1960

Above: Ironworkers Memorial Bridge Vancouver BC. Construction began in 1956 and the bridge would be completed in 1960.
[Image: www.commons.wikipedia.org]

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You’ll note that these years include events listed under “Also in . . .” These are events for which we don’t have a specific date. If YOU know the specific date of an event shown there, please notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January 10 Parm (Richard Parmater) Pettipiece, labor union organizer and printer, died in Vancouver, aged about 84. He was born in Ontario in 1875. Calgary’s first newsboy, Pettipiece began his printing career in 1890. In 1894 he was appointed editor and printer of the South Edmonton News. In 1896 he began a Revelstoke weekly, but soon sold it and started the Lardeau Eagle in Ferguson, B.C. He came to Vancouver in 1901 and joined the Vancouver Province. He was with that paper from 1903 to 1954. He was editor of the B.C. Federationist, a labor publication, from 1912 to 1920. He served several terms on city council, and was a director of Vancouver General Hospital for 27 years. Pettipiece was also a four-term president of the International Typographical Union.

January 25 The Vancouver Parks Board renamed Riley Park Pool as Percy Norman Memorial Pool, to honor the long-time swimming coach.

January 29 Donna Yee was named Miss Chinatown in the first beauty contest ever held in a Canadian Chinese community.

February 28 Actress Dorothy Stratten was born Dorothy Hoogstraten in Vancouver. She was a Playboy playmate (August 1979), appeared in just five movies, from 1979 to 1981, then was murdered by her husband, Paul Snider, who then killed himself. Her sad biography is at this website. From the age of 14 to 17 she worked at the Dairy Queen at 2109 East Hastings Street in Vancouver, graduated from Centennial High School in Coquitlam in 1978.

April 1 “Thanks to the popularity of its radio-dispatched cabs,” Tom Hawthorn wrote in The Greater Vancouver Book, “Black Top had grown to a 62-car fleet by April 1, 1960, when it merged with 48-car Blue Cab to become the largest taxi operation in Western Canada. Blue Cab, founded in 1935 by A. Pashos, soon faded into memory, as all cars were painted in Black Top’s distinctive cream-and-black scheme.”

April 2 The Vancouver Opera Association founded in 1959, began its presentations with a production of Carmen. Music critic Ray Chatelin wrote: “When conductor Irwin Hoffman gave the downbeat and the Vancouver Symphony played the first notes of the overture to Bizet’s opera, Carmen, on April 2, 1960, no one really knew if Vancouver was really ready for an opera company.

“Four decades later, Vancouver Opera has not only survived, but is thriving. Through good years and turmoil, the company has grown from one-opera-a-season into a multi-million dollar enterprise that is in economic and artistic good health and is giving every indication it will stay that way.”

Also April 2 A “Tear It Down” party was held at the Point Grey Golf and Country Club as the old clubhouse was slated to go.

May 3 The Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC was opened. Thanks to UBC for the following information: “The Nitobe Garden is named for Dr. Inazo Nitobe, a Japanese international educator. He died in Victoria in 1933 after attending a meeting in Banff of the Institute of Pacific Affairs. Dr. Nitobe was the Japanese representative to the League of Nations in the 1920s, where he met Norman Mackenzie, who later became President of UBC from 1948 to 1962. Dr. Nitobe provided great service in trying to bridge the gap between East and West. Hence, the gardens were named after him in commemoration. The Nitobe Garden was designed by landscape architect Kanosuke Mori. It opened in 1960 and is considered the most authentic Japanese garden outside Japan. There are two parts: the Teahouse Garden, designed for peaceful contemplation with pleasant associations; and the Main Garden, illustrating the variety of nature and the journey of life. The garden follows traditional principles of yin and yang, and its layout conforms to the map of the Milky Way. The teahouse in the tea garden was built in Japan, then dismantled and shipped to Canada and finally reassembled by two Japanese carpenters who came over with it. The flower arrangements inside are renewed weekly by members of the Ikebana Association. The irises were given to UBC by the Meiji Shrine, famous in Japan for its beautiful iris gardens.

