mark Askin: Is Bob funny? Like you can’t believe. People will go, “He has a sense of humor?” He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Dry sense of humor. He can tell a story that lasts twenty-five minutes – you’re peeing yourself by the middle of it.

Steve Lansky: Oh my God, Coley is hilarious. Bob, I can’t think of any other word, is an artist. [His] voice can rise and lower and you know when to look up from your book or whatever you’re doing. Bob tells you when something is about to happen. Other play-by-play guys get excited when it happens. Bob’s voice tells you that it’s about to happen. Bob would come into the booth and he’d sit down and he’d undo the top button of his pants and he’d pull out his cigarette holder … and he’d be ready to go. He was ready to do his game.

Harry Neale: He was a smoker with a cigarette holder.

John Garrett, Color Man: Oh, yeah. Yes. When he was smoking … that was always delightful.
Doug Beeforth: Coley would settle in for a game. He’d get up in the booth and he’d undo his tie and he was getting ready to do his work. Sometimes to get really comfortable, he’d undo his belt. So, there was a game against Quebec at Le Colisée … Coley’s up there calling the game and Mickey Redmond is his color guy. The game is intense. Coley would bounce up and down on his seat a lot. That was a part of his intensity … he’d really get into the game. He’d be body-checking. A goal was scored and he shoots up out of his seat with excitement and in the small broadcast space that they’ve got him in, there’s these, sort of, plumbing pipes across the top. Coley fires up out of his seat in excitement and bangs his head on one of these pipes. Coley of course doesn’t have any padding in the way of hair that’s going to help. So he bangs his head and he’s sort of holding his head not saying anything and now his pants start to fall down because he undid his belt! He’s holding his head and his pants… Mickey is looking at him and he can’t keep from laughing! He doesn’t want to laugh on the air, so Mickey can’t say anything. And the [production] truck is starting to yell at him. “What’s going on!? Here’s the replay! Say something about the replay! SAY SOMETHING!” Mickey can’t say anything and Coley is holding his head and trying to pull his pants up and the dust is raining down…

Steve Armitage, Host: I can be in another room and I’ll hear Bob getting wound up and I can tell by the inflection in his voice when it’s time to go to the television to watch; one of a kind in terms of the voice. I don’t think we’ll ever hear his like again. Identified with hockey in a fraction of a second. Just a great storyteller of the game in a way that play-by-play doesn’t do anymore. Chris Cuthbert and Jimmy Hughson will give you a ton of information in their commentary. Bob, pretty much stuck to basic play-by-play ala Foster Hewitt, but Bob did it with a far superior voice.

John Garrett: The one thing about Coley that he still has, is anticipation of something happening in the play. I think, a lot of play-by-play guys, that’s the one thing that they don’t have. They can’t anticipate when there’s danger. You could be looking the other way and all of a sudden you hear Coley’s voice and you know something is going to happen so you turn around and watch the TV … He might have the names wrong and he might not have the right team, but you know something is going to happen.

Dick Irvin: I think Bob’s the best straight ahead play-by-play man we’ve ever had. He just calls the game and it’s the game and that’s it. There’s no small talk with Bob. There’s no trivia. There’s no, you know, Bob just does the game. I guess you’d call him from the old school.

Jim Robson, Play-by-Play: Hughson knows everybody. All the line match-ups and all of that, but Bob never does any of that stuff. He talks about the score and the time… but people don’t mind. It’s only the media guys that notice that. He has a great voice – the best voice in the business. He’s been doing it a long time and he’s had dramatic goals and a lot of Stanley Cup Finals. He has the best job in the world. He’d fly into Toronto Thursday night, be there Friday, do the game Saturday and go home. Now Jim Hughson has the best job in the world, but Hughson works a lot harder at it I think.

Jim Hughson: [Bob Cole is] a guy who I’ve never actually worked with because we do the same job. We meet maybe once a year when they have a Hockey Night in Canada symposium … we’re always in different places. Never really got a chance to know him. When I was with TSN, we would run into each other in airports and things like that. Our conversations would always be something to the effect of, “How are you pronouncing that guy’s name?” I’d say, “Oh, I think this is the way it is.” He’d say, “Okay! That’s the way we’ll do it. You do it that way, I’ll do it that way and then everyone will follow.”

