By DAVE KOSONIC
John ‘Doc’ Cassidy is a former New Toronto billiard hall owner who went on to live his dream by acting in Hollywood movies.
Cassidy became an actor and consultant in a popular 1980 Hollywood movie ‘Carny,’ which was a big-office hit starring Gary Busey and Jodie Foster, who were making a name for themselves.
“I saw myself on six or seven occasions during the movie.” Cassidy said in 1980. “It just hit me like a bolt of lightning and I didn’t know what to say. “
‘The Doc,’ as he was dubbed, was 59-years-old in 1980, operating Cassidy’s School of Billiards, on Lake Shore Blvd. W., in New Toronto, where he taught his students the art of pool playing.
The former billiard ace and carnival game hustler, who lived in South Etobicoke, spent 15 years on the CNE Midway from the mid-1940s until the early 1960s, where he said he learned “every corner of the carnival.”
‘Carny,’ which also starred Canadian Robbie Robertson, is a movie that portrays the rough-and-tumble lives of carnival workers or carnies who travelled through the U.S. putting on shows.
He said carnies had their own lingo. Those who operated the rides were known as ‘ride girls and ride boys’ and others who hustled the midway game, were known as ’game girls and game boys.’
The Doc explained that the chances of winning a big stuffed panda were slim.
Carny was a major production that was filmed in 1980 in Savannah, Georgia. The storyline is about a carnival comes to a small town.
In the flick “Donna, 18, meets Frankie and Patch, two carnival hustlers. They earn their living by mercilessly taunting spectators to try to dump one of them into the water by throwing balls. Donna is tired of her work as a waitress and follows them through the South.”’
The movie is written by Mattias Thuresson and directed by Robert Kaylor. Cassidy played ‘Harry the Hat’ in the 107-minute drama.
He explained that it was easy for him to portray the fast-talking Harry because it what was natural for him as a former midway barker.
The Doc recalled that one of his most memorable moments on the movie set occurred when the entire cast and crew gave him a standing ovation when a big scene that included him was shot in “one take.”
He had spent about ten-weeks at the Lorimar Production set at Savannah, doing consulting and acting for the movie.
The Doc, who had never acted previously, said he first viewed Carny at the Imperial Six theatre in downtown Toronto in 1980. After the movie he said he sat down in a café near Yonge Street had a couple of beers and spilled a few tears of joy.
“It might be the start of quite a future for me,“ he said later. If still alive the Doc would be age 99 but his fate is unknown.
The former New Toronto business owner went on to make other films, which included: Hangmen, Yanks, Matilda, Yanks and Bob Martin.
