Back Story

Albert Edison Austin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but his family moved to Toronto when he was four. He was the eldest of two children and named for his father, Albert William Austin. His mother's name was Adele M. Austin and she used to be a theatre actress in Toronto where she met her husband. They then moved to Winnipeg to take care of his ailing father. Albert spent his early years in Winnipeg with his paternal grandparents. But the family moved back to Toronto shortly after the birth of their second son, William Roger Austin, and the death of Albert William Austin's father.

Albert Edison was born into a wealthy family, his father became the president of Dominion Bank when he was five. He lived in a illustrious manor nearby Casa Loma and his father was friends with the lord of the manor, Sir Henry Pelatt and his wife. Albert Edison watched with wonder as the castle-like manor was brought to life, much like the castles in his storybooks. Albert Edison was expected to follow his father and eventually run the Dominion Bank of Canada. However, it was one snowy day on his way home from school that he happened upon a street painter and that's where he fell in love with art.

Of course, his father thought that his newfound hobby was ridiculous and did not condone his son's choices. Albert Edison was a mediocre student in his high school career but continued his education at the University of Toronto. There he joined a fraternity and met his lifetime best friend, James Masters, who would later be known as 'Maniac Masters' a mulit-murderer who wa s executed thirty years later. Albert Edison enjoyed four years at university, away from his father's disaproving gaze and his family's expectations. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts and found himself unemployed.

Albert Edison enjoyed two comfortable years at home where he would paint and try to get others to critique and buy his paintings, trying to prove to his parents that he could make a sustainable income as a painter. However, he would be dissapointed with the reviews of his landscapes of Toronto. It was during one of his random hecklings of an art critic where Albert Edison quite literally, bumped into his future wife and love, Danielle Martel.

They married a year later in a rushed ceremony because Danielle was expecting the couple's child at Trinity Church. This proved to be last straw for Albert Edison's father, he officially cut his son off from the family money, leaving the new couple penniless. This put quite the strain on the marriage. Albert Edison was still painting and the family's savings were dwindling. Their son, William, died from the Spanish Influenza. It was around this time that Danielle began an affair with Albert Edison's neighbour and gangster, Salvatore Marielli. Danielle left Albert Edison and he sunk into depression, choosing to drown his sorrows in a whiskey bottle. After a failed suicide attempt, in which Albert Edison tried to jump off the Danforth Bridge but landed instead in the newly completed train tunnel; Albert Edison died three years later at the age of twenty-six of alcohol poisoning. However, Albert Edison finally got his wish, his work is out for display, as a warning to all potential artists of what not to do.