Adventure Blog
Come along with me on my adventures! This is where I go into some of the details on my trips and share some tips and tricks I happened to pick up!
A little while back, while looking for something completely unrelated, I found an old disposable camera. Excited by the fact that I didn’t need to spend $15 on a new one, I packed it into my backpack to take on my trip to Vancouver. It was still in the packaging, so I figured it would be fine- not even considering the fact that the film may have expired…in 2006. Or that it was a black and white camera. I’ve never really shot in black and white before, because well I was born into the digital and colour age. And since this film had expired 15 years ago, the effects it got were pretty interesting. A couple of the photos were completely blank because the lighting just wasn’t bright enough. However, the photos that I did get had a cool vintage feel to them. Like this photo here, I took it in 2022, but it looks like something straight out of the 1900s. It very well could be, considering the Vogue Theatre was built in the 1940s. It’s an important part of Vancouver’s historic ‘Theatre Row’ on Granville Street. What is now the Pacific Centre Mall, used to be a few different theatres, including the one that started the whole theatre trend on Granville Street in the 1800s- The Vancouver Opera House. If you look closely, you can see another historic theatre in the photo, the Orpheum, built fourteen years before The Vogue. It was originally known as the ‘New Orpheum’, as the Opera House was renamed ‘The Orpheum’ in 1913. The Vancouver Opera House was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway and opened on February 9th, 1891. It had 1,200 seats originally, but after being renovated a few times, it had over 1,700 seats. After a couple more theatres opened nearby in the late 1890s, Vancouver was gaining a lot of buzz in the United States. By 1908, with so many venue options, Vancouver had become a staple of many North America-wide tours. The theatre changed owners many times and was renamed several times, before being demolished in 1969 to make room for the Pacific Centre mall. The theatre row that got its name for the assortment of movie theatres found on the street doesn’t actually have any more operating cinemas. The last one closed in November of 2012- The Granville 7 Cinemas. However, the history stays alive through theatres like The Vogue and The Orpheum changing to accommodate the present day’s needs on the inside but keeping the historic sentiments on the outside. I didn’t know most of this before researching the Theatre Row, to get an interesting tidbit for my Instagram caption, but it’s quite fascinating to see how such an important street has had to be rebuilt for every generation, and for the interests they bring. Granville has gone from live theatre to movies, to clubs, and back to theatres all within a hundred years. I hope the city and people can keep preserving the history as they try to make way for whatever the new craze is. I don't think I would have ever found out about all this if it weren’t for the mistake of using an old, expired black and white camera to take a random picture., but sometimes a mistake can give you something more valuable- like learning about a city's history! Also, I don't think I could have gotten a better picture with any digital camera. Also, this week the Vogue turns 81! It’s still as fabulous as I imagine it once was, at its peak. If you’re ever in Vancouver, I highly recommend coming down to the brightest part of the city- you can’t possibly miss the neon signs- and catching a concert or show. It’s bound to be an entertaining night in the entertainment district. Top left (black and white): Michael Kluckner, 1940s
Middle left (colour): City of Vancouver, 1967 Bottom left (colour): City of Vancouver, 1891 Right (black and white): Kashish Vij, 2022
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