It’s hard to fathom how anyone could think that a belly flop competition was a good idea, but Tom Butler did back in the ‘70s, and as it happens, it was.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Stunts:
Former Sun reporter, turned PR guy, Butler was the master of the photo op. Having Margaret Trudeau turn up to the opening night of a small North Vancouver disco scored national attention for his client. He talked Neil Armstrong, the astronaut to come to Vancouver and open a revolving restaurant above the Sears Tower (now the Vancouver Lookout) and slapped on the slogan: “The restaurant that soars halfway to the moon in the night sky over Vancouver was opened by a man who went all the way.”
He borrowed a beaver from the Stanley Park zoo for a cross US tour to promote local tourism. According to a Globe and Mail story of 1979: “The beaver scrambled up the steps of San Francisco City Hall to be hugged by the mayor, and promptly committed an indignity of relieving itself.” The front-page caption in the next day’s paper was “Damn That Beaver.”
But back to belly flops.
World Belly Flop and Cannonball Diving Championship:
Butler invented the World Belly Flop and Cannonball Diving Championship in 1974 to publicize the Bayshore Hotel’s new pool, and it quickly gained momentum and spread to the old Coach House Inn in North Vancouver. According to photographer John Denniston, the “event” drew in between three and four thousand spectators, entrants from Fiji and Japan, as well as US President Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy as a judge, and coverage from NBC television.
In 1976, the American Hotel and Motel Association recognized the belly-flop as North America’s best publicity stunt for that year.
“It’s something that is universally understood,” Butler told the G&M. “I mean, there’s no subtlety to it. But what else can a 300-pound truck driver do and get to have NBC declare that he’s champion of the U.S.A.?”
Miss 1979 Belly Flop
Miss 1979 Belly Flop was won by Christie Russell, a 26-year-old stripper who went by the stage name “Big Fanny Annie.”
Butler eventually retired to Prince Edward Island, and died in 2013. He was 79.
In his obituary, Ian Haysom mentions that he wrote an autobiography called PR Man. I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy, but it would be worth it just for this story.
“He brought Zsa Zsa Gabor to Vancouver for the opening of the Royal Centre shopping complex,” writes Haysom. “She was, he said, the most obnoxious personality he had ever met. ‘Imagine, if you will, spending four days minding someone else’s cranky brat going through the terrible twos’.”
The book apparently has a huge belly-flop contestant leaping off a springboard and the tagline: “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.” Let me know if you have a copy I can borrow.
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13 comments on “Tom Butler, The Coach House Inn, and the Belly Flop that Soared”
[…] Lazarus remembers an epic belly flop competition held by Tom Butler in 1979. And of course, the “divers” j…. This sounds like a recipe for a lawsuit, but hey, it was the 70s… Also, those things […]
I worked for him in the 1970s at his chain of stores- “Dog’s Ear T-Shirts” he was quite a character.
I am Tom Butler’s neice, and for the record, he did not have a chain of stores called “Dog’s Ear T-Shirts”. I believe the person that Alanna is thinking of is Butts Giraud. Butts was a four time World Belly Flop contest champion. The two men definitely knew each other but had entirely different occupations.
You are right!
Sorry about that
That was my dad Bill Rowe jumping from the Balloon.
I was 4 yrs old at the time and remember watching the contest. He won second place that year. I would love to see more photos or find the old Wide World of Sports footage as they filmed the event.
That’s certainly something most kids don’t get to brag about! If you find any photos please let me know and I’ll run them – just wish I’d been around to see it
I am Fannie Annie the Vancouver Sun got my name wrong! it is Christy Russell. not Wilson!
Worked at the Coach House late 60s, the builder was Siggy, also had Siggy’s side door, forget the owner, but they were there every day, the BC Lions would stay and wreck rooms, always full at PNE, at first kind of classy, then went downhill.
[…] that the World Belly Flop and Cannonball Diving Championship was held at the Coach House Inn for a couple of years in the 1970s. In 1979, Kamikaze Bill—a logger from Bellingham leapt from a hot air balloon into the pool to […]
At the time(1979) My Ex Brother in Law Don Bell was the Mayor of the DNV. He rented two rooms over looking the Pool at the Coach House for the belly flop contests. We had a great view of the contest. All the food and Booze we could eat and drink.
Probably the happiest and safest place to see it
[…] Tom Butler talked the prime minister’s wife, Margaret Trudeau, into turning up at the opening night of […]
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