This is an old, very distorted tape of Lionel anonymously interviewed on the CBC as a Drug Dealer. He’s young, before he had kids i think. It’s pretty strange and interesting! -  Been neglecting this site for a little bit, swamped with work. But haven’t posted anything since August! Plan to post some new stuff soon. [...]

Frank Zappa @ The Rockpile! 1969-05-24, i suspect it’s the Late Show Arna and Lionel went to the show together I’m told. She sent me this photo on the right, it’s from Nash the Slash’s site, you should check it out he’s got some amazing archives. I’ve tinted it to highlight what she thinks is [...]

Was told of this short silly film a few times by various friends of Lionel’s over the years, but the people who mentioned it didn’t remember who made it so I had no idea where to look for it… Ends up Lorne Gould, publisher of the “Collected Works” [1980 by Emanation Press] was the film [...]

I’ve been exploring different avenues of making prints & things available online, little late to the game, there are a few interesting options. I’ve decided that RedBubble is a good fit for publishing a few of Lionel’s photos. I’ve just finished setting up the first 12 images I selected to publish, I think they make [...]

The last roll of shots from the historic Jimi Hendrix Experience show [see pt1 and pt2 here]. Also at the end of the roll shots back stage i think, with Hendrix’s guitar? Might be, and a few at the Berkeley street loft, of Arna and Ian.

The second roll of photos of a historic Jimi Hendrix show, the night of May 3, 1969 at Maple Leaf Gardens. There’s been a fair bit of interest in prints of some kind, I’m working on a couple of solutions, and should have something to present with the 3rd Roll of film from the show. For a bit [...]

This is the first of 3 posts. You can find the second and third sets of shots from this show here and here. legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix was arrested at Toronto International Airport on May 3, 1969 at 9:30 a.m. after customs found small amounts of heroin and hashish in his luggage. He claimed they [...]

I just got back from a trip to Toronto, and brought back another pile of Lionel’s things. This time it was 8 trays of colour slides, photos Lionel took mostly in the mid 70s. This first batch is all shots taken in or around Heward ave, the house Lionel owned and lived in for most of the 1970s [...]

Next 4 posts will all be Live shows. This one is at the historic Rock Pile – April 12, 1969. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is an English psychedelic rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown in 1967. To give you an idea of what the show might have been like here’s a video [...]

This set of photos goes with the next post, a set of live concert shots. Arna and Lionel hanging out with friends, before and after a big night of live music. Clive Smith is one of the founders of Nelvana, formally one of Canada’s largest animation studios. In the early 80′s Arna would go to [...]

Photos from a live show put on by 1050 CHUM, not sure who the act is or the date, will have to look that up.

30 more, mostly i think un-published poems. I recognize a few lines here and there, some are maybe earlier drafts of poems in the collected works book.

This set is almost entirely of a dress rehearsal for a play, not sure of what company, i’ll have to ask a few people see if I can find out. Might be Theatre Passe Muraille or a precursor. Nope, confirmed by a few people it’s not, may be a Hart House production. The fellow in [...]

Visitors to the Berkeley street loft, a convertible, friends playing Frisbee in the park, and a burned out home.

A few shots of the buildings around the Berkeley street loft, a very lovely guest reeding in it, a tough looking lady in leather, and lots of photos from a screening of The good the bad and the ulgly. I have photos like that, from films on TV usually, stills i took of monies i [...]

This set is a little meta, in amongst the shots you can see contact sheets here and there, people looking at them, talking about them. I wonder what they are of. I’ll see if i can’t deduce it for later. Also a few great shots of a biker and his dismantled ride, some pretty ladies [...]

Here’s a three rolls of film from what looks like sometime in the summer. Scenes from around Toronto. People hanging out in the Beaches. The Island faeries and on the island with a dog. Children and older folks out and about in what I think are parts of Cabbage town. John McNeily and Arna at the Berkeley stree loft, [...]

So for the 20th post on the site i’m skipping ahead a few sheets to a treat. This was probably one of Lionel’s first live show shoots. I’ve some later one’s that came out a bit better. Not sure if this is the same place, or day. One set is a trio i can’t place [hints [...]

Most of these shots, i think were probably taken by Ian Argue. Looks like Arna Lionel and he visiting Lionel’s mother, Libby. My grandmother. Also two shots in someone’s kitchen, not sure where. Might not even be from the same roll, they are not on the contact sheet but were in the negative sleeve with the others.

