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Chronology Continued
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1936
This year is sponsored.
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You'll note that this year includes events listed under "Also
in . . ." These are events for which we don't have a specific
date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please
notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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This was Vancouver’s Golden Jubilee, marking
the city’s 50th birthday. Among the events of the year: the
opening of the new city hall, and the founding of the Vancouver
Historical Society.
January 20 King George V died. He was succeeded
by Edward VIII, who, 324 days later . . . See December 10 below.
All the radio stations in Vancouver went off the air in a sign of
respect. A memorial service was held on January 28 at Malkin Bowl.
January 31 Mount Seymour Provincial Park,
then only 274 hectares, was opened. (During World War II conscientious
objectors were put to work building a road up to the developing
ski area.)
February 22 The Seaforth Highlanders Regimental
Band was formed in Vancouver.
March The provincial government, responding
to a December 1935 vote by Vancouver citizens, amended the city's
charter to abolish the ward system.
March 17 Charles Edward Tisdall, alderman,
died in office, aged 69. He had been mayor of the city from 1922
to 1923. Tisdall was born April 9, 1866 in Birmingham, England,
had arrived in Vancouver in April 1888. “When he stepped into
the mayor's chair,” Donna Jean McKinnon writes, “he became
the only mayor selected under the system of proportional representation,
in which the candidate for city council getting the most votes became
mayor. As an earlier MLA (Conservative), a Park Board member for
15 years, and an alderman, Tisdall's popularity and familiarity
among the electorate no doubt helped him achieve the highest civic
office. These were the early years of the rise in prosperity since
the end of the war, a phenomenon that helped fuel the drive for
more schools, parks, and the expansion of port facilities in Vancouver.”
 March 27 George Emery Cates, shipbuilder,
died in Vancouver. He was born December 6, 1861 in Machias, Maine,
began working at age nine. After learning shipbuilding in New York
City, he was employed on a schooner as a cook. Cates arrived in
Vancouver in 1896 and started Cates Shipyards; he built the 500-ton
steamship Britannia, Klondike scows, and a 500-horsepower
electric plant.
April 11 Frank (Francis Stillman) Barnard,
street car system founder and lieutenant-governor, died in Esquimalt.
He was born May 16, 1856 in Toronto. Barnard, one of B.C.'s richest
men, was a founder of Vancouver's street car system (which started
June 28, 1890). He was president of Consolidated Railway (1894),
and later the line’s managing director (1896-1906) after the
company was sold to British financiers and renamed B.C. Railway.
He was MP for Cariboo from 1888 to 1896, and lieutenant-governor
of BC from 1914 to 1919. During his term as lt.-gov., knowing war
was near, Barnard signed a special $1-million warrant approving
Premier McBride's purchase of two submarines. He was knighted in
1918 by King George V.
April 25 Charles Woodward, retailer: “My
prediction is that within 40, at the outside 50, years Vancouver
will be the largest city in Canada.”
May 1 Eric Hamber became Lieutenant-Governor.
May 11 Robert James Cromie, founder of The
Vancouver Sun, died in Victoria, aged 48. He was born July 4,
1887 in Scotstown, Que. Cromie worked as a bellhop in a Winnipeg
hotel where he met General J.W. Stewart. He was hired in 1906 by
Stewart to join the Vancouver firm of Foley, Welch and Stewart.
He bought the debt-ridden Sun, with little money and no experience,
and in 1917 absorbed the News-Advertiser. He also purchased
the World (in 1924) and the News-Herald, although
he later sold that paper to the Thomson chain. Cromie died suddenly
and his sons Donald, Peter and Samuel took over. Donald Cameron
Cromie (born October 16, 1915 in Vancouver) sold the Sun to
the Sifton family's FP Publications in 1963.
May 24 Civic Golden Jubilee celebrations,
marking the city's 50th birthday, began in Vancouver.
July 2 Mayor Gerry McGeer laid the cornerstone
for the new city hall.
