Notes on Lowry and War: A Walk in Liverpool 6th July 2014 Part 2

A British trench near the Albert-Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The men are from A Company, 11th Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment.

The second set of notes for a walk I led around Liverpool's Business Quarter and Riverfront organised by The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Read Part 1
Read Part 3

Stop 3 Pierhead, Liverpool 

Lowry makes several references to the Pierhead and the Liver Buildings in his work. Also the setting for a whole chapter in forthcoming publication of previously unpublished novel In Ballast to the White Sea (October 2014).

Pier Head Liverpool Circa 1930s

Lowry's brother Stuart told their father Arthur that if he survived the First World War he would climb the Liver Building and retrieve one of the Liver birds. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 14). Stuart returns from WW1 suffering from arthritis of the foot. Stuart apparently shattered by deaths of comrades. Injury prevents a military career. Finishes war as a Captain (Bowker Pg 15) (See Part 1 for Stuart's army service record)

The Liver Building is topped by the Liver Birds which have become symbols for the city. I am sure that Lowry would have appreciated that irony, with his love of birds, that the mythical Liver Birds are based on the cormorant, which is a symbol of deception and greed - a fitting symbol for Lowry's "terrible city whose main street is the ocean" 'Forest Path to the Spring' (Hear Us O Lord etc pg 226)

The Consul recalls the Liver Buildings in Under The Volcano when he returns to Liverpool aboard his Q-ship Samaritan during WW1; "How strange the landing at Liverpool, the Liver Building seen once more through the misty rain, that murk smelling already of nosebags and Caegwyrle Ale.." (Pg. 135).

Shanghai 1927

Lowry sails to Far East in 1927 from Birkenhead - experiences war first hand in China - Chinese Civil War (See short story China) Later claims that scar on knee is as a consequence of being wounded in the Civil War - a Lowry tall story! ( See Bowker Pg 70.)

Lowry refers to Chinese participation in WW1 in his first novel Ultramarine - the Chinese Labour Corps; "We'll put you in the Chinese Labour Corps. The order of the rising sun - tee hee! - for promiscuous gallantry."  (See Chinese Labour Corps)

Cammell Lairds 1940

'Freighter 1940'  One of several  poems referencing Liverpool during the war written in Lowry's "exile" in Vancouver in WW2 (Collected Poetry Pg. 143);

A freighter builds in Birkenhead where rain
Falls in labourers' eyes at sunset. Then 
She's launched! Her iron sides strain as merchants gaze;
A cheer swoops down into titanic ways.

Lowry referencing Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.

Lowry writes a poem in 1940 entitled 'Epitaph On Our Gardener, Dead Near Liverpool' when he hears of the death of his old friend - George Cooke - the gardener to the Lowry family who lived in Caldy, Wirral.

Lowry makes reference to the bombing and war on Merseyside;

.....Good folk of Wirral,
Empty the sky one instant of evil.....
Let hatred pause a moment. Rest your gun
Against this stone in heart......... (Collected Poems 210.3)

Continuing with theme that Lowry may have felt guilty about being cut off from his family who were threatened by war? (See Bowker Pgs 270-298) for details of early WW2 "exile" in Canada and relations with his family and possible enlistment in British and Canadian armies) - see poems below written in Vancouver circa 1940

The Prodigal speaks:

I have no forgiveness in my soul
And I want to get out of this hell hole (Collected Poems 209.1)

Read 'Draft Board' 1940-45 :

Back broad and straight from crop to hocks.......
Add 25 counts of progeny
See you in Liverpool (Collected Poems 203.3)

Read 'Dream of Departing Soldier'

Good bye, old comrade, of your death I pray
It proves sweet marjoram nor turn caraway. (Collected Poems 204.2)

Read 'Deserter'

In a refrigerator car at Empress,
Then, lying on bare boards in a small room,
Dead...'Should be in England?' 'Home for Christmas?' (Collected Poems 155.13)

Above poem probably based on yet to be identified newspaper article read by Lowry circa Winter 1939 - probably expresses his feeling that he would not fight/desert if forced to enlist - uses irony of over optimistic prediction that war would be over by Christmas which many thought in WW1. Lowry may also be refering to political situation within Canada in 1939 with regards to conscription (Read more about conscription in Canada in WW2)

Goodbye to great Vancouver nights at the Cecil Hotel

Poets and writers and potters and artists and musicians and bar-room philosophers and existentialist cab-drivers and Malcolm Lowry fans and alcohol-impaired Ph.D.s and fine-arts majors turned carpenters would all congregate on Friday night and drink and talk until closing time and then often go around the corner to the old Arts Club on Seymour Street where you could drink and dance (maybe catch Doug and the Slugs Band) until early morning. Janet Mackie Goodbye to great Vancouver nights at the Cecil Hotel Read more