More poetry! About half way though the folder now, here’s a few more, 30 to be exact. One is a draft of a poem that appeared in the book, the rest i think are unpublished and predominately hand written.

Somewhere by the side of the road in southern Ontario Lionel and Arna pulled over and took these photos. The one of Arna in profile standing in a slight wind is really striking. Some really nice shots of the landscape too, I love the texture of the grass. I’ll have to ask if the 1952 Pontiac was [...]

Couple of rolls of photos of what i think is mostly Toronto in the summer. I have this lens still, along with a 28 wide angle for my Nikon F. It’s a bit crappy now though. Some of the few bits of camera equipment I’ve been able to hang on to. I was supposed to get it all, but an older relative claimed to want [...]

So in case you didn’t know, I’m a cartoonist. Arna my mother is an artist, she works in animation. In part this explains my involvement in the arts. But not only was Lionel also very creative, he was a avid reader of comics, introducing me to my first undergrounds and superheros. And I’m told we would sit [...]

Not really sure if it is a quarry, looks like one. Ian Arna and Lionel going for a dip somewhere. Another shot of Arna and Lionel in happier times together. One of the nicest things about going through these old shots is finding those. I wonder who’s taking them when he’s in the frame. Ian some of the time i [...]

This is a big interesting set. I think it’s all one roll, hard to be sure. It’s mostly of what i think is the streets of Downtown Toronto. Will try to find out and ad that info here when i do. But the really interesting thing about these shots are the people.

Along with all the negatives, there are a few prints printed by Lionel i assume, in some cases mounted on boards. Scanned them tonight, an interesting selections of images. Some of the prints were in rough shape. cleaned up a few things but mostly left them as is. I’m using these as a rough rule of thumb [...]

Some more words. The first three are actually drafts of poems that appeared in the book, so not unpublished. But it’s interesting to see them typed up here just the same. The rest I think, are Un-published and not seen publicly, if ever, in over 30 years!

Some more shots of Arna, kittens, and folks at Berkeley street, also looks like a gimps at the garage on the first floor. Some photos of a fair, people playing bingo. The CNE maybe? And kids, smoking a pipe? Lionel loved kids, there are a lot of shots of kids playing in the collection. I remembered when the ice cream [...]

Of course i can’t be sure, maybe he shot these, put the camera down, and then picked up the day of the landing. Or maybe it was in the other order. But it looks like this roll was shot the day Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. Arna, my mother is there so perhaps [...]

This is a nice set. My mother is in some of them, getting dressed in the first place she and Lionel lived in together. She was an art student at OCA and an artists model. I have a great story to post later about how they met… “This is before Rochdale, before you! The first place we lived [...]

Pulled out the big folder of peotry today, there’s a lot there that was not published in the Emanation Pess book, scanned a few of them to post today. These were typed on a huge humming electric typewriter that’s still around – an old girlfriend of mine has it. The titles of these are not necessarily his, [...]

Going through his papers I found some interesting stories about Lionel in the form of documents. The first two here are landmarks, one is his birth certifique, the other a letter of thanks for his eyes. I always wondered who looked though his eyes after he died. I hope they helped them see beautiful things.

Scanned another sheet tonight. These were it seems from the same set as the last, or are just unmarked. I’ve called them 02-01B for now. They are from 1969 as well. Looks like he was a little sloppy rinsing his negatives early on, there’s some streaking from developer left on them when they were hung to dry. I recognize some of [...]

Lionel Douglas: Selected excerpts of “Collected Works” published in 1980 by Emanation Press. This is a book of my fathers work published a year after his death by friends. Not sure if they have it in stock still but you can try to get a copy from the publisher here if your interested. Going to try [...]

I have this trunk. It’s filed with negatives. My father’s photos. Mostly B&W, i’ve been meaning to scan them, get them archived and published in some manor. Decided to start this site in part as an excuse for that. Get things rolling. The Binders of negatives in the trunk are somewhat in order, so I’m [...]

So, why “The Italian Machine Project”? Lionel was Jewish after all…? The machine in question was a bike, a Ducati Super Sport in a film that featured a fictional version of Lionel and captured a bit of the mythical version of him many remember. The Italian Machine was actually meant to be a 60 minute long [...]

Lionel left a big impression. I’ll post other bits of evidence of this, but it goes a long way towards making the point, to post this. A two page spread published in one of Toronto’s major weekly papers, three months after his death. It’s an impressive hagiography, if not a little bit biased. Like most things in the media it’s not [...]