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!

Coal Harbour, looking up the Inlet; and Coal Harbour, looking South. Two hand-coloured etchings from page 306 of the September, 1884 issue of The West Shore magazine. These two lithographs originally appeared in black and white, and they are likely based on period photographs.

I can almost make out the name “A. Burr” in the bottom left hand corner, perhaps the artist who etched the image? Following on the heals of yesterday’s post, these hand-coloured etchings are also from the Vancouver Archives documentary art collection.

This particular issue of The West Shore is significant, as Major Matthews describes in Early Vancouver Volume 5:

The earliest appearance we have seen of the name “Vancouver” is in the magazine West Shore, published in Portland, Oregon, September 1884, Vol. 10, No. 9, page 304, which says: “investigate the merits of Vancouver on Coal Harbor,” etc.”

I let the cat out of the bag yesterday, briefly mentioning The West Shore before realizing that I had the wrong publication. Yesterday’s post was from Canadian Illustrated News.

I will be featuring more from The West Shore in the near future, and I hope to digitize the microfilm of all the British Columbia specific issues, as there are at least half a dozen of them. It was an amazing publication which featured spectacular colour pullout lithographs in many of their issues. I asked the Oregon Historical Society if they had plans to digitize their collection of The West Shore in colour, but as of yet they do not. I believe this is a significant early publication that deserves much more attention. As a teaser, here is the first issue I’ve digitized (September, 1884), which you can conveniently review on your iPad in PDF format.

View of Moody, Dietz, & Nelson’s Saw-mill, at Burrard Inlet, a hand-coloured etching from a photograph by D. Withrow, believed to be published in the West Shore magazine, circa 1884 (I have yet to determine exactly which issue it is from). Oh, correction; this might actually be from Canadian Illustrated News, published in Montreal, Quebec by George Desbarats from 1869 to 1883. The Library and Archives Canada has a picture of this same etching which it dates as 22 June 1872, vol.V, no. 25, 389. The first and last complete issue of Canadian Illustrated News can be viewed online here:

This hand-coloured print is from the Vancouver Archives documentary art collection. 

Factory of Haida Confections and National Biscuits, Vancouver. Sorry, that’s not a bite taken out of the side of the building; the newspaper is a bit worn after 100 years. Image taken from the Sun, February 12, 1912; you can see in the original paper here and here. I don’t yet know where this factory was located, but perhaps we’ll learn more from the comments.

Update! Brilliant! As predicted, Vancouver Archives has added some valuable comments:

This 1931 photo http://searcharchives.vancouve… shows what looks like part of that building with a huge new addition, at 1706 W. 1st & Pine. Looks like the new addition is still there today, but the old building is not. Not sure what happened to Haida by 1931—maybe Nabisco took over the whole building.

So this was situated right around the corner from the Seaforth Armouries, and just down the street from both the Capilano Brewery, and just up the street from Peerless Steam Laundry, both of which have been featured here previously. Put all three of these buildings together and you begin to have a clearer picture of this early Vancouver industrial district. The workers of the day probably never envisioned that Yoga pants and Porsches would one day take their place!

And ps: if anyone ever finds any more artifacts that depict the Haida brand, I would love to see them!

Update # 2! Great stuff! Michael Kluckner has also weighed in, adding:

This is the building that became Mitchell Press for many years. They printed/published quite a number of books about Vancouver, including Alan Morley’s Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis (1961, second edition 1974), the first good history of the city.

Now it looks to me like “the old Mitchell Press building” at 1706 West 1st Avenue in the Armory District of Kitsilano has become home to Livingspace since the fall of 2011! From cookies to books to trendy furniture! This building has seen it all!

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

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 Burrard Motel, a vintage postcard by the Vancouver postcard artist Edward Goodall. This postcard shows the final design circa 1954; the hotel opened in 1956. I didn’t realize the Burrard Motel, now the Burrard Hotel is actually a trendy hip vintage midcentury modern mix of style and fashion, right in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Any hotel with an inner courtyard deserves some credit in my books!

Memories of Andy Livingston Park by Larisse Bacani, cardboard and acrylic paint, seen last week at the 2012 Foundation show at ECUAD.

