Christine Whelan FEO, May 14, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 19
From illegal prizefighting, world class entertainers and athletes, and vaudevillians, to police scandals, murder, bootlegging, and Creepy the Clown, reaching back as far as the 1850s — these behind the scenes stories of historical and sometimes fantastical Crystal Beach will never be forgotten now, never be lost.
The announcement was made. The book was ready. A collection of chapters filled with stories, some you may know, many you may not. It takes a lifer of “the Beach” — as the author refers to Crystal Beach, as other lifers naturally would — to make it a life’s mission and take countless hours, digging down the many rabbit holes to compile and coordinate, Crystal Beach: Out of the Park.
Gary Pooler seemed to naturally fit that role.
In his earlier years, Pooler attended Ridgeway – Crystal Beach High School. Then went on to Western University and Brock University, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
He worked summers for the Crystal Beach Company as both a brake operator, as a lifeguard on the beach, for the Rebstock’s Bay Beach Corporation, and was a Social Services Caseworker for the Crystal Beach area.
Gary is now a retired Ontario Provincial Police officer in both Organized Crime and Casino Enforcement. He held positions of Intelligence Liaison Officer with the federal government, high school supply teacher and part-time instructor at Niagara College.
More about Gary is included in the About the Author section of the book.
It was Gary’s lifetime passion to research and gather facts that became the background to his first published book, Crystal Beach: Out of the Park.
After scheduling an interview with the new author, the day before his book launch, I made sure I read Out Of The Park. I had been looking forward to this. After all, I grew up in the area, too.
REVIEW
Cover to cover, the reading experience includes eight fact packed chapters, complete lists of past reeves, police chiefs, and fire chiefs of Crystal Beach, a page to commemorate the sons of Crystal Beach who died in service, and 130 years of Crystal Beach cottage names.
There are still some cottages that don their signs. Now that I’ve read the book, I am noticing the signs more on my walks through “the Beach”.
The Foreword: Religion or Recreation? Pooler took on the debate around the first days leading to Crystal Beach Amusement Park. Some believe it started out purely as a recreational resort. As the author stated, it’s not that simple.
The depth of research and details involved in the foreword set the tone for the following 242 pages. After reading each chapter, I often found myself wanting to stop, absorb and process, at times visualize. Pooler’s descriptive abilities make it easy to imagine a very different Crystal Beach, at times, imagine the almost unimaginable.
INTERVIEW
Friday morning, April 22nd, the day before the book launch, Gary and I met at the Legion Hall in Ridgeway.
My first comment to the new author, after congratulating him on his first publication, was of appreciation for the wealth of research accumulated to complete this book.
When asked how long the book took to write, Pooler explained, “From the point words started getting put down on the page until publication, it was just over a year. But that didn’t involve a lot of the research. The research I’d been doing since I was a kid.”
He began explaining, “I delivered the Buffalo Evening News as a kid so I got really interested in American stories. And talking with the old timers around here — Paul Kassay, George Rebstock — all these guys fed me these stories. Even as a young guy, I wrote to Ohio State to get information on Jesse Owens. I wrote to Kansas University to find out about Glen Cunningham. I’ve had these thick files in boxes for years.”
It Started With Ruth Hebert
Gary found, printed by a local publication, a story on a lady named Ruth Hebert and her husband Omer. “It was very abbreviated. And I thought, I’m going to write a more extensive story on Ruth Omer because I had heard this story from the old timers of town, about this wonderful gift Ruth Hebert left this town, at that time it was a village.”
She left the gift to the Kinsmen Club. Pooler had heard the full story as his dad was President of the Kinsmen Club. “Seventeen acres of land that now homes the Crystal Ridge Community Centre was purchased by the gentlemen with the nest egg that Ruth left. It was meant to be preserved forever for recreational purposes.” This was put in her Will in this way, and it amazed Pooler.
Gary shared another part of Ruth’s story. There is a park on Belfast Street and Lincoln Street in Crystal Beach that once was named after her, the Hebert Memorial Playground. “It was specified in her Will, read upon her death in 1952, that ‘the playground must be open to the children of the area of all races and creeds and at no charge.’ This was quite something in those days.”
This park has not escaped the wave of change. It is now called Madeline Faiazza Memorial Park, after a former mayor of Fort Erie.
It was that story of Ruth Hebert, what she left to the community, and how she was not fully acknowledged for her legacy, that initiated this project for Pooler.
Once he researched and put together the more in-depth story of Ruth and Omer, he thought, it was going to be a chapter in a book. In the end, the Heberts became Chapter Seven, The Vaudevillians.
“And then I got into the Jesse Owens story. Then the bootlegging and murder stories. That’s how it started. When I got into the police chapter, just as if I got assigned back when I was working, I decided to go into it as if I was investigating a cold case.”
He stumbled across a man named Michael O’Leary. “This blew my mind because, as world famous and a larger than life character as he was, he ended up here, in Crystal Beach, as our police chief. This character fascinated me. There was a whole following for this guy around the world. And he ended up on “the Beach”.
When discussing the wrap up of the book, “I realized, there’s a lot of dark stuff here so I thought I’d finish the book off with an uplifting feeling of the renaissance of the beach without an amusement park. Just the community and the beach itself are now the draw.”
When talking about the book launch the following day, Gary shared, “I wanted to thank everybody who locally pre-ordered the book. They helped defer a lot of the cost of my getting this large shipment in.” Gary took the self-publishing route. “I wanted to thank them with this evening with hors d’oeuvres, music from the old days and a slideshow from the old days. The hope is to sell a couple of copies but that’s not the real focus going into it.”
BOOK LAUNCH
While friends, fans and family wandered in to fill the Legion Hall in Ridgeway the following Saturday evening, a slideshow of old photos from the book and website was shown against the wall.
From Gary’s childhood friends to politicians, guests lined up to buy a copy or, like myself, get their copies autographed.
Afterwards, at the podium, Gary first extended his gratitude to a handful of people who played essential roles that brought him to that evening. Kenny Hayden, friend and chef of the evening was first on his list. Tim and Cheryl, Crystal Beach’s founder John E. Rebstock’s great-grandchildren, were there as well. They helped with family history and photographs. Rick Doan and Kathy Herbert contributed photographs. Shawn Moore helped to connect the dots and contributed photos. Bob Steckley brought individually-wrapped sugar waffles and suckers from the Crystal Beach Candy Company. Gary thanked his three sons, who worked as waiters for the evening, and his wife, Heather, for all her support.
His list was long, his gratitude, full. Everyone is acknowledged in the book.
And then, the author launched into the story of Ruth and Orma Hebert. A peek into each chapter was presented. The room went silent.
The author has started the process for the licensing to do book tours of the events and places included in Crystal Beach: Out Of The Park, with slides and photos available in the vehicle. He is planning to start tours in May or June. “People are already starting to ask me to drive them around.”
The book is now available at Lakeside Books and Art in Ridgeway, the Fort Erie Historical Museum in Ridgeway’s Gift Shop, the Fort Erie Library and the Port Colborne Library. Links to purchase it in ebook format can be found on the author’s website, along with the photos from the book but in greater detail and colour. www.garypooler.com
“The memories within the millions of people who experienced Crystal Beach, even just once, will never be lost.” (page 203)
Photo of the book provided by the author’s website
