Lister Sinclair
Encyclopedia
Lister Sheddon Sinclair, OC
(January 9, 1921 - October 16, 2006) was a Canadian
broadcaster, playwright and polymath
.
, India
to Scottish
parents. His father, William Sheddon Sinclair, was a chemical engineer. He was sent to live with an aunt in London when he was 18 months old and did not see his parents again until he was seven.
He taught himself to read at the age of five and began his formal education at Colet Court
. Though at the bottom of his class, he was gifted at mathematics and won a scholarship to St Paul's School in London
. Assured by a travel agency that there would be no war, he visited North America with his mother in 1939 to attend the World's Fair in New York City. He was visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario
when World War II
broke out. Due to a back injury as a teenager, Sinclair walked with a limp and used a cane until well into his twenties and was unfit for military service. He and his mother found themselves stranded on the continent and settled in Vancouver
where his mother had friends. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia
where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in math and physics and began a lifelong friendship with classmate Pierre Berton
. He also joined the Player's Club on campus. In 1942 he moved to Toronto
to study towards a Master of Arts
from the University of Toronto
supporting himself by lecturing in mathematics to undergraduates.
playing a German in the 1942 pro-Allied broadcast, Nazi Eyes on Canada, which starred Helen Hayes
.
He was subsequently cast in the series Fighting Navy playing the captain of a German U-Boat
(source: Ideas, Thank you, Mister Sinclair, part 1, October 16, 2006) and performed in various other radio plays. He began writing radio plays for the network in 1944 and would go on to write more than 400 plays, many of them for the radio series Stage (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1690-11629-11/on_this_day/arts_entertainment/sinclair_obit).
In 1945, Sinclair wrote a radio speech that Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
leader Ted Jolliffe
delivered during the 1945 provincial election
campaign. The speech accused Premier of Ontario
George Drew of running a political gestapo
unit out of the Ontario Provincial Police
. The accusations were denied by Drew, and may have hurt the CCF's credibility with voters. However, the charge was proven true in the 1970s by archival documents uncovered by a researcher (http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/36-2/l015a.htm).
Sinclair's radio play, Hilda Morgan, broadcast on February 12, 1950, resulted in an uproar in the Canadian House of Commons
over its then-taboo
subject matter of a pregnant, unmarried woman considering abortion
after her fiance is killed in an accident though the word abortion was never used. He was referred to as "easily the foremost in Canada's array of postwar playwrights" by critic Nathan Cohen
.
He began to appear on the new CBC Television service in 1955 appearing on programs such as Front Page Challenge
and Assignment as well as the Wayne & Shuster comedy show.
In 1964, Sinclair recorded and released an album on Folkways Records
, entitled Documentary History of Broadcasting: 1920-1950: Radio Before Television.
After his appearances in wartime propaganda films, Sinclair would go on to spend over six decades with the CBC in various capacities. In addition to playwright he was a radio and then television personality, writer, actor, panelist, producer, lecturer, commentator and, for a brief period in the 1970s, network executive. Sinclair was a panelist on the show Court of Opinion for twenty-four years, hosted Man at the Centre and was a guest host during the second season of The Nature of Things
as well as a frequent contributor to Morningside
when Don Harron
was host but he was best known for presenting the CBC Radio program Ideas
beginning in 1983. Sinclair retired from hosting Ideas in 1999 after presenting over 2,000 installments, including several hundred produced or written by himself. He continued to contribute to the programme until shortly before his death.
In 1972, CBC president Laurent Picard
made Sinclair the CBC's executive vice-president of English-language services as part of an effort to bring creative people into administration. The experiment was unsuccessful and proved frustrating to both Sinclair and CBC administration in Ottawa. He was demoted to a more junior position as vice president of program policy and development in 1974 and returned to Toronto to his former role as a producer and writer in 1976. Dr. Robert Gardner, later the Chair of the School of Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University, recalled working with Lister Sinclair during that difficult time. "He was astoundingly well informed. We worked together on a script for a CBC television program dealing with Dante's Divine Comedy. Lister had hired me as the writer researcher and - there is no doubt about it - he was a demanding boss. His conversations were constantly sprinkled with classical allusions, phrases in German, French, or Italian, and he was impatient of lesser souls. Working with him was one of the most stimulating experiences of my life ... and one of the most frightening."
Sinclair served as vice-president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts
in the 1980s. He also helped form the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
He was awarded the Order of Canada
in 1985.
In 2002, Lister Sinclair became a MasterWorks honouree for Hilda Morgan and his body of work by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
. One of his last works was something of a hit after his official retirement entitled "Lister Sinclair Presents the Masterpieces of Disco Music" for the radio program Go.
