Elwy Yost
Elwy Yost CM (born July 10, 1925) is a television host notable for hosting TV Ontario's Saturday Night at the Movies from 1970 to 1999.
Yost graduated from Weston Collegiate in 1943. He began studies at the University of Toronto in 1943 but he joined the Canadian Infantry in 1944. He was honorably discharged in September 1945.
After graduating from the University of Toronto he was hired as an English and History teacher at Burnhamthorpe Collegiate in Etobicoke, Ontario.
Yost hosted other educational shows prior to Saturday Night at the Movies, most notably Magic Shadows, another movie show, which showed classic movies in half-hour after-school episodes with introductions providing background and interesting details by Yost.
The format of Saturday Night at the Movies was that of two movies, separated by interviews conducted by Yost. Yost has an unique, modest, enthusiastic, and well-informed interview style. In the early years the interviews were with local film experts, but the show's producers took the opportunity to interview visiting actors when they had gigs in Toronto. As the show grew in popularity, funds were found to send a Yost and a crew to Hollywood to arrange interviews with film personalities. This library of interviews is said to be the longest of its kind.
The library included interviews with the stars of classic films, character actors, directors, screen-writers, composers, film-editors, special-effects people, and sometimes even their children.
Some regular viewers started to plan their Saturday nights so that they could catch just the interview section if they had already seen that night's films.
When Yost retired a copy of the library of interviews was donated to the Motion Picture Academy.
In 1999 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
His son, Graham Yost, is a screenwriter whose most famous credit was the hit 1994 film Speed.
External link
- Elwy Yost at the Internet Movie Database