final credits - alex starko
For as long as most Edmontonians can remember, Page The Cleaner has been a reliable fixture on the local dry cleaner scene.
The man behind the company, Alex Starko, also started the first dry cleaning service in Hawaii.
It all started in 1946 when Alex's father, Michael Starko, bought out a one-man cleaning outfit on 118th Avenue near 93rd Street.
Alex soon took over the business, expanding the company to 35 stores with a fleet of vans servicing communities surrounding Edmonton.
In the early 1960s, Starko retired to the easy life in Hawaii but was restless enough to launch Holiday Cleaners, the island's first dry cleaning outlet.
Returning to Edmonton a decade later, Starko got into the industrial clothing business running Emery Apparel Canada and later Bullwork Protective Clothing.
A tinkerer at heart, Starko also designed and built a hovercraft while under government contract.
According to his family, the device "worked fine."
Starko moved to Arizona in the mid-1990s and died in Nashville, Tennessee.
Alex Starko died January 13th, 2006 at the age of 77.