Apparently, if you endeavor to "plumb the shadows of civic memory" looking for untold stories, you find a bestseller.
Vancouver Confidential (Anvil Press, 2014), a sizzling collection of local historical essays, has shot to the top of the BC Bestsellers list its first week on the streets.
“Most civic histories celebrate progress, industry, order, and vision," says editor John Belshaw. "This isn’t one of those.”
Between its covers, theatre history enthusiast Tom Carter expounds on Vancouver’s entertainment czars; musician Aaron Chapman explores our “Fear of the Outside World”; journalist Jesse Donaldson examines the case of the Lovers’ Lane Marauder; researcher James Johnstone revisits old Strathcona through the eyes of long-time resident Lucille Mars; history blogger Lani Russwurm investigates the 1930s communist scare with a spy’s eye view of Vancouver; and reporter Eve Lazarus probes the 1928 Lennie Commission into police corruption and all of its ramifications.
Elsewhere we have the case of Viola Woolridge being put on trial for her own murder; of a 1931 Pender Street café murder/suicide that resulted in a ban on the hiring of white waitresses in Chinatown restaurants; and other local tales of the macabre.
We caught up with Belshaw, who spearheaded the project, to hear his inspiration for the collaborations, and find out if there are any stories left to tell:
There is a growing number of books dedicated to Vancouver's sinful underworld past. Was it really that bad? How would it compare to paragons of corruption like Chicago?
There's obviously a question of scale. There were hardly 300,000 people in Greater Vancouver in 1931; there were 10 times that number in Chicago. Vancouver still isn't that big. Pound for pound, ounce for ounce, however, I'd say that Vancouver had its truly villainous moments. Civic and police corruption was significant and the city attracted more than its share of drifters (as it still does). Being a port, the railway terminus, and close to the border ... that's the triple-crown of opportunity for criminals.
Can most cities trace their history back to nefarious times? Is that par for the course in founding a city?
Every city has its dark side, for sure. And I'd argue that those "nefarious times" don't go away. Mostly it has to do with the way we tell stories about the past. Gangsters, riots ... Those things haven't gone away but the early 20th century version had its teeth pulled a long time ago. So there's a gap and we don't tend to see the continuities as much as the breaks in the storyline.
In light of all the attention being paid to Vancouver's beginnings, what was the particular inspiration for Confidential?
In 2011 my co-author, Diane Purvey, and I realized that there were all these historians working this patch of the city's history, but they weren't – for the most part – in the universities. They were running heritage tours, writing up house histories, painting great canvases with images of rain-soaked city streets. They were blogging about the past or making films about it. That's where the project took off: Bringing together people who made it their career or their calling to spread the word about Vancouver's history.
The bigger question is: Why were all these folks interested in the period from about 1920 to 1960? Partly it's generational, but I think it's mainly a reaction to the disappearance of the old city. Early 20th century houses are being levelled, sturdy old brick buildings in Mount Pleasant and the DTES are demolished to make way for condos, no one can remember what Yaletown looked like before it was towers of glass. Vancouverites are scrambling to catch a glimpse of the things that made Vancouver, well, Vancouver. They're excited to discover a city that barely slept, that was hopping every night with great music, and stylish nightclubs.
Is there anything left? Some place or part of the city that is a time capsule of the period examined in the book?
Yes. Start at the Vancouver Police Museum or on one of Will Woods' Forbidden Vancouver tours. Or you could stand on Granville in the rain and watch headlight beams bounce off puddles.
In contrast to the bootlegging or gambling etc. that has been prevalent in most major cities at some time, was there a criminal racket that was truly unique to Vancouver?
Prohibition-era bootlegging was an important part of the local illicit economy, but that was common to most border towns in Canada. One of my great-uncles ran rum into the States out of Trail. It was a national pastime. But Vancouver had three trademark rackets: opium, gambling, and safe-cracking.
Being a harbour town facing the Pacific, Vancouver was the main port of entry for drugs from Asia and it was probably more porous than Seattle in that sense. Gambling you find everywhere, but the rackets that were run out of Chinatown were distinctive to Vancouver and San Francisco. And the business of cracking safes in Vancouver was said to be especially good. The safes were said to be 'soft' and so were the cops.