He was hospitalized in September 2006 due to a pulmonary embolism
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060925.BEARD25/TPStory/Entertainment) and died there on the morning of October 16, 2006, aged 85.
Bernie Lucht, a longtime friend of Sinclair's, said of the broadcaster "My lasting memory is the enormous privilege it was to have been able to touch a compassionate genius."
"He was simply a remarkable man,"' said Lucht. "He was brilliant, compassionate, had a wide-ranging mind with an expertise in everything from poetry, to mathematics, to music, to literature, to culture.
"He felt that the job of humanity was to find out what it was about, what we were about and what our surroundings, the universe into which we had been born, were about."
Former governor general and CBC broadcaster Adrienne Clarkson
, who shared an office with Sinclair when she joined the broadcaster in the 1960s, remembered him upon his death. "You were the beneficiary of Lister knowing a lot," she said. "He was not only a polymath; he was a prodigy" (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/10/16/sinclair-obit.html).
Lister Sinclair had a difficult family life. He was estranged from one of his sons for some years, and has said that he did not enjoy his family life terribly much, but that he would have liked to.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(January 9, 1921 - October 16, 2006) was a Canadian
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...
broadcaster, playwright and polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
.
Early life
Sinclair was born in BombayMumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
parents. His father, William Sheddon Sinclair, was a chemical engineer. He was sent to live with an aunt in London when he was 18 months old and did not see his parents again until he was seven.
He taught himself to read at the age of five and began his formal education at Colet Court
Colet Court
Colet Court is a preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in Barnes, London. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Colet Court pupils go at the age of 13.-History:...
. Though at the bottom of his class, he was gifted at mathematics and won a scholarship to St Paul's School in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Assured by a travel agency that there would be no war, he visited North America with his mother in 1939 to attend the World's Fair in New York City. He was visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls is a Canadian city on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The municipality was incorporated on June 12, 1903...
when World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out. Due to a back injury as a teenager, Sinclair walked with a limp and used a cane until well into his twenties and was unfit for military service. He and his mother found themselves stranded on the continent and settled in 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,...
where his mother had friends. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in math and physics and began a lifelong friendship with classmate Pierre Berton
Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....
. He also joined the Player's Club on campus. In 1942 he moved to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
to study towards a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
supporting himself by lecturing in mathematics to undergraduates.
Career
Needing to further supplement his income, Sinclair found employment as an actor with the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The 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...
playing a German in the 1942 pro-Allied broadcast, Nazi Eyes on Canada, which starred Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
.
He was subsequently cast in the series Fighting Navy playing the captain of a German U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
(source: Ideas, Thank you, Mister Sinclair, part 1, October 16, 2006) and performed in various other radio plays. He began writing radio plays for the network in 1944 and would go on to write more than 400 plays, many of them for the radio series Stage (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-68-1690-11629-11/on_this_day/arts_entertainment/sinclair_obit).
In 1945, Sinclair wrote a radio speech that Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Ontario New Democratic Party
The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...
leader Ted Jolliffe
Ted Jolliffe
Edward Bigelow "Ted" Jolliffe, QC was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature during the 1940s and 1950s...
delivered during the 1945 provincial election
Ontario general election, 1945
The Ontario general election of 1945 was held on June 4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
campaign. The speech accused Premier of Ontario
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
George Drew of running a political gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
unit out of the Ontario Provincial Police
Ontario Provincial Police
The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...
. The accusations were denied by Drew, and may have hurt the CCF's credibility with voters. However, the charge was proven true in the 1970s by archival documents uncovered by a researcher (http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/36-2/l015a.htm).
Sinclair's radio play, Hilda Morgan, broadcast on February 12, 1950, resulted in an uproar in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
over its then-taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
subject matter of a pregnant, unmarried woman considering abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
after her fiance is killed in an accident though the word abortion was never used. He was referred to as "easily the foremost in Canada's array of postwar playwrights" by critic Nathan Cohen
Nathan Cohen
Nathan Cohen is a New Zealand rower. He has won gold in the Men's Double Sculls in the 2010 and 2011 World Rowing Championships.- References :* at sports-reference.com* at stuff.co.nz...
.
He began to appear on the new CBC Television service in 1955 appearing on programs such as Front Page Challenge
Front Page Challenge
Front Page Challenge was a long-running Canadian panel game about current events and history. Created by comedy writer/performer John Aylesworth and produced and aired by CBC Television, the series ran from 1957 to 1995.-Synopsis:The series featured notable journalists attempting to guess the...
and Assignment as well as the Wayne & Shuster comedy show.
In 1964, Sinclair recorded and released an album on Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
, entitled Documentary History of Broadcasting: 1920-1950: Radio Before Television.
