Vogue Theatre

Halloween Special 2020

by Eve Lazarus on October 23, 2020

In the Halloween Special 2020, we visit the Vogue Theatre, and includes stories of haunted grain elevators, a Chilliwack manor and a once “occupied” house in James Bay, Victoria.

Based on stories from At Home With History: The Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Houses; Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History; and Sensational Victoria and features an interview with former Vogue theatre manager Bill Allman.

Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

Bill Allman is the former theatre manager at the Vogue, one of Vancouver’s most haunted venues. Tom Carter photo.

Three ghost stories and a murder:

Bill Allman, a very sane, “recovering” lawyer and promoter, talks about his experience with the Vogue Theatre ghost when he managed the venue back in the ‘90s. David Sampson, an inspector with the Canadian Grain Commission, tells us about his first-hand experience with the 1975 grain elevator fire that killed five men and created one ghost; while Liisa Rowat, talks about her experience as a nurse in the burn unit at Vancouver General Hospital following the explosion that was seen and heard all over the North Shore and Vancouver.

The fire killed five men, caused $8 million in damages and created one ghost. NVMA 16021

Haunted Victoria:

And, while three of the stories took place in Metro Vancouver, it just seemed wrong not to include a story from Victoria, the most haunted city in British Columbia, if not the entire country. When I was writing Sensational Victoria (2012) I would drop around to various heritage houses to talk to their current owners about architects or gardens or fascinating women who had lived in their houses.

This cozy James Bay house was the site of a murder in 1954. Eve Lazarus photo.

Invariably I’d be asked “Are you here to talk about the ghost?” People who live in Victoria really embrace their ghosts! It’s a much harder slog here in Vancouver, where we’re terrified that having a ghost may bring down the price of our real estate. So much so, that a couple of years ago I wrote a blog post called How Not to Buy a Murder House.

And there’s the Chilliwack Hostess with the Ghostess.

Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck by Eve Lazarus, coming April 2025. Preorder through Arsenal Pulp Press, or your favourite indie bookstore

Have you had a harrowing encounter with a ghost? Let me know, and it may just end up in next year’s Halloween Special.

For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:

S2 E24 Halloween Special 2021

Victoria’s Ghost

Show Notes

Intro: Mark Dunn

Music: Jeremy Van Laanen, Haunted

Special FX: Freesoundeffects.com

Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance

Sources:

Lazarus, Eve. At Home with History: The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes (Anvil Press, 2007)

Lazarus, Eve. Sensational Victoria (Anvil Press, 2012)

Lazarus, Eve. Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020)

Belyk, Robert, Ghosts: True Tales of Eerie Encounters. (Touchwood, 1989)

Tags Bill Allman, grain elevators, Robert Belyk, Vancouver General Hospital, Vogue Theatre

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

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