Two Gun’s fame will grow with upcoming movie
As the legend of Two Gun Cohen grows, so does the profile of Riversdale.
“Maybe this is a little bigger than all of us thought,” said Randy Pshebylo, Riversdale BID executive director.
According to a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter, there is a major movie in the works about the colourful settler who once lived in Saskatoon. The film will be shot in China. Rob Reiner is one of the producers. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) will direct.
And Pshebylo is doing what he can to get Saskatoon into the screenplay.
“We have a call in to Rob Reiner,” Pshebylo said. “Sorry. A little self-serving, do you think?” he laughed.
If he had the chance, Pshebylo would emphasize Morris Abraham Cohen’s early life in Saskatoon and how his experiences here shaped him.
Cohen was an Oliver Twist type character in London who spent time in reform school as a pickpocket before being sent to Western Canada to learn the values of hard work. In Saskatoon, he won the respect of the city’s Chinese community in the early 1900s when he thwarted a holdup at his favourite eatery, the Alberta Cafe on 20th Street.
Describing the gunman,
“MAYBE THIS IS A LITTLE BIGGER THAN ALL OF US THOUGHT.”
RANDY PSHEBYLO
Cohen told his biographer “I closed in until he was too close to use his rod and socked him in the jaw.”
Cohen moved to Edmonton and became prominent in business and pro-Chinese-revolution circles. After fighting in the First World War, he became a bodyguard of Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the Republic of China.
Without the incident on 20th Street, none of that would have happened, says Pshebylo.
“That is how two guys treated each other and communities changed on a national level. It’s just a fascinating story.”
There has been talk of commissioning a statue of Cohen at River Landing. And Pshebylo is applying to the city to help fund a bronze plaque in English, Mandarin and Cantonese on the spot of the Alberta Cafe, now an empty lot which used to be the AutoTec gas station.
This isn’t the first time the Cohen story has made waves in Riversdale. In 2005, a play on his life premiered at the Roxy Theatre written by Don Kerr and directed by Henry Woolf.
More recently, the Two Gun Quiche House opened on 20th Street. Business has been good since the September opening, says owner Bill Matthews.
“I’ve had a lot of people coming here because they’ve heard of Two Gun,” said Matthews.
“The most comments we’re getting are on the food and the atmosphere.”
He’s not sure if the movie will increase business but it would be quite a coincidence if another 20th Street restaurant got a boost from Cohen.
“I think it’s fantastic because it’s going to bring to life the history of our area,” said Matthews.
He just applied for personalized license plates. They will say “Two-Gun.”