The Americans are front and centre when it comes to promoting events in their country's history. Without having to think too hard about it, most people can quickly conjure up an event in American history that has been promoted by either having a book written about it and/or having it turned into a movie. One such event, not a particularly 'heroic' one, was the January 1950 'Boston Brinks Heist.' The robbers hoodwinked the Boston police and FBI and got away with a rather [then, at least] large sum of money. Poor discipline on the part of one or two of the baddies in 1956 caused their downfall. In any event, that is one such occurrence that made headlines and resulted in a movie. Others are close at hand, the 'Alamo' being one.
One Canadian incident that was made into a movie - and not a very good one at that - involved the infamous Ferdinand Waldo [Fred] Demara, an American, who stole a New Brunswick doctor's credentials and presented himself to naval authorities as a doctor; he was accepted. After a short stint in Halifax, the American, now known as Dr. "Cyr," Surgeon Lieutenant, RCN, in June 1951 was appointed to HMCS Cayuga in Esquimalt, BC. Cayuga was scheduled to sail on her second tour to Korea as part of Canada's contribution of destroyers assigned to fight the Communists. "Cyr" proved himself to be an able individual as he performed minor surgery and attended to the various aches and pains that sailors often complain of. Then, in a moment of high drama, he was faced with a major operation on a South Korean soldier. The soldier had suffered a serious gunshot wound to the abdomen. "Cyr" pulled it off. The story was highlighted as an example of how Canada's Navy was helping the South Koreans. The story was picked up in Canada.
In Canada, the mother of a certain Doctor Cyr read the story about how her son had saved the life of a South Korean soldier while onboard HMCS Cayuga in waters off the Korean Peninsula. The real Doctor Cyr's mother contacted her son who in turn contacted naval authorities and the jig was up for the impostor onboard Cayuga. Demara was returned to Canada and subsequently discharged. He was told to leave Canada [there is some doubt whether he was deported or was allowed to simply leave on his own].
Demara returned to the USA. There, he continued his magic and over time he posed in various forms including holding positions in several religious orders, as well as a psychologist, university lecturer, college department head, school teacher, and prison warden. As with his stint as a surgeon lieutenant in the RCN, Fred Demara obtained his positions on the strength of forged, stolen or non-existent documents/qualifications.
How was Demara able to pull of his impersonation of a naval doctor? It seems that at an earlier time - before he entered Canada as a Novitiate monk - he had been for a short time an unskilled hospital orderly in the USA. During his time in Cayuga, he studied, racked his brain and bluffed his way through; that, and with the able assistance of a qualified, experienced sick bay tiffy, Fred Demara fooled all but the mother of the real Dr. Cyr.
When HMCS Cayuga held a ship's reunion 30 years later, Fred Demara was invited to attend. One of those in attendance, Harold Howard, ex-RCN signalman, said, "Fred Demara was invited and attended. He was dressed in monk's robes with the biggest cross I have ever seen around anyone's neck." [Indelible Memories, Canadian Sailors in Korea 1950-1955] Immediately after the ship's company shindig was completed, Fred Demara was hustled away and across the line into the USA.
Demara died in 1982.
The movie "The Great Impostor" starring Tony Curtis as Demara and Edmond O'Brien as Cayuga's commanding officer was more Hollywood than real. For instance, Demara was a portly 200 pounds whereas Curtis was considerably less than that, and the ship's commanding officer was not 'shaped' like O'Brien. Perhaps O'Brien ought to have had the role of Demara and Curtis the commanding officer. Also, out of tune with RCN standard, was the resultant board of enquiry where each of the group of officers wore a black pencil moustache. Such was not allowed in the RCN in the early 1950s.
For the film, HMCS Athabaskan stood in for Cayuga [both Tribal class destroyers] for all exterior shots and HMCS Ste Therese [Prestonian class frigate] was used for some interior shots. An interesting sidebar: your servant served in each of these ships but not at the time of the Cyr incident or during the filming of the movie.
That aside, there is one American-made movie about the RCN that was bang on: 'Corvette K225 [1943] starred Randolph Scott and Humphrey Bogart. The movie conveyed realism. Some of the action shots were from actual convoys crossing the Atlantic during WWII.
According to Rick Anderson [r_anderson@nova.enet.dec.com] the film has "Very rare instance of real combat footage that fits the story exactly."
For the film, the real K225, HMCS Kitchener, was used during her workups. Kitchener commissioned at Quebec City on 28 June 1942. She then sailed for Halifax and six-week workup. From a note in The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-1993 by Ken Macpherson and John Burgess, Kitchener carried out workups at Pictou [Nova Scotia] before briefly joining WLEF in September. "It may have been during this unusually long workup that she starred in the firm Corvette K225."
The UK title of the movie is "The Nelson Touch."
There are genuine stories about the Royal Canadian Navy and the heroism of its members, then and now. Next issue will highlight one such adventure that took place not many years ago that brought glory to Canada's navy. Watch for it, read it and then be proud of Canada's boys and girls in blue. Ready, Aye, Ready.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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