A real life Calgary fable
Does the truth matter? Calgary is built on tall tales. They give extra height to our buildings larger personalities to our politicians and characters and even larger bank accounts to our overcompensated executives. The looming mass of the Rocky Mountains on the horizon and the wide-open prairie sky above are perfect inspiration for creating just one more tale and Cal Cavendish has a whopper.
Buzz Job! a new production by David van Belle introduces us to a young Cavendish a local country-folk singer played by Kris Demeanor performing his final gig — his mother makes an appearance a businessman watches the show shedding the stress of the workday. The next day he must face the judge and learn his fate after performing one hell of a publicity stunt.
On a beautiful day April 11 1975 the real Cavendish climbed into his plane for one last flight over Calgary accompanied by a big plastic bag of horseshit and some copies of his new 45-inch record. He was pissed he was sad — Calgary was in the midst of a massive oil boom yet his records weren’t selling — and he was going to bloody well do something about it.
Flying dangerously low he approached the Glenmore Reservoir with the intention of swooping under the causeway before heading towards downtown. When his wheels made contact with the ice and almost crashed him into our water supply he decided that part of his stunt probably wasn’t the best idea. Moments later Cavendish was buzzing low over Ninth Ave. low enough for people in the Calgary Tower to take pictures of the top of his plane. He opened the door opened the plastic bag and let the sucking effect of pressure and wind pull poo and records out the side of the plane.
Symbolically perhaps the fecal fertilizer fell where the Bankers Hall towers now sprout in the heart of Calgary’s all-business core while the records touched down closer to Inglewood. The more artsy area received a dump of art while the core received nothing but organic compost with which to sprout and grow. If you rue the dominance of business in our city maybe it’s Cavendish the gardener you ought to blame.
“The buzz job was the dumbest and smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life” says the real Cavendish older now and contemplative. “It was dumb because I had to go at odds with everything I’ve done as a pilot and a member of society — throw them out the window. It was smart because it hadn’t been done before and every artist wants to do something that hasn’t been done before.”
Van Belle first heard the story of Cavendish’s stunt in 2003. Local writer Brian Brennan was reading from his collection of stories about the mavericks in Alberta history and the story of a man dropping manure on downtown Calgary stuck with the local playwright. “I had never heard the story before and I was amazed by that” he says.
Van Belle brought Demeanor on board to play Cavendish in large part because he shares Cavendish’s flair for storytelling that remains rooted to Calgary and holds a mirror to our contradictory culture. “We say things about Calgary about it being a boomtown and somehow that narrative gets controlled by the oil guys and the politicians about how successful the city is. But actually there’s a dark side to Calgary too” he says.
The story of Cavendish and his infamous flight is the story of a booming city those left behind and one man who decided to go berserk one day in response. It is a dark story despite its obvious humour. It’s fair to say Cavendish never really recovered from its effects — he lost his pilot’s licence his record didn’t climb the charts and his agents wouldn’t go near him. There is a lingering sadness to him and resentment that he never made a living from his music.
The facts of the story change during an hour-long interview with Fast Forward but the phrase “why let the facts get in the way of a good story” is repeated like a mantra. There’s no doubt that Cavendish spread manure and records along the length of Ninth Ave. there’s no doubt that he lost his licence to fly for 11 years and still didn’t save his suffering musical career. The rest is open for interpretation. Did he skim over the reservoir? Did he have that much poo on board? Did he really fly under powerlines? It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. It’s a great story and just one more tall tale for Calgary’s muddled history.
