BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN
True Tales About Montreal

A Motnreal Gazette bestseller!

by Stuart Nulman

"A good primer to Montreal and its history." —The Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL—a city that has hosted a history-making world’s fair and an unforgettable, debt-ridden Olympics . . . MONTREAL—a city of culture, festivals, and sports champions . . . MONTREAL—a city where you "can’t throw a brick without breaking a church window", mused Mark Twain . . .  MONTREAL—a city that was the foundation of Canada, the hub of the St. Lawrence River, and a major commerce center where the merchant princes once ruled.

Well, that’s what you usually read about in the history books.

BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN: True Tales About Montreal by Stuart Nulman opens up the door to a new appreciation of Montreal’s past. It uncovers lesser-known and interesting facts, stories, and trivia about Montreal that have fallen through the cracks and have remained buried — until now. What’s more the book unfolds in a "story behind the answer" format, accompanied by rarely seen photos and illustrations.

Can you answer these questions about Montreal?

• Which English governess, who inspired a popular Broadway musical and several movies, spent her final years in Montreal and is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery?
• What tragic circumstances in 1919 caused the only undecided Stanley Cup final in history — between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans?
   
• What presidential assasin spent several weeks in Montreal, as he put together the plot that would lead to the death of the 16th President of the United States?
   
• Who was the only Montreal mayor to be arrested while in office, having referred to his four-year internment as "the only holiday I ever had"?
   
• What prominent Montreal office building stored most of Britain’s wealth during World War II?
   
• Who was the first Montreal-based singer — more than 100 years before Céline Dion — to become an international superstar?

In addition, many people don’t know that since its founding 360 years ago, Montreal has had the distinction of being the birthplace of radio in North America and television in Canada, that it was where one of the best-known songs of the 1960s was written and recorded, and that it was where baseball’s colour barrier was finally broken. And, don’t forget that Montreal was the place where bagels and smoked meat were made famous.

Chapters include:

From the Footlights of St-Catherine Street: The Montreal Entertainment Scene

The Dark Side of the City:Notorious Crimes, Disasters and Scandals

From " Canada’s First, Canada’s Finest" to the Last of the Tramways: Montreal’s Firsts and Lasts

The View from the Mayor’s Chair: The Colourful Characters Who Held the Title of Mayor of Montreal

City of Champions: Montreal’s Proud Sports Traditions Recalled

BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN informs and entertains a new generation while evoking memories of the city’s past for older generations. But no matter who peruses its pages, BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN is guaranteed to make you exclaim: "Gee, I didn’t know that about Montreal!" over and over again.

There is so much more to Montreal than its famous mountain and infamous politics and labels. BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN goes beyond the boundaries of Mount Royal in all directions to show a lesser known, yet a fascinating side of Montreal’s history.

What people are saying about BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN:

"A good primer to Montreal and its history. The stories are so much a fabric of this city."
—The Montreal Gazette

"Nulman injects many little-known facts about Montreal. He covers its colourful underground, famous mayors, sports teams, architecture, and more." —Hour

"There's nothing trivial about Stuart Nulman's excellent book. It has all the answers to the questions you didn't even know, about the city we all love."
—Peter Anthony Holder, Holder Overnight (CJAD 800 AM Montreal)

" BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN is a fascinating journey from Sinatra to smoked meat, bagels to Burton, and the Ritz Café to Rockhead's Paradise — a literary smorgasbord of tantalizing tales."
—Eramelinda Boquer, Global News (Global TV Montreal)

"This book is a must-have for any Montrealer and trivia buff." —Al Gravelle, Al & Era (CJAD 800 AM Montreal)

Read an excerpt from BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN:

Q: In September of 1964, the Beatles performed their first and only concert in Montreal. Which Beatle was accompanied onstage by a bodyguard because he was receiving death threats?

A: Ringo Starr. When the Fab Four arrived in Montreal on the morning of September 8, they learned from local papers that death threats were being made against Ringo. "Some people decided to make an example of me as an English Jew," recounted Ringo in The Beatles Anthology. "The one major fault is, I’m not Jewish."

Although the Beatles usually took such threats in stride, it was the first time that Ringo felt genuinely worried. John, in his usual outspoken fashion, responded to the threats by saying: "We’ll not be anybody’s pawns. We’re here to play music." But as an added measure of security during the show, Ringo put his drum cymbals further up, shielding him slightly from the audience, and crouched lower than usual behind his drum set. "No one was seeing much of me that day," recalled Ringo. Also, a plainclothes policeman sat near him, partially hidden behind the drum riser.

"I started to get hysterical," said Ringo. "I thought—if someone in the audience has a pop at me, what is this guy going to do? Is he going to catch the bullet?"

These threats came in the midst of Beatlemania, a phenomenon that infected thousands of Montreal teens that year. The hysteria began upon their arrival at the Dorval Airport on the morning of the concert. Here, the Beatles were greeted by 5,000 rain-drenched fans hoping for nothing more than a two-minute glimpse of the Fab Four. In total, 117 Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were on-site to control the crowd.

The Beatles performed two sold-out shows at the Montreal Forum that day, one at 4 p.m. and one at 8:30 p.m. Opening acts included the Righteous Brothers, the Exciters, Jackie DeShannon, and the Bill Black Combo.

Interestingly, journalists learned in a press conference that, prior to their arrival in Montreal, the Beatles had unanimously decided not to speak any French. However, they changed their tactic more than one year later when a French verse crept into their 1965 hit single "Michelle". Here, the following is sung: "Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble, très bien ensemble."

Eight hours after their arrival, the Beatles boarded a plane for Jacksonville, Florida, leaving behind 12 girls needing treatment for hysteria, cuts and bruises, 500 rain-soaked Montreal policemen, one police officer recuperating from a bitten thumb, and 22,000 satisfied fans.

Nothing ever came of the death threats to Ringo Starr, who called the two-show gig at the Forum "the worst gig of my life."

(Reprinted from Beyond the Mountain: True Tales About Montrealby Stuart Nulman, Callawind Publications Inc, 2002.)