‘ Ghost sign’ disappears

Long hidden ad for a 1922 Harold Lloyd movie demolished in new development

A 90- year- old “ghost sign” at Granville and Robson has vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Demolition crews took down the wall the sign was painted onto Tuesday, about two weeks after the advertisement for the Harold Lloyd movie Grandma’s Boy emerged. The sign advertised a silent movie that was shown at the Capitol Theatre Oct. 2- 7, 1922. It was hidden for decades behind the Farmer Building, which was built next door in 1923 and was recently taken down for a new development.

The ghost sign was on an exterior wall of the Power block, an 1888 building with a striking art deco facade that was added in 1929. The facade is a designated heritage structure and will be retained in a new five- storey building that is going up on the site of both the Farmer and Power buildings.

Ironically, the sign was knocked down the same day that the Vancity Theatre announced it will hold a special screening of Grandma’s Boy March 14.

The screening was prompted by the enormous public interest generated by the sign, which thousands of people took photos of over the last couple of weeks.

The sign was an anomaly in the contemporary downtown, a throwback to a lost Vancouver. It featured a disembodied hand pointing “over there” to the Capitol theatre across the street.

Fraser Boyer of the Mark James Group did look into saving the sign, which he thinks would have looked great in a new restaurant the company is developing.

“I spoke to Ledcor [ which is doing the demolition] and sent my guy down to take a look at the sign, and we could have taken it apart,” said Boyer.

“But it didn’t fit in with Ledcor’s schedule of when they needed to demo that wall. It’s a shame ... If we’d known about it a week earlier, we would have been golden, we could have saved it.”