July 4 In cricket news: a Hollywood XI visited
here to play a Vancouver XI at Brockton Point, after the Vancouver
team had visited Hollywood the previous year. Playing for Hollywood,
among others: Errol Flynn, attracting a lot of attention, Boris
Karloff and C. Aubrey Smith. Our thanks to site visitor Malcolm
Page for this item!
June 4 The Jubilee celebrations sparked articles
in local newspapers on the city’s early days. The Vancouver
Sun (Page 8) had an interesting article on the early rivalry
between Vancouver and Port Moody. Here’s the text:
“‘The new town called Vancouver will, no
doubt, be of some detriment to Port Moody.’ It was Edward Mallandaine,
Victoria, editor of the British Columbia Directory, 1887, who wrote
these words in his introduction to the Port Moody section of his
directory.
“The words were written before the first CPR
train arrived at Vancouver, but already Vancouver had a population
nearly three times as great as Port Moody's, the city which, up
to a year or two before, had every reason to expect that it would
be the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and, therefore,
the metropolis of the Canadian Pacific Coast.
“Mallandaine's understatement was no doubt the
result of caution. How could one tell, in 1887, whether it would
be Vancouver or Port Moody in 1936?
Port Moody Men
“Several men who later become well-known citizens
of Vancouver lived then at Port Moody. Among them was W. H. Evans,
who piloted the first train into Port Moody in 1886. More than 100—that
is, approximately half of the males listed in the Port Moody section
of the directory were employees of the CPR, about twice as many
men as the company was employing at that date in Vancouver.
“The Vancouver section of this directory, a
copy of which may be found in the archives of The Sun Directories
Ltd., contains exactly 17 pages, exclusive of a sparse sprinkling
of advertisements. There are exactly 625 names in it, including
several of business firms. Among those 625 names may be found those
of many ‘before the fire’ pioneers who still live in Vancouver,
among them George L. Schetky, president of the pioneer fire brigade;
J. H. Carlisle, pioneer fire chief; H. T. Devine, pioneer photographer;
H. E. Langis, M.D.; J. W. McFarland, Walter E. Graveley, G. R. Gordon,
W. H. Grassie, pioneer jeweler, and others.
“L.A. Hamilton, CPR surveyor, who named most
of Vancouver's streets and was on the first city council, is also
among the 625. He now lives in Florida.
Hastings Separate
“The district of Hastings, now better known
as Hastings Townsite and one of the most populous sections of Vancouver,
was in those days a separate little community. The directory editor
remarks in his preface to this section that Hastings ‘is the
“Brighton” of the mainland and a fashionable resort for
visitors far and near, and during the summer months boasts of a
crowded population.’ It was also the site of the Hastings Mill's
logging camp, but its permanent population, apart from Samuel Brighouse,
one of the earliest settlers on Burrard Inlet, and a shingle maker
and logging contractor or two, consisted chiefly of employees of
George Black's Brighton House hotel.”
July 6 Telegraph wires linked Vancouver to
London, England.
July 18 A Chinese Carnival Village opened
at Pender and Carrall, Chinatown's part in Jubilee celebrations.
July 21 Climbers Wiessner and House conquer
the main peak of Mt. Waddington.
August 1 The Olympic Games began in Berlin.
We asked Victoria writer Tom Hawthorn to tell us about BC athletes
there. Says Tom, "The prominent British Columbians at the Berlin
Olympics were three terrific basketball players from Victoria, brothers
Art and Chuck Chapman with Doug Peden, himself the brother of famous
cyclist Torchy Peden. The trio were invited to join the national
championship team, the Windsor (Ont.) Fords, at the games. Basketball
was making its debut as an official Olympic sport, which may explain
why the game was played outdoors on a clay tennis court. When it
rained, the court became a quagmire. The final game on August 14
pitted the heavily favored Americans against the Canadians. The
U.S. won 19-8 in the mud, a score which gives a flavor of the match
in the days before a shotclock. The Canadians took the silver medal.
