The Royals
Toronto was in love with a princess. On the day the heir to the British throne arrived in town, a deliriously happy crowd of half a million people lined the route from the airport to downtown, hoping to catch a glimpse of 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her dashing husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
The front page of the Toronto Star of October 13, 1951, featured no fewer than eight stories about the royal visit, including one describing a woman whose arm was broken when she fell in the crowd, and yet insisted on staying to watch the princess pass while lying on a stretcher. Tucked away on that same page was a tiny story about the ailing King George VI, Elizabeth's father, who had recently undergone a "serious lung operation."
Elizabeth and Philip attended the Maple Leafs' game against the Chicago Black Hawks at the Gardens the following afternoon. The princess was presented with flowers by a young girl, and later with the game puck by the team's owner, proud monarchist Conn Smythe.
The royal couple sat in a special box constructed in Section 50, and left after the first period. "The prince relaxed during the game, breaking into hearty laughter and slapping his thigh at hard body checks on the ice," the Globe and Mail wrote. "The princess betrayed her emotions by a wide-eyed look and an automatic jump of the royal shoulders when a player was hit hard."
Four months later came the news that the king was dead, and that Elizabeth would be queen. For just the second time in the history of the franchise (the other on the death of the king's father, George V, in 1936), a Maple Leafs game was cancelled.
On February 15, 1952, thousands gathered in the Gardens for a somber memorial service on the day George VI was buried in England.
-Stephen Brunt
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.