Urban Renewal, Ghost Traps, Collage, Condos and Squats

In 1971, most of a squatter community on the Maplewood “intertidal” Mud Flats, near where Malcolm Lowry had written Under the Volcano, was burned to the ground by civic authorities, ostensibly to clear the way for private development. Squatting in the intertidal zone is as old as Vancouver and is an important part of the history of the city. (Finn Slough on the Fraser River is a squatting community still present in 2005; it was established in the 1890s.) Intertidal squats have been established and last largely due to the ambiguity of jurisdiction over the intertidal area. Urban Renewal, Ghost Traps, Collage, Condos and Squats by Scott Watson

Read the above about the 1960s and 1970s  Vancouver art scene

Mud Flat Squatter

Following on the previous post about Ken Lum's installation 'From shangri-la to shangri-la - I was reminded about what happened to the shacks at Burrard Inlet from a blog about Tom Burrows - an artist who has been featured on the 19th Hole for his work inspired by Lowry.

Read article here

Ken Lum: 'From shangri-la to shangri-la'

Back in 2010, I posted about Ken Lum's installation entitled 'From shangri-la to shangri-la'.

I have since discovered that the installation has a permanent location:

The District of North Vancouver and the North Vancouver Arts Office unveiled Ken Lum’s sculptural installation, “from shangri-la to shangri-la” at the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area (2645 Dollarton Highway). Lum’s work takes its form from the architecture of squatters’ cabins located at Maplewood Flats on the north shore of Burrard Inlet during the early to mid-twentieth century.

 By the 1940’s, an informal but cohesive community of squatters was living in the ramshackle cabins that lined the area’s intertidal zone. The most acclaimed resident was the English-born writer Malcolm Lowry, who completed his novel Under the Volcano while living there from 1940 to 1954.

 By the 1960’s, the area had attracted an assortment of hippies, artists and displaced loggers who sought out nature and self sufficiency as an alternative to the accelerating pace of development in Vancouver and its suburbs. The longstanding tension between the squatters and the residents of North Vancouver came to a head in December 1971 when most of the mudflat dwellings were burned down by civic authorities to make way for development.

 Lum created from shangri-la to shangri-la in 2010 for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite large scale art program. The work consists of scale replicas of three squatter shacks: the dwelling occupied by Malcolm Lowry, one built by artist Tom Burrows, and one inhabited by Dr. Paul Spong, who later led Greenpeace’s “Save the Whales” campaign.

 The artwork was situated on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver surrounded by high rise buildings, and adjacent to the City’s tallest building, the Shangri-La Hotel. Considered in relation to the surrounding urban environment, the squatter shacks represented an acute contrast of a rustic conception of the ideal life with contemporary visions of perfection embodied in present day architecture.

 Ken Lum gifted from shangri-la to shangri-la to the District of North Vancouver in 2010. Situating the squatter shacks in their original Maplewood Flats location allows viewers to travel back in time and reflect on a foreclosed moment in the history of the Lower Mainland.

 Ken Lum is a Vancouver artist whose work questions the relationship between modernism and everyday experience often blurring the boundaries that separate high art and popular culture. Over the past 25 years, Lum has exhibited widely throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

 Explore the District of North Vancouver's Public Art Collection online.

See a collection of photos of the installation at Teregraphic.com

Woodward's

Lady's gold oblong wristwatch, gold expansion bracelet, lost in Woodward's dept. store Friday. Reward. F.A 3411R. Ghostkeeper

Charles Woodward established the first Woodward store at the corner of Main and Georgia Streets in Vancouver in 1892. On September 12, 1902, Woodward Department Stores Ltd. was incorporated, and a new store was built in Vancouver on the corner of Hastings and Abbott Streets. In 1926, a store was opened in Edmonton, and by the late 1940s, the company began to open numerous stores in both provinces. Facing financial difficulties, Woodward's was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1993.Read more on Wikipedia

Thanks to Department Store Museum blog for the above photograph

The Magnet 1950

I have been meaning to feature The Magnet on the 19th Hole for sometime. I did feature it in a recent talk at my local library so I thought it was about time to do so here! The film is held with affection in New Brighton because many of the landmarks seen in the film have long gone or been drastically altered. The film also had importance for Malc as well:

The Goodhearts...after dinner they seek relaxation at their local cinema, the Bay, where there is an English film playing called The Magnet.

But as soon as they enter the cinema Tommy Goodheart thinks he has gone to the next world , is having a dream within a dream, or suffering from extraordinary hallucination.

For the scene before his eyes seems at first to be the very scene along the beach this afternoon, then he realises that the scene is taking place in New Brighton, his own birthplace, on the sands where he played as a boy. And the scene that is playing is that which deals with the exchange of the invisible watch!

