The History of Metropolitan Vancouver

William M. Mott, owner of Mott Electric Co. posing with cable on the deck of the Pattullo Bridge shortly before it opened Nov. 15, 1937. Mr. Mott later served as mayor of New Westminster from 1943 to 1948.
(Photo: New Westminster Public Library)

Chronology Continued

1937

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You'll note that this year includes events listed under "Also in . . ." These are events for which we don't have a specific date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January The Privy Council ruled invalid provincial laws regulating the marketing of tree fruits and vegetables that had the effect (intended) of stifling Chinese farmers. Ladner farmers Chung Chuck and Mah Lai had appealed to the Supreme Court.

Early Performer Alan Young began “in early 1937” at CJOR, Vancouver. He joined the staff of CJOR as assistant to program director Dick Diespecker. He scripted and starred in a weekly show, Signal Carnival, helped with news broadcasts, typed extra copies of drama scripts and occasionally swept the office. He stayed there for three years, playing every kind of role in radio drama. For the rest of his interesting career, go to this site.

February 2 Eudora Jane Lochead, pioneer store owner and poet, died in North Vancouver. Her (estranged) husband, James, was a logging contractor. Wrote Constance Brissenden: “She opened Hastings Grove Store, the first general store in the area, on Curtis in Burnaby in 1911. Above the store, she ran a rooming house with 20 bedrooms (tents outside housed the overflow); the dining room sat 60 boarders. Concerts were held fortnightly with Eudora playing the violin. Her next store, in an area now called Lochdale, opened in 1913 at Sperling and Hastings, with a post office added March 1, 1914. A poet, her best-known work was Would Life Be Worth Living.”

February 24 Jack Blaney, president of Simon Fraser University from 1997 to 2000, and now senior fellow at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver, was born in Vancouver.

March 5 First mention of “marihuana” in a Vancouver newspaper. The story in the Province reported that traces of hemp were found in a dead man’s stomach.

March 13 Composer Michael Conway Baker was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, came to Vancouver in 1958. His output is immense: movie music, TV shows, special events and openings—his music opened Expo 86 and GM Place. Visit this site.

March 22 Fire destroyed the business and editorial offices of the Vancouver Sun, at 125 West Pender, with damage set at more than $200,000. There was just one casualty: the janitor suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation. The newspaper came out on time that day. The paper moved into the Bekins Building across the street and bought the building May 18. We still know it today, 40 years after they moved out in 1965, as the Old Sun Tower.

March 24 London, England-born Helena Gutteridge of the CCF became the first woman ever elected to Vancouver City Council. But she had been active long before that. Gutteridge was born in London, England about 1880, came to Vancouver in 1911 and organized the B.C. Women’s Suffrage League, fighting for votes for women. In 1915 she convinced the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council to support equal pay for equal work in their constitution, and in 1919 she united labour with women's groups and won passage of B.C.'s first minimum wage act. (It varied by industry, but $13 to $15 a week was the range.)

March 30 Broadcaster Robert “Red” Robinson was born in Comox. Red started broadcasting at age 17 on Vancouver’s CJOR November 12, 1954. He played music never before heard on local radio: Rock-n-roll and Rhythm & Blues. The kids went nuts, and in a year he had 54 per cent of the audience. He’s still going more than 50 years later! See this site.

March 31 Construction began on the Lions Gate Bridge, then the longest suspension bridge in the British Empire, to give better access to the British Properties. More than 300 men were employed in the construction.

May 6 The mighty German passenger Zeppelin Hindenburg was attempting a mooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Something went terribly wrong and she burst into flame and crashed. The famous film of that disaster has been seen countless times since.

May 12 A Coronation Day service (celebrating the accession to the throne of George VI and Queen Elizabeth) was held at Brockton Point in Stanley Park. Alderman Jonathan Rogers planted the King George VI Oak in the park.

May 22 The Common Good Credit Unit (BC’s first credit union), established August 22, 1936, made its first loan, totalling $27.

