Wayne Janes

Memories of the Toronto Sun - Wayne Janes

 

My favourite memory of the Sun actually happened before I started working there. 

 

I was associated with the Sun for a few years before I was hired. My ex-wife, Diane Kozlowski, worked in ad layout and I knew quite a few Sun people through her, mostly ad reps but a few Editorial people through hanging out at Hoofers (before Crooks). 

 

This was the era when selected staffers were invited to the yearly Board of Directors meetings. The price for the all-expenses-paid/first-class trip was the staffer had to explain what his/her job was to the board during the main meeting.

 

Doug Creighton's generosity included spouses, so when Diane's turn came I was invited to go along. After a few days of eating, drinking and partying (with a real meeting or two thrown in) with the likes of Doug, John Grant, Rudy Bratty, Lionel Schipper and Herb Solway, about eight of us ended up back at the hotel in the Sun's hospitality suite, laughing and chatting, very drunk. 

 

At one point, Doug asked me if Diane and I were married. I said no, we were living together and had been for about seven years. He declared it was high time we got married - I believe what he actually said was something along the lines of "If you don't marry this girl now I'm going to fire her."

 

Apparently, Bruce Tuttle, who was the Sun's western ad manager, had some kind of certification to marry people in Alberta (this was at the Calgary Stampede) and he was rousted out of bed to perform the ceremony. 

 

So, with Doug as best man, Marilyn Creighton as maid of honour, Bruce officiating and Hugh Wesley as wedding photographer, we were hitched.

 

The next day, at the big closing ceremony, we were given "an award" for the most bizarre moment of the weekend.

 

A few years later, when I was at loose ends career-wise, the Sun very generously opened its doors to me and I have never looked back. 

 

(And I believe that in Alberta, Diane and I are still legally married.) 

 

Wayne Janes 

Toronto

 

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