Foster Hewitt Gondola at Maple Leaf Gardens
Press Gondola at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Sponsored by ESSO, which supplied home heating oil and had gas stations across Canada.

Access by catwalks on the beams about 90 feet above ice surface and stairs to another level of beams, then climb down a ladder into the gondola

Foster Hewitt was part of the opening night ceremonies for Maple Leaf Gardens on November 12, 1931, and the specially designed broadcast "gondola" where Hewitt would broadcast from was brought into the plans with his input, and the blessings of then Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe

Foster Hewitt had been in the gondola when it was first completed, with very few safety measures taken at that point, so as improvements were made with catwalks and railings, it got easier for him and regulars to get in and out of the gondola.

But for guests and other press, many could not stomach the journey from the fan room as it was called, along the catwalks high above Maple Leaf Gardens to the gondola.

Conn Smythe said he had been in the gondola, and would rather go up in a plane with no pilot, then go back up and into the gondola again.

The Gondola got it's name from it's resemblance to a "Airship Gondola"

The gondola at Maple Leaf Gardens was used from 1931 until it was removed in 1979 on the instructions of then owner Harold Ballard