“By the way,” Tom continues, “Canada's
flag-bearer at the Closing Ceremonies of the 1936 Games was a pole
vaulter better remembered as a Toronto Maple Leafs star—Sylvanus
Apps. Also, the 1936 games were captured on a newfangled invention
called television; a closed-circuit telecast carried the Games to
the athletes’ village.”
Vancouver diver George Athans, Sr. competed in these
games, and Percy Norman coached the Canadian swimming team. Covering
the event for The Vancouver Sun: 28-year-old Erwin Swangard.
And sitting in the stands observing the activities: German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler. A good general look at the 1936 games is at this
site.
August 10 John Irving, boat builder, died
in Vancouver, aged 81. He was born November 24, 1854 in Portland,
Ore. The son of Captain William Irving, John came to New Westminster
with his family in 1858. At 16 he joined his father's steamboat
business, and took over at age 17 on his father's death in 1872.
By 1883 he was head of Canadian Pacific Navigation, a consolidation
of the Irving and Hudson's Bay Company lines. In 1890 he launched
Columbia and Kootenai Steam Navigation, buying and building boats.
That line was absorbed in 1901 by the CPR as B.C. Coast Service
steamer fleet. John Irving Navigation was sold in 1906 to White
Pass Railway. John Irving was a Member of Parliament for eight years.
August 12 A giant of Canadian music, Sir Ernest
MacMillan, came to the city as a guest conductor of the Vancouver
Symphony Orchestra, the first guest conductor the VSO had ever had.
Sir Ernest, at 42 a very busy man, was principal of the Toronto
Conservatory of Music, dean of the faculty of music at the University
of Toronto, the conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra . .
. and an immensely popular fellow. He'd become Sir Ernest the year
before, the first person knighted outside the UK for contributions
to music.
August 19 Max Baer fought in Vancouver's 10,000-seat
Denman Arena, and the Province's Bill Forst wrote a funny column
about Baer's terrified opponent, James J. Walsh, who billed himself
as The Alberta Assassin. Walsh lasted only one punch. Baer’s
manager, Ancil Hoffman, had suspected Walsh wouldn’t last long
and had Buddy Baer dressed for action. Buddy boxed 10 rounds with
his older brother. It was the first time that the two Baers appeared
together in the ring. An excerpt from Forst’s column: “Alberta's
claimant to the Canadian heavyweight title, James J. (Jellyfish)
Walsh . . . Obviously scared to death, Mr. Wobbly Walsh didn't even
wait for a good excuse to ‘dive.' He dashed out of his corner
in a terrified frenzy of energy, wrapped both arms around Baer's
middle and hung on. Baer jostled and jolted, wrestled and wriggled.
Finally Walsh let loose, and apparently quite dizzy as a result
of his minute and a half of waltzing, rolled to the floor. He was
so dizzy he couldn't get up again, try as he might (or maybe he
didn't). At the count of ten he made a quick recovery.”
August 20 A few hours after the Baer fight,
the Denman Arena burned down. This had been the scene in 1915 of
the Vancouver Millionaires winning the Stanley Cup. Dempsey and
Braddock had fought there, Rudolph Valentino had judged a beauty
contest and Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) had
given a speech in the building. Also destroyed in the blaze were
three adjacent shipbuilding plants. No lives were lost. Later investigation
showed the fire was not deliberately set, but the city fire marshal,
J.A. Thomas, fumed to the newspapers that the building had been
the worst fire trap in Vancouver “ever since it was built.”
“If it had started to burn with the crowd still in it,”
he said, “the death toll could easily have reached 1,000.”
Estimated monetary value of the loss: $500,000.
Also on August 20 An eight-foot-high statue
of Captain George Vancouver was unveiled at Vancouver City Hall
by the visiting Lord Mayor of London, Sir Percy Vincent. Sir Percy
also presented a civic mace to the city. The bronze and granite
statue (carved by Charles Marega) and the mace are still at city
hall. Among the other gifts the Lord Mayor brought: “. . .
a sprig from a tree in the orchard where a falling apple gave Isaac
Newton the idea that led to his theory of gravity.” Hmm. Wonder
where that sprig is today?
