Elwy Yost
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Elwy Yost, CM , BA (born July 10, 1925) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is a television host notable for hosting TVOntario's weekday Magic Shadows and Saturday Night at the Movies from 1974 to 1999.
Yost graduated from Weston Collegiate in 1943. He began studies at the University of Toronto in 1943, but joined the Canadian Infantry in 1944. He was honourably discharged in September 1945.
After graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree, 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 a 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 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. Speed was the final movie Yost hosted before retiring from Saturday Night at the Movies in 1999.
According to an interview, he has only ever disliked two films of all the films he has ever seen. He has identified his favourite film as The Thief of Baghdad, which he presented several times on Saturday Night at the Movies.
Elwy is also the author of a mystery novel called, "White Shadows," published in 2003.
Yost has recovered from "a serious operation" over a year ago, according to his wife, Lila. He is retired and living in West Vancouver, British Columbia.
[edit] Bibliography
- Magic Moments from the Movies (1978) ISBN 0-385-13691-9
- The Mad Queen of Mordra (1987) ISBN 0-590-71787-1
- Billy and the Bubbleship (1982) ISBN: 0590710931*also published as The Mad Queen of Mordra
- Secrets of the Lost Empire (1980) ISBN: 0590710559