“The yatsu-hashi bridge in the iris garden has symbolic meaning. According to Japanese legend, devils can walk only in straight lines, so to be rid of the devils following you, you need only cross the zig-zaggy bridge and the devil will fall into the water. Since devils cannot stand the touch of water, you can carry on happily for the rest of your life.

“There are many fish in the pond. Originally, UBC brought in one thousand goldfish to inhabit it. Unfortunately, the bald eagles and great blue herons living around UBC ate all the goldfish. UBC then acquired 100 expensive Japanese carp, or Koi, much bigger than goldfish! Unfortunately, the brightly-coloured koi did not reproduce and so a number of local Fraser River carp were introduced. They have reproduced and their numbers are now quite substantial (but great blue herons still come on occasion to fish for baby carp).”

May 19 A statue of Lord Stanley, after whom Stanley Park was named, was unveiled today by Governor General Georges Vanier in the park . . . and thereby hangs a tale. On October 19, 1889 a letter was written (we’re not sure by whom) promising a suitable monument to commemorate the naming and dedication by Governor General Lord Stanley of Stanley Park. The city archivist, J.S. Matthews, discovered that letter in 1950, more than 60 years after it was written, and realized the promise had not been fulfilled. So he began a fund-raising campaign. It took another 10 years, but finally he raised enough money to commission the work.

An observer at the 1889 dedication wrote: “Lord Stanley threw his arms to the heavens, as though embracing . . . one thousand acres of primeval forest, and dedicated it to the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds, and customs, for all time.” It was that expansive gesture that English sculptor Sydney Marsh captured. Made of bronze and granite, the statue is eight feet tall.

June 1 Maxie (Maximillian) Michaud, hotelier, died in Langley, aged about 86. He was born c. 1874 in Point Levis, Quebec. Michaud walked here from Montreal. He bought the Brighton Hotel (at the foot of today’s Windermere St. in Vancouver) in March 1869 from Oliver Hocking, and changed its name to the Hastings Hotel, promising “Travellers can be accommodated at all hours with good beds and meals. A good stock of liquors and cigars.” Michaud’s hotel—which also served as an early post office—became a popular spot with holidayers from New Westminster. He was “not exactly married” to his companion, Frisadie, who “charms all sojourners at the ‘End of the Road.’”

Also June 1 Hockey’s Lester Patrick died. The Legends of Hockey website says: “Beginning in 1903, Lester ‘The Silver Fox’ Patrick played a significant role in hockey history for nearly half a century. As a player, he was one of the top rushing defensemen of his day and a team leader. Patrick was also an inspirational coach and a respected team administrator. Along with his brother Frank, he pioneered the construction of artificial rinks and [in 1911-12] formed the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.” That web site has an excellent brief biography.

June 15 BC Ferries began life officially as “B.C. Highways and Bridges Toll Authority Ferries.” The authority began with two vessels—the MV Tsawwassen and the MV Sidney—which shuttled on the one route between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. There were 225 employees. Today there are 35 vessels and 47 ports of call. See this website.

June 18 Canadian Indian people living on reserves get the right to vote in federal elections.

June 29 Frank Patrick, hockey player and builder, died in Vancouver, aged 74. He was born December 21, 1885 in Ottawa. He moved to Nelson, B.C., with his family in 1909, and with his brother Lester brought professional hockey to the West Coast. The brothers built the first two artificial ice rinks in Canada. He was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and later into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. The Legends of Hockey website says: “Frank was responsible for an incredible number of rule changes and innovations, shaping the modern game and influencing other sports with his keen mind and leadership. In his prime with the West Coast league he founded, he served as league president, coach, manager and star defenseman, all at the same time.” See that web site for an excellent brief biography.

July 3 Vancouver Fire Department historian Alex Matches writes: “The first five-alarm fire, largest in the history of the department, occurred July 3, 1960, when fire destroyed the B.C. Forest Products plant and lumber storage facility on the south shore of False Creek. The fire covered an area equal in size to four city blocks and took many hours to put out. Every available firefighter and piece of equipment was called out, including both fire boats. Twelve firefighters were injured.”

