David Banks clearly enjoys ravaging through photo archives (in this case the Vancouver Archives) – and sends along the results. To encourage him, here’s a new feature, the Banks Account:
A home movie of a 1946 parade, in colour! The movie is a bit shaky – seems to be Burrard near Melville.
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(Here’s a shot of the same place, but from 1943.) Those two buildings – Mackenzie White and Dunsmuir, and the Bowell McDonald (Bow Mac) building, just north of Melville – is what we know as the entrance to Burrard Station.
Note the wartime bike helmets!
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Same parade, with the Marine Building in view. Every other building is gone, even buildings that have yet to be built (Customs House):
Pardon this Yank’s ignorance, but what is the tri-color banner between the Union Jack and the pre-1960 British Columbia flag?
The flag in the centre looks like it might be the Red Ensign, Canada’s Flag pre 1965. BC did not have an official provincial flag before 1960 (Premier John Hart (1941-47) is said to have said “”Where and how would we use it?”)
The Vancouver Archive returns 71 images searching “burrard street victory loan parade”, none clearly show the banner, the top seems to be a coat of arms, I don’t see a logger and fisherman, setting sun, it might be the Canadian coat of arms.
Two of the images stand out. The caricatures of the Axis leaders, and the Steelworkers “Building Headaches For Hitler.” And the spectators. The ordinary citizens of Vancouver, turning out to watch a parade.
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/1/2/1289302/bdfe7d2d-e0fb-4469-b435-633f0f7fa36a-A05279.jpg
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/1/2/1289566/6c3102ec-03bb-4361-a3bb-a038971d8a90-A05297.jpg
70 years later, only the kids and teens may still be living. What are the three teenage boys on the back of the flatbed talking about? Going to a movie after the parade? Why their lifelong pal miss school last week? Will the war still be over before we’re old enough to enlist? Should we quit school and go to work, maybe on that road to Alaska? Hey guys, do you think that someone will post blog comments on the internet about us one day?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zDRlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R4kNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1945%2C5383806
Just realized that I’ve read more of the Feb 14 1942 Sun than today’s Sun. Though some things never change. Opposition to gasoline price increases, opposition to property tax increases. And Bruce Hutchison’s (legendary Sun journalist 1901-1992) column on page 4 lamenting the decline of Parliament.
Apparently *this* parade was the 2nd Victory Loan parade of 1942, on Oct 24.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kjNlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PYkNAAAAIBAJ&dq=victory%20loan%20parade%20burrard&pg=2631%2C3019424
Parade news is left of the blurb about the need to chlorinate the wate (there’s a war on, the answer to everything from food shortages (try the carrot fudge) to gas rationing , and below the blurb about the housing shortage.http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kjNlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PYkNAAAAIBAJ&dq=victory%20loan%20parade%20burrard&pg=2631%2C3019424
October 19, 1942 may be the correct date http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jTNlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PYkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1648%2C2212680