Eve Lazarus
One of my favourite parts about writing this blog is getting comments from people that add to the story, and often take it in a whole new and unexpected direction. I get really excited when someone sends me a 100-year-old postcard or a photo of Vancouver that’s never been seen outside the family album.
Maria Brunskog saw my story on the Wigwam Inn at Indian Arm and sent me this postcard.
Opening Night:
North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Theatre opened on December 11, 1911, to a packed house and an eclectic line-up. The Orchestra kicked off with Titania, followed by two animated films. The Ernest Fisher Players followed with a performance of “The Devil” and opera singer Grace Maynard sang an aria. The finale was the Graham Miniature Circus starring crowd pleasing live cats and rats.
Michael Smith, 17 missing since December 30, 1967. Last seen at his North Vancouver home. Canada’s Missing website (National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains) RCMP case #2014003272
Canada’s Missing:
I came across this listing and a grainy photo of North Vancouver’s 17-year-old Michael Smith when I was researching missing person cases on Canada’s Missing website for Cold Case BC.
In 2000, I signed a contract with a Toronto publisher to write Frommer’s with Kids Vancouver. I was a freelance journalist with three kids under eight, and part of the job was to road-test every activity and restaurant and side trip included in the book.
Story from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
After the first week, my kids were begging to stay home.
In March 1953, Steve Chizen was putting the final touches on the Cedar V Theatre on Lynn Valley Road. It would be North Vancouver’s third theatre—the Odeon sat at the corner of Lonsdale and 14th Avenue, and the Lonsdale Theatre that went up in 1911, would close forever in 1954.
Steve, who previously managed the Cameo Theatre in Whalley, chose the name Cedar V in deference to the several large cedar trees that were sacrificed for the building site.
This art deco beauty sat near the corner of Lonsdale Avenue and 14th Street in North Vancouver from 1938 to 1986. The 734-seat Nova Theatre opened in January 1938 and was owned by W.P. Dewees and managed by Agnes (Queenie) Albanuff. Mrs. Albanuff was clearly good at her job, because when Dewees sold the theatre to the Odeon chain in 1941, she went with it.
Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. Then and Now: 1949-2023
I came across this photo from the North Vancouver Museum and Archives a while back. It shows a fairly ordinary looking building on Edgemont Boulevard taken in 1949. I headed off to Edgemont Village last week to see what we’d replaced it. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the building is still there, surrounded by other buildings.
Malcolm Lowry may be North Vancouver’s most talented, paranoid alcoholic. He wrote Under the Volcano, his most famous book, from a shack in Cates Park. Lowry died on June 26, 1957 at 48.
Under the Volcano:
Born in England, Lowry lived in Vancouver for more than 15 years. He had a variety of addresses on Vancouver’s West Side and in the West End, but most of his time was spent near Deep Cove in North Vancouver.