(Incidentally, a few days before Mayor Gerry McGeer
welcomed Sir Percy, he (McGeer) had been made an honorary Squamish
chief.)
August 22 The Army of the Common Good, a self-help
group formed during the Great Depression, created the “Common
Good Credit Unit” with six charter members and $10.25 in deposits.
This is considered the beginning of the credit union movement in
B.C. Within two months, deposits at the Common Good Credit Unit
more than doubled to $25.10. The first loan, for $27, was made May
22, 1937.
August 29 Visiting Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir
officiated at the opening of the Seaforth Armories (Tweedsmuir,
whose name was John Buchan, was the author of a best-selling mystery,
twice filmed, titled The Thirty-Nine Steps.)
August 30 Lord Tweedsmuir was seated among
the congregation for the first service held in St. James' Anglican
Church, at Gore and Cordova in Vancouver. The Province wrote that
Tweedsmuir “joined in the response and bowed humbly in prayer,
hardly to be distinguished from the commoners around him.”
A lot of people, architect Arthur Erickson among
them, say this is the best single building in Vancouver. Thanks
to the valuable book Exploring Vancouver we learn that architect
Adrian Scott had just designed a cathedral in Cairo. Perhaps that
explains what architectural historian Harold Kalman calls the “Byzantine
interior” of this handsome building.
This is the third church of the same name in Vancouver.
The first one burned in the Great Fire of 1886 (its melted bell
is a treasured artifact at the Vancouver Museum), and the second
lasted until this building opened.
October 2 UBC Stadium opened.
November 8 Frank Cornwall McTavish, surgeon,
died, aged about 64. He was born in 1872 in Palmrya, Ont. He came
to Vancouver in 1903 after serving in the Boer War (1899-1902).
In 1905 he was appointed surgeon-lieutenant in the 6th Regiment,
the Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles, and in 1906 raised the 18th
Field Ambulance, Canadian Army Medical Corps. After WWI McTavish
was provincial secretary of St. John's Ambulance. An orthopaedic
surgeon, he was on the staff of the Vancouver General Hospital for
many years, and helped organize the Crippled Children's Hospital
where he served as chief surgeon until his death.
November We’re not sure if The Flying
Seven, an all-women flying group, was formed in November, but we
do know that they conducted their first “fly-over” this
month. The Flying Seven Canadian Women Pilots flew out of Sea Island,
"the forerunners of a splendid air movement." During WWII
club members trained women in parachute packing, fabric work and
other aspects of airplane care. Some of the trainees joined Boeing's
Vancouver plant or the RAF's women's division. One of the original
members, Betsy Flaherty, who had received her flying licence December
16, 1931, aged about 53, was the oldest female pilot in Canada.
In the fly-over the seven women alternated their flights, keeping
a plane aloft over the city for 24 uninterrupted hours as a demonstration
of air defence. The books Daring Lady Flyers by Joyce Spring,
and No Place for a Lady by Shirley Render, have more detail.
December 1 Vancouver’s new city hall
opened for business. The building’s architects were Townley
and Matheson. Each lock plate on the outer doors displayed the Vancouver
Coat of Arms, and each door knob bore the monogram of the building.
The ceiling on the second floor of the rotunda was made of gold
leaf from several B.C. mines. In March, 1976 city hall was designated
a heritage building.
Besides city hall Frederick Townley designed many,
many buildings here, including the Great Northern Railway station
(now gone), the Capitol Theatre, Vancouver General Hospital, the
Vancouver Stock Exchange Building, and the CNIB Building.
Also December 1 Civic wards were abolished
in Vancouver city.
December 2 Hugh Crawford Magee, pioneer Point
Grey farmer, died, aged about 78. He was born in Ontario in 1858,
came to Vancouver at 24. Magee was the first farmer to settle on
the North Arm of the Fraser River, taking up land in Point Grey
in 1867. Magee Secondary School is named for him.
