Surname | Coat of Arms | Kings | Castles | Gathering | Articles | Notables
O’Keefe – The Man and the Company
by Dan O’Keeffe
The “O’Keefe Centre for Performing Arts” was an imposing landmark in the centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada when I visited it in 1994. Mr. Ed. Hinchy of Beamish Brewery Ltd Cork supplied details to me of how the centre came about and in particular an account of the person whose name is central to it. It all started when an O’Keeffe family left their abode in Co Cork in 1832. The parish, where they hailed from, is unknown.
They landed in Toronto, Hogtown, and then called York with their 5 year old son called Eugene. The young Co. Cork boy played on the streets that became seas of bottomless mud holes, during wet weather. Cattle poked their heads into general stores, along with the shoppers. It was in this general environment that Eugene O’Keefe, the founder of the O’Keefe Brewing Company, spent his formative years.
Eugene was an industrious youth, and at 18 years of age entered the banking business as a junior accountant with Toronto Savings Bank. He brought from his Co Cork roots a love of fishing and hunting. Young O’Keefe also enjoyed a glass of beer. After a day in the outdoors, he would stop at his friends at Hannath & Hart Brewery in Victoria Street. This brewery was built in 1840 and was then producing 1000 barrels of beer per year at this time. Hannath and O’Keefe struck up a warm friendship, and Eugene began learning the intricacies of producing a good beer. When Hannath decided to sell out in 1862, O’Keefe raised the necessary finance to purchase the business. He knew the plant, the product and the market. His business training had shown him that here was an industry with unlimited capacity for expansion. On visits to the United States, he sampled the clear tangy American beer and found it to his liking. He was certain that Canadians would feel the same about it. The brewery became the first to produce a lager beer along with the traditional older British like ale and porter.
The year 1862 was important for Eugene O’Keefe. He entered two partnerships; he married to consummate an emotional partnership and formed a commercial partnership with Toronto executive, George M. Hawke and with a master brewer Patrick Cosgrave. Cosgrave had been operating a small brewery at Pucky Huddle on the Credit River just below Erindale. The venture prospered, however, within a year Cosgrave left to start a plant of his own, and Hawke died two years after the company was formed. With the departure of Cosgrave and the untimely death of Hawke, the business operated as O’Keefe and Company.
The brewery built in down town Toronto soon became too small. There were new additions carried out in 1872, 1882, and again in 1889. Eugene had got very prosperous, with the result that he built himself a fine home on the corner of Bond Street and Gould Street. In 1891, the brewery was incorporated as O’Keefe Brewing Company Limited. A year later the old brewery was torn down and a new one built which included a 60,000 bushel malt house. In 1911, brewing capacity was increased to 500,000 barrels a year in its brew-house. This was long way from the 1000 barrels – a- year which O’Keefe and his partners had purchased originally. Eugene O’Keefe was the first of the brewers to introduce motor trucks in delivering beer although at first he held a dislike for motor vehicles of any sort. He was the first in Canada to build mechanically refrigerated storehouses for beer and was one of the first brewers in Canada to recognise the importance of advertising.
To carry on with Eugene O’Keefe, he was now 79 years of age, he had lost his only son under tragic circumstances; and consequently he started to relinquish control in 1911. He died in 1913, having sold a 60% interest to Widner Hawke, his former partner’s son, and 40% to Henry Pellat, a creator of Casa Loma, a well-known tourist Landmark in Toronto. Widner Hawke died within 2 years of Eugene O’Keefe. In 1926, the brewing companies of O’Keefe, Cosgrave and Canada Bud amalgamated to form Canadian Breweries. By 1934, the final shares in the O’Keefe Brewery were purchased; this assured the success of Canadian Breweries thereafter.
However, the O’Keefe name lived on, O’Keefe bottled beer is still sold by the present day owner of the brand and also when the brewery donated $12.5 million and built the O’Keefe Centre for Performing Arts at Yonge and Front Street in Toronto for Lord Mayor Phillips. The O’Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts opened to great fanfare on the evening of October 1, 1960, with Richard Burton starring in the debut performance of the musical Camelot. Designed by Peter Dickinson of Page and Steele with Earle C. Morgan, the 3200-seat multi-purpose theatre at 1 Front Street East introduced Toronto audiences to an unprecedented level of elegance and luxury. Canadian Breweries Limited owner E.P. Taylor spared little expense on the O’Keefe Centre’s state-of-the-art design and lavish materials. Exteriors are Alabama limestone and black granite, accented by custom bronze fittings and fixtures; the striking cantilevered entrance canopy, lined with rows of mirrored globe lights, provides a suitably glamorous entrance. Inside the expansive double-height entrance foyer, walls of white Carrara marble and deeply-veined Laredo Chiaro marble frame cantilevered staircases of granite and bronze. Cherry wood acoustic panelling lined the velvety red interior of the theatre itself. The Centre opened its doors in 1960. The debut of “Camelot” in its pre-Broadway appearance was the first show. Afterwards it attracted a kaleidoscope of entertainment ranging from musicals, drama, opera, and ballet to vaudeville variety. Fulfilling the original challenge of the Mayor it also became a convention facility. The O’Keefe Centre attracted numerous convention groups from Canada and the US. It proved to be one of the finest centres for both theatre and conventions.
By 1994 the centre had run into disrepair. The company that was willing to finance the repairs changed its name to change it to “The Humming Bird Centre” in 1996. However, in the new millennium further renovations and restorations were required. The centre re-opened once more as the Sony Centre for Performing Arts on Friday, October 1, 2010, exactly fifty years to the date of the first opening night performance, October 1, 1960. Audiences were invited to celebrate the Centre’s 50th anniversary in a revitalized and re-invigorated facility in downtown Toronto – a nexus of arts, culture and technologies, where everyone was welcome. Through innovative programming on the stage and the use of state-of-the art technologies throughout the venue, the Sony Centre entices and engages the community as a Theatre of the 21st Century.
Canadian Breweries was sold to Rothmans 1969 and resulted in a new brewer called Carling O’Keefe in 1973. Carling O’Keefe was bought by Elders IXL of Australia in 1987 and later merged with Molson to form Molson Breweries Canada in 1989. At the time of the merger, Molson was the second largest Canadian brewing company, while Carling O’Keefe was third. The merger put the combined company ahead of former market leader Labatt, and made it the sixth largest North America brewery. Molson later merged with Coors to form Molson Coors Brewing Company. Carling brands are currently owned by the Molson Coors Brewing Company.
Little did Eugene O’Keeffe’s parents think as they sailed out from Cobh in the dreary days of 1832, that Eugene their son, would have such a major impact on Toronto.