Mark Askin: Did Bob always laugh at everything we laughed at? No. But Bob – If Bob liked you – you must be doing something right. Bob doesn’t suffer fools easy.

Brian McFarlane, Host: He’s quick to anger. I think he gets riled a little too easy.

John Garrett: (laughs) Well, a lot of guys will just say, “Tap me on the shoulder when you want to get  [a word] in.” Bob Cole, one of the first things he said to me, “Hello, John. Nice to meet ya. There’s one thing. Never touch me.”

Doug Sellars: I’m sure you’ve heard the stories. You’re not allowed to touch him. I can remember … if a new P.A. came in, you had to give him all the instructions. “Here’s how Bob likes to work. He’ll stand up, he’ll unbuckle his belt, he likes to be comfortable, but do not touch him.”

Steve Lansky: My first memory of Bob … I had done so many Oilers games that numbers had, kind of, become an after thought. When I saw a play develop and Jari Kurri would score and it was pretty clear that it came from Coffey and Gretzky, I would simply write 17 and then in brackets 7 and 99, quickly write the time [of the goal] on a piece of paper and put it in front of Bob. [That way] he could do the scoring play before the cheering had stopped. But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t do it. I’d touch the paper and I’d point to it and the play would be going on. I’d be pointing at the paper, “Give the scoring play, Bob.” Nothing. So, finally the whistle goes and [Gary Dornhoefer] starts to talk and I touch Bob’s arm and point to the paper. We are right on the air. He takes off his headset and he says to me, “Kid! Don’t be touchin’ me! Don’t ever touch me! Don’t touch me!” Puts his headset back on. I remember John [Shannon] saying, “What was that?” I said, “I’m not going to touch Bob again,” and John said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Don’t touch Bob.”

Frank Selke Jr: If there was a problem with Bob, I think it was his reluctance or inability to really make use of his color man. Bob wasn’t much for conversation in the course of a game.

Gary Dornhoefer: He didn’t always like the interruption during play with an analyst coming in.

Dick Irvin: The color man says very little with Bob as long as Bob is talking.

Harry Neale, Color Man: I had always had a good relationship with Don Wallace who was the head of sports at the CBC … when I was coaching Vancouver, I filled in and did a game or two in Calgary. We didn’t make the playoffs and Calgary was in … I always used to kid Wallace and say, “When I get fired for the last time, I’ll be calling you.” So one day after I got fired in Detroit, he called on a Wednesday or Thursday and said, “What are you doing Saturday?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “Come on down to Montreal.” So I went down there. I went on between periods. I didn’t do the color. He said, “Well, I don’t know how many games I could give you, but would you be willing to do some from here on in?” So, I did …  some Hockey Night games – not every Saturday. That summer, John Davidson went to Madison Square Garden in New York. He was the number one Hockey Night color commentator so I took his games. That’s when it all started – and I went for about twenty years, I think … When I did the color for the first time … all I remember is that I certainly had no idea in reference to preparation, what I was doing. I often wondered why Wallace ever asked me back to do the second game after the first game. There’s no training for it … you just start. So, when they said you’ve got eight seconds or ten seconds, that meant absolutely nothing to me. Once I started talking I had no idea. There were all kinds of little things to learn from a broadcasters viewpoint … I’m talking about 1985 or 86 … I liked doing it … and I became more comfortable as it went on … I’m from the old school, you know, when the play started I got out. Because the play-by-play guy, that was his job. So, you had to learn to be a little more concise in your thoughts and not just watch the game the way you might watch it as a fan or even as a coach. You’re watching it so you can call down for a highlight or know what happened on that goal. Wallace and John Shannon both told me, “We all know who scored and we all know what team scored, but we want to know why.” That was kind of drilled into my head early in my career … Bob Cole was there and I can’t remember [who else]. I didn’t do very many Hockey Night games that first year.

