Anyone that never experienced Vancouver in the 50's and 60's missed the Golden Years of this city. It's nothing more than a heartless metropolis barely a shadow of its wonderful past.
Indeed! The city doesn't have a real centre any more. The dreadful London Drugs building at Granville and Georgia, where Birks used to be. Granville Street has become a hideous monstrosity. I could go on and on.....
Most of the people depicted in these shots, who were considered the radical hippies, were the very people who championed saving our city from being gutted by freeways, saved our oldest inner city districts, and helped with the transformation of False Creek from a cesspool to the recreational waterfront we enjoy today. Many of them were my professors in university at architecture school (UBC) and my mentors.
That was my era from a teenager into my 20s. It was a far better city than it is today. Half as many people, half as much traffic, a sleepy cool town where working people could still buy a home. Best of all it had a great night life--- lots of clubs and bars and lounges with live music for every taste. Vancouver was a happening place. But it's all gone now, thanks to a massive influx of Asian immigrants and an enormous real estate boom that has destroyed practically every live entertainment venue in the lower Mainland. Vancouver sucks in comparison today to what it used to be!
@@jimthompson717 Racism and the ecology (today climate change) are as much an issue today as they where 40 years ago. Vancouver real estate has become a Commodity market for foreign speculators and as a consequence the price of your average house is well beyond the means of average income.
@@daniel213141 children of the 60s are the exact same selfish pr*cks who destroyed the city for thier own selfishness to inflate thier own asset prices....... disgusting people
I used to walk downtown from where we lived near Arbutus and 15th by crossing the train trestle (seen at 2:54) across False Creek and visit all the department stores, Hudson Bay, Eaton's, Woodwards and the Army and Navy and walk home after dark....at the age of ten. Never felt in danger for a second.
Now ,that is so cool, when we started 1976, my 2 friends & I would ride our Mustang bikes all the way Downtown from 49th & Knight , Over the next decade our bigs got better, & we moved on ,but we couldn’t stop exploring Our Beautiful city, 56 yrs old living in the Valley now, but I use All my timeshare credits (4 weeks a year) , to keep on exploring this ever evolving City.🇨🇦
I was born and raised in Vancouver (North Van). I didn't know any better then but looking back now it was an awesome place to grow up in the 60's and 70's. Now, I'm glad that I live in northern BC. BC has so many nice places to live that there is no reason for everyone to cram into one little corner of it, but people do anyway.
I was born in Lions Gate Hospital in 1972, I wasn’t alive when most of this took place, but so much of it still remained, and I remember quite a bit of it. As a kid growing up in the 80s Vancouver still wasn’t overly developed, like it is now . The Seven Seas Restaurant was still there when I was a kid. Alot of the neon signs were still there, and even China town was quite lively. So many great restaurants with a great atmosphere. It’s a shame that it was let to run down. Granville had great movie theatres. It’s crazy to think, that my Grandmother saw Nat King Cole at the Commodore Ballroom.
Have great memories Part of my youth and who I am today. Proud of where I’m from. No sadness just pride. Live today in Tokyo Different time and place. It’s all perfect
children of the 60s are the exact same selfish pr*cks who destroyed the city for thier own selfishness to inflate thier own asset prices....... disgusting people
Our son was at the top of the Hotel Vancouver last year installing elevators, and they put in 3 floors of offices where the Panorama room used to be. They have preserved the broadcasting booth though!
Thanks for posting some photos of what the city looked like most of the time even back then, dull grey and rainy... Funny how it didn't feel as depressing as it does now though.
In 1971 i had my appendix taken out at Lions Gate Hospital and a few days later a guy from my class went though a glass door he was cut up real bad . any ways while we were both recovering there ,our high school French teacher came to visit us and she brought along two packs of Players cigarettes' for us LOL
I lived during those time and it was exciting. I even took a photo (while working at Van Sun) of Marilyn Munroe coming out of a Mens clothing store in crutches. She had bought a tie for her boyfriend Joe D. A week before she had sprained her ankle when she fell off a raft while filming "River of no return". Great music on this video.
@@spitfireaace it was 1955 and I was a pimple faced teen. Even now at my age the Queen thinks Im a spring chicken. Oh how I miss the Cave night club of Vancouver back then.
@@genemccormick3935 I picked out the old sun building in the background of one of the pictures and it brought back memories of my uncle who worked there. we invited the world to vancouver to see expo 86 and vancouver was never the same afterwards.
Marilyn filmed River Of No Return in Banff and Jasper in '53 or '54 and went through Vancouver to and from there. If you Google Images "M.M. Vancouver or Calgary or Banff or Jasper" there are some good photos.
