Curtain call: a photographic series of images documenting the lost backdrops of Vancouver’s theatre history. Normally I don’t feature photographs, but in this case I’m making an exception. I’d like to focus on the backdrop artists themselves, but since they are a famously anonymous group, I’ll have to give credit where I can. Images are courtesy of the Vancouver Archives. Here’s a breakdown:

1. The interior of the Vancouver Opera House, 733 Granville St (Item Bu P7)
2. Columbia Theatre and company, 1920 (CVA 99-1379)
3. Kiwanis Glee Club Capitol Theatre. Vancouver, B.C. December 16, 1922 (CVA 99-3439)
4. St. George’s School play “Robin Hood” 1939 (CVA 805-26)
5. Demolition of the Lyric Theatre, 700 block Granville St, 1969 (CVA 1348-37)
6. Demolition of the Lyric Theatre (CVA 1348-37) (as above, closeup)
   
7. Demolition of the Lyric Theatre, 700 block Granville St, 1969 (CVA 1348-36)
8. Demolition of the Lyric Theatre, 700 block Granville St, 1969 (CVA 1348-39)

About image # 1, Sean Jung describes the Vancouver Opera House at cinematreasures.org:

The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Vancouver Opera House and was opened on February 09, 1891. It was adjacent to the first Hotel Vancouver on Granville Street between Robson and Georgia with 2,000 seats…in 1913, it was refurbished and named the Orpheum Theater. This would be the 2nd theater in the city to grace this name. (The first being the old Alhambra). It was briefly called the Vancouver Theater, then the Lyric, then International Cinema before reverting to the Lyric Theatre.

Regarding image # 2, the Columbia Theatre operated as a vaudeville theatre in the teens and 20s. It was located at 64 West Hastings, across the street from where the Paris Block is today. Once again, I asked resident expert Tom Carter to fill me in on some details about the Columbia. He mentioned that just to the (east) was the National theatre, which was even older. And get this - the National theatre actually started as the Cameraphone theatre! With research assistance from Andrew Martin at the VPL, we now know the Cameraphone opened November 30, 1908, but by July 6, 1909 the Vancouver World was announcing the National’s grand opening, so the Cameraphone didn’t last long! : ) About the technology, Tom writes:

Cameraphone was a New York company that offered early sound-synchronized films and built purpose-built theatres around North America to display them. This beats the film The Jazz Singer (1927) by almost 20 years and it’s amazing Vancouver was chosen as a location for such cutting-edge American technology. We also had the Hales Tours so it seems we were seen as a viable market for state-of-the-art back then.

Also located just a bit further east was the new Pantages aka Majestic Theatre at 20 West Hastings St.

Back to the Columbia theatre, Tom tells me it actually had 3 levels of opera boxes; 9 boxes on each side - 18 in total! The Columbia, along with the National were converted into retail space with offices above in the early 1930’s. They survived together as Wosk’s until the 1980’s. Currently, there’s a big empty parking lot where the Columbia and National once stood, but the site is slated to become a community garden. The eventual plan is for a new PHS complex of housing and retail.

What can I say about image # 3, the Kiwanis Glee Club at the Capitol Theatre? It was taken on December 16, 1922, just 2 months after the Harold Lloyd comedy Grandma’s Boy would have played at the very same theatre (October 2-7, 1922). Zoom into the original image and you can see the pipe organ in the centre of the stage, a relic of the silent film era!

I love everything about image # 4, the 1939 photo of the cast of Robin Hood, donated in 2008 by Nigel Toy, St. George’s School Headmaster. Nigel retired from St. George’s School in June of 2010. Thanks for the donation, Nigel!

The images of the Lyric Theatre demolition are the most heart-breaking; to see the once magnificent backdrops used as demolition curtains is enough to bring tears to my eyes! Previously known as the Vancouver Opera House (image # 1), it was renamed the Lyric Theatre in 1937. The demolition made way for the Pacific Centre in 1969. The Vancouver Archives website indicates that the photographs were taken by Nicholas Russell, and they include this brief bio:

Nicholas Russell lived in Vancouver’s West End in 1968. He was very concerned about the demolition of the older wooden houses in the West End and photographed many houses that are no longer in existence today. Later he was president of the Archaeological Society of B.C. and Heritage Regina. He now lives in the James Bay area of Victoria.

This entry has been cross-posted to Vancouver Is Awesome with alternate text. For further reading, see also Miss604’s recent post compiling exterior images from a good number of Vancouver’s theatres.

I’m taking a hiatus for a while, so please excuse the impending pause in the action. If you happen to discover some breaking new art while I’m away, or if you accidentally uncover some great unknown anecdote from the city’s art history, please don’t hesitate to let me know! Till we meet again!

Artist Steve Hornung paints a 240 foot mural at Renfrew Station in the fall of 2009. Video link.

Hotel Devonshire, a postcard by Edward Goodall. Here’s an archival photo almost from the same vantage point, or how it would have appeared from the old Hotel Vancouver. According to Emporis, construction began in 1923 and was completed in 1924; the building was designed by the prestigious McCarter & Nairne Partners. More facts:

• Demolished on July 5, 1981 at 7:05 a.m. with 100 kilograms of dynamite, along with the famous Cave nightclub, to make way for the HSBC Building.
• Opened as an apartment building for boarders, named The Devonshire Apartment Hotel.

Water Street, by J. Grant Crawford, 1982. An extra large canvas, seen inside the Deluxe film post-production facility in Vancouver. This Deluxe facility was previously Rainmaker, and prior to this Rainmaker was Gastown Post & Transfer. (I know this because I used to work at Rainmaker!)