Mark Askin: Bob is not a guy who interacts well with the color guy. Bob is a very straightforward play-by-play guy, but you know you’re getting the best of all time with Bob. When Harry worked with him, and I did eleven years with the two of them together as their producer, you’d have Harry find a way to make Bob laugh. No one else makes Bob laugh. To find a way to co-exist with Bob on the air – they became the best twosome for well over a decade. Well over a decade – almost two decades.

Doug Sellars: They just had that chemistry … it was just perfect. Sometimes you just hit with guys that work well together. And they liked each other. I think.

Steve Lansky: That’s what made each of them great. Coley was kind of the straight man because he didn’t really want to break character much and he was very, very serious about his job and his business. Harry was kind of the opposite, because Harry had figured out that it was all about entertainment … I thought they were almost like Lucy and Ricky, where Ricky was the serious one and Lucy was always doing something crazy, but together they were perfect.

Harry Neale: I always had the feeling that we weren’t describing nuclear physics. It was a hockey game, and there were always amusing things that happened in a hockey game, and I took a little pride in the fact that I could get Coley to take his eyes off the rink and take a look at me and smile. Because he’s so intense. Sometimes it worked and sometimes he gave me that look, “What the hell are you talking about?”

Steve Armitage: Bob has worked with countless color guys down through the years. When Bob wants to speak he gives you “The Heisman.” You know what the Heisman Trophy looks like? With the hand pushed forward? When Bob does that to his color guy that means, “Bob is speaking!”

Harry Neale: If you ever talked through the play … that really upset him. We used to kid and say we got “The Heisman.” Did you get a “Heisman” from Bob Cole?

Gary Dornhoefer: He would prefer that you stop [talking] at the whistle. When the play is between the blue line - nothing is really happening. That’s always a good time for the color man or analyst to come in and make a comment. Y’know, if it’s pertinent, why not? With Bob it seemed to disrupt his flow. After a while we just didn’t do it. We waited for a stoppage in play. With all the other guys it wasn’t a problem.

Steve Armitage: When Bob was speaking – Bob was speaking. You weren’t allowed to talk. That’s how Bob controlled his color commentators.

Mark Askin: Everything has to go in one ear for Bob Cole because he puts his hand up to the other ear. [We] had to build a special headset just for Bob. If you’re great like Bob and great like Danny, you do whatever you can to get the best out of those guys. It’s a small price to pay to get their legendary words and vivid images.

John Shannon: True theatre of the mind.

Steve Armitage: He’s very much to himself. Bob was not a party guy in the sense that he would go out and have a drink with you after the game.

John Shannon: He’s a guarded person.

Brian McFarlane: He’s a private person.

John Shannon: He guards his privacy.
Steve Armitage: That was one of the great Hockey Night in Canada traditions. You’d go to a bar and have a few pops after the game with the crew, the directors, the producers and fellow commentators. Bob very seldom did that. He did a few times, but not very often.
Mark Askin: Bob Cole loves Frank Sinatra. Loves him. Of all the things you talk to Bob about, “Oh, Frank! Unbelievable.” Frank this – Frank that. I went to Italy for my Honeymoon. The first day we’re there, we walk over to St. Peters … they were doing mass for newlyweds … so we go ... and we get pushed through this door …  

now we’re in St. Peter’s Basilica … out from this curtain, within thirty seconds, trumpets start. The Pope walks right out! He looks at me and he says something and he puts his hand on my head and walks away, which I thought was unbelievable. I come back [to Toronto] and I tell the guys this story. Everyone is like, “Oh my God, that’s amazing!” I tell the story and Bob is there. Bob says, “I got one [to top that]. I was at the Sinatra concert at the Civic Arena a month ago. Two ladies are beside me – and after the concert – Frank Sinatra touched that lady’s arm.”
Harry Neale: Bob Cole and I went to see Frank Sinatra in the Pittsburgh Arena when it was first built … He’s a great Frank Sinatra fan and he’s a great music fan. He’s got favorite singers and favorite orchestras and Sinatra could do no wrong as far as Coley was concerned. He got mad one night when a veteran player made a bad mistake and it ended up in the goal. I said, “You know, even Frank Sinatra had to clear his throat during a song once in a while.” He looked at me like I was cutting down his friend.