Big money rolls in and sucks the soul out of our provincial town. Expo, the Brits leave Hong Kong and then the Olympics. Boom it's gone. Loved my old city more than I knew and miss it just like an old love.
@@snidepete5700 I think Expo is overrated as the catalyst to the exponential growth. Lack of foreign property ownership laws coupled with the repatriation of Hong Kong to China and the liberalization of the Chinese economy has more to do with the growth and the cost of living.
Welcome to the 21st century. Don't you REALLY miss the utility poles along Pender Street near Ming's and Bamboo Terrace? Reminds me of the earlier pics of the 20's. Finally, Vancouver begins to look like a world-class city with a lot of class! There you have it - my opinion, and I'm sticking with it. Cheers, and enjoy the fabulous views that still exist! Wish I still lived there. HOW ABOUT A NICE Saskatchewan January winter? Yuck!!!
I REMEMBER WHEN MOST OF THE WEST END WAS HOUSES............AND IT WAS A MUCH BETTER TIME THAN WHAT THE KIDS HAVE TO GROW UP IN NOW..............JUST NOT THE SAME......PEOPLE ARENT ANYWHERE NEAR AS FRIENDLY AS THEY WERE THEN.....NOW EVERYONE IS IN A REDICULOUS RUSH SO THEY CAN PAY THE MORTGAGE AND EAT........THOS WERE FAR BETTER TIMES......
How did you ever get this thru the filters?? I get flagged if I have the beach boys playing on AM radio in the background if filming out the window. good for you!
Phil Carroll, 0:58 seconds is a building. Where and when was this building torn down? 1:06 is another building and 1:17 is a location not recognizable. At 1:23 is Pender and Columbia? 2:22 High Low use to be what type of business and what where was this located? I was born in the mid 70's and make out most of the pictures but some I still am not sure of. Thanks!
@2:00 in there is a picture of Rickshaw Restaurant... i had always thought the only one was here in Surrey on KGH... was there others, much like the Dragon inn?
@@sandyburns3635 Firstly what a great video - Rickshaw was on the Vancouver side on Hastings between Skeena and Kootenay streets same side as what was known as the Kootenay loop where the trolley buses turned to go back downtown, we used to sell sacks of pigeons to the Rickshaw which we caught be the 2nd narrows bridge, pigeons were pretty chubby all grain fed from scraps from the Wheat Pool next to the bridge, think it went in the chicken chow mein, a box of beer was $2.65 back then, we were all under the 21 yrs drinking age but could get in to hang out at the Stratford,Dufferin,St Regis and the Waldorf to name a few, those were the days, ( the chant report when Templeton High School led the first student strike in Van's history inciting Brit and Tech high schools ) I think I could right a book as could most of us!
@@johng6509 My Bad, Ya you’re right with the location, & especially Right when talking about Our Fair City that we Love, There should be a Social site for all of Us born here in Beautiful Vancouver B.C. One that includes ALL BACKGROUNDS Because a lot of uncredited Labour went into Building this Town.✌🏾
She was born in Ft Macleod, grew up in Saskatchewan, but has had a long association with Vancouver as an adult. She was involved in the "60's music scene in Vancouver and in the early '70's bought a country retreat outside the city which she owns to this day and visits frequently, and her Manager is based in Vancouver.
Okay...love the pictures but for crying out loud lose the annoying and distracting transition effects from pic to pic. They do nothing for this presentation. Or any presentation for that matter.
Anyone that never experienced Vancouver in the 50's and 60's missed the Golden Years of this city. It's nothing more than a heartless metropolis barely a shadow of its wonderful past.
Indeed! The city doesn't have a real centre any more. The dreadful London Drugs building at Granville and Georgia, where Birks used to be. Granville Street has become a hideous monstrosity. I could go on and on.....
Boomers had it way too good.
Vancouver was not one of the coolest cities in the world 50 years ago. It was just cool compared to the rest of western Canada.
Boy that takes me back, born in '65, I used to live on E46 between Main and Fraser. It was so safe for a kid back then, I miss those days.
Awesome! How I miss those good old days! Bigger is not always better for sure!
Thanks Phil! When Vancouver was eclectic & before every ounce of character was gutted.
Sad isn't it?
@@capnvancouver I love the old neon..It is very sad what this great city has become :(
@@Jazagod the globalists marched in with their post modernist box shit and made it just another cookie cutter global city.
WEEEEEEEE
Most of the people depicted in these shots, who were considered the radical hippies, were the very people who championed saving our city from being gutted by freeways, saved our oldest inner city districts, and helped with the transformation of False Creek from a cesspool to the recreational waterfront we enjoy today. Many of them were my professors in university at architecture school (UBC) and my mentors.
