Deanne Taylor (born November 24, 1946) was a Candian actress, artist, and performer. At 9 years old, she starred in the television program

Maggie Muggins ''Maggie Muggins'' was a Canadian children's radio and television series which began on-air live as a fifteen-minute program on CBC Radio on New Year's Day, 1947. The highly popular radio program engaged children's imaginations, with its continu ...

. In 1982, she ran for mayor in the

1982 Toronto municipal election The 1982 Toronto municipal election was held on November 8, 1982, in Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mayors, controllers, city councillors and school board trustees were elected in the municipalities of Toronto, York, East York, North Yor ...

, under the pseudonym A. Hummer placing 2nd, against

Art Eggleton Arthur C. Eggleton (born September 29, 1943) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 59th and longest-serving mayor of Toronto from 1980 to 1991. He was elected to Parliament in 1993, running as a Liberal in York Centre and served as ...

. Together with husband Michael Hollingsworth, she founded theatre compan
VideoCabaret
creating several plays about the history of Canada. She is credited with creating a novel genre of 'stand-up journalism', and contributing to the

culture of Toronto Toronto is the largest city of Canada and one of the most multiculturalism, multicultural cities in the world. Many immigrant cultures have brought their traditions Heritage Languages in Toronto, languages and music to Toronto. Toronto is a busin ...

, Canada.

Early life

She was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

to academics Violet Mae (née Fowler) and Malcolm Gordon Taylor. At age 9 she landed the title role on the TV series

. In 1956 at age 10, she appeared in 2 episodes of the Canadian series On Camera. In 1958 at age 12, she appeared on 2 episodes of CBC's

General Motors Theatre ''General Motors Theatre'' (also known as ''CBC Theatre, Encounter, Ford Television Theatre,'' and ''General Motors Presents'') was a Canadian television anthology drama series of television plays, which ran on CBC Television under various title ...

. After attending

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

, she lived for 7 years in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. In 1971, Taylor returned to Toronto and formed the national Women & Film film-festival in 1973. In 1974, together with artists Marien Lewis and Bobbe Besold, she formed the Hummer Sisters, and staged a protest against a Toronto by-law regarding a community garden. In 1976, she collaborated with writer Michael Hollingsworth to launch VideoCabaret, an experimental theatre company which was one of the first in Canada to integrate

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

techniques such as

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

and

live music A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety an ...

.Michael Hollingsworth
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

. Taylor appears in

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

's documentary See You At Mao.

1982 Election

In 1982 Taylor changed her name to A. Hummer, in order to run as a protest-candidate in the

. She ran on the slogan "ART vs Art". The Hummer sisters ran several fundraising events at

The Cameron House The Cameron House is a small bar, live music venue, and informal cultural centre located on Queen Street West, just west of Spadina Avenue, in the city's downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Cameron has a front lounge and a back room, bo ...

. Some campaign content was notable for using

Telidon Telidon (from the Greek words τῆλε, ''tele'' "at a distance" and ἰδών, ''idon'' "seeing") was a videotex/teletext service developed by the Canadian Communications Research Centre (CRC) during the late 1970s and supported by commercial ...

- a Canadian pre-internet

videotex Videotex (or interactive videotex) was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typi ...

teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

service. When asked about the Hummer campaign, Eggleton suggested his opponents "get some rest and take Extra-Strength Tylenol." - a reference to the

Chicago Tylenol murders The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. S ...

occurring a month before. Eggleton later apologized. The campaign received 12,000 votes, or 10% - a distant second to incumbent

. It was noteworthy for a

protest candidate A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or " none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms ...

to get 10% of the vote - many more than a fringe candidate in Toronto history - even beating Eggleton on Ward's island.Page A2. (1982, Nov 10). Toronto Star (1971-2009) The campaign was noted for their novel use of video, and appeal to the Toronto youth of Queen Street.

Post Election

Together with Hollingsworth, she produced a play-cycle about the

History of Canada The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...

titled ''The History of the Village of the Small Huts''. The play consists of many parts - ''“The Cold War — Part One,”'' was released in 1995, followed by ''“The Global Village,”'' and ''“The Life and Times of

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...

”''. They plays ran at

Soulpepper Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has sinc ...

and the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

. It is being revived in 2022 She died in 2021 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 74. After her death, the theatre at 10 Busy Street was renamed Deanne Taylor Theatre.

External links

*
VideoCabaret
*
Hummer for Mayor: ART vs ART
- remaining footage of some performances at Cameron House

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Deanne 1946 births 2021 deaths Canadian video artists 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Actresses from Berkeley, California Artists from Berkeley, California Canadian multimedia artists Canadian theatre directors Canadian child actresses