Steve Armitage: Yes, he loved Frank Sinatra. I worked a lot of games with Bob Cole. Bob would go back to his room … he’d probably deny it … He loved Captain Morgan. He would have a bottle of Captain Morgan, run a bath and he would drink in the bathtub and listen to Frank Sinatra (laughs).

Doug Sellars: Captain Morgan and it had to be real Coke. None of that new Coke

 Jim Robson: Bob Cole continues to work even though he only seems to know twenty-five percent of the players’ names.

Brian McFarlane: I don’t understand the criticism he gets. Sure, he’s getting on in age, but he’s my age, and I cheer anybody my age who can still get up there and do a game and can handle all the travel and the problems that come along.

Steve Lansky: The Brett Hull [Stanley Cup winning goal] in 1999. That one bothered me. You won’t find it because they’ve gone back and re-striped it. First he called – at one point he called Dennis Hull. Ultimately he called Brett. What they did was they went back into the studio and re-striped it. So, if you ever see that goal again it’ll sound like he called it perfectly. I have the original VHS – and it was a struggle. That one was a struggle for Bob. I felt for him.

Jim Robson: It sounds like sour grapes when I talk about Bob, but it drives me crazy when he doesn’t mention the players’ names. He’ll say, “The Flyers dump the puck in. The Flyers get it down the ice.”

Steve Lansky: Bob would say, “I hate Madison Square Garden.” I’d say, “Why?” He’d say, “You’re so far away you can’t see.”

Jim Robson: When the Canucks played in 1994 in the Stanley Cup Final - the big goal in game one [at Madison Square Garden] was an overtime goal by Greg Adams. Pavel Bure started it from the Vancouver blue line with a pass to Cliff Ronning. Ronning carried the puck a few strides and fed it up to Greg Adams who broke into the clear and scored on a breakaway late in the long overtime. Bob Cole did the game on TV. He never mentioned Pavel Bure. He never mentioned Cliff Ronning. He never mentioned Greg Adams. It was just “They score,” and probably someone in the truck said “Greg Adams” or something. He gets away with it because he has got a great voice. It’s dramatic, but those names never got mentioned.

 Steve Lansky: I remember the game that the Rangers fired fifteen overtime shots at Patrick Roy and the Canadiens came back and scored. If you watch that call, the Canadiens get a breakaway. Cole says something like, “Roy makes a great save. Now here come the Canadiens back! Breakaway - right in - scores!” The guy who scored skates around and back to center ice.  I remember looking at Doug Beeforth and saying, “I don’t think he said Claude Lemieux yet.” Finally he said, “Lemieux scored.” I remember asking him later, “Why the delay?” He said, “I had no idea [who scored]. We were too far away.”  Bob always told me that vision was a struggle.

Frank Selke Jr: Some of the buildings were certainly not easy to work in. Madison Square Gardens particularly, you were a hell of a long way from the ice surface. I was never around to have the guy’s eyes checked or anything like that. So I don’t know whether Bob had eyesight issues, but I do know that Madison Square Gardens was not an easy place to work. Again, the issue of his inability to work closely with his color guy would be a detriment in that sense. 

Harry Neale: Every broadcaster in every sport and every color man in every sport, misidentifies from time to time. The play-by-play guy doesn’t have time to look down at the number because he’s watching the game … Bob Cole gave me one good piece of advice. He said, “We’re all going to [identify] the wrong guy [occasionally]. Don’t correct yourself. Because only a small percentage of the people that were watching the game on television would know that you’ve got the wrong guy. If you correct yourself everyone knows.” Not bad advice. Now, on replays that’s different. On the replays, sometimes you get a chance to see them before they show them and find out what the guy’s name is. I don’t believe that eyesight story. At some of the rinks the broadcast facilities are not as good as the others. And Madison Square Gardens is one of the worst.