Really then you need to stay off the freeways that are gutting every city be consistent
i remember falsecreek when it was industrial with sawmills and rail yards ect . i kind of miss how things were 50 or more years ago
There were mno hippies in the fifties, and those bums did zip to make anything better.
That was my era from a teenager into my 20s. It was a far better city than it is today. Half as many people, half as much traffic, a sleepy cool town where working people could still buy a home. Best of all it had a great night life--- lots of clubs and bars and lounges with live music for every taste. Vancouver was a happening place. But it's all gone now, thanks to a massive influx of Asian immigrants and an enormous real estate boom that has destroyed practically every live entertainment venue in the lower Mainland. Vancouver sucks in comparison today to what it used to be!
Expo 86 ruined Vancouver.
Love these photos, brings back memories of a better time.
Better times for sure. The special feeling of Vancouver is gone
@@jimthompson717 Racism and the ecology (today climate change) are as much an issue today as they where 40 years ago.
Vancouver real estate has become a Commodity market for foreign speculators and as a consequence the price of your average house is well beyond the means of average income.
@@daniel213141 children of the 60s are the exact same selfish pr*cks who destroyed the city for thier own selfishness to inflate thier own asset prices....... disgusting people
PERFECT tune pick for the background! Thanks for the memories!
I used to walk downtown from where we lived near Arbutus and 15th by crossing the train trestle (seen at 2:54) across False Creek and visit all the department stores, Hudson Bay, Eaton's, Woodwards and the Army and Navy and walk home after dark....at the age of ten. Never felt in danger for a second.
I remember going on the bus from North Vancouver to the old bus station near the QE theater
Now ,that is so cool, when we started 1976, my 2 friends & I would ride our Mustang bikes all the way Downtown from 49th & Knight ,
Over the next decade our bigs got better, & we moved on ,but we couldn’t stop exploring Our Beautiful city,
56 yrs old living in the Valley now, but I use All my timeshare credits (4 weeks a year) , to keep on exploring this ever evolving City.🇨🇦
@@paulineburns1967 : in the late seventies i rode all over Vancouver and around stanley park hundreds of times . it was great back then
Thanks for the comments. I miss the old Vancouver too.
I was born and raised in Vancouver (North Van). I didn't know any better then but looking back now it was an awesome place to grow up in the 60's and 70's. Now, I'm glad that I live in northern BC. BC has so many nice places to live that there is no reason for everyone to cram into one little corner of it, but people do anyway.
God I miss old Vancouver. I still grieve every day I live here. I look around and I get sad at how this city has become.
especially the chinese laundering dirty money and east vancouver.
Y’all with this old school attitude should move out so younger folks like myself can move back!!
@@MVOH Quite a few younger folks moving out because they can't afford to live there.
Same I think in many places across the country. I'm in Toronto and feel the same. I miss the industrial grit and texture we once had.
I was born in Lions Gate Hospital in 1972, I wasn’t alive when most of this took place, but so much of it still remained, and I remember quite a bit of it. As a kid growing up in the 80s Vancouver still wasn’t overly developed, like it is now . The Seven Seas Restaurant was still there when I was a kid. Alot of the neon signs were still there, and even China town was quite lively. So many great restaurants with a great atmosphere. It’s a shame that it was let to run down. Granville had great movie theatres. It’s crazy to think, that my Grandmother saw Nat King Cole at the Commodore Ballroom.
What a great city Vancouver usedto be.Thanks for the memories,
Thanks for posting Phil. Brings back lots of memories of my home town that is quickly disappearing.
Thanks for your words
Vancouver was much more fun in those days.
People are incredibly rude today, or misunderstand when you show good old fashioned mannerisms.
Have great memories
Part of my youth and who I am today. Proud of where I’m from. No sadness just pride.
Live today in Tokyo
Different time and place.
It’s all perfect
A nostalgic tour of back then to simpler times & more neon & cooler cars.
awesome.. the city I grew up in 50's to 70's.. thank you.
Very well done! As a child of 50s and 60s growing up in Vancouver, I sure enjoyed this! Great choice of accompanying music, too.
children of the 60s are the exact same selfish pr*cks who destroyed the city for thier own selfishness to inflate thier own asset prices....... disgusting people
Born here in 1961. Some things remain. Lots changed. Time marches on. We didn't think we could stay the same did we? Thanks for the photos.
1957 at VGH
1959 vgh
Fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed that trip down memory lane. Thanks!
Great job, Pjil. man I miss themold days. Looking at the North Shore. almost barren in light of what's there today.
That bowling sign on Granville street at the Commodore is still there.
Very cool, what great city Vancouver was.
Love the video, love the song, love the memories. Thanks, Phil.
