Dal Richards

The Devonshire (1924-1981)

by Eve Lazarus on April 3, 2021

The Devonshire Hotel on West Georgia was demolished July 5, 1981 to make way for the head office tower of the Bank of BC.

Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

The Georgia Medical-Dental Building, Devonshire Hotel and Hotel Georgia, ca.1930. CVA 65-2

Devonshire Apartment Hotel:

The Devonshire originally opened as an apartment building, but within a few years was operating as the Devonshire Hotel. The building sat between the Georgia Hotel and the Georgia Medical-Dental Building and closed 40 years ago this month to make way for the head office tower of the Bank of BC.

Architectural Rending ca. 1920s, courtesy Bob Kerr, McCarter Nairne.

The Devonshire, which was designed by McCarter Nairne (the architects later designed the GM-DB next door and the Marine building) replaced Georgia House, which was actually two houses joined together by a long pergola-like verandah and known for its dances and parties. According to one newspaper story, some of the Devonshire suites had grand pianos, likely because Walter Fred Evans, the owner was a piano distributor and involved with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Architectural rendering of floor plan, ca.1920s. Courtesy Bob Kerr, McCarter Nairne

Louis Armstrong:

I never saw the Devonshire, but I love one of its stories.

According to newspaper reports, after being kicked out of the racist Hotel Vancouver in 1951, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars walked across the street and were immediately given rooms in the Devonshire.

Louis Armstrong at the Devonshire, 1951. Photo Province photographer John McGinnis and rediscovered by the Sun’s John Mackie in 2017

A photo of a travel-weary Armstrong sitting on his suitcase in the Devonshire’s lobby appears on the cover of his album in 1951.

Supposedly, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne and the Mills Brothers wouldn’t stay anywhere else.

Red Jackets and Corned Beef Sandwiches:

Former Globe and Mail reporter and author Rod Mickleburgh was there when the Devonshire was demolished. “I thought the loss of the Dev was awful. The Dev was the poor cousin of the Hotel Georgia, an old-fashioned pile-of-bricks hotel in a great location right downtown,” he told me. “I loved the corned beef sandwiches and glass of beer I’d get in their beer parlour, served, of course, by waiters in red jackets on small, round, terry cloth—covered tables. A glass of beer was twenty cents—you gave the unionized waiter a quarter.”

I forgot to ask Rod if he remembered seeing William “Fats” Robertson there having a beer. Fats, along with a bevy of judges, lawyers, doctors and stockbrokers was a regular until 1978 when he was caught heading up a major drug smuggling ring and sentenced to 20 years.

Angus McIntyre took this photo a few days after the Devonshire was demolished in 1981. Note the parkade on the west side of Hornby Street.

Dal Richards, Manager:

Local celebrity Dal Richards was the resident manager from 1979 to its closure two years later. Eleni Skalbania was an investor in the late 1970s. She followed that with a partnership in the Hotel Georgia, and in 1984, opened her own boutique hotel, The Wedgewood on Hornby Street.

Only the Georgia Hotel remains. Eve Lazarus photo, 2020

Our missing heritage buildings

Sources:

Province, November 13, 1932, April 30, 1981
Vancouver Sun, April 29, 1981, January 14, 2017
Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Tags Dal Richards, Devonshire Hotel, Eleni Skalbania, Georgia House, Georgia Medical-Dental Building, Hotel Georgia, Louis Armstrong, Walter Fred Evans, William (Fats Robertson

The Second English Bay Pier

by Eve Lazarus on May 29, 2020

Most people are surprised to learn that from 1907 to 1939 there was a pier at English Bay, but it was only recently that I found out that English Bay actually had two piers. Local historian and collector Neil Whaley has kindly provided a guest blog about the second pier at English Bay, the one where all the music and dancing took place.

By Neil Whaley

The two piers only existed at the same time from 1926-39. The second pier is farthest left. CVA AM1052 P-39

English Bay holds a special place in my heart. I’ve scoured old newspapers for information in the days when you had to strain your eyes on microfilm, and I’ve read 100-year-old park board files at the City of Vancouver Archives.