December 4 The News-Herald was lavish
today in its praise of Vancouver’s new city hall, describing
it as “a temple of justice.” (In the same edition of the
newspaper was an advertisement for a local restaurant advising that
they featured “All White Help.”)
December 9 A civic election today decided
that the first mayor to occupy Vancouver's brand-new city hall—he
would move in January 2, 1937—would be George Clark Miller,
who had been an alderman. The Province described the mayoralty
fight as a “stiff one,” and said that it “divided
the east and west sections of the city into opposing camps.”
Miller defeated L.D. McDonald, C.E. Thompson and former mayor L.D.
Taylor, 79.
December 10 Newspapers here and all around
the English-speaking world devoted their front pages to a hugely
convulsive event, the abdication of a king. Edward VIII, who had
been King of England for 324 days, stepped down, as one newspaper
put it, “rather than reign alone on the world's mightiest throne
without the woman he loves.” The woman was, of course, Wallis
Simpson, an American divorcee. The couple would eventually become
the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Edward's brother Albert Frederick
Arthur George, Duke of York, would succeed him. "Within two
days the new King, probably choosing the name of George VI, will
formally ascend the throne with his Queen, Elizabeth. Their 10-year-old
daughter, Elizabeth, becomes next in line of succession."
Also in 1936
Vancouver’s main post office, at the northwest
corner of Hastings and Granville, underwent a major expansion: a
tunnel was built to the CPR station and the lobby was richly refurbished
in bronze, cedar, terra cotta and marble.
The Lost Lagoon Fountain went into action. It had
been purchased from Chicago, a left-over from that city's world
fair. When it was installed, some city residents complained about
the expenditure of $35,000 in the depths of the Great Depression.
The Vancouver Historical Society was incorporated.
Vancouver was linked to London by telegraph.
The Vancouver Police Department had a strength of
350.
The Vancouver Fire Department had 368 personnel,
operating from 18 stations, with 45 pieces of motorized apparatus
and one municipally-operated fireboat.
There were 40,000 students in the Vancouver school
system, and more than 1,200 teachers. UBC’s enrolment was "near
2,000."
Says movie historian Michael Walsh, “MGM boss
Louis B. Mayer convinced the RCMP in Vancouver to let him shoot
some footage here for his classic movie, Rosemarie (with
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy), the story of the daring rescue
of a damsel in distress by an heroic Mountie after she is robbed
and stranded in the woods by an evil half-breed trapper. The scene
of singing Mounties galloping in formation on horseback down a shallow
stream is said to have been shot on North Vancouver's Seymour River.”
Adds Michael, “This was the first sound feature filmed here.”
There was a triple hanging (three prisoners in one
day) at Oakalla. There were several double hangings during the year.
“In the 1930s,” military historian Peter
Moogk writes, “Japan was no longer a British ally and was an
aggressively expansionist power. The defence of Vancouver against
this or another foreign state was not going to be left to last-minute
improvisation again. A British coast artillery expert, Major B.D.C.
Treatt, assessed the port's needs in 1936 and his report, with a
joint staff sub-committee's recommendations, became the basis for
planning Vancouver's defences in the event that ‘the British
Empire is at war (U.S.A. neutral) with Japan, alternatively with
a coalition of European Powers headed by Germany.’”
The Hollyburn was built for the West Vancouver
Municipal Ferry system, the last vessel to join the fleet. She was
sold to Harbour Navigation in 1945 and became an excursion vessel.
She celebrated her 50th birthday during Expo 86.
Concert agency Hilker Attractions, Vancouver's first
concert agency, run by Ontario-born Harry Hilker and his Vancouver-born
son Gordon, 23, began operations. Active to 1950, Hilker Attractions
imported more than 1,000 performers including Yehudi Menuhin, Paul
Robeson and Isaac Stern. For more on Gordon Hilker’s long and
interesting career, see this
site.