When the contributors were submitting their stories, which delivered the biggest surprise to you?
Everything. Tom Carter's encyclopedic knowledge of our old vaudeville and burlesque palaces, Jason Vanderhill's discovery that a local distiller had exploited the word "jazz" before it was a term for music, Terry Watada's quite terrifying tales of a Japanese-Canadian godfather. I was surprised that three authors coming from not wholly dissimilar backgrounds could take three very different spins on corruption and the role of Gerry McGeer. Every story has its own moment, not so much an "ah-ha" moment as an "oh jaysus" moment.
What was a highlight for you of compiling and editing this book?
When we started, two years ago, virtually none of the contributors had met face to face. In the months that followed, we built a dense network of genuine collaboration around research, sources, artifacts, ideas, and writing. It's a great team and, even if it isn't obvious, each member brings a distinctive lens to the stories of this city.
What is your favourite excerpt?
I'll go with a line from Aaron Chapman's lyrics to "Arsenic and Old Signs":
Vancouver Broadway 1965...
The summer heat slithered and crept and the asphalt was breaking a fever of 102.
Coup de Villes and Buicks swimming up and down the street at night,
Floating like manta rays under the warm amber of a traffic light.
I've seen Aaron perform this song twice now, with a smokey, jazzy backing line and it's amazing.
Why has the city transformed so drastically in such a relatively short time?
I blame the CPR. I'm not saying it's their fault, I'm just saying I blame them. Which is by way of saying, the 1886 version of the city got underway as a real estate rush with the CPR at the head of it all. There's not a lot of manufacturing here, there's never been a massive shoe factory or auto plant. Lululemon is the closest thing to a textile industry Vancouver's ever had. So what was left? Real estate.
Down to 1912 that was the biggest game in town and off and on (mostly on) ever since. And to have a good real estate market you need to have an ecology of old properties, new properties, and renewed properties. So there's always pressure on what's here in the hope that you can plough it up or tear it down and build something more valuable. And if you want to make it more saleable then you'd best get rid of the problems (or at least sweep out of sight the liabilities) that are obstacles to wealth. So, stinky sawmills, bad behaviour, and the rest of that stuff has to go. If things are allowed to slide enough, even picturesque neighbourhoods like Chinatown are put at risk. So long as the first business of Vancouver is selling property I think we'll see one transformation after the next.
If you're a writer or amateur historian, what are the treasure troves or resources for exploring Vancouver's hidden history?
The City Archives at Kits Point is great, as is the Vancouver Public Library's Northwest Room downtown. But the real treasures are made of flesh and blood. If you're starting out, start talking. Ask questions. Get pointed in the direction of the person with the story.
History in such a young city must surely be a finite resource… Are there still stories to be told?
Everyone has a story. There are mysteries and secrets about this city I can't disclose even now. And even more that need solving. Every time you read one of those rags-to-riches, milltown-to-metropolis-to-World-Class-City stories remember that they've swept out of sight all the really juicy stuff, they're only interested in "progress" and not in the sordid and banal, the everyday – which is where most people live their whole lives.
If you could combine elements of Vancouver's history with the city as it stands today, what bygone gems would you resurrect from the past?
The State/Pantages Theatre on Hastings and the Palomar and the Cave supper clubs downtown. I think the city is poorer without the Hastings Street of the 1950s and '60s (which was still a little vibrant in the '70s). And trams and streetcars, definitely. I'd resurrect those guys in a trice.
As for people, I'd like it very much if we could roll back Dal Richards' odometer so that he had another 60 years in him, but only if he took up clarinet again. Tom Carter got hold of a 1930s recording of Richards at the Palomar and that boy could play with the best of them. Of course, I'd love to have a beer with the late Jim Crookall, the photographer on whom my own chapter is based.
Knowing what you know, when you walk down the streets of Vancouver, can you help but see its ghosts?
It's true. Anyone who immerses themselves in the history of a place can mentally bend the temporal fabric enough to catch shadows. Being historically-minded allows you to see a place in a kind of depth.
It's like going from a 2D movie to a 3D movie, but without the noisy Michael Bay excesses.
Recall that people have been living along Burrard Inlet for thousands of years. Vancouver is only one of many things that have happened here. It's not one story, it's thousands.
