Empress Theatre

Vancouver’s Missing Theatres

by Eve Lazarus on December 12, 2014

It’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago the Hastings Street area had a thriving theatre district, filled with opulent buildings, cafes and people, and known as the “Hastings Great White Way.”

The Rex Theatre, 25 West Hastings Street, 1914, CVA 99 240

In past blogs I’ve written about the Strand, the Pantages and the Empress–all theatres that once existed in downtown Vancouver, but have long since been turned into parking lots or cheaper, uninteresting buildings.

I decided to take a look at the city directories from 100 years ago and take a stroll through Vancouver’s theatre district. Just look what we’ve done with the space.

1920 — Columbia Theatre, 64 West Hastings, CVA 99-3293

In 1914 the National Theatre and the Columbia Theatre sat side by side at 58 and 64 West Hastings Street, just across from the Rex Theatre. The space is now a “developer ready” lot.

The Bijou Theatre sat at 333 Carrall Street just off Hastings Street. It was demolished in 1940. The photo (below) and the story of its life and death is at the Changing Vancouver blog.

In 1913, The Vancouver Opera House turned into the Orpheum Theatre and started showing vaudeville acts. The Orpheum (but not the one we have now) sat at the 700 block Granville Street. In the Leonard Frank photo below you can see the second Hotel Vancouver behind.

By 1935 the Orpheum had morphed into the Lyric and in 1969 it was a distant memory — demolished to make way for the Pacific Centre.

The gaudy Pacific Centre on the 700 block Granville

The Imperial Theatre was once part of a vibrant street scape along the 700-block Main.

700-block Main Street, ca.1918 CVA 99-1269

The theatre is long gone and the two adjacent buildings on the corner of Main and Union and what’s now the Brickyard are likely soon to be replaced by another boxy glass condo building.

The Star Theatre was at 327 Main Street in 1914.

Sources:

Changing Vancouver – then and now blog

Murray Maisey’s slide show on Hastings Theatre

For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage

Our Missing Heritage: The Theatre District

by Eve Lazarus on October 20, 2013

Empress Theatre built in 1908 — Empress Theatre 1921

In 1913 Vancouver had a thriving theatre district that included eight movie theatres as well as stock theatres like the Pantages and the Empress——both completed in 1908.

Over the years we’ve managed to pretty well destroy all evidence of these theatres—the Capital, the Strand, two Orpheum theatres, and of course, most recently the Pantages Theatre at Main and Hastings that as Heritage Vancouver so succinctly put was “demolition by neglect.”

Theatre companies put on lavish productions at the Empress that called for sheep and horses on stage, as well as cars. For Faust, the stage crew built fire-breathing dragons 20-feet long; and for The Aviatrix they constructed a copy of the new Wright Brothers aeroplane and flew it on piano wire. At one point the Empress had the biggest stage west of Chicago.

By the late 1930s rising costs, movies and the shift of the city away from Main Street sounded the death knell for the Empress. But instead of finding a new use for the building, in 1940 down it came in a pile of rubble.

This is what we’ve done with the site.

Empress Theatre 1908-1940 — Once the site of the Empress Theatre

For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage

Tags Capital, Empress Theatre, Heritage Vancouver, Orpheum, Pantages Theatre, Strand

The Clydes, the Butlers and the Empress Theatre

by Eve Lazarus on April 20, 2011

Martin and Jennifer Butler bought their East Vancouver house in 1993 and uncovered a connection to Hollywood and the Empress Theatre

Last week I wrote about the imminent destruction of the Pantages Theatre at Main and Hastings. The Pantages sat just two blocks east of the much larger Empress Theatre, which at one point had the biggest stage west of Chicago.

Both the Pantages and the Empress were completed in 1908, and by 1911 they were part of a thriving theatre district. In fact, there were nine theatres operating in Vancouver that year.

Chuck Davis noted that when the Empress was torn down in 1940 one of the workmen noticed a flash of colour in the rubble. “He reached down and picked up a tiny powder-puff. Stitched on it, in faded golden letters, was a single word: Pavlova.” Anna Pavlova danced at the Empress in 1914 and 1925.

Martin and Jennifer Butler have uncovered a fascinating connection with their 1928 house, Hollywood and the old Empress.

The Butlers bought what they call their “unremarkable” house on East 51^st Avenue in 1993. The previous owners had lived in the house for half a century, and things were pretty much untouched. When the Butlers started to renovate their basement they found that the walls were insulated with about 50 hand-painted theatre posters featuring The British Guild Players—a professional repertory company that performed at the Empress during the ‘20s and ‘30s. “Their productions were usually light-hearted ‘forget the Depression’ comedies and pantomimes,” he says. “There were also advertising posters for the candies sold at intermission.”

Fay Holden and David Clyde

A title search revealed that Dorothy Hammerton Clyde bought the house in 1930. Her husband David Clyde co-owned the Empress Theatre until 1933. The house became the business and artistic headquarters for the Clydes until they sold it in 1938 and moved to Hollywood. There they established quite a career for themselves. Dorothy became film star Fay Holden, best known for her role as Andy Hardy’s mother. David—the brother of Andy Clyde of Hop-along Cassidy fame—found steady acting work in a variety of movies.

The Butlers are at a loss to explain why these highly regarded actors landed in Vancouver instead of going straight to Hollywood, but they say, the good vibes of the Clydes have left their mark, because the house is directly across the road from Langara College’s Studio 58.

As well as discovering the Clydes, their ongoing renovation has turned up live ammunition, an old Rogers Golden Syrup can filled with “British Throughout” wartime condoms, and a 1928 postcard from a young girl studying at the University of Washington that says: “Seattle is a bum place, why didn’t you come and see me off? Love Fanny.”

The house, he says remains “an ongoing story.”

Tags 4 East 51st Avenue, Anna Pavlova, Chuck Davis, David Clyde, Dorothy Hammerton Clyde, Empress Theatre, Fay Holden, Jennifer Butler, Martin Butler, Pantages Theatre, The British Guild Players

Click to read posts about:

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Fay Holden and David Clyde

Click to read posts about:

Subscribe to Our Newsletter