The Hoboken Four, a singing quartet, appeared at
the Orpheum as part of a tour by the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. One
of the four was a skinny 20-year-old named Frank Sinatra. He wrote
his mom while here, telling her how much he missed Hoboken.
Thomas Plimley opened a British car dealership in
Vancouver.
David Suzuki, Canada’s best-known scientist,
was born in Vancouver.
Writer Rolf Knight was born in Vancouver. He will
produce many books on working-class history here. “With nine
books to his credit,” says Alan Twigg of B.C. Bookworld, "he
remains one of the most under-recognized historians of B.C."
See this
site.
Nanaimo-born Charlie Pawlett, who had been playing
trumpet and violin in Vancouver clubs in the 1920s, began a three-year
gig as the Commodore Ballroom band leader. His shows were broadcast
on CJOR radio.
At this Vancouver City website
we found the story behind the famous “rocket ship,” first
erected at the airport nearly 70 years ago: “A 12-foot-long
stylized rocket ship made of bronze and stainless steel sits on
top of an 11-foot-high stainless steel base. The design of the rocket
ship looks like a 1950s Hollywood movie space ship. The design was
created in 1936 for the Sheet Metal Workers Local 280 float for
the Pacific National Exhibition Jubilee Parade on the occasion of
the City of Vancouver's 50th birthday. It was designed by film-maker
Lew Parry and made into a sculpture, built by Neon Products, which
was sited at the first Vancouver Air Terminal from 1939 to 1972
when it was scrapped because of rust.
“In 1985 the Vancouver Transportation Club
and the Sheet Metal Workers Union 280 decided to build a replica
to celebrate Vancouver's 100th birthday. They located Lew Parry
and he still had the original plans. This time the rocket ship was
built from more durable materials by Terminal Sheet Metal and the
Local 280 metal workers. The Rocket was exhibited at Expo 86 and
then donated to the city. It was moved by helicopter to its current
site. A Centennial Time Capsule is housed in the base of the rocket,
scheduled to be opened 50 years from 1986. It includes items such
as an Expo 86 passport with stamps of all the pavilions and recorded
messages from local celebrities and many other things. The City
accepted the Centennial Rocket and a site was found for it in the
small plaza at the SW end of the Cambie Street bridge.”
New Brighton Outdoor Pool opened.
The Capilano Golf and Country Club opened in West
Vancouver.
The undoubted star of Vancouver’s Golden Jubilee
Open celebrating the city's half-century birthday was famous golfer
Byron Nelson. But a local boy, Vancouver amateur Ken Black, won
the title with an astonishing eight-under-par 29 on Shaughnessy's
final nine.
The Industrial Building at the PNE, built in 1910
at a cost of $50,000, was demolished. It was described as “flashy,
but badly constructed.” Despite—or, perhaps, because of—the
Depression, attendance at the Fair continued to climb: it hit 377,000
this year. (Average attendance during the 1920s was about 200,000.)
To two totem poles that had been erected at Brockton
Point in 1912, several more were added as part of the city's Golden
Jubilee celebrations. They included: Wakius pole (since replaced
with a replica), Kwakiutl, Alert Bay, 1899; Yakdzi pole (now
at the Provincial Museum), Kwakiutl, Rivers Inlet, 1894 (was
a replica then); Tsa-wee-noh house post (since replaced with
a replica), Kwakiutl, Kingcome Inlet, carved by Charlie James of
Alert Bay (and restored in 1963 by his granddaughter, Ellen Neel);
Nhe-is-bik pole (now at the Provincial Museum) , Kwakiutl,
Rivers Inlet, carved in 1892 by See-wit of Blunden Harbor; Si-sa-kau-laus
pole, Tlingit, Kingcome Inlet; Skedans mortuary pole (a replica
was carved in 1962 by Doug Cranmer and Bill Reid with the Moon Face
recarved in the mid-1990s by native artist Don Yeomens, Haida, Queen
Charlotte Islands), 1879. Terri Clark of the Parks Board advises
(2005) that new poles have been added over the years to replace
those sent to museums.