But the two English Bay piers were a mystery. I wasn’t even sure there was more than one until I saw a Vancouver Archives photo showing them together. I wanted to get their story straight, so I went back to the newspapers, this time online.

First Pier:

It turns out that the first pier was built by the Vancouver Park Board and completed in December 1907. The wooden structure gradually deteriorated and was torn down in 1939. There was still a stub of the pier on shore with a tearoom, until it was all demolished in 1941.

A 1925 parade float was designed like the land portion of the second pier building. CVA 1376-592

The second pier started out as an entirely-on-land, two-storey tearoom and confectionery built in 1923. Owner Llewellyn G. Thomas and his wife Lilly lived in rooms below. Thomas built a 50- foot extension in 1925 with a Winter Garden dance hall, and the next year added a pier which extended 337 feet (103 metres) into English Bay. (There was a lumber executive and Vancouver Symphony supporter named Llewellyn C. Thomas who lived 10 blocks away – not the same guy.)

Park Board:

Years ago, I read a park board memo that I didn’t really understand.* Now I did. In 1925, Thomas was promoting the idea of adding a year-round warm-water swimming pool under the second pier with the blessing of Mayor L.D. Taylor. A park board administrator wrote to the mayor and politely told him to quieten down. A pool would compete with the park board’s thriving business at the English Bay bathhouse where they rented bathing suits and lockers. The park board, it transpired, had messed up by not getting crucial foreshore rights on the pier property, which would have prevented the pier in the first place.

City of Vancouver Archives 49-C-7, folder Natatorium 1925

The memo to Mayor Taylor has a great quote: “You can imagine the stir and commotion that took place at the City Hall when it was found that a stranger had come to town and obtained the only concession in the English Bay Bathing Beach. The City had to smile and look cheerful.”*

The hope was that Thomas couldn’t afford to finance the pool. And, apparently he couldn’t, because the pool was never built. Thomas left the business in 1927 and by 1932, the pier faced foreclosure.

Peter Pantages and friends at the Jan 1, 1930 Polar Bear Swim in front of the second English Bay pier. CVA 99-2100

Dances:

There were sporadic dances and meetings throughout the 1930s, even after English Bay Pleasure Pier Ltd altered its charter in 1933 to allow it to branch into mining and smelting (presumably not on site!) In 1938, the Winter Garden gained a Hammond electric organ and became a roller skating rink for the next two years.

Various cadet corps used the site during WWII and even held a mock storming of Second Beach. It became the barracks for the Navy League Sea Cadets from 1943 to 1949, and then Theatre Under the Stars repurposed it as rehearsal space and offices.

By 1958, all signs of the second pier were gone.

*CVA 49-C-7, folder Natatorium 1925

Missing Heritage

Tags Dal Richards, English Bay Bathhouse, English Bay Pleasure Pier Ltd., Llewellyn G. Thomas; Winter Garden dance hall, Mayor L.D. Taylor, Theatre Under the Stars

In and out of Vogue: A Vancouver art deco story

by Eve Lazarus on February 14, 2015

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.

Vogue Theatre 1959

Tags Aaron Chapman, Bud Graves, Commodore Ballroom, Dal Richards, Harry Reifel, Jack Shadbolt, Jason Vanderhill, Kaplan and Sprachan Architects, Odeon Theatres, Paul Goranson, Sensational Vancouver, Vogue Theatre

Whistling Bernie Smith and the Penthouse Nightclub

by Eve Lazarus on November 24, 2012

Known for decades as Bernie “Whistling” Smith because he whistled while he patrolled the streets for the VPD

Bernie Smith once told me a story about busting Strathcona bootlegger Wally “Blondie” Wallace in the 1940s. Blondie was a neighbourhood hero, dodging the cops by night and teaching local kids to box in the basement of his house during the day. He operated a thriving bootlegging business from his house at 446 Union Street.

“We’d stake the place out and grab the cars as they came out,” Bernie told me. “He’d have four or five drivers, and they’d be at all different places and they’d have cheap cars in case they got caught.”

The first time a bootlegger was caught they were fined, the second time they went to jail. Caught with liquor in the car, both the booze and the car became the property of the Crown.

