A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1944

This was the year of D-Day, but closer to home Vancouver continued to play a role in the war. There were also humble beginnings for a popular radio station.

By Chuck Davis, The History of Vancouver
Photos courtesy of Vancouver Archives

War News

D-Day, on June 6, 1944, is a date virtually everyone knows: it marked the invasion at Normandy. More than a thousand planes and gliders began dropping paratroopers into Normandy in the dark hours before dawn. The push to recapture the Nazi-occupied continent was under way.

And on the home front that same day? On June 6 the Orpheum Theatre was showing a movie musical, Broadway Rhythm with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. Manager Ivan Ackery had arranged for Dal Richards’ 20-piece orchestra from the Hotel Vancouver to appear on the Orpheum’s stage to accompany, in person, the singer Adriana Caselotti. Caselotti had been the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney’s great 1937 feature-length cartoon. Ackery took her, and actors dressed as Pluto, Grumpy and Goofy, to perform for the veterans at Shaughnessy Military Hospital and they loved her.

The RCMP ship St. Roch arrived in Vancouver October 16 from Halifax via the Northwest Passage, the first ship to have sailed the Passage in both directions. She left Halifax July 22. The eastward journey had taken 28 months but the return only 86 days. The St. Roch also became the first ship to sail the Passage in a single season. The 95-foot RCMP schooner was captained by Sgt. Henry Larsen. Larsen’s extensive knowledge of Arctic waters allowed him to chart the optimum route—although severe ice conditions on the first, west-to-east voyage had stretched that one out. Today, the St. Roch is open to public view at the Maritime Museum.

New and tighter rationing of gasoline began in 1944.

On August 14 Vancouver City Council adopted Odessa, Ukraine as a sister city. To mark the occasion, the VSO gave a concert of Russian music. (That likely made a lot of Ukrainians angry, but they were an SSR at the time.)

Surrey school teachers asked for a pay raise. Students with summer jobs in war industries were making more than their teachers.

The first child care centre in Vancouver for kids of soldiers was set up September 11.

Golfing great Ben Hogan participated in a wartime fund-raiser at Shaughnessy Golf Course.

During the war Ian Mackenzie, minister of defense and MP for Vancouver Centre, pandered to anti-Japanese sentiment in British Columbia by declaring to his constituents at his nomination meeting “Let our slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the seas.’”

Smokey gets the VC

On October 21 Vancouver’s Private Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, a Seaforth Highlander, won the Victoria Cross for bravery in action in Sicily. On December 21 the Province reported: “‘Smokey’ Smith wants to get home to New Westminster. He has his Victoria Cross. The excitement of a private investiture at Buckingham Palace is over. Now he’s getting impatient. ‘Five years is a long time to be overseas,’ Canada’s first buck private to win the VC in this war, said in a London interview today.”

On the same day as Smokey’s honor, HMCS Discovery, a naval training base, was officially opened on Deadman’s Island. The base is now connected to Stanley Park by a short causeway.

Boeing Gofer

She isn’t identified by name, but one former Boeing employee at its Sea Island plant who was hired in 1944 told a web site for ex-Boeing people: “I was hired as a gofer in 1944. I delivered radio parts to the ships (aircraft) and if the guys wanted nuts or bolts and other parts I’d go for them, hence the term gofer. You needed good footwear to work on that huge plant cement floor . . . and of course the stores (Shop) was located across the way in the other building up the stairs, so your feet were pretty sore by the end of the shift. I started at 40 cents an hour and finished at 80 cents an hour in Shop 63. I was making more money than my father at the time, who was making 60 cents an hour at Pacific Mills. My husband came from Montreal and was a Boeing electrical inspector at Plant 3 from 1944 to 1945. I lived in Vancouver and had to transfer about five times before reaching Marpole to catch the Boeing Bus. We called it the ‘Cattle Car.’ We weren’t fortunate enough to obtain accommodation in the new Burkeville subdivision being built for Boeing employees as it was designed for employees with families.’”

Leonard Klinck

Leonard Klinck was succeeded as President of UBC in 1944 by Dr. Norman A.M. MacKenzie. Klinck had served for 25 years. To quote the UBC site: “Professor Leonard Klinck received his first degree at the Ontario Agricultural College in 1903 and continued his studies at Iowa State College (M.S.A., 1905). He then assumed responsibility for the Cereal Husbandry Department at Macdonald College in Quebec. In 1914 Professor Klinck became the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at UBC and, after the sudden death of President Wesbrook, accepted appointment to that office. Professor Klinck was President during a difficult 25-year period in the University’s history; however he successfully oversaw the building of the Point Grey campus and the formation of a renowned and spirited faculty.”

His successor, Dr. Norman Mackenzie, would also serve for a long time. When Mackenzie stepped down in 1966 he had been president for 22 years.

Radio News

Jack Benny did his famous radio comedy show from Vancouver. He brought his regular cast up from New York: Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Rochester, Dennis Day and announcer Don Wilson. What made the show particularly notable was that Seattle-born Mary Livingstone (real name Sadie Marks) had grown up in Vancouver.

Radio station CKNW signed on (unofficially) on August 15 at 1230 on the dial—the 980 frequency was in the future—with 250 watts of power, after on-air testing which had started April 1. Its owner, Bill Rea, would launch many innovations in his new station: hourly newscasts, on-air 24 hours a day, all music, the Orphans’ Fund and man-on-the-street interviews. For decades NW was the top-rated radio station in the Metropolitan Vancouver area, and is still hovering there.

What an impact Bill Rea made on local radio! And what unpromising beginnings! CKNW was a tiny station on the second floor of a nondescript hotel in New Westminster (far from the big boys in Vancouver) that played “cowboy” music. Rea started hourly newscasts—a local first—because he knew we wanted news of our troops overseas; he kept NW on 24 hours a day, another first; he started a people-on-the-street show called Roving Mike that lasted for decades, and he initiated the Orphans’ Fund that has raised millions for local kids. Look for the 1994 book Top Dog! It tells the story of this remarkable station.

A new product called “contact lenses” arrived in Vancouver September 15.

On September 18 Vancouver-born Yvonne de Carlo (real name Peggy Middleton) was named the “most beautiful girl in the world.” Her studio gave her that title, so they may have been biased.

BC Bearing Engineers Ltd. was incorporated September 30, 1944 in Vancouver, founded by Robert A.S. MacPherson.

Also on September 30 the BC Federation of Labour was formed. An earlier Federation had disbanded in 1920.

In December Winnipeg shopkeeper George Davis and his son Charlie arrived in Vancouver. Nine-year-old Charlie would become a Vancouver broadcaster and writer.

Also in 1944

In January a strike at BC Electric lasted three weeks. Streetcars stopped running.

On March 26 Mayor Jack Cornett attended a ceremony marking the 123rd anniversary of Greek independence.

The engineering firm of H.A. Simons (started by Howard Simons) was formed to serve the forest products industry. At last count it had completed more than 10,000 projects in more than 70 countries.

Local Doukhobors held a prayer vigil on the Courthouse steps for 13 of their brethren imprisoned in Oakalla.

International Artists’ Film Corporation signed a 20-year lease with Burnaby for a 40-acre production location on Canada Way near Willingdon.

A forest fire swept down Black Mountain in West Vancouver, covering seven square miles, and was finally stopped just 300 yards above Eagle Harbour.

Les Gilmore of Richmond harvested 900 bushels of potatoes per acre, the highest yield per acre in Canada.

North Vancouver City finally emerged from receivership, which had started in 1933 during the Great Depression.

The Children’s Health Centre was built at Vancouver General Hospital.

Dr. R.E. McKechnie, long-time Chancellor of UBC, died. He was succeeded by Eric Hamber. Hamber would hold the post for seven years.

The Malahat, which during the U.S. prohibition era became known as the “Queen of Rum Row,” was wrecked. In her heyday she often sailed with 60,000 cases of liquor on board.

Volume at the wartime Vancouver Stock Exchange bottomed at 11 million shares this year, with brokers devoting themselves to selling Canadian government Victory bonds.

The B.C. Research Council, founded by the BC Provincial government, began on the UBC campus. Its mandate was to operate laboratory facilities, conduct industrial research, and help develop technologies believed to be important to British Columbia. The Council was a catalyst for innovation in the province. It would be taken private in the early 1990s after running into financial difficulties.

The Restaurant & Foodservices Association of B.C. was formed in Vancouver, created to deal with problems created by rationing during World War II.

Beer magnate Emil Sick of Seattle bought Athletic Park, where baseball’s Capilanos played, and renamed it Capilano Stadium.

The White Rock Players acting troupe was formed.

Mart Kenney’s Western Gentlemen orchestra was a huge hit. “I was the Bryan Adams of 1944,” Mart once said.

Gen. Harry Letson donated 150,000 engineering books and periodicals to UBC.

Erwin Swangard became foreign editor of the Province.

17-year-old Grace McCarthy opened her own florist shop on East Hastings Street in Vancouver.

Essex, England-born Edgar George Baynes was named Vancouver’s Good Citizen for 1944. He’d come to the city around 1889. His construction firm, Baynes & Horie built, among other structures, the Hotel Grosvenor. When the owner couldn’t pay the bill, Baynes took the hotel over and ran it himself . . . and provided a free meeting place for years for the Vancouver Historical Society. He’s mentioned in Michael Kluckner’s Vanishing Vancouver.

Departures

On February 23, 1944 Leonard Frank, photographer, died, aged about 74. He came here from Germany in 1892, age 22, looking for gold, but that didn’t work out. Then he won a lottery in which first prize was a camera. Frank’s father was a professional photographer, and taught the craft to young Leonard. So he began to take pictures. For 50 years he took pictures. His nearly 50,000 images captured a now-vanished British Columbia with astonishing clarity and beauty. I swear you can see the stubble on the lumberjacks’ cheeks. Enjoy this extraordinary body of work in Cyril Leonoff’s multi-award-winning 1990 book Leonard Frank: An Enterprising Life.

Charles Hill-Tout, ethnologist, died June 30 in Vancouver, aged 85. He was born September 28, 1858 in Buckland, England. He came to Canada in 1894, arrived in Vancouver in 1890. It was Hill-Tout who discovered Vancouver’s Marpole Midden was the largest of its kind in North America. He founded his own school, Buckland College, on Burrard Street. After approximately a decade at Buckland, Hill-Tout gave up education and moved to a farm in the Abbotsford area, where he subsequently opened and operated a mill producing railway ties for the CPR. “A devoted amateur anthropologist,” Constance Brissenden writes in The Greater Vancouver Book, “he focused on the Salish Indians of B.C. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1913, later became the president of its anthropological section. He was a president of the Art, Historical and Scientific Association of Vancouver [precursor to the Museum of Vancouver], which published his Great Fraser Midden in 1938. His field reports were collected as The Salish People by Ralph Maud (1978). Asked by the CPR to name a new subdivision in Vancouver, Hill-Tout suggested Kitsilano, a modification of the name of the chiefs of the Squamish Band. He is the author of The Native Races of British North America: the Far West (1907).”

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Chuck Davis is a Vancouver writer who has written, co-written, or edited 15 books. Most of them are on local history, and he describes his next book, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, as the capstone of his career.