Legacy of Pickering’s favourite adopted son honoured with Mr. Dressup exhibit

A celebration of the life and legacy of a legend in children’s entertainment in Canada and Pickering’s favourite adopted son opened Saturday afternoon at Dorsay Community & Heritage Centre.

The ‘Ernie Coombs is Mr. Dressup’ exhibit opened Saturday in the John E. Anderson Gallery in the Dorsay Centre, a nearly brand-new community centre that opened this year on the grounds of Pickering Museum Village.

Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe was on hand for the opening and thanked Coombs’ two children for joining in the celebration.

“Thank you to Cathie and Chris for joining us to celebrate their father’s incredible legacy in the community that holds him near and dear to our hearts.”

Ashe also thanked Rob McCallum for helping tell Coombs’ story through film, and to curator Giuliana Taccone for her work in “bringing this wonderful exhibition to life.”

Ernie Coombs and Casey

The exhibit explores Coomb’s iconic career while offering an intimate view of the man as an ordinary Pickering resident behind the television screen.

The exhibit, which features never-before-seen audio-visual content, interviews with his family and props from the show, runs until September 25.

For Pickering Councillor Maurice Brenner, who is old enough to have Mr. Dressup as part of his youth and to have served Coombs as his ward councillor, seeing the exhibit was like a trip down memory lane.

“Attending the exhibit opening was like stepping back in time, at a time when imagination brought things to life,” said Brenner, who remembers Coombs and the Mr. Dressup show as an integral part of his youth.

As the Ward 1 councillor, Brenner met Coombs several times. When asked what Coombs was like in person, Brenner said he was just like you thought he would be. “Ernie was exactly who he was. He was Mr. Dressup.”

Ernie Coombs started working as an assistant puppeteer to Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh before following Rogers – the future ‘Mr. Rogers’ – to Canada and the CBC in 1962. When Rogers returned to the U.S. three years later, Coombs stayed and his show ‘Butternut Square’ eventually evolved into ‘Mr. Dressup,’ which ran from 1967 until 1997, with re-runs continuing until 2006.

Coombs lived in Pickering with his wife Marlene, who ran a day care in Scarborough called Butternut Learning Centre. She was killed in a car accident in Toronto in 1992.

Ernie Coombs became a Canadian citizen in 1994 and was awarded an Order of Canada in 1996.

He died on September 18, 2001, just days after suffering a stroke. He was 73.

Combs was also honoured last month with a permanent public art piece – Mr. Dressup’s Magic – a sculpture created by artist Kseniya Tsoy as a tribute to one of Canada’s most beloved cultural figures that stands in East Woodlands Park.

Mr. Dressup’s Magic presents Mr. Dressup in his six-armed tuxedo, known to be one of his most favourite costumes. In his hands, he holds a paintbrush and palette, pencil, scissors, tambourine and book. Beside him, his iconic Tickle Trunk overflows with a cheerful horse mask, a costume, a colourful xylophone, musical notes and sparkling magical shapes and a luminous rainbow symbolizing the avenues of creative self-expression, storytelling, magic and wonder he shared with his audience, as well as the inclusivity and boundless imagination so integral to the show and to Coombs himself.

Artist Kseniya Tsoy with art work Mr. Dressup’s Magic, a tribute to Ernie Coombs that stands in East Woodlands Park in Pickering