Fred Herzog, Foncie, Selwyn Pullan, Michael de Courcy, Bruce Stewart, and Angus McIntyre were just a few who took up a camera in the Vancouver of the ‘70s, and were documenting images of everything from buildings to the changing skyline, and from neighborhoods to neon. They also put a spotlight on people—the famous, the quirky, the strange and the ordinary.
At the same time, newspaper photography was coming of age. Cameras were more flexible, film was faster, and money was flowing.
Kate Bird, a recently retired photo librarian for the Vancouver Sun, has pulled together 149 black and white pictures, shot by Vancouver Sun photogs during that decade.
“We were trying to make it feel like a newspaper collection and show the access that photo journalists had in covering the news, whether that was accidents, crime, politics, business, entertainment or sports,” she says.
Kate moved to Vancouver from Montreal in the ‘70s, studied photography, and knows the city intimately. Many of the photos that she curated for Vancouver in the Seventies, reflect the Vancouver’s dark side.
There’s the heartbreaking photo of 20-year-old Playboy bunny Dorothy Stratten, taken just months before her murder. Poet Pat Lowther is shown sitting on a desk top shortly before having her head smashed in by her husband. And, there’s the picture of the underground Port Moody bunker that held 12-year-old Abby Drover for 181 days.
It’s not all dark though. There are some wonderful photos that range from a line of airport telephone booths, to a five-year-old Justin Trudeau, Rod Stewart in his prime, and Muhammad Ali.
“The city changed so much in the ‘70s,” says Kate. “There was so much building and an unbelievable level of infrastructure with the Pacific Centre, Granville Mall, Harbour Centre, the Bentall Centre, the Museum of Anthropology, and the CBC building. The numbers of new buildings radically changed the skyline by the end of the decade.”
It’s both fascinating and frightening that four decades later, we’re still revisiting a lot of those same themes: demolition of heritage buildings and places (Birks, the Strand Theatre Hogan’s Alley—wiped out during the ‘70s), housing affordability, legalizing marijuana, worker’s rights, gender equity…
Kate’s currently working on a second photojournalism book called City on Edge: A rebellious century of Vancouver protests, riots and strikes. It will come out this September.
If you’re in Vancouver, I highly recommend the Vancouver in the ‘70s exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver. It runs until July.
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9 comments on “Vancouver in the Seventies”
The other demolition of a historic school in the early ’70s was Mount Pleasant, built in 1888 at Broadway and Kingsway. Kingsgate Mall had just opened on the site when I started work on an alternative local newspaper called the Mount Pleasant Mouthpiece, supported by a federal LIP grant. The poverty of the area then belies the boosterish confidence that many in Vancouver had at that time.
What happened to the sculpture that was in front of Eaton’s for years? It was by the same artist who did the piece in front of the Vancouver Museum.
It was donated to the City of Surrey, where a worker years later mistook it for scrap metal and recycled it.
http://scoutmagazine.ca/2015/01/05/you-should-know-about-george-norris-the-artist-behind-the-iconic-crab-sculpture/
https://designkultur.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/sculptors-r-i-p-george-norris-1928-2013/
Oh no!!
I can remember walking along Robson and the biggest retail store was European News. Not a Starbucks in sight. Oil Can Harrys on Thurlow. The Bay theatre on Denman. Paul Belmondes barber shop on Robson across from the Safeway. Pizza Patio on Davie as well as Fresgoes on Davie. I washed dishes at the Metro Broiler in the Burrard Building. (across the street from the Retinal Circus). I worked at Centenial Pharmacy (Bute and Robson). My mom and dad had an account at the Red and White grocery on Robson. I worked at Mcds on Robson at Bidwell. Mcdonalds closed at about 11pm and our crew was sitting in the Blue Horizon drinking beer by 1130. (most of us were all of 17)
Life in Vancouver in the 60s and 70s was fun and memorable .
When I lived at Cardero/Davie I used to walk to Shenanigans night club at the Blue Horizon! Luckily it was DOWNhill to get home! L0L (1986-1990). One night actor Ken Wahl was in there. It was a fun place to drink and dance!
Another lovely collection documenting the ever changing city. Being born in the 1970, these start to trigger my earliest memories.
Thanks for another great post.
I took several photos for the Georgia Straight in the 70.s got some of Ten Years After and THE ROLLING STONES
Sir William Dawson Elementary School was not demolished in 1972. Two alternative schools occupied it from September 1974 to the end of December, 1976. Ideal School was relocated to Lord Byng and City School moved to a leased building in Strathcona. The building stood empty for at least another nine months but was eventually demolished and a parking lot created.