The Vancouver Sun

In case you haven’t heard, Alain Vigneault is no longer the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. AV joins a long list of former Canucks head coaches that includes names like Harry Neale, Roger Neilson, Pat Quinn, and Hal Laycoe. Here is a look at Canucks coaches from the past.

The history of Vancouver’s Malkin Bowl

William Malkin’s beloved wife Marion died on Nov. 11, 1933. Six months later, the pioneering businessman and former Vancouver mayor announced he would build a memorial for her - a modern “shell” theatre in Stanley Park, modelled on the famous Hollywood Bowl in California.

Malkin announced the plan for the Marion Malkin Bowl on May 17, 1934. Four days later - 79 years ago today - he turned the first sod for its construction. Just over seven weeks after that, on July 8, 1934, Malkin Bowl hosted its first concert, a free performance by the Vancouver Symphony that drew 15,000 people.

After Malkin built the semi-circular band shell, he turned it over to the Vancouver park board to run. It was placed at the bottom of a gentle slope below the Stanley Park Pavilion, in an area that already had a smaller band shell for many years. The crowd sat in chairs or on the grass, with no roof overhead.

“The ‘shell’ will be of the latest Hollywood design, with scientific regard for acoustics,” said a Sun story when it was announced.

“The stage will be about the same dimensions as the one at the Strand Theatre, and it will be available for Shakespearean performances and other entertainments.”

BC Electric sponsored a free concert series at Malkin Bowl for many years, which the 1934 Sun dubbed “symphonies under the cedars.” The other resident troupe in the early years was Theatre Under The Stars. In recent years, it has been the site of concerts by artists like Elvis Costello, Metric and the Flaming Lips.

Malkin was born to a prominent merchant in England in 1868. At 16, he moved to Canada, settling in Grenfell, Sask., where he operated a grocery business with his brother.

In 1895, he moved to Vancouver, where he organized Osmund Skrine and Co., wholesale merchants. Two years later, he purchased the firm and renamed it W.H. Malkin and Co. It grew into one of Vancouver’s biggest firms, and Malkin built a mansion called Southlands in Kerrisdale. In 1928, he became mayor of Vancouver, at a time when the city expanded by adding the former municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver. He remarried, to former London stage actress Dora Soames in 1936, and became one of Vancouver’s leading philanthropists. He died in 1959 at the age of 90.

John Mackie, Vancouver Sun

The time Bob Hope took over the Vancouver Sun

On this weekend in history, May 19, 1954, the American comedian visited The Sun newsroom, pretending to try his hand as the newspaper business
.
More photos here

Fans to pick six all-time Lions for 60th anniversary

Wake or Wilson? Simon or Fernandez? Passaglia or Fleming? But in what order?

To mark their 60th anniversary season, the B.C. Lions will be asking fans to pick the top six players of all-time from a list of 60 candidates displayed on an on-line poll set to begin on June 17. The contest will run until B.C. Day, August 5. The top six players will become “honorary captains” who will lead the team onto the field through the inflatable Lions mouth for the final six homes games of the 2013 CFL season.

Here is a look at some legendary Lions

British Columbians will head to the polls to select a new premier on Tuesday. Here is a look back at past premiers celebrating their victories, either at a leadership convention or general election.

More photos here

Stanley Park celebrates its 125th birthday

It was 125 years ago when city officials had the foresight to ensure 1,000 acres of spectacular real estate bordering Burrard Inlet be saved as a public park. Since its official opening on Sept. 27, 1888, Stanley Park has been a favourite destination for locals, as well as a top tourist destination, attracting more than eight million tourists each year.

For anyone who has visited, it would come as no surprise to learn it was recently named among the most beautiful city parks in the world, along with New York’s Central Park, by Travel +Leisure magazine.

Here is an interactive timeline of the history of Stanley Park.

But here are a few things you might not know about the park:

1886: The first request made by Vancouver’s inaugural city council was for a lease of the 1,000 acres from the Government of Canada in order to create a city green space. At the time, the peninsula had been largely logged. Historically, Stanley Park was traditional land shared by three First Nations — the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

In the 1850s, Indigenous animals in the park included deer, bears, lynx, cougars, wolves and elk. The elk disappeared by 1860, hunted by Gold Rush miners as a source of food. Smaller animals included porcupine, skunk, beavers, hares, muskrats and the Douglas squirrel. Eastern grey squirrels, which are plentiful in the park today, are not indigenous to the park. In 1909, the Vancouver park board purchased two dozen grey squirrels for $40 from naturalists in Pennsylvania.

