For 60+ years, this unique mechanical sign has been perched in front of a car dealership on Eglinton Ave near Victoria Park Ave in Toronto’s east end. The ‘Swinging Lady’ billboard was first raised by the old Paul Willison dealership back in 1962 in the Golden Mile district. It was originally a big Ford dealer before switching to Chrysler.
The illuminated 40′ wide billboard sits a 20′ off the ground, keeping local vandals away. To the left side of the sign, closest to the street, she slowly swings back and forth inviting customers to ‘swing on by’ for a good deal on a new car.
She’s always been a fashionable lady, too. Silent as Santa, the sign company employees would secretly change her clothes each season; a string bikini in the summer, a parka and mittens in the winter.
Back in the 1980’s, the Swinging Lady went missing. Nobody saw it happen, but she was gone! The local news crews came out to the ‘scene of the crime’ and advised that a reward had been offered for her safe return. The next spring, some dealership employees found her in the bushes; she wasn’t kidnapped. Only blew down in a storm and got covered by snow.
The dealership has changed names from Paul Willison to Parkview and now Golden Mile but the swinging lady remains a landmark of Scarborough car culture.
Good thing they found her. Great story.
I think it was a legit ‘missing person’ situation, and not a publicity stunt.
.
That story has actually become part of the local folklore around the east end.
No. The billboard was in a different patch of land at Victoria Park and Eglinton. It was moved when that land had housing built on it.
Yes… but it’s the same area. Right now the ‘Swinging Lady’ is at the corner of Eglinton and Bermondsey, but she used to be right at Eglinton and Victoria Park Ave before those townhouses were built back in the day.
A Scarborough car-culture touchstone.