VENUE
Hotel Vancouver
1939—
900 West Georgia StreetThe Hotel Vancouver of today is the third establishment to bear that name. Its predecessors reflect the two extremes of hotel accommodation: The first was "a five-story, brick structure that looked and functioned much like a farmhouse," ("Hotel History"), and the second a lavish guest residence "considered to be one of the great hotels of the British Empire" ("Hotel Vancouver'). The latter was converted to an army barracks during the years of the Second World War, and was torn down in 1949 so as not to overshadow the new Hotel Vancouver.
The hotel, which opened in 1939, took a total of eleven years to finish. Delays were the result of the economic woes of the Great Depression, which forced Canadian National Railway to suspend construction for five years. As the unfinished structure loomed over the city, it became an emblem of the struggle and strife that characterized the era. The project was only completed following the establishment of a joint operating agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway.
In the musical realm, the Hotel Vancouver housed the CBC Vancouver Bureau's offices and broadcast studios until the opening of the CBC Regional Broadcast Centre in the 1970s. A weekly CBC radio show, featuring the "so-called "society band" sounds" (Smith) of Dal Richards' Orchestra, was broadcast from the Panorama Ballroom, or "the Roof," from 1940 to 1965.
VIDEO
Dal Richards performing at Hotel Vancouver (silent film)
49 seconds of silent footage of Dal Richards and his Orchestra performing their last show at Hotel Vancouver (1965).
The hotel, which opened in 1939, took a total of eleven years to finish. Delays were the result of the economic woes of the Great Depression, which forced Canadian National Railway to suspend construction for five years. As the unfinished structure loomed over the city, it became an emblem of the struggle and strife that characterized the era. The project was only completed following the establishment of a joint operating agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway.
In the musical realm, the Hotel Vancouver housed the CBC Vancouver Bureau's offices and broadcast studios until the opening of the CBC Regional Broadcast Centre in the 1970s. A weekly CBC radio show, featuring the "so-called "society band" sounds" (Smith) of Dal Richards' Orchestra, was broadcast from the Panorama Ballroom, or "the Roof," from 1940 to 1965.
VIDEO
Dal Richards performing at Hotel Vancouver (silent film)
49 seconds of silent footage of Dal Richards and his Orchestra performing their last show at Hotel Vancouver (1965).
PHOTO GALLERY
Click on thumbnail for larger image
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Hotel Vancouver." Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. 18 Jan 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Hotel History." Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Homepage. 18 Jan 2008. http://www.fairmont.com/hotelvancouver/AboutUs/HotelHistory.htm
Smith, Bob. "Panorama Roof Gets a Shot in the Arm." Vancouver Sun. 4 June 1982: FA40.
Vogel, Aynsley and Dana Wyse. Vancouver: A History in Photographs. Vancouver: Altitude Publishing. 1993.
