The Night I Met Elwy Yost

How do you compress years of adulation into those few minutes where you meet your idol? Well, read on.

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During my late teens, CTV used to run a television program called Thrill of a Lifetime. Viewers would mail in their once-in-a-lifetime dream, and whichever ones were picked by the producers would be made a reality. Each episode would feature a lucky contestant living out their ambitions, like rock-climbing or recording a song. One summer, I had seriously considered writing in, about my modest ambition of simply sitting down and spending a day chatting with Elwy Yost about movies.

As we all know in southern Ontario, Elwy Yost was the affable host of  TVOntario’s Saturday Night at the Movies, which showed two films and plenty of interviews. On weeknights, he hosted Magic Shadows, in which a feature film was broken up into half-hour segments. For a quarter of a century (from 1974 to 1999), he was an institution- with his life-long love and knowledge of the industry, warm demeanour, and his interviews, it is insurmountable how much this man contributed to the education of film enthusiasts young and old. Also, during this summer, while being a devoted fan of his programs, I was also reading his book, Magic Moments from the Movies. 

No, this lofty request was never mailed. However, this would-be “thrill of a lifetime” did occur some time later, during my first year in the big city, when I was studying film at York. It was on a Thursday night in the fall, after seeing a double bill of Night of the Living Dead and Murnau’s Nosferatu at the Nostalgic Cinema. While standing on the platform at Kingsway Station, waiting for the subway to take me back to my university residence, who should walk by but Elwy Yost and his wife Lila!

“Elwy Yost sightings” were hardly rare in Toronto, however this one was all the more precious because it was at time when he had just entered semi-retirement, and had moved to Vancouver. Magic Shadows had been discontinued by then, and he was attempting to lighten his workload by only showing one film on Saturday nights. (Alas, this semi-retirement was short-lived, as he soon resumed his schedule of two films every week, for the final ten years of his reign as “Mr. Saturday Night”.)

He and I exchanged glances as they walked by. After my first reaction of wonder that my idol was within my proximity, my second reaction was of how tall he was. Because of his round face and that we mostly saw him on television in a seated position, his onscreen presence deceived me into thinking he was perhaps a head shorter. Although the Yost’s and I had entered the same car on the subway train, at first I wasn’t going to say anything to him, because I have never been a celebrity hound. But this was Elwy Yost, man! Here was the single driving force, more than any other, who influenced my love for cinema- how could I not?

Thus, I humbly went up and asked him if he was Elwy Yost. He said, “No I’m not– I get asked that a lot”, then said he was only kidding. So, for the next thirteen subway stops, I had the above “thrill of a lifetime” of talking to the legend about cinema. I should add at this point that while Elwy was-is obviously a beloved icon in this province, never once in the conversation was there the impression of “celebrity and spouse”– his charming wife Lila was-is just as much of a cinema lover as her husband, and was equally involved in the conversation. They were a team: acting as each other’s rock.

I mentioned that I had just seen Nosferatu at the Nostalgic, (this was a film I had wanted to see for years- a lot of long-held ambitions were being fulfilled on this night!) and that I was disappointed, and he concurred that when he had seen it, “I didn’t know what to think of it either– when I saw the monster in it, I didn’t know whether to be scared or laugh.” (Okay- we have on record at least one film the always ebullient Mr. Yost didn’t like.) This got us on the subject of its director, F.W. Murnau, in which we discussed The Last Laugh (he hadn’t seen it!) and Sunrise, which was forthcoming to the Nostalgic, and was highly recommended by both Mr. and Mrs. Yost.

Throughout this delightful twenty minutes, other movies were discussed, such as The Killing, which was on his show the coming weekend, but perhaps the pinnacle of the conversation was when Mr. Yost voiced his surprise at the number of films I had seen for my age. St. George Station was on the approach and before the dream ended, I asked for his autograph. “You’re a living legend to me,” I said. “You’re very kind,” he replied. He signed the back of a little business card that the Nostalgic had made to plug an upcoming program of science fiction films. As I shook hands with both the Yost’s and made my way to the subway doors, I thanked him for showing the restored version of Gunga Din. 

While the subway whizzed by me, both Yost’s gave the “Elwy wave” out the window. What a class act. I switched onto the northbound train to campus, with tears in my eyes, joyous at having met one of my personal heroes, and also elated upon the discovery that he was as exciting, charming and down-to-earth on or offscreen. Over the years, I’ve met with and interviewed other celebrities, but this was the brush with stardom I shall always cherish. “Thrill of a Lifetime” indeed.

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Updated from an original publication in Vol. #1, Issue #7.