1911: The Stanley Park Pavilion was built this year, making it the oldest building still standing in the park. It has a restaurant — which opened in 2007 and overlooks the gardens surrounding the pavilion — that can accommodate up to 325 guests.

1917: Construction of the seawall began in 1917 to prevent erosion. It took 60 years to complete. The Stanley Park seawall runs 8.8 kilometres, but has expanded beyond the park’s boundaries to 22 kilometres, extending from Coal Harbour to Kitsilano Beach Park.

1920: Stanley Park’s Rose Garden was established, eventually expanding to include 3,500 rose plants today. There is also a rhododendron garden, with approximately 4,500 hybrid rhododendron and azalea plants. In addition to gardens, there are more than 64 kilometres of forested trails in the park’s interior, many leading to trees hundreds of years old.

1956: The Vancouver Aquarium, which opened this year, has more than 70,000 creatures, including whales, dolphins and sea otters.

1962: Approximately 3,000 trees were knocked down by Typhoon Freda, which also caused 40 cars to be trapped on the causeway the night of the storm, killing one woman. (The location of the downed trees later became home to the park’s miniature railway.)

1988: Canada declared the park a national historic site, “recognizing that the relationship between its natural environment and its cultural elements developed over time epitomizes the largest urban park in Canada.”

2006: A windstorm levelled 100 acres of forest, leading to the creation of a $10-million plan to help restore the park. 15,000 new trees were planted in the affected areas.

ENTERTAINMENT:

The Vancouver park board plans to mark the park’s 125th birthday with two days of free festival celebrations Aug. 24 and 25, featuring live performances and cultural experiences. The celebrations will also honour the park’s aboriginal history and include First Nations storytelling and on-site carving by local artists.

Heritage specialists will provide historical walking/cycling tours that will highlight various monuments, trails and ecological areas in the park.

Called Celebrate! Stanley Park, the festivities — including music and dance performances — will take place in various locations throughout the park such as Malkin Bowl, Ceperley Park, Lumbermen’s Arch, Lost Lagoon and Brockton Point.

There also will be roving performances. Performers have not yet been announced.

The city is providing $200,000 from its Innovation Fund to help support the 125th anniversary celebration for Stanley Park.

-Kim Pemberton, Vancouver Sun

On this day in 1927, the Hotel Georgia opened.

Designed in the Georgian Revival style by local architect Robert Garrow and Seattle architect John Graham, the 12-storey hotel featured 320 rooms, a ballroom done up in an Aztec motif, and a basement tavern with arched entrances that evoked Olde England.

It was reputed to be the first Vancouver hotel to feature bathrooms for every room. The construction cost was $1.5 million, and its deluxe furnishings brought the bill up another $1 million.

The Vancouver Sun marked the opening with a special six-page Hotel Georgia Edition. The hotel had a swish opening gala featuring 200 local bluebloods, with entertainment from the hotel’s own big band, Frank Stuart’s Hotel Georgia Orchestra.

The Georgia played host to royalty in 1927, when the Prince of Wales (King Edward VIII) stayed there. But after the Hotel Vancouver opened its royal suite in 1939, the royals bid adieu to the Georgia.

So the hotel became the home of entertainment royalty, instead. The list of big names who stayed there is nearly endless: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Sir Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Nureyev, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Louis Armstrong, the Rolling Stones, Lawrence Welk, and Tommy Dorsey. (The Beatles booked a room, but never stayed there.)

The late, great promoter Hugh Pickett always put his acts in the Georgia, partly because long-time manager Bill Hudson was very accommodating - Hudson earned Pickett’s gratitude by allowing Nat King Cole to book a room there in the early 1950s, the first time a black person was allowed to book a room in any of the major downtown hotels. Pickett said if there was any trouble with Cole staying there, he would never ask Hudson to go out on a limb like that again. Hudson later told Pickett the only trouble was that everybody wanted Cole’s autograph.

In 2006, the Georgia had a top-to-bottom renovation that saw a 48-storey condo tower built onto the site of its parking garage. The $400-million project was completed in 2011.

-John Mackie, Vancouver Sun

On this day in 1986, Expo 86 opened in Vancouver

After eight years of planning, a major change in direction, and a mad dash to get all the pavilions completed in time, Expo 86 opened on May 2, 1986.

“The Party’s On!” read a banner on the front of The Vancouver Sun that day. “We Welcome World.”

