My friend, Angus McIntyre emailed me these amazing photos of streetcar advertising that he came across on the Vancouver Archives site this week.
The first photo shows Car 211 on the #3 Davie Street route passing the 400-block Granville Street. According to Angus, it was a two-man car, where you would board at the rear and pay the conductor.
The photos were commissioned by a company called Canadian Street Car Advertising, and the photographer was Don Coltman, who bought Steffens-Colmer Studio in 1944 and took a lot of these fantastic “noir” photos during wartime Vancouver.
The ad on the front of the streetcars for Dave Elman’s Hobby Lobby Stage Revue is fascinating. According to Wikipedia, 22-year-old, Dave Elman started his entertainment career on the vaudeville circuit as the “the world’s youngest and fastest hypnotist” in 1922. He was a song writer and moved into radio. In 1937 he approached NBC with an idea for his own show “Hobby Lobby.” The premise was that anybody could advocate for their hobby—the weirder the better—and the most interesting were asked to come on the show and “lobby for their hobby.” Guests included a woman who hypnotized crocodiles, a man who put hot coals in his mouth and cooked bacon on his face, and a fingerless pianist. When Elman went on holidays in 1939, first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was his replacement.
The Hobby Lobby ran until 1948, and would have been in its prime when these ads appeared on the front of Vancouver streetcars in 1944. The show was at the Beacon Theatre at 20 West Hastings Street, which according to Changing Vancouver, was replaced by a parking lot in 1967. It became non-market housing in 2000.
“Car 206 was a one-man car on the Powell Street line,” says Angus. “The white X on the front of the car denotes board at front and pay operator.”
Angus also found this painting of Granville Street painted by Jack Shadbolt in 1946 showing the other end of the block. “It sure captures the times. In both the photo and painting, note the blackout hoods on the tops of the streetlights,” says Angus. “By the time our family moved here in 1965, the Colonial Theatre was a second run movie house. It may well have been then.”
The Colonial Theatre was demolished in the early 1970s.
Don Coltman also shot this photo of interior streetcar advertising in 1946. Car 195 had ads for McGavin’s Bread, a BC Electric concert featuring Allard deRidder (first conductor of the VSO), and the Bible.
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Great post Eve!
I remember the Colonial. Always an odour of “decrepitude” to older independently owned Vancouver cinemas. Probably mild mould from roof or exterior sidewall leakage.
The mild odour actually enhanced proceedings if a horror or sand-sandals-sword flick was being screened. Or maybe I was just a weird kid!
Speaking of weird. I’m surprised the hot-coals-in-mouth dude only cooked bacon on his face., No flapjack pancakes? Or over-easy eggs?
these streetcars remind me of the ones I rode on in San Francisco, California in 1998 while on a holiday . great reminders of those days in the USA. thanks for sharing.
The street cars were before my time but the Colonial was a great old (smelly) movie house. There was another old movie house called the Lyric that was a bit further North on Granville .The interior of the Colonial was maroon and brass. Usually the movies were not first run and admission was a bit cheaper. The Odean, Orpheum and Vogue were the first run theaters.
If one looks at the fronts of the streetcars in the pictures attached some have what appears to be an “X” or “bowtie”. This was to denote a single operator and one would enter at the front and pay their fare.
Absolutely love your writing and this great story!
Much appreciated!
Gotta love the side panel ads in the final photo. One advertising careers in the post-war RCAF and the one right next to it asking people to hire veterans. People tend to forget that immediately after the war Canada went into recession as the men came home looking for work right when all the factories were losing their guaranteed war contracts and were having to pay out to retool their assembly lines for civilian goods. Of course they didn’t advertise for all the women who were suddenly out of work too…