One consequence of the fire: it spelled the end for that corner of Vancouver’s industrial landscape. The city chose to rezone the land for housing and parks.

July 15 Harry Jerome Jr. was one of the greatest sprinters Canada has ever produced. Today, running at a meet in Saskatoon for the University of Oregon, Jerome set the world record of 10.0 seconds flat in the 100 metres.

August 9 Vancouver experienced the hottest day in its 74-year history. The high was 33.3 degrees. (94? F).

August 10 The Canadian Bill of Rights was proclaimed. Read it here.

Also August 10 CHQM-FM 103.5 signed on with an easy listening format, carrying much of its AM station’s programming. It was the first privately-owned FM station in the city. See this website.

August 23 Empress of Japan II was the largest liner ever to dock in Vancouver.

August 25 Premier W.A.C. Bennett opened the Second Narrows Bridge. The cantilevered span of the main arch, at 1,100 feet, was at the time the second longest in Canada. Because 19 men died during construction of the bridge it has been officially renamed the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing.

September 22 From the Province of September 22, 1960 in sports writer Clancy Loranger’s column: “Monday’s meeting of Mounties’ shareholders to vote on the sale of the baseball club to Milwaukee was hardly a sweetness and light session . . . There was one impressive bit, though. General manager Bob Freitas pointed it out: Not one shareholder, the so-called ‘little guy’ who invested his 25 or 50 bucks, asked what would happen to his money. ‘Nobody even asked me privately,’ said Bob in wonder. ‘All they are interested in was keeping baseball here’.”

September 27 (James) Lyle Telford, former mayor (1939-40), died, aged 71. He was born June 21, 1889 on a farm near Valens, Ontario. “A newcomer to the civic political arena,” Donna Jean McKinnon writes, “Mayor Telford was, however, no stranger to politics, having represented the CCF in the provincial legislature. In this election he offered ‘help for the forgotten man,’ tapping into the frustration of the voters after nearly a decade of poverty. Once elected, Telford resigned from the CCF because he felt civic office should be free of party politics. Despite his obvious working class following, Telford won the mayoralty with fewer than 2,000 votes in a campaign with six other candidates. His challenges to the status quo and his socially unacceptable situation as a divorced man, combined with economic improvement and the changed political climate of wartime, combined to end his civic career at the next opportunity.”

October 1 Nigeria gained its independence.

October 3 Helena Rose Gutteridge, suffragette, feminist, trade unionist, tailor, socialist and politician died in Vancouver, aged about 80. She was born c. 1880 in London, England, came to BC in 1911. She organized the B.C. Women’s Suffrage League. Her interest in the working class woman led to trade union activities. She soon took a leading role in the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council. Gutteridge joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). She became a champion of affordable housing. In 1937, she was elected Vancouver’s first woman alderman. Irene Howard’s biography The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer, published in 1992 by UBC Press, won the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography.

October 13 George Randolph Pearkes was sworn in as B.C.’s lieutenant governor, succeeding Frank Ross.

October 28 The Walter Koerner Library opened at UBC.

October 31 At 4:45 p.m. CHAN-TV/8 Vancouver signed on as Vancouver’s first independent TV station. Studios were temporarily established at Richards and Davie Streets until the main studios in Burnaby could be completed. The transmitter was on Burnaby Mountain. Initially, the signal was poor. Although it reached all of downtown Vancouver, it was inferior to that of incumbent stations CBUT (CBC) and KVOS-TV of Bellingham, Washington, across the border in the U. S. Lee Bacchus, in The Greater Vancouver Book, writes: “A 34-year-old former newspaper photographer named Art Jones launched CHAN-TV (Ch. 8)—now better known as BCTV. Viewers could also watch All-Star Wrestling with Fred Asher and Brad Keene, Ted Peck’s Tides & Trails, Buddy Clyde’s Dance Party, a children’s show with the avuncular Ron Morrier and a prime-time schedule weighted down with such U.S. series as The Rifleman and 77 Sunset Strip.” See this site.

