The Vogue Theatre opened in April 1941 and was designated as a national historic site in 1993.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Dal Richards opened:
On April 15, 1941 the Dal Richards Big Band was the opening act for the Vogue Theatre, a combination vaudeville and movie house located on Granville Street near the Commodore. A screening of the movie “I See Ice,” followed, and nearly 1,400 people filled the Odeon Theatre that night, with almost as many again gathered outside attracted by the spotlights, the lighted marquee, and the huge neon sign.
The day after the opening the Vancouver Sun captured some of the excitement: “Swinging searchlights cut the sky above a gleaming modernistic façade swathed with flags and banners, floodlights glared and hissed, crowds surged against lines held by police and commissionaires, motion-picture cameras whirred and flashbulbs flared, as the guests passed into the theatre, notables among them paused, bowed and spoke brief acknowledgements of introductions into waiting microphones.”
Missing mural:
While sleuthing through the files at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Jason Vanderhill found this photo of Jack Shadbolt and Paul Goranson painting a mural on one of the walls of the Vogue in 1940, a little before it opened. My other pal Aaron Chapman searched the building, its plans and old photos, but if the mural still exists, it’s well hidden.
Toronto-based Kaplan and Sprachan architects designed the art deco building for Harry Reifel. Inside, the auditorium ceiling was tiered and back lit with neon tubing to resemble waves, and when it first opened, giant golden mermaids were painted on the walls, and the washrooms sported art deco aquamarine and orange tiles.
Outside the Vogue’s distinctive neon sign is topped by a 12-foot figure of a kneeling goddess Diana that looks suspiciously like a car hood ornament. She’s the second Diana, the first was made of sheet metal and covered in gold leaf by artist Bud Graves and commissioned by Harry Reifel for $500.
When Odeon Theatres renovated the Vogue in the 1960s the goddess was in rough shape and sent to the scrap heap. A distraught Reifel immediately commissioned a second statue at ten times the price.
“The front of the theatre without her was like a Jersey cow without horns,” he told a Vancouver Sun reporter at the time.
The sign—one of the largest on theatre row’s sea of neon—has changed colours over the years, but is now back to its original red and yellow colour scheme.
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5 comments on “In and out of Vogue: A Vancouver art deco story”
Thanks for the memories . . .
75 years ago yesterday/today
And apparently the above message is blocked for being s p am. …oh, I have a story. I was in the audience on the last show on the last day in June 1987…June 18 1987 Predator.
The audience was sparse, maybe 50. Probably less than that. Anyway, most left when the credits started rolling. It was at that point I realized that a quick trip to “see a man about a horse” after the final curtain would mean…
I was the last patron at the final show on the last day of the Vogue.
Fin
September, 2019
One more thing about the old Vogue. My Dad who was a decent self taught violin maker and who sold his instruments heard about the renovation of the Vogue in the ’60s I believe. He knew his way around a construction site and for all I know was working for one of the contractors doing reno. He made a deal and brought home some plaques of beautiful BC curly maple. These plaques were just the size for sawing up into the size for a violin back. I still have one of these pieces of the vogue with a violin drawn by hand in pencil on it and the wood test varnished within the violin penciled outline. This was typical of my Dad’s approach.
What I know is that at that time, unlike today, BC wood was shunned for instrument making as not being ‘European’ enough. My Dad probably bought the wood for a song. Now part of the old Vogue lives on as someone’s hand made violin and part of it adorns my basement room.
Thanks for sharing this story. Love hearing how pieces of history has been saved and repurposed!
I was hired by Odeon as assistant manager at the Vogue in the mid 70s. The “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” was playing when I started. The biggest event ever was the opening weekend of “Jaws” when we had a lineup of people waiting to purchase tickets that went from the box office North to Smyth, around the corner, and down the alley almost to the back of the theatre. That was the shorter line. The longer one went from the box office South to Nelson, east to the alley and North up the alley. The two lines were about 50’ apart behind the theatre. The box office gross for that first weekend was just over $100,000.
One thing that fascinated me was the lighting system which was the first remote controlled system in Canada. It used rotary resistance dimmers that were driven by variable speed motors and electrical clutches all controlled from the projection booth. Even with the very shallow depth of stage it sported a counterweighted fly gallery.