Frank Selke Jr: I think through the past few years, Bob was losing some of his accuracy. He was missing on players’ names and so on. But the last year was probably as good a year as he had as long time … Why that is I’m not sure, because I’m not party to what’s going on in his life. But from what I’ve heard, his lifestyle might be a little bit better than what it was. I think he may have also realized that his days were being talked about, being numbered, and maybe he buckled down a little bit and worked a little harder at the job. 

Hockey Night in Canada (1965)

Hockey Night in Canada (1963)

Where It's At with guests The Vanilla Fudge (1969)

Let's Go (1968)

Where it's At (1968)

Let's Go (1966)

The Forest Rangers - Christmas Episode (1963)

The Nat King Cole Show Special (1961)

An Interview with Murray Westgate

Murray Westgate: I got into a little theater work in Regina, my home town. After the War I joined a company in Vancouver called Everyman Theater. It was starting up a repertory, a touring thing. It was run by a man named Sidney Risk who was putting up the money for it. We all went on tour to Winnipeg and back. We did two or three plays. I joined the company for ten dollars a week and they looked after us. It was quite an experience, but it was all quite new for me.

All I had done was a little bit of theater work in Regina and I saw this write-up in Maclean's Magazine about the acting crowd on radio in Toronto and about this company that was forming in Vancouver. So I wrote them a letter and told them I had done a few things here in Saskatchewan and they invited me to join.

Kliph Nesteroff: How did that transition into your getting into television? Did you start working in radio first?

Murray Westgate: Oh, sure. After that tour finished with the Everyman Theater, I stayed in Vancouver and I was introduced to the radio people there at CBC. I got a few small parts in the CBC Radio drama department. I was there two or three years and did some stage work as well. Summer theater. The Everyman Theater sort of folded. Some friends of mine had left Vancouver and gone to Toronto. Everybody sort of started in Vancouver and they ended up in Toronto.

So I was told that what I should do is head to Toronto because there was a great deal of work going on there. If you want to grow strawberries, you've got to go where they grow them. So, I got on a bus and went to Toronto and looked up my friend Ed McCurdy and a few people I had known in Vancouver. They took me around and introduced me to a few of the crowd that was working there and I started getting small parts. To make a living I did a little photo advertising for various things as a model. I got a few small parts with Andrew Allen on the Stage series on radio. It just went on from there. Then television came along.

Kliph Nesteroff: You acted in a lot of 1950s television drama. You worked with a lot of people who went on to bigger things and acted in several dramas written by Arthur Hailey...

Murray Westgate: Yes, I was in a couple of those. Yeah, sure. I met him when he'd be down at the rehearsals.

Kliph Nesteroff: People like Paul Kligman and Ed McNamara who were some of the tried and true Canadian character actors for years and years...

Murray Westgate: Paul Kligman was a very close friend of mine. A really close friend. I saw a lot of the Kligmans. Ed and I started out in Vancouver at the Everyman Theater. He was from Chicago. He came up to Vancouver and was going to make a name for himself. I did summer stock in Vancouver out at Bowen Island for a man called Wan Root. Ed came to Toronto about the same time I did and we did a lot of shows together.

Kliph Nesteroff: Kligman and McNamara did voices in a ton of cartoons...

Murray Westgate: Yes, that's right. They even started a series of their own. I've forgotten the name of it.

Kliph Nesteroff: Did you get involved in the cartoon stuff?

Murray Wetsgate: I did one for a man named Allen. Yes, I played the part of an elephant and I had to sing (laughs). I also was on [the Canadian] Howdy Doody and all those kids shows.

Kliph Nesteroff: You worked with Canadian variety show icon Juliette...

Murray Westgate: Yes, I did. I met her every Saturday night in the make-up room. She was a bit of a... tough cookie at times. Yeah, she could be quite bossy, that's for sure. I guested on her show one night after a hockey broadcast. I went over and I made an appearance on her show. I did the same thing with Wayne and Shuster. I came over and was a guest, appeared on the show, after appearing on the hockey show. I don't know how I fit it all in the scheme of things, but I did. Kligman worked with Wayne and Shuster regularly. So did a friend of mine named Tom Harvey.