December 3 Artist J.W.G (James Williamson Galloway) Macdonald died in Toronto. “Originally a designer and teacher,” Tony Robertson wrote in The Greater Vancouver Book, “he was brought to Vancouver by C.H. Scott and encouraged by Scott and F.H. Varley to turn to painting. Again, like many of his contemporaries, Macdonald was very interested in and involved with discovering the spiritual values of the landscape and the power of revelation in their artistic depiction. He was unable to remain in B.C., but never lost his love for the landscape, particularly the mountainous area around Garibaldi Park.” In 1926 Macdonald was appointed head of design at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. Says the Canadian Encyclopedia: “One of the most important teachers in modern Canadian art history, he and Varley founded the innovative BC College of Arts (1933-35).” He was one of the first abstract painters in Canada. See this site.

Also December 3 Camelot premiered on Broadway.

December 5 Canada admitted her 2-millionth immigrant since the Second World War. She was 16-year-old Anette Toft from Denmark. She had travelled from Denmark with her mother and brother, was en route to Calgary to rejoin her father, a dental technician.

December 7 William Carey Ditmars, contractor, died in Vancouver, aged 95. “He was born,” Constance Brissenden writes, “November 12, 1865 in St. Catherines, Ontario. Ditmars arrived in Vancouver from Toronto early in 1891, and worked as an accountant for John Doty Engine. He moved back to Toronto (1894-97), then joined a new Vancouver bridge-building firm, Armstrong & Morrison. In 1903 he became a full partner, building the Granville, Cambie and Fraser Street bridges. He laid the substructure for Lions Gate Bridge in 1937. Ditmars was president of Vancouver Granite, supplying granite facing for bridge piers. In February 1899 he bought a tiller-steered Stanley Steamer for partner W.H. Armstrong, the first automobile in Vancouver. Cost f.o.b. Vancouver was approximately $1,000. He received Vancouver’s Good Citizen Award in 1928.”

December The Lyric Theatre on Granville Street closed. It had opened in 1891 as the Opera House and on March 17, 1913 re-opened as the Orpheum (not the present theatre), with vaudeville acts. On July 26, 1935 it opened again as the Lyric with talking pictures.

Also in 1960

“The first successful optical laser constructed by Maiman [it was in 1960], consisted of a ruby crystal surrounded by a helicoidal flash tube enclosed within a polished aluminum cylindrical cavity cooled by forced air. The ruby cylinder forms a Fabry-Perot cavity by optically polishing the ends to be parallel to within a third of a wavelength of light.”

Words to get your pulse pumping! Actually, the first practical laser did get a lot of scientific pulses pumping. The local angle: the man who developed it, Los Angeles-born Dr. Theodore Maiman, moved to Vancouver. To quote an SFU site: “A Californian by birth, Maiman received his doctorate in physics from Stanford University in 1955, and then went on to work at the Hughes research laboratories, where he developed, demonstrated, and patented the laser that eventually earned him world-wide recognition.”

Great Northern Way was named in honor of the railway company that donated much of the land the street is on.

Vancouver police reported that 84 bootleggers were in full operation in Vancouver.

Eric Hamber died in Vancouver, aged 79. He was born April 21, 1880 in Winnipeg. Hamber was a star rower as a young man. “He came to Vancouver in 1907 as manager of the Dominion Bank,” writes Constance Brissenden. “In 1912 he married Aldyen Irene Hendry, daughter of John Hendry. He was a captain in the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders. Hamber worked for B.C. Mills, Timber and Trading, and was appointed president in 1916. He was BC’s lieutenant-governor from 1936 to 1941, chancellor of UBC from 1944 to 1951. The Hambers were prominent in society and in philanthropic circles.” Eric Hamber HS was named for him, as were a provincial park and an island off the BC coast. The Special Collections Room at the Vancouver Public Library is named for Aldyen Hamber.