Then there is a short description of the film which is continually interrupted -for Mary Goodheart-by Tommy saying “There’s the cathedral! That’s Seacombe pier! That’s New Brighton pier! There used to be a tower only they knocked it down. That’s the old prom – called that the Ham and Egg Parade. Birkenhead Ales, my God! That's the place where I saw the Lion-faced Lady. The tunnel had not quite been completed when I left England though it was already in use," etc Ghostkeeper

We can only assume from the description above that Lowry saw The Magnet mostly set in his birthplace sometime in the early 1950's in Vancouver at the Bay Theatre. What I find remarkable about the description is the impact it had on the "exiled" Malc - an "extraordinary hallucination." Did Lowry construct the 'Ghostkeeper' story after seeing the movie? I will return to answering that question in more detail elsewhere. One can only imagine the feelings generated in Lowry's mind seeing a film of his birthplace when he was thousands of miles away as well as many years since being there.









The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of the eponymous magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.

Johnny Brent (Fox), whilst off school in quarantine for scarlet fever, manages to con a younger boy out of a magnet by swapping it for an "invisible watch". However the little boy's nanny accuses him of stealing, which makes Johnny feel guilty: he runs away but then tries to get rid of the magnet, particularly after an older boy uses it to cheat at a pinball machine and the owner thinks Johnny is involved. He then meets an eccentric iron lung maker who is raising funds for the local hospital and gives him the magnet which is later auctioned for charity. The iron lung maker tells the story of the magnet at the various fund-raising events he attends, exaggerating wildly and portraying Johnny as everything from a Little Lord Fauntleroy to a ragged orphan from Dickens, all the while hoping that he can find him again. After he returns to school, Johnny sees the little boy's nanny and overhears her telling her friend about her budgerigar, which she says has died of a broken heart. Johnny, however, thinks she is talking about the little boy himself and becomes convinced that he is guilty of murder. He hides in the back of a van which takes him to Liverpool, where he conflicts with local boys, winning them over by convincing them he is on the run from the police. He saves the life of one of them when he falls through the floor of a disused pier. The injured boy ends up in the very iron lung for which the fund-raising has been all about and when Johnny visits him he sees the magnet mounted on it - and also bumps into the inventor, who is delighted to have found the little hero at last. Johnny is awarded the Civic Gold Medal, which he gives to the magnet's original owner, his conscience clear. Wikipedia

You can view the entire movie on Youtube:



The cinema Lowry refers to where he saw the film was the Bay Theatre 911 Denman Street, Vancouver (seen below). Constructed in 1938 and now a heritage site in Vancouver due to its poured in-place concrete walls and streamlined design features indicative of the “Art Moderne” style. Other notable features include the sculpted corner entrance and a prominent sign tower.



You can view related posts on my Postcards from Malc blog:

Liverpool Cathedral
Seacombe Ferry
New Brighton Pier
New Brighton Tower
New Brighton Promenade
Kingsway Tunnel

You can also view more still shots of the locations and what they look like now at Reel Streets.

Vancouver Bus Terminal

A singing smell of tar, of the highway
Fills the grey Vancouver Bus Terminal
- Poem Turned Back at the Border

The above painting entitled Vancouver Bus Terminal 1939 is by Brian Croft. Here is what he had to say about the painting:

As with railroads and airlines, tracing transportation corporate history is always a jumble of buy-outs and mergers. I’ll pick up the story behind this painting in 1922 when Vancouver entrepreneur, Ivor Neil, decided to expand his small local bus company. He renamed it Pacific Stages Transportation Ltd, purchased a few more buses and commenced service between Vancouver and Port Moody and Coquitlam.

Expanding as he went, Neil bought up other companies and eventually served the Fraser Valley and south as far as Seattle. In 1924, The British Columbia Electric Railway Company (BCER) was watching Ivor Neil closely.

The BCER understood the emerging potential of bus travel, sensed competition with its electric streetcar and interurban system and responded decisively. By 1925 The BCER formed BC Motor Transportation Ltd. comprised of Pacific Stage Lines (PSL) still run by Ivor Neil, and a tour bus line called Grey Line.

In a parallel venture it also formed BC Rapid Transport to handle motor freighting in the Fraser Valley. BCER’s BC Motor Transportation Ltd. expanded quickly and in 1926, ground was broken for a stylish new depot and head office on the southeast corner of Dunsmuir and Seymour streets.

When the modestly sized depot opened that fall it was likely the most stylish and modern bus depot in North America. By 1930 PSL ran service to West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, south through Surrey to Halls Prairie, Coast Meridian and Johnston, past Haney to Mission and Harrison Hot Springs and out to Sumas Prairie. In 1932 BC Motor Transport merged its BC Rapid Transit freight operation into PSL.

New modern buses were acquired with streamlining and more passenger comforts. In 1936 a Vancouver manufacturer, Hayes, revolutionized the industry by creating a streamlined model based on the Chrysler Airflow. It was nicknamed the Teardrop, a bus so successful that Hayes became the main builder of PSL buses.

Although only five were ever built, Hayes went on to build the magnificent and innovative “Clipper” model. My painting Vancouver Bus Terminal – 1939 is based on an archived photograph by well known Vancouver photographer Leonard Frank.