Kliph Nesteroff: How did you become the spokesman for Imperial Oil?

Murray Westgate: I was introduced by George Murray to an advertising manager at Imperial Oil. They were thinking of doing some sale films. I was going to be the good [gasoline] dealer and the bad dealer would work across the street. I was the clean cut one. I made their films for them for a while and we did quite a few. At the same time I was getting these small parts in radio. I got in to some fairly large, major roles in radio. Television comes along and nobody knew what they were doing - how it was going to work or anything. Everybody was flying by the seat of their pants.

Anyway, there was MacLaren Advertising who handled all the Imperial Oil ads. They were doing Hockey Night in Canada. They were looking for a dealer. They had auditioned quite a few people and everything. Then Imperial Oil said, "Well, why don't we use this bird that we've been using in our films?" They said, "That might be a pretty good idea." So they took me down and gave me a little screen test and decided I was the guy to do the job. I started out in the very early days of television doing Hockey Night in Canada... doing the commercials and hosting.

Kliph Nesteroff: Live commercials.

Murray Westgate: They were done live in the beginning, but eventually we went to using a teleprompter and then videotape came along and we did them on tape. I was there for sixteen years and it evolved.

Kliph Nesteroff: Where were they filmed? Were they done in the arena or was there a studio nearby?

Murray Westgate: The studios were set up for doing them. We didn't do them in the hockey arena. I was present in the arena, but the original commercials were done in the CBC studios across the street from Maple Leaf Gardens. All the guests would come over near the end of the first period. We'd do the commercials in the CBC studio. We did them all there. Then they built a small studio in the Gardens itself.

Eventually I didn't do any commercials in there, but I was present at all the games. I was present at the interviews in the intermission and I introduced people that were going to be on what we called The Hot Stove League. As a matter of fact, we built a little hot stove [set piece]. A corner store type of thing with this stove over at the CBC. The Hot Stove League was the intermission segment. Let's see, well, then it settled down with video tape.

In those days, every Saturday night the network would carry the [Toronto] Maple Leafs, but every second Saturday we'd go to Montreal when the Canadiens games were played on the national network. Every second Saturday I'd go up to Montreal and do the English commercials.

Kliph Nesteroff: And there was a little studio set up in the Montreal Forum?

Murray Westgate: No, we had a proper recording studio, but they were done not too far from the Forum. I was present at the Forum during the game, but the commercials would be done away from the Forum.

Kliph Nesteroff: What was your relationship like with MacLaren Advertising? Did you have to deal with the man in charge of the hockey account - Ted Hough?

Murray Westgate: Yes, Ted was our boss. He was our boss. He'd supply us with tickets for our friends if we ever wanted to bring our friends to the games (laughs). Yes, he was my boss for broadcasts here in Toronto.

Kliph Nesteroff: He had a hands off approach?

Murray Westgate: Pretty hands off. We had, what the hell did they call it? Ted was the boss, but we had a MacLaren representative in charge of stuff and they would arrange commercials for everything.

Kliph Nesteroff: How about the legendary man in charge of the play-by-play during that era - Foster Hewitt...

Murray Westgate: Yes. He was a very nice guy, but he was somewhat of an enigma. I got along quite well with him, [but he was] very private.

Kliph Nesteroff: Did you get to know Foster's son, Bill Hewitt?

Murray Westgate: Oh, yeah, he was a bit of a... he was a pretty good guy, but I think he drank a lot. I think there was some problem there. But he did a good job of broadcasting.

Kliph Nesteroff: How about the eventual Vice President of MacLaren's hockey operations - Frank Selke Jr?

Murray Westgate: Selke was a nice guy too. I didn't know him terribly well. It was a common thing [for me] to do public appearances and he would be around.

Kliph Nesteroff: You got paid extra for that?

