Growing up in Newfoundland in the 1970s and 1980s, Michael Dove’s connection to the wider world came through O Pee Chee (OPC) cards. “Always loved the cards and felt like Evel Knievel when we put the cards in your bike spokes and then there was the chewing gum and everything else,” said Dove, a director of public history at Western University. “When I came to London, I came here to do a master’s in public history, and I didn’t know much else about London. The only thing I did know really was that O Pee Chee was based here.” A collector of sports and pop culture cards, Dove decided to start a deep dive into the history of the factory which had a massive impact on London but collectors around the world. “The working title for this documentary film is ‘Packaging Fun’,” said Dove. “London’s O Pee Chee Company started in 1911 and went right up until 1995, in terms of producing candy, chewing gum, as well as trading cards.” The confectionary side of the business was sold to Nestle in 1996, while the cards were carried by Topps. In 2006 Upper Deck acquired the rights to OPC. During his deep dive into the history, Dove discovered how London’s manufacturing sector has evolved. “What’s now Old East, Dundas and Adelaide, where the O Pee Chee original building still is, was built in 1928. That whole area had so much manufacturing and industry,” said Dove. “It was the real downtown, the kind of the heart really for many decades. Doing oral history interviews with folks who work there, who owned the factory, but also folks who just remember passing by on their bikes on the way to school and smelling that, that sweet smell of gum in the air. It just really gave that part of the city a whole different kind of vibe.” The documentary started out as a passion project, but he quickly got his students involved with the research and all stages of putting together a documentary film. One of his students who jumped on board was a card collector growing up. “It really was special to me to be able to see something that I collected that I thought was collecting dust, and to be able to bring it out and showcase it to my class and tell the story of my dad and I collecting,” said Western University student Neisa Long. “My dad loves sports. He’s not a huge hockey fan, more football, baseball, basketball, but I loved hockey growing up. The London Knights being here was really cool and being able to see players like Patrick Kane come out of our own city was amazing. Being able to go to those games growing up, we started collecting those cards. My dad wanted us to do to be able to kind of continue his legacy doing it growing up and share that experience with us, that he did it with his father, with his grandpa.” During work on this documentary Long learned how the OPC factory was founded in the Forest City. “I think that is such a cool part of our history,” she said. “There are so many people that were involved socially, economically, and historically as a part of this story and that there’s a huge legacy behind card collecting. Whether it be going to trade shows, hobby, fandom, but also just the bigger legacy that OPG left behind. Even having the buildings still existing here in London, it’s such an honour to be able to see that and be a part of that story.” As part of her contribution to the documentary, Long spent at lot of time going to the archives and doing oral history interviews. She even got to have some fun opening packs of cards. “I was able to interview Ben Kimmerly from Players (Sports Cards) card shop here in London and I grew up going to Players,” said Long. “I loved being able to really bring all that history together and to be able to tell a bigger story of O Pee Chee and how really, they were selling the fun. We continue to kind of bring that story to light through this experience.” The elements have been gathered and a trailer for the film is complete. “We are solidly into post-production and we’re trying to get this documentary film ready to submit to a film festival for 2026,” said Dove. “Hopefully it will align with the city’s bicentennial coming up in 2026 and the Forest City Film Festival would be a great place. We’ll certainly look into that but we’re going to get it out regardless, because we want to share these wonderful stories with Londoners and Canadians as quickly as possible.”