Also May 22 The Palomar Supper Club opened at Burrard and Georgia in Vancouver at precisely 9:00 p.m. Music was provided by the DeSantis Swing Orchestra. A Vancouver Sun story May 25 reported that “several hundred couples were on hand early to dance to the music and enjoy their first sight of this ultra-modern and exceptionally beautiful indoor entertainment place.”

May 29 Harold Steves was born, the fourth generation of the Steves family on the original Steveston site in Richmond.

May 31 Frederick McBain Young, judge and Masonic leader, died in Vancouver, aged 73. He was born October 30, 1863 in English River, Que. He was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of B.C. Masons in 1901 and 1902. Young laid the cornerstone of Vancouver's Carnegie Library on March 29, 1902.

June 2 Charles A. Woodward, department store founder, died in Vancouver, aged 84. He was born July 19, 1852 on a farm near Hamilton, Ont. In 1891 he visited Vancouver and bought two lots for a store, then moved here in 1892 and opened his first store where Georgia meets Main. The big Hastings Street store opened in 1903, known later especially for its Woodward’s Food Floor, the first self-serve food floor on the continent. In a day when grocery stores were small, this gigantic emporium was—the right word—exciting. In 1910, the store held its first one-price sale day, 25 Cents Day, a forerunner of $1.49 Day. Woodward was a one-term Liberal MLA at age 71. When he died his son William took over. Woodward’s lasted 100 years, a good run. He was named to the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 1966. See The Woodwards by Douglas Harker.

June 16 The federal government announced a contract for eleven Blackburn “Shark” warplanes to be built by Boeing at Coal Harbour for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

June 22 Alabama-born Joe Louis, 23, faced world heavyweight champion James J. Braddock in a title bout at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Although he was dropped early in the fight, Louis rose from the canvas to score an eighth-round knockout. Visit this site for more.

July 2 Aviator Amelia Earhart, three weeks short of her 40th birthday, went missing on a flight over the South Pacific. She was never found.

July 5 Gordon Sylvester Wismer, Vancouver lawyer, began serving as attorney general in the Pattullo cabinet.

July 19 Sliced bread came to Vancouver, eight cents a loaf. It was the greatest thing to hit the city since . . . since . . .

July 20 In a ceremony at the Peace Arch, women from Canada and the U.S. sang the two national anthems.

August 2 Dr. Norman Bethune spoke in Vancouver for the Canadian Blood Transfusion Service.

August 4 The Oak movie theatre opened with great fanfare at Kingsway and Marlborough—tickets were 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. Hailed as a masterpiece of “art moderne,” it operated until 1968.

August 20 Executive and government official Larry Bell was born in Vancouver. He has headed White Spot Restaurants, VanCity Savings, BC Hydro. See this site.

September 1 Pilots Billy Wells and Maurice McGregor completed a round-trip from Vancouver to Seattle and back for a brand-new airline, Trans-Canada Air Lines. Trans-Canada was founded by the federal government, and Don MacLaren was its first employee. Lockheed 10s were its first aircraft. See 1936 for more. Regular intercity and transcontinental air mail services now became available from Vancouver (with Trans-Canada Airlines).

September 29 A shipment of food left B.C. for the Prairies, which was suffering through the worst of the Great Depression.

September A. E. Crickmay shot a 235-pound bear at 234 East 15th Street in North Vancouver.

October 1 This is the date on a photo (VLP40 City of Vancouver Archives) showing U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor, BC’s Lt.-Gov. Eric Hamber and Premier Duff Pattullo on the steps of the legislature in Victoria.

October 27 B.C. premier Duff Pattullo was awarded an Hon. Doctorate of Laws at UBC.

