This art deco beauty sat near the corner of Lonsdale Avenue and 14th Street in North Vancouver from 1938 to 1986. The 734-seat Nova Theatre opened in January 1938 and was owned by W.P. Dewees and managed by Agnes (Queenie) Albanuff. Mrs. Albanuff was clearly good at her job, because when Dewees sold the theatre to the Odeon chain in 1941, she went with it.
Woman named to one post:
There is a wonderful Province article that shows eight theatre managers, including Albanuff, with the headline: “Theatre Men of Wide Experience Manager New Odeon Houses Here.” The sub-heading reads: “Woman named to one post.” With the acquisition of the Nova Theatre, the Odeon now operated 22 theatres in BC.
The next time the theatre appears in the newspapers is in the Vancouver Sun on April 19, 1943 when yeggs blew up a safe. Unfortunately for the yeggs, much of the cash was lost in the blast. “A number of bills were ripped to shreds in the explosion. The safe dial was blown into the rafters, and pieces of coal sack, money and a wad of soap were still clinging to it when it was retrieved by police.”
Totem Theatre Opens:
Odeon closed the theatre in 1958, probably because they had opened a drive-in at Pemberton and West 3rd. The Lonsdale Avenue theatre stayed mostly dark until the Odeon reopened it as the Totem Theatre with a grand opening on December 9, 1964. The movie was Fate is the Hunter and starred Glenn Ford, Suzanne Pleshette and Rod Taylor. The Totem lasted until October 1977 when the theatre was put up for sale. Whispers took it over in May 1980 and showcased live acts such as Bryan Adams, R & B All Stars and Loverboy.
And then in 1987, North Vancouver City Council voted for a new central Lonsdale area pub “despite being told that three hotels and three neighbourhood pubs exist within a one-mile radius of the proposed site and that the pubs are suffering a decline in business” (Vancouver Sun, April 22, 1987).
And, just like that, 1421-1439 Lonsdale became a distant memory replaced by a two-storey building that includes Jack Lonsdale’s Pub, a dentist and a law-firm .
As for the South African-born Albanuff, she moved to Ashcroft in 1947. She died on December 21, 1967 aged 74. Her obituary says she was “of the Bar Q Guest Ranch,” survived by her son George Field and daughter Coralie Somerville. Oddly, Albanuff’s death certificate lists her occupation as “housewife.”
With thanks to Darlene Ruckle for her help with the research into Agnes Albanuff.
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