Pollack's - why this Quebec City store was a gamechanger

  Pollacks was a massive department store in Quebec City, so it's okay if you've never heard of it.
   Maurice Pollack was born in Russia and made a ton of dough selling his wares in Quebec City and eventually became a full-time philanthropist.
   Does anybody know what happened almost exactly 55 years ago at his store on Charest in downtown QC that changed the fate not just of his enterprise but of commercial architecture in general?
   Yes, we have a correct answer. At about noon on Wed. Feb. 4, 1959, half of a snow-laden 300-foot sign came smashing down, killing a man and a woman and injuring 10 others.
    No direct legislation came about following this dreadful accident, that I know of, and I don't know if the eventual disappearance of Pollacks was related to this event but one sees a lot fewer of these weighty signs nowadays, as lighter versions are now the norm pretty much everywhere.