Although I added hundreds of tiny additional researched details, I made two major alterations by expanding the viewpoint laterally and creating a night scene. The decision to create a night painting meant that the 1939 bus schedules needed to be found and researched.

This done, I am empowered to write that the Hayes Clipper in the foreground is the departing 7 p.m. bus bound for Seattle, Washington. The fare is $3 or $5.50 return. The teardrop in front of the terminal arrived earlier at 6:35 p.m. The teardrop emerging onto Seymour Street is the 7:15 departure to New Westminster via Kingsway.

The PSL emblem on each bus features the flying horse Pegasus signifying strength, speed and beauty. The depot was adorned with radiant neon destination signs and on the corner are pointers with more than 30 additional destinations.

By design, passersby would read these and begin to imagine themselves stepping on board a PSL coach, in every sense, a gateway express to the rest of the globe. The Hotel Dunsmuir anchors the left of my painting; the building survives to this day. The terminal housed several businesses located on the upper two floors. The sidewalk tenants included: Bridge River, a beauty salon, a barbershop, and a shoeshine stall.

The main attractions, however, are close to the corner; Ivor Neil could often be found in Pacific Tour and Travel Bureau under the Travel bureau sign, United Cigars, a well-known chain, occupies the double entry corner location and next door, Fountain Lunch, looks to be a most inviting eatery.

All of this I painted as accurately as possible. The colours are of my own imagination and I painted the entire scene, in my own style, romantically reflected in the glistening evidence of a recent fall shower.

All aboard!
Richmond News

Seven Sisters Stanley Park Vancouver

In the park of the seaport the giant trees swayed, and taller than any were the tragic Seven Sisters, a constellation of seven red cedars that had grown there for hundreds of years, but were now dying, blasted, with bare peeled tops and stricken boughs (They were dying rather than live any longer near civilisation. Yet though everyone had forgotten they were called after the Pleiades and though named with civic pride after the seven daughters of a butcher, who seventy years before when the growing city was named Gaspool had all danced together in a shop window, nobody had the heart to cut them down.) The Bravest Boat

There is a well-known trail in Stanley Park that leads to what I always love to call the "Cathedral Trees"–that group of some half-dozen forest giants that arch overhead with such superb loftiness. But in all the world there is no cathedral whose marble or onyx columns can vie with those straight, clean, brown tree-boles that teem with the sap and blood of life. There is no fresco that can rival the delicacy of lace work they have festooned between you and the far skies. No tiles, no mosaic or inlaid marbles, are as fascinating as the bare, russet, fragrant floor outspreading about their feet. They are the acme of Nature's architecture, and in building them she has outrivalled all her erstwhile conceptions. She will never originate a more faultless design, never erect a more perfect edifice. But the divinely moulded trees and the man-made cathedral have one exquisite characteristic in common. It is the atmosphere of holiness. Most of us have better impulses after viewing a stately cathedral, and none of us can stand amid that majestic forest group without experiencing some elevating thoughts, some refinement of our coarser nature. Perhaps those who read this little legend will never again look at those cathedral trees without thinking of the glorious souls they contain, for according to the Coast Indians they do harbour human souls, and the world is better because they once had the speech and the hearts of mighty men. "The Lure in Stanley Park" in Legends of Vancouver. by E. Pauline Johnson.



The trees were six Douglas Firs and a red cedar. In 1951, the Vancouver Parks Board declared them a hazard after they begun to die in 1943 when their root systems had been damage by constant traffic. (Vancouver: A History of Photographs by Aynsley Vogel and Dana Wyse). The last tree was removed in the 1960s Sean Kheraj Restoring Nature: Ecology, Memory and the Storm History of Vancouver's Stanley Park in Canadian Historical Review 88, 4 December 2007)

The Vancouver Sun 3 April 1951 featured a story of the trees headed 'Famed Giants of Forset Doomed'which prompted Malc to draft a letter to the newspaper which is the basis of what appears in his short story 'The Bravest Boat'. The death of the trees symbolised for Lowry the encroaching urban sprawl and industrialisation of Vancouver which is an underlying theme of the short story.

Malc also took up with the paper how the trees got their name of "Seven Sisters". The paper stated that the name was linked to the Sutherland Sisters, who sold hair tonic, and performed in Vancouver shop windows back in the 19th Century. The paper also stated that they have been named after the daughters of one Gastown's prominent citizens, Angus C. Fraser. Sherrill Grace has noted that Fraser actually had eight daughters! (Collected Letters 369)



The Seven Sutherland Sisters, a group of singing women from Lockport/ Niagara, N.Y., were famous for their long hair, which they showed off in a sideshow of Barnum & Bailey’s from about 1882 to 1907. On such group photos the sisters were always placed in such a way that it seemed all of the sisters had hair reaching the floor.