November 12 “The Vancouver Non-Partisan Association was formed at a luncheon meeting at Hotel Vancouver today,” the papers reported, “when a large group of representative citizens met to discuss the action of the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) in nominating a party slate for the municipal elections in December.” Elections were staggered back then, and just four aldermanic seats were to be filled. Of the four victors, we believe Henry Lyman Corey was NPA (party affiliations weren't shown on the ballots back then.) They've done better since: in the late 1990s, the NPA was the dominant force in Vancouver civic politics: the mayor and all 10 councillors were members. In 2005 they are in what is likely a temporary eclipse.

November 15 The Pattullo Bridge opened to traffic. Premier Duff Pattullo, wielding a welder’s torch, ceremonially cut a metal chain across the roadway. Length of the $4 million bridge, including approaches: 7,800 feet. Its clearance above the Fraser 150 feet. The Dominion Bridge Co., and Northern Construction & J.W. Stewart Ltd. built it. Major W.G. Swan was the consulting engineer. Several services have been installed beneath the deck, the heaviest being water mains for the municipalities to the south. There was a toll on the bridge of 25 cents which was not removed until February 12, 1952. Said Premier Pattullo at the opening: “It is a thing of beauty.” Yeah, right.

On the first day the Pattullo opened 5,000 cars crossed it. Today, average weekday traffic is more than 60,000 vehicles. The Pattullo Bridge caused a boost in population of areas to the south for many thousands who found houses in Vancouver too costly.

Also November 18 Julia Willmothe Henshaw, botanist and novelist, died at Caulfeild in West Vancouver, aged about 68. She was born in Durham, England in 1869. “She followed in her naturalist father's footsteps, wrote Constance Brissenden, “photographing mountain wildflowers. She settled in Vancouver about 1887 with her husband Charles Grant Henshaw. She was an editor of the Province and a columnist for the Vancouver Sun. A novel, Hypnotized (1898), was called Book of the Year. In 1914 the Henshaws drove the first car across the Rockies. She wrote several important plant studies, including Mountain Wildflowers of Canada (1906) and The Wild Flowers of B.C. (1908). She won the Croix De Guerre as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War.” Mrs. Henshaw was the one woman listed in the pre-war Canadian Who’s Who. Incidentally, she strongly opposed giving women the vote.

November 24 A benefit tea was held in Vancouver for Chinese war refugees from the Sino-Japanese War.

The Cave Supper Club opened on Hornby Street. It would be a part of the night club scene in Vancouver until 1981.

Winnipeg-born Bob Smith, the city's first jazz disc jockey, at age 17 began playing big-band 78s on the CJOR program Hilites.

In his history of the Vancouver Fire Department, It Began With a Ronald, Alex Matches writes that Vancouver fire fighters began wearing a new composition helmet this year in place of the old, traditional leather helmet.

The Federal Building (housing federal government offices) was built. Today, one of the few remaining art deco buildings in the city, it’s part of Sinclair Centre.

Industries listed for this year in Surrey include sawmills, CNR shops, a gypsum plant, tannery, grain elevators, fishing, brick plant, farming, summer resorts and golf courses.

George Miller became mayor of Vancouver. He was the first mayor elected under the at-large system, running as an independent. Wards had been done away with by an earlier plebiscite and party politics made its entry into Vancouver government.

With more than 3,000 patients in care, insulin shock and Metrazol therapy (no longer used) was introduced at Essondale mental hospital, the first full-time dentist was appointed, a new nurses' home was built and the first psychologist was appointed.

The Fisherman, a monthly publication of the United Fishermen & Allied Workers Union, began appearing.

The Turner Valley oil discovery in 1936 triggered a boom market in the VSE's junior oils, with the volume reaching 120 million shares this year.

Nat Bailey, who had opened the White Spot Barbecue at 67th and Granville in 1928, replaced it with the White Spot Restaurant and Drive-in. The legend began.

Centre Park, a 1,200-seat softball diamond location, opened at Broadway and Fir. It was demolished in 1950.