Blondie Wallace:

“In about 1950, Blondie Wallace had a brand new Chrysler and he got arrested for bootlegging from the car. The car was seized and he gets three months in Oakalla,” said Bernie. “Hugh Christie was the warden and when they seized the car, they gave the warden the car and there’s Blondie Wallace watching the warden drive his car.”

I was thinking of this story while I was at the Penthouse on Thursday night for the launch of Aaron Chapman’s Liquor, Lust, and the Law.

Known for decades as Bernie “Whistling” Smith because he whistled while he patrolled the streets, Bernie started work for Joe Philliponi in 1937 when he was just 14. Philliponi owned Eagle-Time Delivery Systems, and Bernie said Joe called him “Speed Ball 21.” Later, when Bernie told him he wanted to be a cop, Philliponi encouraged him.

The Penthouse:

Bernie joined the VPD in 1947 the same year that Philliponi opened the Penthouse Nightclub on Seymour Street. Despite a series of set-backs including its closure in 1975 by the vice squad, Philliponi’s 1983 murder in a botched robbery at the club, and a fire last year, the Penthouse continues to be a Vancouver institution run by Joe’s nephew, Danny Filippone.

Bernie died November 14 aged 89 or I’m sure he would have been at the Penthouse Thursday night. He would have enjoyed knowing that both swing-band leader Dal Richards and punk rocker Randy Rampage of D.O.A were part of an eclectic audience packed into the club for the launch.

There is a celebration of life for Bernie at 1:00 pm Monday November 26 at the Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive. Bernie was a charming, fascinating individual, and my bet is that his service will be just as packed.

For the November 22 launch of Liquor, Lust, and the Law — Aaron Chapman and Danny Filippone

Tags 446 Union Street, Aaron Chapman, Bernie Smith, bootlegging, Dal Richards, Danny Filippone, DOA, Hugh Christie, Joe Philliponi, Liquor Lust and the Law, Penthouse nightclub, Randy Rampage, Wally Blondie Wallace

Chuck Davis (1935-2010)

by Eve Lazarus on March 26, 2011

No one knew more about Vancouver than Chuck Davis — Chuck Davis

It’s too bad Chuck couldn’t be at his memorial service this afternoon. He would have loved it. For starters there were a couple of hundred people there—a totally eclectic crowd, pretty much like the guy himself. The only thing we had in common was that Chuck had touched us all in some way.

Local legends Dal Richards and Red Robinson were there. So was former mayor Sam Sullivan and Tourism Vancouver head Rick Antonson. I sat next to a guy who looked a bit familiar. Turned out to be George Bowering. There were people like John Mackie, John Atkin and Andrew Martin who shared Chuck’s love of history. There was at least one Vancouver tour guide and another acquaintance who worked with Chuck in Germany during World War 11. Mark Dwor, chair of the Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars was there with Yosef Wosk. Norm Grohman was a perfect choice for MC. He was in tears at the end.

Michael Conway Baker composed the music for the film and dedicated “Vancouver Variations” to Chuck’s memory. According to Baker, Chuck loved the oboe.

“He was Major Matthews times one hundred,” said Alan Twigg. “The city should have given him a job.” Hopefully, along with naming a day in his honour, the city will kick in some funds to help finish his book. Local journo Allen Garr told us he’s working with Harbour Publishing and other writers who are donating their time to finish Chuck’s legacy. The massive History of Metropolitan Vancouver is scheduled to hit bookstores in the fall—in time for Vancouver’s 125^th birthday. Maybe then Chuck will really rest in peace.

See Daniel Wood’s excellent article on Chuck in the Tyee as well as Mr. Vancouver: A blog about Chuck Davis for updates on his book.

Tags Alan Twigg, Allen Garr, Andrew Martin, Chuck Davis, Dal Richards, George Bowering, Harbour Publishing, History of Metropolitan Vancouver, John Atkin, John Mackie, Major Matthews, Mark Dwor, Michael Conway Baker, Norm Grohman, Red Robinson, Rick Antonson, Sam Sullivan, Yosef Wosk

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