Malc suggest in his letter to the Vancouver Sum and later in 'The Bravest Boat' that in actual fact that the trees were named after Pleiades - the constellation known as the Seven Sisters. The nine brightest stars of the Pleiades are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione. As daughters of Atlas, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The English name of the cluster itself is of Greek origin, though of uncertain etymology. Suggested derivations include: from πλεîν pleîn, to sail, making the Pleiades the "sailing ones"; from pleos, full or many; or from peleiades, flock of doves. Malc goes on his draft letter to detail the various myths concerning the Pleiades including that the the one cedar in the seven firs corresponds to the Lost Pleiad Hyades.



Malc goes onto say that the Pleiades are known in many cultures - the Egyptians, the Aztecs etc. But significantly he also mentions that the Mexican Day of the Dead, All Saints Day and the festival of the All Hallows are all associated with the culmination of the Pleiades.

On of the ironic things that Malc suggests in his letter is to preserve the stumps of the trees by encasing them in plastic and goes onto say:

..Even more touching might be to put a little tablet, likewise encased in the plastic of course, commemorating their high-minded murderer; Persecuted & killed by civilisation in the form of the Noble City of Vancouver. nee Gastown R.I.P. (Huggged to death out of love).



As the plaque above states, in 1986 they were replaced with a newly-planted batch of evergreens.



See Seven Sisters, Stanley Park, Vancouver April 1951 on Postcards from Malc

Finally, E. Pauline Johnson believed in the Chinook legend that the trees were planted by the Four Men sent by Sagalie Tyee to prevent the lure of a witch:

The Four Men, fearing that the evil heart imprisoned in the stone would still work destruction, said: "At the end of the trail we must place so good and great a thing that it will be mightier, stronger, more powerful than this evil." So they chose from the nations the kindliest, most benevolent men, men whose hearts were filled with the love of their fellow-beings, and transformed these merciful souls into the stately group of "Cathedral Trees." Legends of Vancouver.

See The Famous Old Oak Tree, Calderstones Park, Liverpool on Postcards from Malc

"Cowled Sisters of Darkness"

In Sheryl Salloum's book Vancouver Days, William McConnell, a friend of Malcs, tells the story of how Malc ended up in St Paul's Hospital after breaking his leg in a fall in Dollarton:

It was a Roman Catholic hospital and at the time most of the nurses were nuns. They wore a black cowl edged with white and he called them the "Cowled Sisters of Darkness". to Malcolm they were the antithesis of angels of mercy. Vancouver Days p119

This was the same hospital where Malc went after damaging his back in a fall from the pier of his Dollarton shack in 1949. His experiences there due to a mixture of alcohol withdrawal and drugs were as traumatic as his time in Bellevue in 1936. As ever Malc turned these experiences into literature which he initially entitled the 'Atomic Rhythm' which eventually became the The Ordeal of Sigbjørn Wilderness which was never developed beyond a rough sketch and remains unpublished. The draft is accessible via the University of British Columbia Archives which provides a fascinating insight into how Lowry assembled his writing.



The Sisters of Providence established schools, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and asylums in Canada and the United States and later in many other countries. In B.C., St. Paul's Hospital and Saint Mary's Hospital in New Westminster are operated by the order.

Responding to the Bishop Paul Durieu, OMI, of New Westminster, who urged the sisters to consider the needs of a growing Vancouver, two representatives of the Sisters of Providence came north from Portland Oregon in 1892. They bought seven lots on the outskirts of Vancouver for $9,000 and a 25-bed hospital was completed in 1894, and named after the Bishop. Mother Mary Fredrick from Astoria, Oregon became the first Superior and administrator of the hospital.

In keeping with the philosophy of the Sisters of Providence, the new hospital was founded on the pledge of providing compassionate care. The surge in Vancouver's growth brought on by the Klondike gold rush severely tested that pledge but it wasn't until later, in 1904, that the first of what seems an endless stream of additions was completed, adding 50 more beds.

September 1, 1907 saw the official opening of a School of Nursing at St. Paul's Hospital.

Just 10 years after the first addition was completed, a modern fireproof structure with a new surgical department and 120 beds was added in 1914.

St. Paul's was, from the beginning, keenly interested in using the latest medical technology. In addition to laboratory testing, the hospital became one of the first to have its very own X-ray machine, circa 1906. Using glass plate negatives the exposures took from 15 to 45 seconds, threatening to burn patients and electrocute operators in the process.

As Vancouver grew and the administration of health care became ever more complex and specialized, St. Paul's kept pace.

In 1919, the Sisters of Providence responded to the challenge of the American College of Surgeons and the Catholic Hospitals Association to standardize hospital services with those of the larger centres throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program established formal requirements for the efficient operation of X-ray and laboratory departments. Great emphasis was placed on the keeping of patient records, as previously few history and progress notes were written.

Until 1968, the chief administrator at St. Paul's was a member of the Sisters of Providence. The first lay Administrator was hired in 1969 and ran the hospital while the Sisters continued their involvement in the hospital and on the hospital board.

