Storied Sun lensman puts his best on display
Photo exhibit features world leaders, entertainers and superstar athletes
Ralph Bower snapped one of the most popular photos in Vancouver Sun history — a topless Pavel Bure getting a physical in 1994. But it got him in big trouble with Canucks boss Pat Quinn.
“A photographer had taken a shot somewhere in Canada of (Wayne) Gretzky in the shower,” said Bower. “They put it on the wire (to be sent) from one guy to the other, not to be published. But it was intercepted by the NHL and they raised hell about it.
“Quinn said: ‘That’s it, no still photographers in our dressing room, especially when anybody has a shirt off.’ That was the rule.”
Fast forward to the first day of training camp in Kamloops, when players were getting their physicals.
“I happen to walk by the restaurant next door to the dressing room and Pavel Bure was getting a private checkup,” said Bower.
“So I took the picture, outside of the dressing room. When I got to camp (the next day), the man in charge came up and said: ‘You’re in trouble, Ralph Bower, you broke the rules. You’d better talk to Quinn, he’s mad as hell at you.’
“So I got on the phone (with Quinn). We’d always been friendly. He said ‘What’s this all about?’ I said ‘I didn’t take his picture in the dressing room, I took it in the restaurant at the Coliseum.’ (Quinn said) ‘Well, you know the rules.’
“I thought it was a great picture of Bure. We stopped the presses at The Sun to do more editions.”
For his part, Bure was amused by the commotion his topless photo had caused.
“I sat down with Bure and gave him a print,” said Bower. “He said: ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were working for Playboy now.’ ”
The Bure shot is among nearly 200 prints Bower will be displaying at North Vancouver City Hall from June 15 to July 3. Most are of people, which was his specialty.
There’s Pierre Trudeau doing a jackknife off the diving board at the Bayshore, W.A.C. Bennett sneaking a peek down the ample cleavage of B-movie star Mamie Van Doren, and hockey legend Don Cherry in 1969 as a defenceman for the old Western Hockey League Canucks.
“He was wearing his (ascot),” Bower said with a chuckle. “He was a Fancy Dan, even in those days.”
Bower worked as a photographer for The Sun from 1955 until his retirement in 1996.
He used to make prints of shots he liked to take home, and over the years he built up a sizable archive.
One of his favourite shots in the current show is sprinter Harry Jerome tying the world record at Empire Stadium.
“I dedicated the show to Harry Jerome, who was the fastest man in the world and a friend of mine who I grew up with (in North Vancouver),” said Bower, who turns 84 on June 13.
“He was a good guy. Quiet. Sports guys were always on him because they thought he was a quiet quitter at times, and it was totally wrong. He made one of the greatest sports comebacks in history (after a hamstring injury).”
Shooting sports was one of Bower’s fortes. He shot countless Canucks games, and has negatives from all the WHL Canucks games he shot at the Forum.
“The Sun was throwing them out — they were in the garbage can,” he said. “I went and got them.”
Aside from the Bure pin-up shot, his most famous picture might be a photo of a ferocious Muhammad Ali pummelling Canadian boxer George Chuvalo at the Pacific Coliseum.
Ali hit Chuvalo with such force you can see beads of sweat flying in the air.
Back in the 1950s, Oscar Blanck of Oscar’s Steak House would give Bower a free steak for photographing Oscar with the stars.
So it’s probably no surprise Bower has many great photos featuring entertainers, from Bobby Darin to Ray Charles, Mitzi Gaynor and Rod Stewart.
He photographed the Queen and the Pope, Terry Fox, Joe Louis and Jack Shadbolt.
Many subjects were his friends, like former B.C. Lions great Sonny Homer. The two were teammates on a North Van high school team.
“He wore red football pants,” Bower recounted with a laugh.
“We were losing 21-0 at halftime. They put the red pants on me so they’d think I was Sonny. But I got out there and everybody said, ‘That gawky guy ain’t Sonny Homer.’ ”