Chris Doty
Encyclopedia
Chris Bourke Doty was a Canadian
journalist
, historian
, award-winning documentary film
maker, author
and playwright
, noted for his many contributions to the cultural life of his hometown of London, Ontario
.
A graduate of Tecumseh Public School, London South Collegiate Institute and the journalism
school at the University of Western Ontario
in 1991, Doty grew up on tree-lined Lyndhurst Place in old south London, where he was a paper boy for The London Free Press during his formative years.
, as well as a book on hangings in London and Ontario.
His documentary films have covered such subjects as:
Doty's historical documentary films earned his film company, Doty Docs, a total of six provincial and national awards.
He also wrote the commemorative book, Fifty Years of Music: The Story of EMI Music Canada, 1999, and was active in film restoration, bringing forgotten Canadian films and documentaries back to the public's attention. These have included Here Will I Nest, 1942, The Turkey Point Witch Project, 1962, and Guy Lombardo: A Royal Canadian, 1977.
Doty restored the only known print of Canada
's first feature-length colour movie, Here I Will Nest and produced a series of historical minutes/ videos for The New PL TV-station (now the A-Channel, originally CFPL-TV), Rogers Television
the City of London, Museum London and the Banting House Museum.
In 2003, Doty was instrumental in convincing the City to name a park in honour of London-born Black actor, Richard B. Harrison
(1864–1935), in south-central London, as well as having an interpretive historical plaque erected in Richard B. Harrison Park.
Doty was also involved in local theatre
as a playwright and a producer, including a dramatized recreation of The Donnelly Trial -- the 1880 trial of alleged ringleader James Carroll for the mob killing of the notorious Black Donnellys
of Biddulph Township north of London near Lucan, Ontario, on February 4, 1880—in the same courtroom
in London's historic courthouse (now the Middlesex County
building) where the trial occurred 126 years ago. The play had two possible endings that a jury, made up of 12 audience members, could determine depending on their verdict.
During Doors Open
London, 2005, Doty played a key role in writing the scripts for the Lost Soul Stroll street theatre in downtown London whose theme was London's past, ghosts and hauntings.
The second play that Doty co-wrote and produced was about political-marijuana activist, Marc Emery
, called Citizen Marc, The Adventures of Marc Emery.
In addition, Doty co-founded the Brickenden Awards in 2002 to recognize excellence in theatre in London, which Doty last attended on Monday, January 30, 2006, with The Donnelly Trial winning a Brickenden for the "Ballyhoo Award" (best advance promotion) and also one for best costumes (made by Barbara Hunter).
of his home on Trevithen Street in south London— twenty-four hours before the final performance of Citizen Marc, which was playing downtown at the London Arts Project on Dundas Street.
Shortly before his death, Doty had talked about taking his play about Marc Emery on the road to Vancouver
, British Columbia
. Plans were also in the works to re-stage The Donnelly Trial, which first ran in the spring-summer of 2005 and was an artistic and box-office success.
Doty's funeral home visitation at Donahue Funeral Home on February 6 and funeral service at Metropolitan United Church in London on February 7, 2006, were both attended by several hundred mourners, including members of London's media
, arts-and-heritage communities.
In June 2006, The Donnelly Trial was reprised by producer Grant Doty, Chris' younger brother, at the Old Middlesex County courthouse in memory of Chris Doty.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, award-winning documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, noted for his many contributions to the cultural life of his hometown of London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
.
A graduate of Tecumseh Public School, London South Collegiate Institute and the journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
school at the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
in 1991, Doty grew up on tree-lined Lyndhurst Place in old south London, where he was a paper boy for The London Free Press during his formative years.
Historical documentary films and plays
His writing included numerous articles in local and area publications such as The London Free Press, the Simcoe Reformer, the Strathroy Age-Dispatch and the UWO GazetteUWO Gazette
The Gazette is the student newspaper at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. The Gazette is the only daily student newspaper in Canada, publishing Tuesday through Friday. It is owned and published by the University Students' Council.- History :The Gazette began in 1906 as a...
, as well as a book on hangings in London and Ontario.
His documentary films have covered such subjects as:
- Old Theatres: The Return, 1991 (while still a student at UWO)
- Marc EmeryMarc EmeryMarc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis policy reform advocate, as well as a former cannabis seed seller. He is currently serving a five year sentence in a United States federal prison for selling cannabis seeds....
: Messing Up the System, 1992 - Slippery the Seal and Storybook Gardens in London (Slippery, 1995)
- London's great flood of 1937 (Lost April: The Flood of '37, 1997)
- the history of London (Vagabonds and Visionaries: The London Story, 1998)
- CBCCanadian Broadcasting CorporationThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
-TV's Guy Lombardo: When We Danced, 1998 - a GuelphGuelphGuelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
, OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, promotional video (Guelph: City of Opportunity, 2000) - the British Royal visit of 1939 (A Great Day for London: The Royal Visit of 1939, 2000)
- the history of the Grand TheatreGrand Theatre, OntarioThe Grand Theatre is a professional theatre located at 471 Richmond Street just south of Dufferin Avenue in London, Ontario, Canada.Its main auditorium has a seating capacity of 839 with a regular season running from September to May...
