Emmy-winning costumer Juul Haalmeyer worked with Canada’s top entertainers

In 1970, a young Juul Haalmeyer was a shipper at Toronto costume shop Malabar when he bumped into costume designers Bob Mackie and Ret Turner, in town working on the CTV-commissioned television special The Sonny & Cher Nitty Gritty Hour. From them Mr. Haalmeyer finagled a visit to the CFTO studio where the show was being produced. There, he noticed a job posting for a costume designer at the station. Thinking, “Hey, I could do that,” he applied.His curriculum vitae was whimsical at best, pure fiction at worst. “They called me back and said they didn’t believe a word of it,” Mr. Haalmeyer recalled recently. But, admiring his audacity, CFTO, CTV’s flagship station, hired him to sweep floors in the carpentry shop until a suitable wardrobe job might open up.