For more about the Commodore Ballroom see Sensational Vancouver
Billboard Magazine hit the streets last week naming our Commodore Ballroom one of North America’s 10 most influential clubs, right up there with New York’s Bowery Ballroom and the Fillmore in San Francisco. According to Billboard, the Commodore scored a spot on the list because it’s well-branded with great sightlines and amazing sound. “Plus that certain intangible something that just equals cool.”
As well as hosting a bunch of legendary performers such as Bryan Adams, The Guess Who, U2 and the Police, the club has a fascinating history.
Built by Rum Runners in 1929
I wrote a chapter about the Reifel family in At Home with History, a family name that is probably best known today for the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, brewed the family fortune and built the cabaret during US Prohibition.
Around the same time, the Reifel brothers Harry and George built mansions on “Millionaire’s row” on Southwest Marine Drive. George had architect Ross Lort design Casa Mia—a Spanish-style colonial villa. Harry moved into the equally lavish Rio Vista a few blocks away.
For their weekend getaways, Harry bought a story-book cottage on a farm near Langley, bred jersey cows and trained race horses. Pleased with his architect’s work on Casa Mia, George commissioned Lort to design a hunting lodge at his property on Westham Island just outside Ladner. It’s now the offices of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Casa Mia has nine fireplaces, 10 bathrooms a sauna, hand-painted murals in the playroom by Walt Disney Studio artists and a full-size art-deco ballroom similar to the Commodore’s. Rubber tires and horsehair inserted under the dance floor created a spring so that when lots of people stepped onto it, it felt like jumping on a trampoline.
And, Depression it might have been, but in December 1930, the Commodore Ballroom opened to a sold-out crowd of 1,500 soon attracting names such as Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Rudy Vallee.
The Reifels Resign
The Reifel’s owned a number of boats that made frequent trips down the coast of the US, but managed to stay fairly clean until 1933. The following July the Vancouver Sun ran a story that the Reifel’s had resigned from the board of directors of Brewers and Distillers of Vancouver–the “best known liquor company of the Pacific Coast” because of allegations that their products had found their way south of the border during Prohibition.
A few days later the Province reported that the Reifels were indicted and being sued by Seattle’s Attorney-General for $17.2 million. “The alleged operations included the formation of special companies and the use of a fleet of boats, some of which were directed by radio from British Columbia.”
The case eventually settled out of court for $700,000.
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