Sun
The Pantages Theatre was built in 1907-8 by show-biz legend Alexander Pantages, and is the oldest survivor of a chain of 70 vaudeville houses that stretched across North America.
Pantages Theatres were known for their opulence and several have been restored in recent years, including the Pantages Playhouse in Winnipeg (built in 1914), the Pantages in Toronto (1920) and the Pantages at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles (1930). The Hollywood Pantages was the original home of the Academy Awards.
Pantages built his Vancouver theatre in the heart of the city’s then commercial and entertainment district. There were 10 theatres on Hastings near Main just after the turn of the last century, including the Rex, the Regal, the National, the Columbia, the Empire, the Majestic, the Province, the Princess, the Crystal, the Empress and the Pantages.
The opening night program on Jan. 7, 1908, included Wallace, “the untamable lion”; vaudevillians Bunth and Rudd; the Rusticana Trio, “Italian street singers”; comedians Mr. and Mrs. Chick; B.B. Vincent, a “pleasing baritone,” and musicians Davey and Everson.
Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy are said to have graced the Pantages stage.
In 1917 Pantages built a second, grander theatre at 20 West Hastings and sold his original theatre. It was converted to a movie house in the late 1920s, and in the early 1930s survived a fire in the projectionist’s booth. In 1933, someone threw a bomb into the theatre during a labour meeting, damaging the lobby.
Alexander Pantages recruited some of his family members to move to Vancouver to run his theatres, and the Vancouver branch is still thriving. One of his cousins, Peter, started the New Year’s Polar Bear Swim in 1920, and Pantages family members are still involved in the event.
The theatre has been closed since 1994. It last operated as the Sung Sing, a Chinese-language theatre, but has had several names over its lifetime — the Pantages, Royal, State, Queen, Avon and City Nights.
The interior of the theatre is a bit rough, with some water damage from a leaky roof and lots of peeling paint. All the seats have been removed. But the grandeur of the vaudeville palace is easy to see in the soaring proscenium arch that frames a stage and the ornate golden decorative work on the walls.
The building was sold in 1999 to the Pantages Preservation Society, a non-profit group headed by video and music producers Dana Barnaby and Shayne Wilson. They couldn’t come up with the money to restore it, and it sat empty until it was once again listed for sale.
© The Vancouver Sun 2004