Author: Vancouver History

March 12 The Capitol Theatre opened at 820 Granville Street. Unlike the Pantages and Orpheum theatres, which were built to house vaudeville and live theatre, the Capitol was a pure movie palace, a lush theatre that originally seated 2,500. It was equipped with a huge Wurlitzer organ to accompany the movies. Calvin Winter and his Capitolians played at the opening.

January 1 At 2:00 a.m. motor vehicles in British Columbia changed from driving on the left to driving on the right hand side of the street. The change went surprisingly smoothly; there were no accidents.

February 14 Irving K. “Ike” Barber was born in Edmonton. On October 3, 2002 Barber, a UBC alumnus and founding chairman of Slocan Forest Products Ltd., announced a $20 million donation to transform UBC’s Main Library. The B.C. Government is contributing $10 million, and UBC is matching the sum of these donations for a total of $60 million to build the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

March 20 Sara Ann McLagan, newspaper publisher, died in Vancouver, aged about 69. She was the first woman telegrapher in BC, probably in Canada, came here from Ireland in 1858 at age 3. Her father taught her telegraphy. When she was 12 a major forest fire threatened their Matsqui home, but Sara tapped a message through to New Westminster and that brought help. …

January 5 (Included only because of the accused’s age) Newspaper report: “Bail in a dope case will be set at $5,000. L. O’Neil, 87, is to be arraigned before Magistrate Findlay in Police Court and charged with trafficking in narcotics under the Drug Act. Police will state that O’Neil did a brisk trade with a number of women, the tip to his activities coming from three women arrested recently.