Lansdowne Race Track closed. The stables and track continued to be used as training facilities.

A B.C. government-owned ferry service began between Tsawwassen and Victoria. Within a year it will take over the Black Ball Ferries operation in Horseshoe Bay.

Highway #17 to the Tsawwassen ferries opened.

During construction of the Trans-Canada Highway through the Fraser Valley, a man named Charlie Perkins stood guard over his ivy-covered fir tree, directly in the path of the new road. He had dedicated the tree to fallen comrades in World War I, and the public outcry resulted in the engineers curving the road around it. That may be a unique circumstance in the construction of a national highway. You can see that curve on the Trans-Canada to this day.

The Garibaldi Lift Company was formed to develop Whistler as a ski mountain. There was no road, no hydro, no water supply and no money at the time.

Brentwood Mall opened in Burnaby. At 30 acres it was the largest of its kind in B.C. at the time.

The Quilchena Golf Club, which had had a clubhouse at 29th and Maple Crescent, moved to Richmond.

Architectural historian Harold Kalman noted something about the building at 6415 Victoria Drive, built in 1960, that the rest of us might not: “In this day of sprawling mega-stores,” he wrote, “we sometimes forget that the post-war common supermarket represented an ambitious architectural program. The Super-Valu chain, which originally erected and operated this building, developed the best local solution. Large glued-laminated timber arches provide a broad expanse of unobstructed, column-free space. Note the remarkably small metal connectors, which bear the full weight of the structure where the arches meet the ground. The building is now a discount outlet that sells used articles donated to charities.”

The Queensborough highway bridge was built. “The City of New Westminster built this $4-million bridge over the North Arm of the Fraser,” wrote Robert Harris in The Greater Vancouver Book, “for access to its suburb of Queensborough at the east end of Lulu Island, and to the Annacis Industrial Estate to the south. It has since become a feeder to Route 91 and the 1986 Alex Fraser (Annacis) Bridge. Queensborough was a toll bridge until bought by the provincial government in November 1966.”

An early Queensborough bridge has had an interesting history. It was built in 1913 by B.C. Electric Railway for rail access to the industrialized end of Lulu Island. Cars could use it, too. The bridge continues in rail freight service to Annacis Island, but was closed to highway traffic in 1960, after the high-level, four-lane Queensborough Bridge was built a little to the west.

A Lulu Island-Sea Island bridge was demolished this year. The bridge was the first over the Middle Arm of the Fraser, was built at the north end of No. 3 Road, joining Sea Island to the Bridgeport area of Lulu Island, as an extension of the first Marpole Bridge.

A south wing was added to UBC’s Main Library.

St. Paul’s Hospital opened BC’s first biomedical engineering department.

St. Paul’s Hospital performed its first open-heart surgery.

The British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Care Centre (named Grace Hospital and under the direction of the Salvation Army at the time) celebrated its 50,000 birth. (It would mark its 100,000th in 1977 and 200,000th under its present name in 1993.)

The farms at Riverview (Mental) Hospital were transferred to the control of the BC Agriculture Ministry.

CKWX started the kind of open-line broadcasting so popular in Metropolitan Vancouver today. Barrie Clark was an early star.

The Vancouver Stock Exchange Review, a monthly publication from the Vancouver Stock Exchange, began. It provided a summary of trading in equities and options, included trading statistics and cumulative figures, listing changes, financings and related topics.

The average person in the Vancouver area was eating 23 dozen eggs (276) a year in 1960. By 1997 that would drop to 15 dozen (180).

Local golfing great Stan Leonard won the Western Open.

The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club purchased Tugboat Island, a 28-acre park at Silva Bay, as an offshore station.

MacLean Park, a block-square park bounded by Heatley and Hawks Avenues and East Georgia and Keefer Streets, was relocated. The new park replaced the original at Union and Jackson, which had been taken over for Vancouver’s first urban renewal housing. Named in 1912 after Vancouver’s first mayor, J.A. MacLean, it was the first supervised playground for children in Vancouver. Today, seniors use the “new” park—where houses, apartments and a bakery once stood—for daily tai chi.

