Vancouver Voyager: 1939

In January of 1939, the Premier of British Columbia, Premier Pattullo, told Ottawa that BC would welcome a small infiltration of European immigrants. Just a small one though.

The Vancouver Sun had a headline on January 13 that read 'Two Guns to be Placed at First Narrows'.

On January 14 the Sun also reported that there had been a 'War Declared on Vice'. The Vancouver Police department had a big shakeup with Deputy Chief Grundy being demoted. As well, effective immediately there was to be an absolute suppression of prostitution.

It was on January 31, 1939 that the Harlem Globetrotters visited Vancouver.

Also on January 31 E.H. Grubbe retired from the Bank of Montreal at the corner of Main and Hastings. Grubbe had been in banking for forty- five years and forty of those were here in BC.

On January 23, lions were placed at the entrance to the Lions Gate bridge. Sculptor Charles Marega had created these but he wasn't happy with them. He wanted to have the creatures created out of bronze but due to budget restrictions, he had to use concrete.

UBC held an open house on February 11 and on February 24, the first fireman's dance was held in Burnaby. A couple could get in for the admission price of $1.

March 1 marked the official inauguration of the airmail service that ran from Montreal to Toronto then to Vancouver.

A vehicle testing station opened on March 6 and the current mayor, Mayor Lyle Telford, drove the first car through.

Sadly on March 24, just two months after his most famous work - the Lions Gate Lions - was unveiled, sculptor Charles Marega collapsed and died. He had just finished teaching a class at the Vancouver School of Art and was putting on his coat. He was 68. Marega had contributed a lot of art to the city and one I will have to go out and photograph it all.

In April of that year, my father was born in Vancouver. A very important event in my life.

On May 24 the second Hotel Vancouver was closed and the CPR bid it a musical farewell. Also on May 24 the present Hotel Vancouver opened.

On May 26 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth officially opened the Lion's Gate Bridge.

The next day there was a street dance in Chinatown to honor the royal couple.

August 3, 1939 was the day that radio telephones were installed in our police cars.

Once again I would like to thank the History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

Reminder that from Tuesday April 10 through Thursday April 12, 2012 I am offering my ebook Let Us Play, A Rock 'n Roll Love Story free on Kindle. Just go to the link and download the book onto your Kindle. If you don't have a Kindle you can get a Kindle Cloud reader but it doesn't work on Internet Explorer. (I use Google Chrome for that)