The Cambie Hostel; a work in gouache, ink, arcylic, and wood from 2011, submitted by Natasha Shubaly. 

A followup to yesterday’s post, here is a detail of the cover of the 1937 Pattullo Bridge souvenir programme. I can’t quite make out the signature in the bottom corner of the image, which might not be a signature at all. If anyone has access to the original, please feel free to comment!

The complete souvenir programme is still online at the Buzzer Blog. Special thanks to the Buzzer Blog for posting this back in 2009, and extra special thanks to Lisa Codd, the curator at the Burnaby Village Museum who originally provided the scans to the Buzzer. This item has now been transferred to the Burnaby Archives.

The Evolution of the Vancouver Apartment, from Michael Kluckner’s Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years, an entirely new book to be published April 30th, 2012 by Whitecap Books. A number of book launch events are scheduled to coincide with the release of this book next month; to learn more about them, see my cross-post at Vancouver Is Awesome.

Last week while browsing MacLeod’s Books, I saw this 1936 Golden Jubilee poster amongst the Vancouver ephemera pamphlets. The poster was printed by Bulman Bros. (BC Ltd.) Vancouver, Canada. There’s no artist credit for the poster, but I wonder if it might have been one of the three musketeers: Paul Goranson, Orville Fisher, or E.J. Hughes? It is extraordinarily theatrical, and quite imposing! I don’t have the wallspace for this, but surely someone here does! The poster was $40, although there was a second tattered copy for a bit less. 

This ceremonial commemorative style proclamation was repeated again in 1958 with this poster (photograph by Bob Kronbauer), which came with a book that was published for BC’s colonial centennial celebrations. Did anyone see anything similar for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee? Any one of our followers get a Diamond Jubilee medal?

Oh, and one more thing; I saw Claudia Cornwall speak at the West Van Library this week, and I highly recommend her new book on Kurt Lang. I’m mentioning a book on photography here because Claudia points out it was Kurt Lang who started the bookstore that would become MacLeod’s books! Check out the exhibit at SFU, and take note there’s a symposium on Curt Lang’s photography scheduled for Wednesday May 9, 2012 at 7pm. Room 1600, SFU Vancouver, 515 W. Hastings Street.

Vancouver Nightmare, a young adult crime novel by Victoria author Eric Wilson, illustrated by Richard Row. Also shown, cover art from the first novel in his series, Murder on the Canadian, (with artwork of a VIA train heading from Winnipeg to Vancouver), the Emily Carr Mystery (showcasing the Salish Sea around Victoria), and an earlier edition of Vancouver Nightmare (also featuring a VIA passenger train, illustrated by Tom McNeely, a Toronto illustrator with over 50 years of work in his repertoire). From wikipedia:

Originally a public school teacher, Wilson’s teaching experiences pushed him into writing. Frustrated by some of his slow learners rejecting books as being too boring, Wilson decided to try writing stories himself. His first short stories were popular with his students, but publishers rejected his first five manuscripts.

Want to know what the kids are saying? Here’s a review from CBC Kids. You can also purchase ebook PDFs from the author for $3 a piece.

Central Library, a giclee print 1/1 by artist Molly Guldemond from 2004. This item is one of three prizes up for auction with proceeds supporting the Friends of the VPL (value $600.00). Molly also happens to be in the band Mother Mother. Tickets on sale now at book’mark, The Library Store, and prizes will be drawn on April 28th at book’mark.

Hastings Wharf, Vancouver, a watercolour by Thomas Mower Martin, RCA. From the book Canada, described by Wilfred Campbell LL.D. and published by A&C Black Ltd. London. 1907, still publishing today! Print (page from the book) offered for sale on ebay. T. Mower Martin lived from 1838-1934; a listing of 134 of his paintings that sold at auction Saturday, October 27, 1883 is available at archive.org. The portrait of him at his desk is from the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, AB, where they have a complete fonds dedicated to him. It looks like this fonds was acquired as a gift of John Harbert in 2003, with thanks to the Michael H. Dunn Trust, 2011. Here’s an excerpt from the biography they have posted:

Thomas Mower Martin, 1838-1934, was born in London, England and received art training at a number of institutions. He and his wife, Emma Nichols, 1842-1911 moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1862. He painted mostly landscapes, animals in action, still lifes and some portraits and traveled widely throughout North America. In 1887 he made his first trip to Western Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Pacific Railway and returned approximately ten times. A collection of articles entitled “Canada from an Artist’s Point of View” (1895) details some of his activities in the west. Martin was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and was director of the Ontario Government Art school from 1877 to 1879. He was also a founder of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880…

Continuing from yesterday’s post, Westward Ho! magazine became Man-to-Man magazine in 1910, and then British Columbia Magazine in 1911. The Man-to-Man cover is again drawn by S.P. Judge, and the May 1911 cover of British Columbia Magazine is drawn by R.B. Unsworth. Both covers have been retouched slightly by me. I should add the first cover here has been positively identified as the Hastings Mill, at the foot of Dunlevy Avenue. I’ve written a rather lengthy post about this publication at VancouverIsAwesome.com.

Early this morning, a watercolor on paper by Sandrine Pelissier. Sandrine is offering unique financing for her paintings through a rent-to-own arrangement; you can now try a painting before buying it with small monthly payments. Once you’ve paid the full price in rental fees, you own the work!

Kits Point by Glenn Payan, 2012. A new show of Glenn’s work opens at the Ian Tan Gallery Saturday, March 3rd, with reception from 2-4pm. The show runs until March 29, 2012. This particular oil on canvas is 60” x 30”, listed for sale at $5,600.