Empress Theatre

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.”

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