After his appearances in wartime propaganda films, Sinclair would go on to spend over six decades with the CBC in various capacities. In addition to playwright he was a radio and then television personality, writer, actor, panelist, producer, lecturer, commentator and, for a brief period in the 1970s, network executive. Sinclair was a panelist on the show Court of Opinion for twenty-four years, hosted Man at the Centre and was a guest host during the second season of The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on the CBC on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging...
as well as a frequent contributor to Morningside
Morningside (radio program)
Morningside was a nationally broadcast Canadian radio program, which aired on CBC Radio from September 20, 1976 to May 30, 1997. It was broadcast from 9AM to 12 Noon, Monday to Friday...
when Don Harron
Don Harron
Donald H. Harron, is a Canadian comedian, actor, director, journalist, author and composer.- Charlie Farquharson :...
was host but he was best known for presenting the CBC Radio program Ideas
Ideas (radio show)
Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...
beginning in 1983. Sinclair retired from hosting Ideas in 1999 after presenting over 2,000 installments, including several hundred produced or written by himself. He continued to contribute to the programme until shortly before his death.
In 1972, CBC president Laurent Picard
Laurent Picard
Laurent A. Picard, CC is a French-Canadian businessman and former President of the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.Born in Quebec City, Quebec, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree as well as a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1947 from Université Laval...
made Sinclair the CBC's executive vice-president of English-language services as part of an effort to bring creative people into administration. The experiment was unsuccessful and proved frustrating to both Sinclair and CBC administration in Ottawa. He was demoted to a more junior position as vice president of program policy and development in 1974 and returned to Toronto to his former role as a producer and writer in 1976. Dr. Robert Gardner, later the Chair of the School of Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University, recalled working with Lister Sinclair during that difficult time. "He was astoundingly well informed. We worked together on a script for a CBC television program dealing with Dante's Divine Comedy. Lister had hired me as the writer researcher and - there is no doubt about it - he was a demanding boss. His conversations were constantly sprinkled with classical allusions, phrases in German, French, or Italian, and he was impatient of lesser souls. Working with him was one of the most stimulating experiences of my life ... and one of the most frightening."
Sinclair served as vice-president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts
Canadian Conference of the Arts
The Canadian Conference of the Arts is an Ottawa-based not-for-profit, member-driven organization that represents the interests of over 250,000 artists, cultural workers and supporters from all disciplines of the nation’s vast arts, culture and heritage community...
in the 1980s. He also helped form the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
He was awarded the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
in 1985.
In 2002, Lister Sinclair became a MasterWorks honouree for Hilda Morgan and his body of work by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada was a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada’s audio-visual heritage, and to facilitating access to regional and national collections through partnerships with members of Canada's audio-visual community...
. One of his last works was something of a hit after his official retirement entitled "Lister Sinclair Presents the Masterpieces of Disco Music" for the radio program Go.
He was hospitalized in September 2006 due to a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060925.BEARD25/TPStory/Entertainment) and died there on the morning of October 16, 2006, aged 85.
Bernie Lucht, a longtime friend of Sinclair's, said of the broadcaster "My lasting memory is the enormous privilege it was to have been able to touch a compassionate genius."
"He was simply a remarkable man,"' said Lucht. "He was brilliant, compassionate, had a wide-ranging mind with an expertise in everything from poetry, to mathematics, to music, to literature, to culture.
"He felt that the job of humanity was to find out what it was about, what we were about and what our surroundings, the universe into which we had been born, were about."
Former governor general and CBC broadcaster Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation....
, who shared an office with Sinclair when she joined the broadcaster in the 1960s, remembered him upon his death. "You were the beneficiary of Lister knowing a lot," she said. "He was not only a polymath; he was a prodigy" (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/10/16/sinclair-obit.html).
Lister Sinclair had a difficult family life. He was estranged from one of his sons for some years, and has said that he did not enjoy his family life terribly much, but that he would have liked to.
Sources
- "Thank you, Mister Sinclair", Ideas, 2006
- Lister Sinclair Globe and Mail obituary.
External links
- Thank you, Mr. Sinclair Ideas tribute to Lister Sinclair.
- Lister Sinclair, Renaissance man a vintage CBC Television clip of Sinclair explaining the Theory of RelativityTheory of relativityThe theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
and discusses Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
. Accompanied by a text biography of Sinclair. - Video and audio clips featuring Sinclair from CBC Archives.
- CBC Online Chat with Lister Sinclair from 2001.
- IDEAS: A tribute to Lister Sinclair
- Order of Canada Citation
- AVTrust.ca - Lister Sinclair, MasterWorks recipient 2002 (video clip)
- Lister Sinclair obituary, The Globe and MailThe Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...