The Thunderbird Dynasty Pole was dedicated at Prospect
Point. Carved by Chief Joe Capilano of North Vancouver, the pole
commemorates the meeting of the Squamish people and Capt. George
Vancouver near the mouth of the Capilano River on June 12, 1792.
The name of Chaldecott Road was changed to King Edward
Avenue. It was originally named for F.M. Chaldecott, a solicitor,
early settler in Point Grey and one of the organizers of the Municipality
of South Vancouver.
Writes historian Michael Kluckner, “Although
car ownership gradually grew during the Twenties and Thirties, from
one car for every twelve people in 1922 to one in seven in 1936
(far below the United States where, for example, in Seattle in 1928,
there was one car for every three people), operating costs were
still quite high, and many families used their vehicles just for
Saturday shopping and Sunday drives.”
Gas was selling for 25 cents a gallon in the city—about
6.6 cents per litre.
The Vancouver Park Board declared Oppenheimer as
the only park where political, religious or other views could be
publicly voiced. It was a favorite rallying point for Depression-era
rallies and demonstrations.
The Greater Vancouver Publicity Association changed
its name to the Greater Vancouver Tourist Association. (Today it’s
Tourism Vancouver.)
Farmers in the Fraser Valley sent fruit, vegetables
and clothing to Prairie farmers afflicted by drought.
The old wooden covering for the Nine O’Clock
Gun was demolished.
Edward Cecil "Cece" Roper graduated from
the University of Alberta with a B.Sc. in mining engineering, went
to work as a miner at the Britannia copper mine near Vancouver.
In 1964 he will become the first principal of BCIT.
The Canadian Radio Commission changed its name to
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC’s Vancouver
station had the call letters CBR (today: CBU), and announced they
would have studios in the “CNR Hotel” at Georgia and Hornby,
a building we know today as the Hotel Vancouver.
Canadian Airways decided to compete with United on
the Seattle-Vancouver run. “Canadian,” writes aviation
historian Sean Rossiter, “started with de Havilland Dragon
Rapides—twin-engine biplanes that looked prehistoric beside
United's Boeings. That year, though, [owner Don] MacLaren bought
two new Lockheed 10 Electras—the fastest airliners in the world
at the time—and checked out two of his pilots, Billy Wells
and Maurice McGregor, on the hot new ships. The run was considered
a rehearsal for the transcontinental flights Canadian hoped to win.”
The National Harbors Board took over the Port of
Vancouver.
The Turner Valley oil discovery sparked a boom market
in the Vancouver Stock Exchange's junior oils. Volume reached 120
million shares in 1937.
Captain Lillie's British Columbia Coast Guide
and Radiotelephone Directory was first published.
UBC student Darrel Gomery wrote a 150-page BA essay,
The History of early Vancouver.
The Jewish Family Service Agency was founded.
Overlynn, the Charles J. Peter mansion built
at 3755 McGill Street in 1909 in the Vancouver Heights area of North
Burnaby, was sold to the Sisters of Charity of Halifax, a Catholic
order which had moved to Vancouver Heights in 1927 to operate a
school. “The mansion,” says this
web site, “became their convent and new girls'
school known as Seton Academy. The mansion's original conservatory
was demolished and a two-storey addition was constructed. In 1970
when the school closed, Overlynn was purchased by Action Line Housing
Society which developed the seniors’ development on the property.
It was designated [a heritage structure] by Burnaby Council in 1995
and was the first heritage building in B.C. to have its interior
features protected.”
Notte’s Bon Ton pastry shop, with its famous
cakes and confections, which had opened at West 14th and Granville
in 1932, moved to the downtown Granville Street location it would
occupy for the next 65 years. (In 2001 they had to move, and may
now be found at 3150 West Broadway.)
