A big thanks goes out to Chris Edwards at Walkerville Publishing, for sharing these photos with us over here.
Last year at Art in the Park, Chris put on an exhibiton of historic photographs in the Manor House, and in that exhibition Hi Ho was featured as being Canada’s First Drive-In.
“The Hi Ho Drive-In began on Sandwich Street on the west side of Windsor, Ontario, in 1937 by Aimee Fortin. Hi Ho was the original fast food drive-in restaurant in Canada, featuring “curb service.†The Fortin family asked for and received permission from the Walt Disney Company via a simple letter, to use the trade marked Seven Dwarfs and the “Hi Ho†name for their restaurants in 1934; no lawyers were involved. Hi Ho eventually expanded to four locations but closed in the late 1970s.”
The Founder Mr. Fortin
The Howard Ave. location
The Tecumseh Rd. location
The Hi Ho logo
Have a safe weekend everyone. Enjoy the holiday if you’re off, other wise I’ll see you here Monday morning.
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My family all worked there. My grandmother, Mal Lemire Groulx, aunt Judy Groulx, Cousin Brenda, and myself all worked there on Tecumseh Road. My grandmother actually started with Aimee Fortin
The howard ave location was tore down in order to accomodate the EC Rowe expressway. The weigh scales are almost at the location of the Hi Ho that was there. Those little shanny rooms in the background are gone as well. My dad use to take me there every saturday morning for a stack of pancakes. We always ate inside.
IF MEMORY SERVES ME WELL THE IVY ROSE AND HI-HO LOCATION ON HOWARD WAS ORIGINALY THE HOME OF THE DERBY DRIVE-IN , CARHOPS AND ALL . PERHAPS FORMER CARHOP ELSIE BIDINOST COULD CONFIRM I HAVE OFTEN HEARD THE FIRST HI-HO WAS AT THE SITE OF AIMEE FORTIN'S HOUSE AT THE SE CORNER OF ST. ROSE AND RIVERSIDE DR IN OLD RIVERSIDE