Capilano Golf Course was established. The club’s first professional was Jock McKinnon, who, wrote Ted Hunt in May, 2002 for Vancouver Magazine, played there virtually every day from 1937 to 1967. “His remarkable collection of best scores,” Hunt wrote, “gave him a 16 on the outward nine and 17 on the back. Every hole was eagled or double-eagled save two: the par-3 16th, which became too long to ace at 230 yards; and the 18th, too long to deuce at 590. The Guinness Book of Records honors McKinnon for his unsurpassed 33, only two strokes from complete perfection on a par-72 course.”

The Vagabond Players were formed in New Westminster. They perform in the Vagabond Theatre in Queens Park, have produced more than 250 plays, won over thirty awards at the Regional and Dominion Drama Festival.

City archivist J.S. Matthews and native elder August Jack Khaatsalano compiled a map showing Indian Villages & Landmarks: Burrard Inlet & Howe Sound Before the White Man Came. It’s at the Vancouver City Archives.

New York City-born Charles Edward Borden, who grew up in Germany, graduated from the University of California with a PhD in German Literature. He will come to Vancouver, and become the “Grandfather of B.C. archaeology.”

Edmond Maillard, Fraser Mills confessor and the man for whom Maillardville was named, returned to France to teach at a Franco-Canadian College in Rhone. He died in France in 1966. For more, see the 1909 chronology.

Edmonton-born radio pioneer Bill Rea, 28, who had been commercial manager at CJAT, Trail, came to Vancouver and began at CJOR. He will launch CKNW in 1944.

The Fisheries Commission was formed. One of its organizers was Thomas Reid, a Liberal MP representing New Westminster.

Jung Jin Sow, superintendent of a local Chinese school, presented a Chinese perpetual calendar he had created, the first of its kind, to the Vancouver City Archives.

Using her own money, New Westminster-born Dr. Ethlyn Trapp set up a centre in Vancouver to prove the benefits of radiotherapy.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa-born Ethel Wilson, who came to Vancouver in 1898, an orphan at the age of 10, began writing: she submitted (at age 49) a magazine piece for the left-leaning New Statesman and Nation titled "I Just Love Dogs." There was much, much more to come. See this site.

Vancouver’s Foon Sien Wong, a legal translator and interpreter, was named publicity agent of the Chinese Benevolent Association's (CBA) aid-to-China program during Sino-Japanese War.

The North Pacific Cannery began operation. It was an affiliate of B.C. Packers. The company wrapped up in 1958.

In 1937 a total of 538 people were squatting the Vancouver waterfront, in houseboats, shacks and tents. Their numbers continued to grow over the next two years, despite attempts of the city to destroy their homes.

Maurice A. Gaudry opened his Morray’s Fountain Lunch at the corner of Smithe and Seymour Streets. “When I started," he told the Province’s Aileen Campbell, "I sold a cake donut and a coffee for a nickel and did it for two or three years — others raised, but I stuck by it.” He would acquire the entire 50-by-120-foot site in 1969, and sold it to the city in 1977 for $350,000.

Movie stars Richard Arlen (American), Lilli Palmer (German) and Antoinette Cellier (British) star in a filmed-in-and-around-Revelstoke production called Silent Barriers. (The original title was The Great Barrier.) It's about the building of the CPR through the Rockies. There are a lot of familiar names portrayed: William Van Horne, Sir John A. Macdonald, Major Rogers, James Hill . . . the movie plays fast and loose with the facts, but it's fun to watch. Thanks to site visitor Gordon Rebelato for getting us a copy of this film, in which his father Ernie, now 83, was an extra! We had a delightful chat with the older Mr. Rebelato about his experiences working for the CPR in Revelstoke, and how he earned a quite decent salary for the time of 75 cents an hour as an extra in that film. (“I was in the mob scenes,” he said, laughing.) The movie was enjoyable: fast and loud and exciting, and it was fun to see the actor playing William Van Horne, the president of the CPR, putting a furious fist to the jaw of a complaining worker.

In her 1943 book The Ports of British Columbia Agnes Rothery says local tugboats began using radio this year.