Ivan Gets Promoted

I took a couple of days off from writing this blog. I decided to get some extra rest since this is a big week for me. I am starting personal workshops to help people reach their goals. Look into it and tell others please.

So the last I told you of Ivan Ackery was continuing with his promotional stunts even though the country was in the midst of a depression and he - as well as other Famous Players staff - had been forced to take a cut in pay.

In 1932, Ackery was transferred to Victoria to manage the Capitol Theatre. He did well but something suggests he was anxious to return to Vancouver. The mainland city had more than doubled in size and population. On January 1, 1929, the municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver amalgamated, making Vancouver the third largest city in Canada.

 In 1934, Ivan returned to Vancouver. He was to manage the newly reopened Strand Theatre. The Strand was located on the south side of Granville Street, at Seymour and had been closed due to the Depression. The fine vaudeville acts that had once performed there were moved to the Orpheum. Ackery was pleased, to say the least, to be managing this theatre.

“It was a grand theatre, the third largest in the city, and I was extremely proud . . .”

Originally, the Strand was opened as the Allen theatre by Mayor R.H. Gale on August 16, 1920. The Allens - Jules and Jay J. - had been in a race with Famous Players to build Canada's first deluxe movie house and the Allens had won by almost a year. The Allen Theatre was billed as ‘The Theatre Beautiful—Canada’s Finest and most Modern.’

It had taken six months to build and cost $300,000. Howard C. Crane was the architect and Charles Marega was the sculptor.  The Allens may have opened first, and it sounds like it was a beautiful theatre, but Famous Players had the last laugh. “Within a year the theatre was bankrupt and Dewees and Schuberg bought it for five cents on the dollar. Famous Players later bought a half share in it, then took it over entirely in 1944.”

The Strand Theatre in 1948. Compliments of The City of Vancouver Archives

Ivan wasted no time in making his presence known as manager of the Strand. The first thing he did was to get Scott's Bakery to bake a giant cake that stood as tall as a man. It was the theatre's 14th birthday and all week every patron was given a piece of cake.

Ivan Ackery was edging into the big time - The Fanchon and Marco shows returned and Vancouver impresario Lily Laverock booked the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo into the theatre. But his destiny was sealed in 1935 when Ackery was informed he was to become the manager of the Orpheum Theatre, the largest theatre in Canada.

"

It was such a thrill for me, and I can remember how excited my mother got.” 

“I recall how tickled I was because I’d be getting a $10 a week raise!”

And Famous Players got a lot for those ten dollars.

Thanks to The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Ivan and the Famous Players

It was around 1926 that the Langer circuit of suburban theatres began. “Joseph Langer,” Ivan recalled, “was an English gentleman who rode in a big maroon Daimler, seated grandly behind a maroon-liveried chauffeur.”

Langer had come to Vancouver a few years before. He was responsible for building several suburban theatres including the Victoria Road Theatre, the Kitsilano, the Windsor, the Alma and the Kerrisdale. And, course, the Orpheum.

In 1927, when the Orpheum was built, Ackery managed a rival theatre - the Victoria on Victoria Drive near East 43rd. The 28-year old would go downtown and thumb his nose at the grand new theatre. Literally.

“And I remember going down Granville Street that year, and I thumbed my nose at the Orpheum. Oh, I was so jealous.” Ivan once said. How was he to know  how much things were going to change for him and within a decade, he would be running this theatre.

In 1928, Famous Players bought the Langer circuit, which included the Orpheum and the Victoria so although Ackery was managing a rival theatre; it was still in the same parent company.

“I got a promotion to mark the change,” said Ivan. “I don’t know why—God was with me, I guess. All the big shots’ sons were promoted to the management of these new theatres we owned and I was the only ‘little’ fellow promoted from the ranks. I had been made doorman at the Capitol earlier in the year, but now was to manage the newly-acquired Victoria Road Theatre at Victoria and 43rd at a salary of something in the neighborhood of $25 a week.”

Ivan wasted no time placing his mark on the theatre but more on that another time.

In 1931, Ackery was promoted to a new theatre, the more prestigious Dominion on Granville Street. It was a plush movie house, built in 1907 by J.R. Muir to accommodate 1,000 patrons. When Ivan took over it was showing first and second run movies, some of those silent. 

Ivan specifically mentions showing Wings at the Dominion, the first movie to win an Oscar. Wings was a 1927 movie, so this was an instance of a second-run film being shown. Remember that because two of its performers, Buddy Rogers and Gary Cooper, would play a part in Ivan’s—and the Orpheum’s—future.

Things seemed to be going well but then the Great Depression hit and it was felt in Canada. The staff at the Famous Players were put on half pay. "I heard that some of the Hollywood studio executives took salary cuts, too," Ivan commented wryly, “from $2,500 a week all the way down to $1,250, the poor beggars!”

But like a true trooper, Ivan didn't let the depressed economy slow down his promotional efforts and I will tell you more on Friday. I hope you are enjoying this look at one of my city's favourite theatre men because I have lots more to tell you!

Thanks goes to The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.