With the completion of the North Wing, in 1931, and the South Wing during World War II, St. Paul's expanded to 500 beds. In the 1960s, as medical knowledge and treatments quickly evolved, St. Paul's again kept abreast through the addition of ultra-modern diagnostic facilities. Providence Health Care

Check out other hospitals where Malc was treated:

Bellevue New York 1936

Vernon Clinique, Eure, North France March 1948

American Hospital, Paris May/June 1948

Vancouver General Hospital July 1949

Ospedale Niguarda, Milan October 1954

Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, 31 Copse Hill, Wimbledon, England 20th July 1956

Louis Armstrong @ The Palomar Vancouver 1951 and 1952

In Enochvilleport iteself some ghastly-colored neon signs had long since been going through their unctuous twitchings and gesticulations that nostalgia and love transform into a poetry of longing: more happily one began to flicker: PALOMAR, LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS ORCHESTRA. The Bravest Boat

The Palomar Supper Club was owned first by Hymie Singer, and then by Sandy DeSantis, who became the club's orchestra leader. Located at the corner of Georgia and Burrard Streets, the Palomar was a 1,200 seat wartime dance hall with opulent red decor and Greek pillars. Sensing the shift away from big name touring orchestras, DeSantis began booking big name acts such as Louis Armstrong, a young Sammy Davis Jnr, and Carmen Miranda. Occasionally, in the 1940's and 1950's, the Palomar booked floor shows of scantily clad female dancers until the club closed because of bankruptcy in 1951 (or 1952) Burlesque West: showgirls, sex, and sin in postwar Vancouver By Becki Ross

May 23, 1937

On May 23, 1937—68 years ago today—the Palomar opened at 713 Burrard Street at Alberni in Vancouver. In its day the Palomar was the place in town for big-name entertainers: the Ink Spots appeared there frequently in the 1940s and '50s, and for those of you younger folk who just said 'Who?,' here are a couple of other names you will recognize: Louis Armstrong (February 2, 1952) and Duke Ellington (April 11 to 15, 1952.)

Dal Richards joined the Sandy De Santis house orchestra at the Palomar in the fall of 1937, and was there in the fall of 1938 when it changed from a ballroom to a night club. A Vancouver girl named Peggy Middleton joined the chorus line, and Dal remembers that she pestered him and the club's owner, Hymie Singer, to do a solo number. “It was Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” Dal said, “And she'd gone out and bought the stuff she needed for the number.” They okayed the solo, and maybe that's what persuaded 15-year-old Peggy Middleton that showbiz was for her. She changed her name to Yvonne De Carlo and went on to become a movie and TV star.

“Singer and Sandy De Santis had a falling out,” Dal recalls, “And Singer asked me if I could lead a band. I said sure. I was 20.” The Palomar eventually closed. Dal's still around. History of Metropolitan Vancouver


Above photo of Burrard Street looking north towards Alberni Street on April 22, 1955. The low building in the center of the photo is the Palomar Dance Hall building which is being prepped for demolition. [CBC Archive; Alvin Armstrong, photographer]



Armstrong concerts a hit for Kits

By Lisa Smedman-Staff writer

Jazz great Louis Armstrong played many a venue in his day, but none gave him a more enthusiastic welcome than the students at Kitsilano High School.

In February 1951, Armstrong came to Vancouver to play the Palomar Supper Club. After his performance there, Kitsilano Grade 12 student Olga Negriff and her friends Gerry Millard and Betty Sparrow staked out his hotel. They convinced him to play at one of the school's noon hour concerts.

The concerts, organized by the school's music committee, were held on Thursdays throughout the winter. Admission was a nickel. The students couldn't charge admission for Armstrong's appearance, however, since he was under contract to the Palomar.

The 45-minute concert, which also featured singer Thelma Middleton, was a hit. Armstrong promised to come back the following year.

He kept his promise, bringing his band with him. At the February 1952 concert, Armstrong's band took turns playing numbers with the Kitsilano School Mixer Orchestra. More than 1,000 students packed the school's auditorium and crammed the nearby hallways. Kids from other Vancouver schools-Lord Byng, King Edward, John Oliver, Magee and King George-also showed up. Organizers set up speakers outside the auditorium so everyone could hear.

Marilyn Muckle (nee Luckett) was a Grade 8 student at Kitsilano High the second year that Armstrong came to perform. She didn't get a seat in the auditorium, but was one of those who crammed into the hallways to hear him play.

"It was complete mayhem and excitement," she said. "It was fun. Everything was in motion. [The students] were just enjoying it so much. Everybody was so excited, nobody could concentrate on anything [that day]."

The concert was recorded by CKNW's Jack Cullen. When Armstrong died in 1971, Cullen played the tape on the radio in tribute.

The school orchestra included band leader Arnold Emery on trumpet, Jim McGinnes on trumpet, George Robertson on trombone, Harry (Ham) Mcleod on drums, Leslie Jones on piano, and Eric Foster, Bill Stonier, Ted Golf, Don Gaylord and Jim Thomas.