PNE Promotional Postcard, depicting the BC Pavilion some time prior to its construction for the 1954 Empire Games. This postcard was part of a campaign seeking public support for the expansion of the PNE’s commercial buildings.

The card is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Ratepayer, Vancouver, BC. At the time, postcard postage cost 1 1/2 cents. The card reads:

Please vote “yes” on the PNE bylaw, Dec 10th. The PNE pays all sinking funds and interest payments as in the past. Be sure to vote “yes” for this urgently needed expansion of your Pacific National Exhibition, a non profit public body serving you.

Ernest Ferguson
President PNE

ps: It won’t cost the taxpayers a cent. Your vote is needed!

When completed, the BC Pavilion housed the infamous Challenger Map, the largest relief map of it’s kind in the world. Later the building would house the BC Sports Hall of Fame. Since the Challenger Map is a personal favourite subject of mine, here’s a bit more from challengermap.org:

The Challenger Map resided in the British Columbia Pavilion at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. It was installed in 1954 at the time of the British Empire Games held at Empire Stadium also at the PNE Grounds.

Over the next 43 years the map was seen by millions of visitors to the PNE and many more tourists, locals and particularly school groups during the rest of the year.

In 1997 the BC Pavilion was torn down and the map moved to storage at Bekins Moving and Storage in Richmond BC.

Alan Clapp has been campaigning for a new home for the Challenger Map for years. In case you don’t know who Alan Clapp is, he was a key figure in the development of Granville Island, in addition to being one of the main organizers of Habitat 76, and he also happened to write a book on improvements for Granville Street in 1978.

The map was in real jeopardy in recent years, and after much campaigning, and as far as I know, its future is still undetermined. A small portion of the map was displayed at the ISU Joint Security Headquarters in Richmond during the 2010 Winter Olympics, but I don’t believe anyone really got to see it unless you worked in the building.

I do hope the efforts of George Challenger and Allan Clapp are not forgotten; this map deserves a permanent home.

How the Rule of the Road was Changed in BC, a BC Electric brochure promoting the switch from driving on the left to driving on the right, which actually took place in two stages. First, on July 1, 1920, most of British Columbia made the switch. The coast region, including most of the major cities was the exception, and they were given until January 1, 1922 to make the necessary mechanical changes.

The mini comics decorated the corners of the pamphlet, and the 16 page brochure went to great lengths explaining what was involved (I estimate around 3,000-4,000 words!) Fortunately, by all accounts, the switch was without incident. Oh, and if you kids are wondering what a Wye is, see Wikipedia. Pamphlet from the VPL Special Collections, NW 388.4 B86h Pam.

2400 Court, a postcard of unknown vintage which appears to be signed by Christian Anderson, no relation to Hans Christian Andersen I presume.

UBC Library Building Plans by architects Sharp & Thompson (later known as Thompson, Berwick, Pratt & Partners). Actually, I came across these drawings via a brochure titled Scrapbook for a Golden Anniversary, the University of British Columbia Library, 1915-1965. It was there I learned that this drawing I posted 11 months ago was by the first UBC librarian John Ridington. The brochure featured a negative image of the Periodical Room, and added the comment “It was never built”. I came across the rest of the blueprints from the UBC archives here.

Empire Field, from the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games, illustrated on a Macfarlane Lang & Co’s biscuit tin, from Glasgow, Scotland. Seen previously, this biscuit tin from competitors Gray and Dunn.

Yet another souvenir plate. This one is made especially for the Hudson’s Bay Company by Johnson Brothers of England, which joined the Wedgwood Group in 1968. I particularly like how this multilayered image succeeds as a collage decades before the Photoshop era. This would also be a fun plate to use for red beets and mashed potatoes. Currently for sale on ebay.

A postcard for The York Hotel, 790 Howe Street, Vancouver. The York was featured on Changing Vancouver earlier this month. The Sears building designed by Cesar Pelli has taken it’s place. Soon, things are destined to change once again. Sears is planning to leave this building before Halloween of this year; then the building will get its makeover. Hooray!

Postcard acquired at All Nations Stamp and Coin, previously in the Bay on West Georgia Street, they’ve since moved to 5630 Dunbar.