Major Austin Taylor raced and bred horses at his
A.C.T. Stock Farm. He was well known on California tracks, and imported
American trainers for A.C.T. Taylor entered the Kentucky Derby this
year with Indian Broom. Here’s what the Derby’s web
site says about the first three finishers in that race:
“Start good and slow. Won driving; second and third same. BOLD
VENTURE, in close quarters immediately after the start, began to
improve his position fast on the outside after about three-eighths,
took an easy lead approaching the final half-mile and, holding on
with fine courage under strong handling, withstood BREVITY'S bid.
The latter, probably best and knocked to his knees within a few
strides after the start, had to race wide thereafter, closed resolutely
and was wearing down the winner. INDIAN BROOM, blocked in the first
quarter, raced to a contending position, made a bid entering the
stretch, then weakened.”
A funny and personal note about that previous entry:
while I was typing the item out I tapped out the Derby’s URL
and suddenly the famous trumpet fanfare that starts races blared
out of my speakers. I just about leaped out of my skin. (The site’s
very good.)
Norbert Vesak, Vancouver's first modern dance professional,
was born in Port Moody. He will train in modern dance and ballet
in the US and England, and will return to Vancouver in the early
1960s with a mission—to teach modern dance here.
Vancouver-born 22-year-old John Avison, future conductor,
earned a B. Mus. from the University of Washington.
Wisconsin-born Claud Detloff, about 37, joined the
Vancouver Daily Province as a photographer. He will take
the famous 1940 shot Wait For Me, Daddy and later become
chief photographer at the paper.
Pioneer Jake Grauer died, aged about 75. He was Dal
Grauer’s father.
Shinkichi Tamura, banker and builder, died in Japan,
aged about 73. “He was born in 1863 in Osaka,” writes
Constance Brissenden, “arrived in B.C. in 1888, first working
at a sawmill. He established the Sien Ban Co. which, among other
things, exported lumber and wheat to Japan. He built the New World
Hotel at Powell and Dunlevy in Vancouver. Tamura controlled the
Japan and Canada Trust Savings, making him Japantown’s foremost
banker. He was Canada's first trade commissioner to Japan. He was
the only Japanese listed in the 1911 Who's Who in Western Canada.
In the mid-1920s he returned to his homeland and was elected to
parliament.”
The Saint James Community Service Society bought
the New World Hotel in July 2001. Their August 2002 newsletter says
that, to honor the contributions of the many Japanese residents
of Vancouver, the hotel was renamed Tamura House. A bilingual plaque
on the building tells the story.
George Moir, provincial minister of education and
provincial secretary, a Liberal MLA since 1933, campaigned for health
insurance coverage for those living on $1,800 a year or less. Although
not passed because of opposition by doctors, Moir’s proposal
was the basis of the B.C. Hospital Insurance Act.
Vancouver had seven grain elevators, with a storage
capacity of 17,843,000 bushels.
1936 Chevrolet Coupé Cabriolet
(Photo: www.dyna.co.za)
Continued.....
[1757
- 1884] [1885 - 1891] [1892
- 1899]
[1900 - 1905] [1906
- 1908] [1909] [1910]
[1911] [1912]
[1913] [1914]
[1915] [1916]
[1917] [1918]
[1919] [1920]
[1921] [1922]
[1923] [1924]
[1925] [1926]
[1927] [1928]
[1929] [1930]
[1931] [1932]
[1933] [1934]
[1935] [1936] [1937]
[1938] [1939]
[1940]
[1941] [1942]
[1943] [1944]
[1945] [1946]
[1947] [1948]
[1949] [1950]
[1951] [1952]
[1953] [1954]
[1955] [1956]
[1957] [1958]
[1959] [1960]
[1961] [1962]
[1963] [1964]
[1965]
[1966] [1967]
[1968]
[1969] [1970]
[1971] [1972]
[1973] [1974]
[1975] [1976]
[1977] [1978]
[1979] [1980]
[1981] [1982]
[1983] [1984]
[1985] [1986]
[1987] [1988]
[1989] [1990]
[1991] [1992]
[1993] [1994]
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