Murray Westgate: No. No, I never had a contract. Never! They would phone me up in September and say, "Well, it's Hockey Night in Canada - are you coming down?" (laughs) "I'll be there," I said. Let's see, I was paid for my very first broadcast - CBC had control of it - I was a steward on the show. I had to keep track of everyone that was involved in the production itself. I wasn't paid very much money, but it went up as the years went on. Started out at seventy-two dollars, I think. We had trouble. We worried about the teleprompter working or not working. 

We didn't have cue cards. We waited for teleprompters to come along, but their teleprompter would go on the fritz and we were worried about it. It did go occasionally. In the meantime, what I would do was cut my script up and paste it to a Marvalute Motor Oil can and sit it on the counter. If I got stuck I'd pick up the can and I'd read it off the can. The audience wouldn't know.

Kliph Nesteroff: What was your role in the Hot Stove League intermission segment?

Murray Westgate: Nothing other than introducing the guests. We had a little makeshift hot stove corner store thing and I would have to break in for a commercial or to say, "We're going back to the Gardens now for the rest of the game." Little things like that, but that only happened for a short time. [Toronto Maple Leafs owner] Conn Smythe was on the show one night. We had a door going into the Hot Stove set and a doorbell would ring. Normally the doorbell would ring and the guest would come through the door and I would usher them in. They'd sit around and chew the fat about the game. Connie Smythe came in and he wouldn't go through the door! He just walked around it. Walked around the flats (laughs). He came in and after the interview he sees me and says [on air], "Here comes the gas man. I guess we have to go."

Kliph Nesteroff: Didn't have much respect for the illusions of showbiz.

Murray Westgate: Not a bit!

Kliph Nesteroff: Did you know Hockey Night in Canada personality Brian McFarlane?

Murray Westgate: Yeah! Saw him not too long ago. Brian was - I like Brian. I worked for his father as an actor in the National Film Board. His father was a producer and director [named] Les McFarlane. I worked for him in Film Board films. I worked in the Canadian National Exhibition every summer for several years and Imperial Oil had a booth in the automotive building and we would interview hockey players. Brian used to come and emcee some of those shows.

Kliph Nesteroff: What brought you to your end on Hockey Night in Canada?

Murray Westgate: I have no idea. I think it was because the sponsorship went to other companies. Who took it over? Molson and somebody else. So, Imperial Oil was pretty much... It was all Imperial Oil when I did it, but when that changed the league expanded. I was eased out. No problem. I had a long run. Things change, you know? It just was a wonderful... what do they call it - trip? (laughs). In show business things don't last that long. Many shows do, but many shows disappear. Many wonderful actors just disappear - they could have been fabulous had they stayed with the game, but they drift away.

Kliph Nesteroff: You hosted a kids show in the early sixties called Junior Roundup.

Murray Westgate: Junior Roundup. I enjoyed that for a year and then they replaced me with a not-too-likable guy in the business. He's now married to Suzanne Sommers... if you know who I mean.

Kliph Nesteroff: Alan Hamel.

Murray Westgate: That's right. Oh, you know all that stuff! Yeah, he replaced me. I was sitting in the canteen one day and an announcer - a CBC announcer came up to me. Alan Hamel was an announcer on my Junior Roundup show. I was sitting in the canteen having coffee and this other announcer came up to me and said, "How are you getting along with Al Hamel?" I said, "Oh, he seems all right." He said, "You watch that guy. He'll have your job." By God, he had my job the next year!

Kliph Nesteroff: Wow, did you get any sense of that before it happened?

Murray Westgate: No, none whatsoever. I didn't know he was a son of a bitch.

Kliph Nesteroff: I heard that you were bit by a monkey on Junior Roundup.

Murray Westgate: Yeah, we had the monkey on the show one day. I don't know what happened (laughs). The trainer was there and I went over and tried to be nice to the monkey. I said, "Can I touch him?" He said, "Oh, I think so." He took a bite out of my thumb or my wrist. Anyway, I went down and had to get a shot for rabies!

Kliph Nesteroff: Do you think it was Alan Hamel that sent the monkey after you?

Murray Westgate: (laughs) Wouldn't put it past him!