MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

WINTER 2019 ML BLUE 59 words :: Nelson Phillips In 1939 Blue Mountain Resort’s founder, Jozo Weider, was in Britain promoting tourism and the resort he had built in the Carpathian mountains in what is now Slovakia, when Hitler’s army invaded. Jozo’s subsequent journey is a well-documented story of a political refugee who came to Canada, rolled up his sleeves, and eventually built an empire that shaped the face of the region. Back in Europe, there was another Czechoslovakian countryman destined for the Blue Mountains. Walter Trier was a dedicated anti-fascist artist who would also flee Nazi tyranny in favour of the Canadian dream. Trier was born in Prague in 1890 to a German-speaking Jewish family, and attended the Industrial School of Fine and Applied Arts and the Prague Academy, and later the Royal Academy in Munich. He later moved to Berlin where he began his career as a cartoonist, illustrating hundreds of covers for a provocative British monthly magazine, Lilliput —known for its daring photographs of nudes. Perhaps Trier’s most famous political work is a satirical map drawn during the First World War that shows Europe represented by the various nations and their roles in the war. Trier also illustrated many popular children’s books. Trier fled Berlin for London in 1936 when Nazi supporters began to bitterly oppose his cartoons. During the Second World War he and his wife became British citizens and Trier went back to work producing anti-Nazi leaflets and other political material for Britain’s Ministry of Information. He arrived in the Great White North in 1947 and began working for Canadian meat-packing giant, Canada Packers, as a commercial artist. He went on to illustrate for The New York Times and Life magazine. When Trier met Weider in Craigleith, the two became fast friends. Weider built Trier a home and studio in 1949 near the Ski Barn at the base of the Apple Bowl. Back in Europe, Trier had illustrated Lilliput with many depictions of himself, his wife, and a black dog. He picked this motif up again, painting the Weider children wandering around Craigleith with their springer spaniel, Topsy. He illustrated the 1949/1950 Blue Mountain Resort brochure, and painted a mural above the mantelpiece in the Ski Barn, that showcased square dancers jiving to Jozo Weider’s legendary accordion-led dances. Trier fled Berlin for London in 1936 when Nazi supporters began to bitterly oppose his cartoons. ARTIST PROFILE BLUE MOUNTAIN’S ORIGINAL ANTI-FASCIST ARTIST Renowned illustrator Walter Trier escaped Nazi Europe and found a home at the base of Blue Covers illustrated by Walter Trier in the 1940s: LEFT & RIGHT the British magazine Lilliput; MIDDLE a 1949 German novel. COURTESY PINTEREST.COM