Vancouver Voyager: Odd Entertainment

Now here is an interesting fact. The Capitol Theatre on Granville Street opened on March 25, 1921, which makes it older than the legendary Orpheum Theatre. However, the structure went through a conversion in 1977 and it is now nothing like it was.

One day while walking along Boundary Road. I found this church. I haven't been able to find any information on it but I thought I would show it to you anyhow.

In 1922, March 13 to be precise, was when radio made its arrival in Vancouver. The Vancouver Province began broadcasting a 'radiophone' program of news and music. They used a transmitter in the Merchants Exchange Building.

Not to be outdone, two days later the Sun started its own broadcast and the World followed suit a week later. However, by the end of the year only the Province's radio station remained.

In 1924, CFXC began broadcasting out of a coat closet in New Westminster. Harry Hume, the owner of CFXC, was to become mayor of New Westminster ten years later, a seat he held until 1942. From 1951 to 1958, he was mayor of Vancouver and from 1962 until his death in 1967, Hume was the owner of the Vancouver Canucks. That little radio station? Went on to become CJOR.

What a time it was for entertainment! With radio and the upcoming introduction of sound into motion pictures, the entertainment field would never be the same again.

In 1927, the Vancouver Evening Herald had a report of a magnificent new theatre on Granville Street. The new Orpheum Theatre.

The Orpheum circuit was forty years old at this time and had theatres all over North America. It was a testament to the growth and improvement of vaudeville over the last few decades. Vaudeville, as we know, didn't last but the Orpheum did. I thought I had written on it before but can't find it so I will have to walk to Granville Street and get some great photos.

On February 16, 1940, the Vancouver premiere of Gone With The Wind at the Orpheum. Unannounced in audience was Vivienne Leigh's daughter who happened to be attending private school here in Vancouver.

In the 1940s, peat moss was taken from Delta's Burns Bog by the US government. The purpose? To make magnesium fire bombs.

In the 1940, the Empress Theatre at the corner of Hastings and Gore was torn down. One of the workers happened to find a tiny powder puff with the word Pavlova stitched into it. The famous dancer had performed there in 1910.

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry is considered to be one of the great works of modern literature. Much of it was written while Lowry lived in a squatters' shack in Dollarton on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet where he had moved in 1940.

As usual, I would like to thank the History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.