Maple Grove Park (on Yew between West 51st Avenue and Marine Drive) became the site of Vancouver’s first recreation program for blind children.

Dr. Murray Newman, the Vancouver Aquarium’s first Director, attended the first International Aquarium Congress in Monaco, and visited the Berlin Aquarium and the British Museum of Natural History. “From these observations,” Newman wrote, “plus visits to Marine Studios in Florida came the concept of a new kind of facility—a living aquatic museum which would tell the story of the aquatic habitats of Western Canada from the open ocean to the headwaters of the Fraser River.” The enlarged aquarium would open in 1967.

Artist Alan Storey was born. “He is,” writes Tony Robertson, “a sculptor, inventor, installation and mixed-media artist working mostly in large and fanciful moving constructions, the best known of which is the pendulum in Vancouver’s HSBC building. His work is playfully serious and seriously playful.”

The figurehead of the Empress of Japan (a ship that sailed into Vancouver harbor many times between 1891 and 1922) was rescued from its Stanley Park location, where it had been exposed to the elements for decades, and given to the Maritime Museum for safekeeping and restoration. It is now on display in the Museum. It is a much more impressive work than the fibreglass reproduction now in the Park.

A bronze sculpture titled Fertility, by Jack Harman, was installed at UBC’s Lasserre Building.

Theatre Under The Stars, which had been presenting musical productions at Malkin Bowl, since the 1940s, closed. It would be reopened by enthusiasts in 1969.

The United Players was born as the St. James Drama Group, created by the St. James United Church Women. They perform at the Jericho Arts Centre.

Author David Watmough, born in London, England in 1926, moved to Vancouver. (He had been in the US since 1952.) He became a Canadian citizen in 1967. Watmough has written numerous connected (and celebrated) works of fiction about his fictional counterpart, Davey Bryant. See this site.

Calgary-born (April 28, 1926) Hy Aisenstat, restaurateur, moved to Vancouver and opened Hy’s at the Sands. The son of a Russian emigre wholesale grocer in Calgary, Aisenstat worked in sales, then owned a small oil company. In 1955, with wife Barbara (born March 20, 1934 in Kirkland Lake, Ont.), he opened Hy’s Steak House in Calgary with a $3,000 loan. After his arrival in Vancouver he would vastly expand his restaurant empire.

Bellingham, Washington-born (June 10, 1894) Buda Hosmer Brown (née Jenkins) was elected Social Credit MLA for Vancouver Point Grey. She was appointed minister at large (without portfolio), the first woman in a W.A.C. Bennett cabinet since Tilly Rolston.

Anglican minister Stanley Higgs became chaplain of the Haney Correctional Institute. He would hold that office until 1968.

Poet and photographer Roy Kiyooka (born January 18, 1926 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan) came to Vancouver.

Blanche Macdonald (née Brillon), entrepreneur and native rights activist (born May 11, 1931 in Faust, Alberta) opened a modelling agency and self-improvement school in Vancouver. She would later expand into fashion, esthetics and make-up artistry training.

Pearl Steen, women’s activist (born in 1893 in Victoria), who had had a distinguished career of public service, was the sole Canadian woman delegate to the UN General Assembly in 1960. She also became the only woman director of the PNE this same year, and would be on the board until 1968.

Rufus Palmer Steeves died in Cloverdale, aged about 68. He was born in 1892 in Woodstock, New Brunswick. He was a Canadian officer during the First World War and a former prisoner of war. Steeves was later principal of General Gordon High School and a co-founder of the Kitsilano Boys Band. He was the husband of prominent CCF politician Dorothy Steeves (1895-1978).

Mildred Valley Thornton, Vancouver artist and art critic, born in 1890 in Dresden, Ontario, was made a Fellow, Royal Academy of Arts.

Peter Toigo, Powell River-born entrepreneur (born September 9, 1932), bought downtown Powell River from MacMillan Bloedel and built the town’s first shopping centre. In 1982 he would buy the White Spot Restaurant chain.