The orchestra didn't just perform at the school. Its members also gave concerts for veterans at Shaughnessy Hospital, and at the Institute for the Blind. Vancouver Courier Archive

Let's listen to Louis Armstrong with His Orchestra April 19, 1952, Denver, Colorado.

The Forest Path To The Spring

The Forest Path to the spring / A forráshoz vezető ösvény
Uploaded by seedwine. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

In memoriam Malcolm Lowry. Canada, Dollarton, Malcolm Lowry Walk, Cates Park.

Hosszú útra mégy magadba',
Oly hosszú útra mégy magadba'...

(S)HELL

Just come across this on Screenpunk's Flickr:

I had to think about Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano when i saw this Shell truck refilling a servicestations petrol tank

hell .. hell .. hell
.. after Lowry lost the manuscript to Under the Volcano in the fire at his shack at Dollarton, he was left that night with nothing to do but to stare disconsolately across the Fraser River at the Shell Oil refinery on the other side of the water. But the letter S had burnt out from the flashing giant Shell sign. So that all Lowry could see flashing at him in the darkness from across the river were the repeating red letters: 'hell' ... 'hell' ... 'hell'. (quote from Malcolm Lowry @ The 19th Hole)

Why Shell
An interesting question is what a Shell truck is doing on Iceland. Providing petrol for cars and motors of course. But doesnt that sound odd considering that Iceland is in a way one big energy plant?

Self providing?
Iceland is fully self providing in household and business needs for electricity. Its abundance of energy resources is even positioning Iceland as one the biggest aluminium smelters in the world. But ai .. cars dont ride on hydrogeothermal electricity (yet) .. so they need foreign companies to provide the oil to make the motor run.

Ken Lum’s offsite installation heading across Burrard Inlet

An art work that plays around with the meaning of Shangri-La is moving closer to the local spot that inspired it.

Earlier this year, artist Ken Lum’s from shangri-la to shangri-la was installed at Offsite, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s public art site at the Shangri-La Hotel on West Georgia. Works installed on the site are all intended to be temporary, and Lum’s three scale replicas of the shacks that once stood on the mudflats in North Vancouver will be removed as scheduled on Tuesday.

What’s changed is that the art work has a new lease on life: the District of North Vancouver has agreed to take the wood-and-glass installation, which was built at a cost of about $50,000.

“We’re very excited,” said Ian Forsyth, the director of the district’s arts office. “It was an initiative of the mayor, Richard Walton. He was intrigued about bringing it over to North Vancouver.”

Forsyth said that at a recent council meeting, the mayor and six councillors voted unanimously to bring Lum’s piece to the district “and make it a permanent part of our story.”

What still hasn’t been decided is exactly where the art installation will be located. No permanent site has been chosen, but Forsyth said it could go to a new interpretative centre at the Wild Bird Trust just off Dollarton Highway or in a new development in Maplewood Business Park or Parkgate Community Centre.

“There are lots of ideas floating around,” he said. “We’re going to get it over here and store it in one of the district work yards for however long it takes to identify a site.”

Lum’s artwork is comprised of one-third to one-quarter-scale replicas of squatters’ shacks that once stood on the mudflats at Maplewood and Dollarton. The area had been home to a community of squatters starting in the early part of the 20th century until they were burned down in 1971. The oldest shack belonged to writer Malcolm Lowry, author of Under the Volcano. The other two shacks were replicas of the homes of Greenpeace activist Paul Spoon and artist Tom Burrows. Read more on Vancouver Sun

Playful Polar Bears 1938

In a letter to his wife Margerie written in September 1939, Lowry mentions 3 films that he saw while in Vancouver during the Fall of 1939. One was Wyler's Wuthering Heights, the second was The Hound Of The Baskevilles with Basil Rathbone and the third was the cartoon Playful Polar Bears.

I have seen a number of bad films, the worst of which was a cartoon called Playful Polar Bears which keeps turning up in every movie I go to. This is positively ghoulish. The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry Volume 1.

Playful Polar Bears is a animated short subject produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures in a series called Color Classics.

The first Color Classic was photographed in the two-color Cinecolor process. The rest of the 1934 and 1935 cartoons where shot in two-strip Technicolor, because the Disney studio had an exclusive agreement with Technicolor that prevented other studios from using the lucrative three-strip process. That exclusive contract expired at the end of 1935, and the 1936 Color Classic cartoon Somewhere in Dreamland became the first Fleischer cartoon produced in three-strip Technicolor.



While they are sometimes considered by film historians to be pale Silly Symphonies knock-offs, many of the Color Classics are still highly regarded today, including Somewhere in Dreamland (1936), the Academy Award nominated shorts, Educated Fish (1937) and Hunky and Spunky (1938, first in a subseries), and Small Fry (1939). The first film in the series, Poor Cinderella, featured Betty Boop (with red hair and turquoise eyes); future films were usually one-shot cartoons with no starring characters. Two color classics - Educated Fish (1937) and Hunky and Spunky - were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons); both lost to Disney shorts.

