HIDDEN GEMS
Book puts Vancouver history right at your fingertips
Eve Lazarus's Vancouver Exposed is the perfect primer for an interesting dinner party conversation.
Flip open the coffee table book to any page and there you'll discover a hidden gem of a story about Vancouver.
Broken up into different sections of Vancouver proper and North Vancouver, Vancouver Exposed is the type of book that would make a great addition to any doctor or dental office waiting room.
Goodbye to old magazines claiming to have the secret to the perfect abs, the perfect pastry crust and the perfect pair of jeans and hello to stories about parties in the Canada Post Tunnel, a plucky little Scotsman who spent over three decades building the seawall and a nudist colony that likes to garden.
“That's what is fun about it you can open it up to random place and find something really, really cool,” said artist and Vancouver Historical Society board member Tom Carter.
The book grew out of 10 years of writing her Every Place Has a Story blog, says Lazarus. It's here she has reported all manner of stories about Vancouver and engaged with all manner of people.
“I'd get scanned photos from the family albums but I had no where to put them, so the blog came about as a sort of repository,” said Lazarus, author of seven non-fiction books including the B.C. bestsellers Murder by Milkshake, Cold Case Vancouver and Sensational Vancouver.
In Vancouver Exposed, there are the stories about preservation done right such as the Vancouver Stock Exchange Building and Warehouse Recording Studio and then the ones about short-sighted losses that forever deprive a place of some very cool and important history like the Birks Building and Pantages Theatre.
As well, there are the flat out fun stories like the world belly flop and cannonball diving championship held in 1975 to celebrate the opening of the Bayshore Hotel's new pool. The inaugural event was won by wrestler Andre the Giant.
The whole shindig was a brainchild of a former Vancouver Sun reporter turned public relations man Tom Butler.
Butler's gimmicks are legendary but the belly flop competition made the biggest splash.
In 1976, it moved to the Coach House Inn in North Vancouver. Thousands showed up to watch people from around the world compete. But it is a local guy's flair captured in a fantastic photo by Province photographer John Denniston that makes the story worthy of a did-you-know type mention.
“The guy leaping out of the hot air balloon into the pool. I must have stared at that photo for I don't know how long, thinking, `Oh my God, that must break every safety violation known to anyone,'” said Lazarus. “It's such a fabulous photo and I had written up a blog about it quite a few years ago then I got this comment from this guy called Trevor Rowe and he said, `That's my dad leaping out of the hot air balloon. They called him Kamikaze Bill and he was logger from Bellingham.'”
Rowe said he was only four when his dad took part in the contest, but he remembers clearly seeing him stuffing his shirt with weights because you had to be 250-pounds to compete. He came in second.
“The best thing for me is when someone adds to the story,” said Lazarus. “It wasn't until Trevor wrote and told me about his dad that it became really kind of special.”
Lazarus, a former Vancouver Sun reporter and a PR agent for the Vancouver Stock Exchange, a place that Forbes Magazine infamously called the “scam capital of the world,” loves nothing better than research. When she enters the Vancouver Archives, it is kind of like Norm going into Cheers — everybody knows her name.
“My idea of a great time is spending five hours in the archives and then finding one nugget of information. I feel like I have won the lottery,” said Lazarus.
Fun facts aside, a book like Vancouver Exposed will not only entertain but it will educate and inspire people to look closer at their surroundings and place some value on things of the past.
“I did want people to see what we have done and maybe try thinking twice before destroying things,” said Lazarus.
Carter hopes that people connect with these stories and start to feel a bit more pride towards the area as they realize there is a wealth of history here.
“I think we tend to not dig up our stories in Vancouver,” said Carter. “We don't tell the good stories that are there so people think there is not that much history in Vancouver and there really isn't an identifiable character in Vancouver and that's a shame because we actually have a rich history and lots of good stories.
“I also think when you have stories that are tied to places, places that you love you are more likely to save those places.”
Going along with the stories are some fabulous photos including 16 from a street photographer by the name of Angus Mcintyre. His pictures span 1972 to 1982 and include a fantastic 1974 shot of the under-construction Granville Mall, which Mcintyre took while hanging out of a window on the top floor of the Birks Building.
Mcintyre also shot the mock funeral that was held for the Birks Building, an exquisite Edwardian structure that stood at Georgia and Granville before being torn down to make way for Vancouver Centre Mall and the Scotia Tower.
Mcintyre, who drove a bus in Vancouver for more than 40 years, said it was a treat to have his work included in Lazarus's book, which he devoured.
“I learned a lot that I never knew,” said Mcintyre. “I've been thrilled to have this book because not only are my contributions in there, but I've been learning all sorts of things that I never knew about Vancouver's history.”
And that says something coming from the guy who has drove the bus for Heritage Vancouver's top 10 tour for 15 years until COVID-19 shut it down this year.