An Entertainment Architect

B. Marcus "Benny" Priteca was born in Glascow, Scotland on December 23, 1889. Why is this important to Vancouverites? Because by the age of 20, Priteca had become an architect and he received a travelling scholarship to study architecture in United States. It was in Seattle that the young artist met a Greek by the name of Alexander Pantages.

Pantages was frustrated because he couldn't seem to get any adequate designs for a new theatre he wanted built. The 21-year-old architect thrilled the Greek and he was commissioned to build a theatre in San Francisco. The finished theatre pleased Pantages that he hired Priteca to design all his theatres from then on. This business relationship lasted 18 years.

Now here is something interesting that I was not aware of. Priteca designed a Pantages theatre that work had begun on in 1914. Due to World War I, it wasn't completed until 1918. This theatre was at 20 West Hastings Street and was demolished in 1967 to build a parking lot. The Pantages theatre that has recently been demolished, that was the oldest vaudeville house in Canada, was built in 1907.

The Pantages organization became the largest privately owned vaudeville circuit in the world and Priteca was part of that. His design for the 1917 Pantages theatre here was apparently considered to be the 'most richly embellished and efficient theatre of the Pantages chain at the time. It was a 1,800 seat theatre, that was later called the Majestic, the Beacon and finally the Odeon Hastings.

In case you are wondering, the architect for the 1907 Pantages theatre was Edward Evans Blackmore.

Priteca could go overboard with his embellishments. Like when he designed the Coliseum Theatre at Fifth and Pike in Seattle. It had fountains by the orchestra pit and birdcages in the walls of the upper foyer that were home to thirty canaries as well as a nursery and playroom with miniature furniture.

The Coliseum opened January 8, 1916 and is thought to have been the first theatre in the world that had an orchestra to accompany the silent films of the era. The theatre had one of the largest theatre organs and was the first to have an elevator. Tony Heinsbergen was the person responsible for the decorative elements and he brought the same flare to our Orpheum theatre when it was designed by Priteca.

And this spectacular building can still be seen today. Now it is home to a Banana Republic clothing store.

Priteca had become one of the leading architects in the American Northwest. He had designed theatres in Memphis, Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Fort Worth. His designs also included Seattle schools, commercial buildings, homes and synagogues. One of Priteca's parents was Jewish and he is reported to have joked that he was one of the few Jews in North America entitled to wear a kilt.

Priteca also designed the Longacres Racetrack in Auburn and there used to be a race called the Priteca Handicap race. Unfortunately, that racetrack is long gone.

But racetracks and buildings weren't the only things that Priteca designed. He was also responsible for the design for a body of a locomobile car and for the raked grill and windshield for the Paige, forerunner of the Graham-Paige automobile.

Time and progress have taken away many of Priteca's creations but one very important one remains in Vancouver - the Orpheum Theatre. On Wednesday, I will be looking at that beautiful structure and telling you about it.

Thank you to the website The History of Metropolitan Vancouver for supplying most of the information. I did consult Wikipedia as well.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Alexander Pantages, Vancouver vaudeville, Marcus Priteca, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia

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.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Pavlova, Vancouver vaudeville, Empress Theatre, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia

Spanish Flu and Entertainers

Our first resident professional, entertainer that is, was a man by the name of Henry Lindley. Lindley was a prominent theatrical figure in Canada in the early 20th century. He had a company that performed plays around Canada. These productions had names like In The Cariboo and A Scene on Hastings.

Lindley's company every year Lindley and his company would perform in various cities around the country. One of the productions was a play written by the Prairie playwright and journalist Kate Simpson Hayes. And Lindley would take such plays as this, The Duplicate Man, on tours through select US cities. Not only was he supporting Canadian talent, he was showcasing it outside the country.

You may be thinking that these productions were small affairs but they weren't. One touring production of Ben Hur played at the Vancouver Opera House and the cast was 275 people strong. There was even a real chariot race with four live horses for each chariot. The horses ran on a treadmill and people vacated the wings in case there was an accident.

The 'movies' came to Vancouver on August 2, 1897. Well, sort of. The Edison Kinetoscope was at an exhibition at Market Hall however, the technology was too crude to be considered movies and it was more of a novelty than a valid form of entertainment.

Just over a year later, on October 8, 1898 Vancouver's first, and perhaps Canada's, movie theatre opened on Cordova Street. Not much was heard of it after the opening though. The same thing happened in 1902 when the Edison Electric Theatre opened. It may have been Canada's first permanent cinema but not much is known of it.

In 1904, Frank Kerr opened a movie in New Westminster. In 1909 Larson's Pavilion in North Vancouver welcomed its first movie house in June.

Although the Province newspaper had begun publishing daily on March 26,1898 there were few advertisements for theatres or any other entertainment events. A few years later though and there were three theatres advertising. The VOH, the People's Theatre at Pender and Howe and the Imperial at Hastings and Gore. The Imperial mentioned in a 1904 ad that there were showing moving pictures but no other description was given.

The precursor to the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), the Vancouver Exhibition, began on August 16, 1910. It was a major event and was opened by none other than our Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier.

In 1917, Fred and Adele Astaire danced at the Orpheum. They made quite a stir because at that time people danced on the floor. Not Fred and Adele. The Astaires danced up the stairwells on the tabletops.

1918, was a year that was monumental in Vancouver history. Like many cities in North America Vancouver was hit by the Spanish Flu epidemic. More people died during the years of World War I due to the flu than in the war itself.

However, there was also good things that happened here in 1918. Sarah Bernhardt returned for the third time and the Marx Brothers also performed here during that year.

These stories and facts that I am getting from History of Metropolitan Vancouver website are part of a story that leads to the construction and emergence of the present day Orpheum theatre. Being a writer and part of the entertainment business, I find it interesting to see how the 'biz' came to be in Vancouver.

Some of these photos are of the Mountain View Crematorium, which was built in 1912 and was the first crematorium in Western Canada.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Sarah Bernhardt, Vancouver Opera House, Mountain View Crematorium, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia