A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1959

In 1959, the  city got a new theatre, museum, gardens, shopping mall and what is now named the George Massey Tunnel - much to the delight of Sunday drinkers.

By Chuck Davis, The History of Vancouver

On May 23, 1959 the Deas Island Tunnel opened for traffic. Today it’s called the George Massey Tunnel, and more than 88,000 vehicles use it daily on weekdays. When you drive through it, under the Fraser River, near the airport, you’re driving through the lowest point on a public road in Canada. The roadbed is 20 metres below sea level. The tunnel was officially opened July 15, 1959 by Queen Elizabeth and Premier W.A.C. Bennett. Tolls for travel through the tunnel would be collected until 1964.

Her Majesty presided over the official opening, and took part with Premier Bennett in an ancient and curious ceremony: The premier handed the Queen a costly pair of silver scissors, and she gave him a dime for them. The coin-for-scissors trade is an old British custom, which holds that if the giver of a cutting implement does not receive a coin in return, the friendship between the giver and the receiver will be cut. The Queen and Prince Philip were busy during their brief visit here. Her Majesty also “graciously assented” to having the Queen Elizabeth Theatre named for her, then popped over to Victoria for a civic luncheon.

Later that evening, Her Majesty—back on the mainland—dined at UBC’s new Faculty Club.

Ladner’s Landing, thanks to the tunnel, was turned from a rural enclave into a busy little town.

One unforeseen result of the tunnel opening: there was a sudden upsurge in visits by Canadians to Point Roberts, the tiny chunk of Washington State that, thanks to the 49th parallel, is accessible by land only through Canada. And why were they coming in their thousands? Sunday drinking. “Boozing Canadians leave Point Roberts a Hangover,” one headline read. A popular bumper sticker read “Sunday Services at the Breakers.” (The Breakers was a Point Roberts drinking hole.)

The QE

On July 5, 1959 the Queen Elizabeth Theatre opened at 649 Cambie Street. The 2,800-seat theatre, designed by Montreal’s Arcop Group (ARchitects in CO-Partnership), took up most of the entire block. The Queen herself attended a VSO performance on July 15. As of November 2009, after adding more wheelchair positions and removing a few rows of the rear mezzanine to accommodate new control booths, the maximum number of seats is now 2,789.

Maritime Museum

Vancouver’s Maritime Museum opened June 11, 1959. They describe themselves as “Pacific Canada’s premier link to maritime history, art, culture, industry and technology.” More than 100,000 people visit the Museum annually, most of them families from metropolitan Vancouver. The RCMP schooner St. Roch is housed in a distinctive building adjacent to the museum.

Out like Flynn

Movie actor Errol Flynn arrived in Vancouver October 9 with his teenage companion Beverly Aadland. Jobs for Flynn were now few and far between and he was, understandably, continually plagued with money problems. He came to Vancouver as a result of a call he had received earlier from an old friend, stock promoter George Caldough. It happens that at the time Flynn called Caldough was in a financial bind himself. As he later wrote in Weekend Magazine—a long, cheerful piece he wrote in prison—Caldough was desperate “for some new vision to bail me out and put my company on an equitable footing—but what?”

Flynn’s call gave him the answer. The actor wanted to know if Caldough was still interested in buying his yacht, the Zaca. (Caldough had admired the boat extravagantly.) He was, and arranged to meet Flynn in Hollywood the following week. Caldough had recently read about an American company that intended, through public subscription of $1.9 million, to finance a deep-sea treasure-hunting expedition off the coast of Spain. Caldough, his brand churning, began thinking about the Zaca, with ERROL FLYNN at the helm, searching for sunken Spanish gold. That would raise one hell of a public subscription.

Flynn and Aadland stayed with the Caldough family on Eyremount in British Properties for several days during that October 1959 visit. “He seemed to be happiest when reminiscing, watching TV or talking to my children,” Caldough wrote. Even though his glory days were done, Flynn’s visit excited Vancouver mightily.

Flynn was supposed to go to New York for a TV show, but his famed disregard for time was in full flower. Finally—it was October 14, 1959—Flynn said he really did have to go and suggested they leave for the airport three hours early. En route, Flynn began to experience severe pain in his back and legs. Caldough, who was driving, veered off and headed for the West End penthouse apartment—at 1310 Burnaby Street—of a friend, Dr. Grant Gould. Astonishingly, not long after their arrival, a few people materialized and another party began!

Flynn, who was standing against a wall to relieve the pain in his back, regaled the group with stories of the Hollywood figures he had known, especially John Barrymore and W.C. Fields (both, tellingly, heavy drinkers). He was, apparently, a superb story teller. But then he stopped and announced he was going to lie down for an hour and then would take everyone out for dinner. He moved into the doctor’s bedroom and lay down on the floor. When Beverly Aadland looked in on him a little later to see how he was, she found him trembling, his face blue. She could hardly hear his heart. Her screams brought the doctor . . . but it was already too late.

The death certificate, dated October 23, indicated myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, coronary atherosclerosis, liver degeneration, liver sclerosis and diverticulosis of the colon as the causes of death.

Flynn’s autobiography came out that same year. It was titled My Wicked, Wicked Ways. They caught up with him in Vancouver. He was 50.

Mayor Alsbury

Tom Alsbury became mayor of Vancouver. The first of our mayors born in the 20th century (1904 in Edinburgh, Scotland), Alsbury, wrote Donna Jean McKinnon in The Greater Vancouver Book, “gained notoriety with his policy of closing Board of Administration meetings to the public, saying he had ‘no intention of taking a second look at the policy.’ Despite his progressive goals and humanitarian interests, (he’d worked for the CCF for 24 years before resigning upon election), his abrasive, hard-nosed personal style alienated many would-be supporters and eventually led the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) to reject his candidacy for the mayoralty term of 1963-64. He later became a lively radio commentator on civic and provincial affairs, and became involved in improving the lot of senior citizens.”

UBC Faculty Club

In June, 1959 UBC opened a Faculty Club and Social Centre. It was the second club, the first being a very modest 1947 affair, a converted three-section army hut once used as an officers’ mess at the New Westminster barracks. The 1959 club was a decided advance. It was a gift from Mrs. Thea and Dr. Leon J. Koerner. The architect was Fred Lasserre, a UBC professor of architecture. The club was honored by the presence of both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. The club, built at a cost of $750,000, had both public and private dining rooms, a reading room, lounges, a music room, a snack bar, a games room and four salons. It was the centre of social activity for UBC faculty. Faced with financial insolvency the club would close its doors in 1994. However, in March, 1999 it would come back to life as the Leon and Thea Koerner University Centre, “ensuring that the facility will continue to fulfill the original vision of its donors.”

Oakridge

On May 6, 1959 Vancouver’s Oakridge shopping centre opened at Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue, the first shopping centre in the city. (West Van’s Park Royal had opened in 1950.) Oakridge began as a free-standing outdoor mall; in 1984 it would be expanded to its present form as a fully-enclosed shopping centre. Oakridge is owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Nitobe Garden

Nitobe Memorial Garden was opened May 3, 1959 at UBC. It’s considered to be one of the most authentic Japanese Tea and Stroll Gardens in North America and among the top five Japanese gardens outside of Japan. When Crown Prince (now Emperor) Akihito of Japan walked through the garden, he said: “I am in Japan.” (He would visit again in July of 2009, with his wife, Empress Michiko.) This exquisite garden was created out of two-and-a-half acres (one hectare) of pristine forest by landscape architects and gardeners recommended by the government of Japan. The garden honors Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933), a scholar, writer and diplomat whose goal was “to become a bridge across the Pacific.”

In October 1933, while en route to his home in Japan from an international conference held in Banff, Nitobe—who had pneumonia—took a turn for the worse and was rushed to Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. Following an operation he died there October 15, 1933. Read more about the garden here.

Also in 1959

In January a four-day Chinese New Year celebration was held in Vancouver’s Chinatown for the first time, sponsored by Chinese-Canadian businessmen. It’s now an annual tradition.

The first ship, the Lake Atlin, docked March 16, 1959 at Vancouver’s brand new Centennial Pier, operated by the National Harbours Board.

In March, 1959 Munich, Germany-born (May 11, 1908) Erwin Swangard, who had come to Canada in 1930 and worked for both the Province and the Vancouver Sun, was appointed managing editor of the Sun.

Canadian Pacific Airlines started a Trans-Canada service, Montreal to Vancouver, on May 4.

Lynn Seymour (born Lynn Springbett March 8, 1939 in Wainwright, Alberta), who began her training in Vancouver, became a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet in 1959, and danced the lead May 5 in that company’s Swan Lake. A quote from a web site on Seymour: “A later performance in Swan Lake at Covent Garden won critical acclaim in London. Vancouver papers were so lyrical it embarrassed her. Later that year, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where Martha Graham, the great dancer and choreographer, turned to Dame Ninette de Valois and exclaimed, “It’s not fair: she’s got it all!”

On May 15, 1959 Vancouver’s Harry Jerome broke the world record for the 220-yard dash. The record had been set 31 years earlier by Percy Williams, also of Vancouver.

McCleery Public Golf Course opened at 7188 Macdonald Street on July 3, 1959. The 18-hole course was designed by Canadian architect Ted Baker.

The ferry Delta Princess made her last 10-minute run on July 15 from Woodward’s Landing in Richmond to Ladner. The opening of the Deas Island Tunnel had made the service redundant.

Westwood Motorsport Park opened in Coquitlam in July, 1959, at the time the only European-style race track in Canada. For 31 years the track would host local, national and international motor racers. It would close in 1990 when the land was sold by the provincial government for residential development.

It was announced November 18 by Dr. Norman McKenzie, the president of UBC, that Leon Koerner, the retired chairman of Alaska Pine and Cellulose Ltd., had given the university $400,000 to pay for the construction of a graduate students’ centre. The building was to be called Thea Koerner House in memory of Mr. Koerner’s wife, who had died in July. The building would go up on the West Mall, just west of the faculty club . . . which also was built with a Koerner donation (of $600,000). The students’ centre, “would be a meeting place for students in different fields to exchange ideas and opinions.” It won the Massey Gold Medal for Architecture in 1961 as an outstanding piece of Canadian architecture.” Architects were C.E. Pratt and P. Kattfa of Thompson, Berwick & Pratt.

CHQM AM 1320 signed on December 10, 1959 at 5:00 p.m. with an “easy listening” format.

Dr Harold Rice at St Paul’s Hospital built Canada’s first heart-lung machine in 1959.

The Powell River Co., a major forest products firm, amalgamated with MacMillan Bloedel this year.

More than 1,000 people attended the funeral of Andy Paul, Squamish native leader, at St. Paul’s Indian Catholic Church on North Vancouver’s Mission Reserve. He had been honored by Pope Pius XII in 1955 for his contribution to the Church and to the native people of Canada. Paul was active for many years in the native land claims question and was the founder of the North American Indian Brotherhood.

Surrey Memorial Hospital opened.

Rezoning of 20 hectares in West Vancouver permitted 78 high-density apartments in Ambleside.

Tolls came off the Oak Street Bridge, which had opened July 1, 1957.

The death penalty was abolished in Canada.

The Polish Community Centre opened on Fraser Street.

The largest Catholic church in Vancouver, Our Lady of Sorrows, was built at 555 South Slocan Street. The crest of the Servite Fathers was set in the floor of the sanctuary to honor the parish’s founding fathers.

A south wing was added to the Biological Sciences Building (Botany, Zoology, Oceanography and Microbiology) at UBC.

The Centennial Pavilion, a cruciform-shaped, 12-storey building opened at Vancouver General Hospital.

The Centennial Wing at Burnaby Hospital opened, bringing the hospital’s total to 250 beds, 63 bassinets.

The British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, at 4490 Oak Street in Vancouver, had a new 99-bed wing officially opened by Lt.-Gov. Frank Ross.

The Union Steamship Company, active in BC from the days of the Fraser River gold rush, was absorbed by Northland Navigation Co.

The Lady Alexandra, built in 1924, became a floating restaurant in Coal Harbour. Later (1972) she would be towed to Redonda Beach, California, to become a gambling hall. Storm-damaged in 1980, she would be scrapped.

VanCity credit union offered Canada’s first open mortgage (a mortgage that can be prepaid or re-negotiated at any time without additional interest.)

Stan Leonard, once the pro at the Marine Drive Golf Club, was named World Golfer of the Year by the Golf Writers’ Association in the U.S., the only Canadian to be so honored.

William Dale, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, announced that there were only two or three works of art worth the name in the gallery’s permanent collection. William Jarvis, a former National Gallery director, called the VAG’s permanent collection, excepting Emily Carr, “pitiful.”

The Vancouver Folk Song Circle was started by Phil Thomas, B.C.’s leading folk music historian, and his wife Hilda. His books include Songs of the Pacific Northwest and Twenty-five Songs for Vancouver 1886-1986.

Chief Dan George (birth name: Teswahno) began his acting career this year at age 60. He would appear in the first production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe by George Ryga (1967). His funny and dignified performance in the 1970 film Little Big Man earned him an Oscar nomination.

Toronto-born Hugh Keenleyside, who had worked for the UN in the 1950s, was named Chair of the BC Power Commission. He would hold that post to 1961.

Mildred Valley Thornton, artist and art critic, stepped down after 16 years as art critic for the Vancouver Sun.

The Vancouver Japanese Gardeners Association was founded in 1959.

Departures

William Harold Malkin, who was mayor of Vancouver in 1929 and 1930, died October 11, aged 91. He was born July 30, 1868 in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. “Sandwiched between L.D. Taylor’s double terms of office,” Donna Jean McKinnon writes, “merchant and importer William Malkin benefited from public disillusionment with Taylor. He gained the distinction of being the first mayor of Greater Vancouver following amalgamation with Point Grey and South Vancouver in 1929. One of Malkin’s campaign slogans during the electoral race in 1928 was ‘It’s time for a change.’ Another was ‘When you vote for Malkin, you vote for law and order, civic morality and fairness to labor.’ Malkin established a committee to look into corruption and embezzlement in the city’s Relief Department and worked to bring about changes in civic policy to benefit the working class. He later donated a 2.4 hectare park behind his Kerrisdale home to the city as well as the money for construction of Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park, the latter dedicated to his late wife Marion.”

Elsewhere

January 3 Alaska became a state.

June 26 Queen Elizabeth II and US President Dwight Eisenhower officially opened the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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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.