Imaan Sheikh | Narcity
Life Before Star(Trek)dom
"I lived here for many years in Toronto when I was a young, starving actor," Shatner said. "I lived on Sherbourne at an old hotel; it was five floors up and the mattress was made of ropes. Every so often I would come back to my room unexpectedly and the mice were playing around."
Near him was a hotel with an "All You Can Eat for $2" sign and there was a two-hour window each evening to fill oneself up. "I wouldn't eat all day until I went to the Sherbourne [hotel] cafeteria and ate my one meal of the day for $2."
But future Captain Kirk's daily routine began to change because "something strange happened at the hotel." Large families of six to eight people began showing up to eat all they could for $2. "The cafeteria closed and the bar over there opened up and the hotel was like... a brothel," he told his audience hesitantly. "Are there little kids here? Yes, OK, but it's time you knew what a brothel was."
Friendless in Toronto with not much to do, Shatner would go to this new bar section and he started forming some pretty cool friendships. "I would go to a table and sit around with the ladies, and I got very comfortable," he said "A lady would say 'Excuse me, I have to leave now,' and she'd be gone for a while [to work]. Then she'd be back at the table and continue the conversation."
Shatner Returned To Toronto Years Later
The story took an interesting turn several years later after Shatner had met his former wife Gloria Rand and was engaged to her.
"I think about it quite frequently, and it's because I feel guilty," he said of the incident. "We were gonna get married and we went to some theatre downtown for some show — Gloria's mother and father and me, her fiance."
As the party of four stepped out of the theatre, Shatner saw one of the ladies he knew from the Sherbourne hotel. "[She's] walking the street. She sees me and I see her. And we were [once] very friendly, but I was with my fiance's parents and so I was torn. I thought 'Oh god, I hope she doesn't say 'Hello Bill,' you know?"
Imaan Sheikh | Narcity
But that was only the beginning of the dilemma he faced. "She walks by and I don't know what to do — I don't know whether to recognize her or not," he said "She turns back and looks at me and the look between us was so complicated. She knew the situation right away. She didn't make any [moves] towards me, saying hello. She just looked at me with understanding and left."
"I never said anything," Shatner told engaged listeners regretfully. "That was so many years ago and I carry with me that guilt. But whenever I mention this story, which is infrequently, the discussion is always 'what would you have done?'"
"Should [I] have said, 'Hi Mary! It's good to see you! Are you making much money? How it's going tonight?' and [seen my fiance's] very upright [grey suit-clad] Toronto parents go 'What did you say, now? You know her?' It would've been awful," he reminisced.
"But I didn't know what to do and I feel guilty," Shatner concluded before giving his audience — filled with cosplayers — a lookover and saying, "I can't tell whether you're smiling behind those masks or really you're like 'Oh jeez, another terrible story!'"
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
Billy Boyd wearing a Hudson's Bay hat and scarf. Madeline Forsyth | Narcity