The Sun’s reporters and columnists had been reporting on the fair’s troubles for years. But on opening day, the paper was an unabashed fan — the May 2 logo was changed to read “The Expo 86 Vancouver Sun.” It paid off, as the paper sold an extra 27,000 copies.

Unfortunately, it rained on opening day, and was rather cold. But the weather failed to dampen the spirits of fairgoers, as 107,000 people came out to take in Vancouver’s first world’s fair.

“It had a prince and a princess, a prime minister and three premiers,” read a Sun story. “It had head-spinning rides, fireworks and traffic jams. It had umbrellas, aerobatic jet planes, marching bands, magicians and 107,000 clicks on the turnstiles. It even had a 65,000-strong standing ovation for chairman Jim Pattison at BC Place Stadium. Expo had it all on opening day.”

Prince Charles officially opened the fair at 4 p.m. at BC Place, just before the RCAF’s Snowbirds synchronized flying team thundered overhead. Still, Sun reporter Gordon Hamilton wrote that while “the Prince and Princess of Wales were the stars of Expo Friday, the fair belonged to Jimmy (Pattison).”

“Everywhere he went, people stopped him and congratulated him,” Hamilton reported. “Some criticized the long lineups and he promised to look into them. He was open, chatting with the people who had come to his show. He was Mr. Expo, the perfect host, and everybody was going to have a good time.”

This included an American woman who wanted a refund for her son when a pavilion wasn’t ready. Pattison told her the policy was no refunds, but reached into his pocket and gave her $20.

“Give him this $20 and tell him to enjoy the fair,” said Pattison.

The woman protested: “But Mr. Pattison, there are three in my son’s family.” So he gave her another $40.

The weather eventually turned sunny, and Expo 86 went on to become a huge success.

Initially, organizers had hoped for 14 million visitors. They got 22 million.

About 3 p.m. on May 1, 1986, the BC ferry Queen of the North glided under the Lions Gate Bridge. A murmur rose from a throng of people standing at the rails beside the Pan Pacific Hotel – Prince Charles and Lady Diana were about to arrive.

The royal couple had crossed Georgia Strait from Nanaimo, where they had travelled after spending the night in Victoria. Their whirlwind tour of British Columbia would also include stops in Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George. But the bulk of their week-long B.C. visit was spent in Vancouver, where they helped open Expo ’86 on May 2.

Prince Charles may have been next in line for the British crown, but it was his wife who really charmed the masses. The Sun dubbed her reception “Dianamania,” and contributed to the hype by featuring a seemingly endless series of photos of Diana, wearing a seemingly endless series of dresses.

“The royal wardrobe got a workout Thursday as the Princess of Wales changed three times during the day,” reported the Sun the day after her arrival.

“In Victoria and Nanaimo and on her arrival in Vancouver, she wore a grey-and-turquoise hat and grey accessories. At an evening cocktail reception at the Pan Pacific Hotel’s Crystal Pavilion, she was in a red, buttoned-down-the-back dress that had a red and black butterfly motif at the ankle. And at dinner at the Hyatt Regency she was in full royal regalia: An ivory-coloured lace gown with plunging back and the diamond and pearl Queen Mary tiara.”

It was an eventful visit. The British tabloids went bonkers when Diana met rocker Bryan Adams before a gala event at the Expo Theatre May 3. Adams had done his power ballad Diana in soundcheck, but omitted it from his short set, which prompted the Daily Mirror to headline “Star’s Love Song  to Di is Banned…But Charles Can’t Stop Her Flirting.”

Diana had a brief fainting spell on May 6, when “her knees buckled and she began to crumple to the floor of the California pavilion.” Sun writers Dave Margoshes and Valerie Casselton dubbed it “the most celebrated faint in B.C. history,” but she recovered and the next day flew with Charles to Japan.

The ferry that brought  them to Vancouver sank on March 22, 2006 after it veered off course and crashed into Gil Island off the north coast.

The Man They Call Reveen

Illusionist Paul Reveen died at his home in Las Vegas Monday. After immigrating to Canada from Australia in 1961, Reveen wowed Vancouverites with his popular stage show featuring illusions and hypnosis.

In 1972, Reveen hypnotized Rosaire Paiement of the Vancouver Canucks to try to break the jinx that saw him scoring only one goal all season. 

The so-called “Impossibilist” drew large crowds across Canada. Those who didn’t see him live may recall his TV ads that promised “you’ll never forget Reveen.”