Many of the Color Classics entries make prominent use of Max Fleischer's Tabletop 3D Setback invention, a device which allowed animation cels to be photographed against actual 3D background sets instead of the traditional paintings. Poor Cinderella, Somewhere in Dreamland, and Christmas Comes But Once a Year (starring Betty Boop character Grampy) all make prominent use of the technique. Disney's competing apparatus, the multiplane camera, would not be completed until 1937, three years after the Setback's first use.

The Color Classics series ended in 1941 with Vitamin Hay, starring Hunky and Spunky. In its place, Fleischer began producing Technicolor cartoons starring Gabby, the town crier from the 1939 Fleischer/Paramount feature film Gulliver's Travels.

A similar series would be started by Fleischer's successor Famous Studios in 1943, under the name Noveltoons. Some of the one-shots in this series would be reminiscent of the Color Classics in terms of production value and story.

In Playful Polar Bears, a group of polar bears are playing with their cubs in the ice and snow. One of the cubs has a little trouble sliding and swimming. An exploration ship happens along, and a group of greedy hunters come ashore. The little cub that we care for seems to have been shot. The hunters leave, and the mother bear starts to howl and mourn the death of her cub. All the other bears join in, and they prepare for a funeral. But all is not lost, the cub comes to life, the aurora borealis comes out, and all the bears dance and skip with joy. The Big Cartoon Database

The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939

In a letter to his wife Margerie written in September 1939, Lowry mentions 3 films that he saw while in Vancouver during the Fall of 1939. One was Wyler's Wuthering Heights, the second was The Hound Of The Baskevilles with Basil Rathbone and the third was the cartoon Playful Polar Bears.

I also saw The Hound of the Baskervilles which is altogether too deep for me. A poor devil keeps losing his left hunting boot for no valid reason, and there is a harmless pooch that lives in a grave. The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry Volume 1.

He goes on to make disparaging comments about the set which he thinks was designed for Wyler's Wuthering Heights which he had been critical of in the same letter. He also mentions the performance of "a relative of suspiciously adjacent nomenclature; Morton Lowry Well."



Born in London, Morton Lowry began a career to pursue acting on the London Stage. Even in his youth he remained a commanding presence with his volatile, yet dignified persona. During his many years of success on the London Stage he often perfected evil, authoritative roles which had such a desired effect upon himself a nd the public that later in the 1930s he moved on the Hollywood to began in the Film Industry. Starting out in unknown bit parts, his impeccable breakthrough p erformance was that of the murderous John Stapleton in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). He was indeed a brilliant performer with his glinty green eyes, smooth light brown hair, and handsome yet dark and imposing features. His performances on both stage and screen were so good to the extent that he ironically had a chieved the same success on screen as he did on stage. He moved on the numerous other roles in whatever he was offered, yet he was usually identifiable playing nasties such as the brutal schoolteacher Mr. Jonas in How Green Was My Valley (1941). Yet no matter what role he was playing good or evil, he brought the exact same charisma to both. By the late 1960s he retired from stage, for he was always careful not to be typecast as an actor. His success in such roles rank along with others favorites among Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Montagu Love, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, 'Peter Lorre' and many others. IMDb

The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox.

It is the most well-known cinematic adaptation of the book, and is often regarded as one of the better, though very inaccurate, films.

The film stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson and Richard Greene as Henry Baskerville. Because the studio apparently had no idea that the film would be such a hit, and that Rathbone and Bruce would make many more Sherlock Holmes films and be forever linked with Holmes and Watson, top billing went to Richard Greene, who was the film's romantic lead. Rathbone was billed second. Wendy Barrie, who played Beryl Stapleton, the woman with whom Greene falls in love, received third billing, and Nigel Bruce, the film's Dr. Watson, was billed fourth. In all other Holmes films, Rathbone and Bruce would receive first and second billing.
The Hound of the Baskervilles also marks the first of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies starring Rathbone and Bruce as the detective duo.


Wikipedia

Wuthering Heights 1939

In a letter to his wife Margerie written in September 1939, Lowry mentions 3 films that he saw while in Vancouver during the Fall of 1939. One was Wyler's Wuthering Heights, the second was The Hound Of The Baskevilles with Basil Rathbone and the third was the cartoon Playful Polar Bears.

I thought Wuthering Heights was perfectly lousy too: a marvellous story directed by a charwoman. The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry Volume 1.

He goes on to complain about the quality of the sets and backdrops. Lowry compares Laurence Olivier's performance in the film to attempt to impersonate Paul Muni.

Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black and white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The novel was adapted for the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. The film won the 1939 New York Film Critics Award for Best Film. It earned nominations for eight Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Actor. The 1939 Academy Award for Best Cinematography, black and white category, was awarded to Gregg Toland for his work. Read more on Wikipedia

It is funny now to think that one of the screen writers John Huston was to direct the only film adaption of Under The Volcano.

Lowry had a copy of Bronte's Wuthering Heights in his library in Dollarton.