, (Let's Go to the Grand!, 2001) - the history of the local TV station (Rewind: Fifty Years of Local Television), 2003)
- the first 40 years of the London KnightsLondon KnightsThe London Knights are a junior ice hockey team from London, Ontario, Canada, playing in the Ontario Hockey League, one of the leagues of the Canadian Hockey League.-Early days–1968:...
hockey team (Green and Gold: 40 Seasons of the London Knights, 2005) - The Jack Chambers Film Project, 2005
Doty's historical documentary films earned his film company, Doty Docs, a total of six provincial and national awards.
He also wrote the commemorative book, Fifty Years of Music: The Story of EMI Music Canada, 1999, and was active in film restoration, bringing forgotten Canadian films and documentaries back to the public's attention. These have included Here Will I Nest, 1942, The Turkey Point Witch Project, 1962, and Guy Lombardo: A Royal Canadian, 1977.
Doty restored the only known print of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's first feature-length colour movie, Here I Will Nest and produced a series of historical minutes/ videos for The New PL TV-station (now the A-Channel, originally CFPL-TV), Rogers Television
Rogers Television
Rogers TV, are community channels owned by Rogers Communications Inc. Many of these channels share common programs. Rogers TV broadcasts into the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario. Rogers TV is available only in communities served by Rogers' cable and...
the City of London, Museum London and the Banting House Museum.
In 2003, Doty was instrumental in convincing the City to name a park in honour of London-born Black actor, Richard B. Harrison
Richard B. Harrison
Richard Berry Harrison was a renowned actor, teacher, dramatic reader and lecturer. He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine on March 4, 1935. The son of fugitive slaves, Harrison was born in London, Ontario, Canada, on September 28, 1864, the eldest of five siblings.Harrison's parents had...
(1864–1935), in south-central London, as well as having an interpretive historical plaque erected in Richard B. Harrison Park.
Doty was also involved in local theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
as a playwright and a producer, including a dramatized recreation of The Donnelly Trial -- the 1880 trial of alleged ringleader James Carroll for the mob killing of the notorious Black Donnellys
Black Donnellys
The Black Donnellys is the common nickname of the Donnelly family who emigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland, to Canada in about 1845–1846, and who participated in a notorious feud in Biddulph Township in Middlesex County, Ontario, which culminated in a massacre in which five family members were...
of Biddulph Township north of London near Lucan, Ontario, on February 4, 1880—in the same courtroom
Courtroom
A courtroom is the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.The schedule of official court proceedings is called a docket; the term is also synonymous with a court's caseload as a whole.-Courtroom design:-United States:...
in London's historic courthouse (now the Middlesex County
Middlesex County, Ontario
Middlesex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario. Landlocked, the county is bordered by Huron and Perth counties on the north, Oxford County on the east, Elgin County on the south, and Chatham-Kent and Lambton County on the west.The seat is the city of London, although the city...
building) where the trial occurred 126 years ago. The play had two possible endings that a jury, made up of 12 audience members, could determine depending on their verdict.
During Doors Open
Doors Open
Doors Open is a 2008 novel by crime writer Ian Rankin. It is his first stand alone thriller in over 10 years.The story was originally published as a serial novel in The New York Times Magazine.- Plot outline :...
London, 2005, Doty played a key role in writing the scripts for the Lost Soul Stroll street theatre in downtown London whose theme was London's past, ghosts and hauntings.
The second play that Doty co-wrote and produced was about political-marijuana activist, Marc Emery
Marc Emery
Marc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis policy reform advocate, as well as a former cannabis seed seller. He is currently serving a five year sentence in a United States federal prison for selling cannabis seeds....
, called Citizen Marc, The Adventures of Marc Emery.
In addition, Doty co-founded the Brickenden Awards in 2002 to recognize excellence in theatre in London, which Doty last attended on Monday, January 30, 2006, with The Donnelly Trial winning a Brickenden for the "Ballyhoo Award" (best advance promotion) and also one for best costumes (made by Barbara Hunter).
Death
The date of Doty's death is believed to be Thursday, February 2, 2006, although he wasn't found until a day later on Friday, February 3, 2006 after apparently hanging himself in the atticAttic
An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...
of his home on Trevithen Street in south London— twenty-four hours before the final performance of Citizen Marc, which was playing downtown at the London Arts Project on Dundas Street.
Shortly before his death, Doty had talked about taking his play about Marc Emery on the road to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Plans were also in the works to re-stage The Donnelly Trial, which first ran in the spring-summer of 2005 and was an artistic and box-office success.
Doty's funeral home visitation at Donahue Funeral Home on February 6 and funeral service at Metropolitan United Church in London on February 7, 2006, were both attended by several hundred mourners, including members of London's media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, arts-and-heritage communities.
In June 2006, The Donnelly Trial was reprised by producer Grant Doty, Chris' younger brother, at the Old Middlesex County courthouse in memory of Chris Doty.