Muzac For Munsters

[Chef Boi RD]

We used to go shopping at the old Woodward’s on Hastings in the late 70s as little kids with Mom and Dad before Coquitlam Centre opened. That area wasn’t an eyesore back then.

Skid Row was still awesome in the 70s. It was rough but Hastings was still vibrant and full of businesses.

As kids, we used to walk down with our folks from Chinatown Strathcona, via Hastings & Main to the A & N for clothes. Then Woodwards for groceries.

It was like heaven for us. Six floors to run around in, every floor had an arcade machine. The toy department was big and awesome. We'd spend an entire day down there.

The well-to-do families would shop on the Granville strip, Bay and Eaton's but we loved the DTES before it became what it is now. Really sad.

I love Strathcona. My great Nono’s house still stands on Prior street. We did the Bay on Granville mostly, but we had Park Royal on the North Shore so going downtown shopping wasn’t very often for us

[Chef Boi RD]

We used to go shopping at the old Woodward’s on Hastings in the late 70s as little kids with Mom and Dad before Coquitlam Centre opened. That area wasn’t an eyesore back then.

Were you that kid who kicked me in the shins by the escalator with those hard dress shoes on? I’ll never forget that kid.

Lol I never wore dress shoes as a kid. Maybe Stan Smith leather runners.

Out of nowhere and for no reason Doyle he just laid that hard as fuck dress shoe into my shin

[Cornuck]

Out of nowhere and for no reason Doyle he just laid that hard as fuck dress shoe into my shin

And you guys have been at like an old married couple ever since.

Yeah - shopping for 'school clothes' at Woodwards - that was a while ago! Years later, I was clothes shopping at the great army surplus store on Hastings, then pub crawl back to the record stores along Granville / Seymour and West 4th.

[Carl Yagro]

What kid wore dress shoes in the DTES?

Most got no-name brands at the Army & Navy (huge shoe department back then). If we were lucky, we occasionally got a pair of North Stars.

You'd never see Stan Smiths or Nike canvas shoes. Those were for the rich kids shopping on Granville.

[Cornuck]

My brother still wears Stan Smith....

[Carl Yagro]

$100+ for old, uncomfortable 70s tech? Unbelievable cash grab for a bit of nostalgia.

I'll admit, they bring back good memories. I got a pair of Stan Smith's for my birthday one year. I was so happy.

But I can't wear bright white, leather sneakers at my age now. Looking like a 90s Seinfeld.

[Cornuck]

Yep... you've described my brother's look (minus the puffy shirt).

I think he buys them new.

[Carl Yagro]

I recently went back to Converse Chuck Taylors though. Haven't worn them since I was a kid. Bought a couple pairs.

Classic great looks but with updated comfort.

[Megaterio Llamas]

There was a second, even older, smaller Pantages theater farther up Hastings near Main. It was finally destroyed in 2011 but not before the city dicked around for a while going through the motions of trying to save it. This one was still open in the mid seventies as the City Nights and my friends and I used to like to go down there to watch movies once in a while. It was a really cool old place with ornate plaster sculpture and great balconies and it used to run a lot of cult movies. I first saw The Night of the Living Dead there. It stayed open as a Chinese theater for quite a few years after that but it sat empty for a long time in a state of decay. Too long I guess.

[Megaterio Llamas]

[Megaterio Llamas]

[Carl Yagro]

There was a second, even older, smaller Pantages theater farther up Hastings near Main. It was finally destroyed in 2011 but not before the city dicked around for a while going through the motions of trying to save it. This one was still open in the mid seventies as the City Nights and my friends and I used to like to go down there to watch movies once in a while. It was a really cool old place with ornate plaster sculpture and great balconies and it used to run a lot of cult movies. I first saw The Night of the Living Dead there. It stayed open as a Chinese theater for quite a few years after that but it sat empty for a long time in a state of decay. Too long I guess.

The one on Hastings near Main was the Shaw theatre, showing mostly films produced by the Shaw Brothers. The one on Main near Hastings was the Golden Harvest (still there) which showed mostly films produced by, you guessed it, Golden Harvest.

We used to watch double features of some of Jackie Chan's first kung-fu movies. They were pretty much all kung-fu flicks in the 70s. They look laughably bad now, but at the time, they were so cool.

My dad took me to see Enter The Dragon for the first time in one of those theaters. Not the original release, but that was the most bad-ass flick a kid could ever watch.

[Megaterio Llamas]

The one on Hastings near Main was the Shaw theatre, showing mostly films produced by the Shaw Brothers. The one on Main near Hastings was the Golden Harvest (still there) which showed mostly films produced by, you guessed it, Golden Harvest.

We used to watch double features of some of Jackie Chan's first kung-fu movies. They were pretty much all kung-fu flicks in the 70s. They look laughably bad now, but at the time, they were so cool.

My dad took me to see Enter The Dragon for the first time in one of those theaters. Not the original release, but that was the most bad-ass flick a kid could ever watch.

Nah the second Pantages did become a Chinese theater but it was across from the Balmoral. the other one that's still there is up across the other side of Main.

[Megaterio Llamas]

It’s curtains for the Pantages Theatre, Vancouver’s oldest vaudeville and movie house


http://www.vancouversun.com/year+vaudev ... story.html

The century old landmark at 144-150 East Hastings near Main will probably be torn down in the next couple of days, after the city issued a demolition permit for the site.

“They’ve been chewing away next door, so [demolition is] imminent,” said Don Luxton of Heritage Vancouver. “They’ve already started ripping out the backs of the buildings.”

Several groups have attempted to revive the Pantages, which was the oldest theatre remaining from a legendary chain of vaudeville palaces that Alexander Pantages built across North America.

It has been vacant since 1994, and has been rotting inside from rain seeping in through a damaged roof, a textbook case of what heritage activists call “demolition through neglect.”

“I think it’s a tragic and irreversible loss,” said Luxton. “We’re losing what was clearly recognized as a historic theatre. We can’t get it back now, it’s gone.”

Demolition permits have also been issued for the four adjacent properties at 130, 132, 134 and 138 East Hastings, which means there will soon be another big empty lot in the troubled Downtown Eastside.

Will Johnston of the city’s licences and inspections department said no plans have been approved to redevelop the site.

The Pantages was built in 1907-08 in the middle of Vancouver’s original downtown.

It was converted to a movie house in the late 1920s, and in the early ’30s survived a fire in the projectionist’s booth and a bomb that was thrown into the theatre during a labour meeting. It had several names over its lifetime, including the Royal, State, Queen, Avon and City Nights. It last operated as the Sung Sing, a Chinese-language theatre.

[Carl Yagro]

Sorry, mang. You're right. I was remembering the Shaw theater east of Main on Hastings.