FABULOUS BRINGS BACK ALOT OF MEMORIES OF A BETTER TIME
I was at that Easter Being at Second Beach.
Ride up with Country Joe and the Fish from Berkeley , California.
Peace love ❤️
Me too.
I think our city has improved a lot since those days. The seventies were a fun time but so is today.
fun time if your rich
It ain't 'your' city!
Never has been,
Never will be!
LOOOOOOOOVE!!!!....the second to last shot of all the VW's coming to the city for sale!!!!
I remember those UFO shaped trash cans.
49th and Fraser three years old and hanging with my buddy "Pork Chop" 1965 - 66.
Excellent Phil...I especiall remember Granville st and the Orpheum theatre...and dive bar named Jack's hanging tree just up the street from it.Wow...
thanks for the comment Craig.
Lots of good old beer parlours.
Our son was at the top of the Hotel Vancouver last year installing elevators, and they put in 3 floors of offices where the Panorama room used to be. They have preserved the broadcasting booth though!
When Vancouver was a lot safer city and not so expensive like it is now.
You could walk the streets of skid row feeling safe
Crime has gone down since the 90’s
But id rather take the crime than the over priced yuppie international corporate city with no identity or character that it is now
@@nvanguy6868 Yup. The taken over by international investors city.
2:34 I have not seen that overpass from the Bay in years. I used to walk through there in the seventies.
Thanks for posting some photos of what the city looked like most of the time even back then, dull grey and rainy... Funny how it didn't feel as depressing as it does now though.
A more liveable city back then. Thanks for sharing.
Nice....born in Vancouver 1960....... swam at Trout lake in the 60's bet you cant do that today
Vancouver is beautiful.
In 1971 i had my appendix taken out at Lions Gate Hospital and a few days later a guy from my class went though a glass door he was cut up real bad . any ways while we were both recovering there ,our high school French teacher came to visit us and she brought along two packs of Players cigarettes' for us LOL
Gee, it's raining. YEP, this is downtown Vancouver around 1959
Nice pictures Phil, wish the West End still looked like that.
Thanks, Cheryl.
I remember Denman St in the 1960's. Cool place to walk
1:18 Edgemont Village in North Van. It looked exactly like that until the 80's, incl the gas station
Unfortunately Expo 86 was the "bomb" that began the change we see today. Before the world did not we existed. It was nice then, eh!
I lived during those time and it was exciting. I even took a photo (while working at Van Sun) of Marilyn Munroe coming out of a Mens clothing store in crutches. She had bought a tie for her boyfriend Joe D. A week before she had sprained her ankle when she fell off a raft while filming "River of no return". Great music on this video.
What year was that may I ask? It was before I was born most likely. Or the year I was born 1961.
@@spitfireaace it was 1955 and I was a pimple faced teen. Even now at my age the Queen thinks Im a spring chicken. Oh how I miss the Cave night club of Vancouver back then.
@@genemccormick3935 I picked out the old sun building in the background of one of the pictures and it brought back memories of my uncle who worked there. we invited the world to vancouver to see expo 86 and vancouver was never the same afterwards.
Marilyn filmed River Of No Return in Banff and Jasper in '53 or '54 and went through Vancouver to and from there. If you Google Images "M.M. Vancouver or Calgary or Banff or Jasper" there are some good photos.
Before 1986 Expo when it all changed.
Wow! Just made my day!!
Big money rolls in and sucks the soul out of our provincial town. Expo, the Brits leave Hong Kong and then the Olympics. Boom it's gone. Loved my old city more than I knew and miss it just like an old love.
when vancouver was fun
Those were the days ❤
when I worked downtown
Makes me sad to see what has happened to my city.
Thanks, Phill!
Welcome to the 21st century. Don't you REALLY miss the utility poles along Pender Street near Ming's and ba
Those DTES sidewalk scenes, compared to 2024 !!
superb
awesome phil, thx
thanks Elizabeth!
Brilliant times gone by 👍
So weird to see cars on Granville St
Before the invasion Vancouver was so nice
Id take a poorer Vancouver with character than the overpriced international yuppie craphole it is today
Expo 86 is what took it down! Thank you, gentleman Jim!
@@snidepete5700 I think Expo is overrated as the catalyst to the exponential growth. Lack of foreign property ownership laws coupled with the repatriation of Hong Kong to China and the liberalization of the Chinese economy has more to do with the growth and the cost of living.
Another great city ruined by international capitalism.
Idiot comment
@@jacobrocks7 --- Idiot Leftist. Don't like the truth do you? If it was Yankee money you sure would be screaming.
Welcome to the 21st century. Don't you REALLY miss the utility poles along Pender Street near Ming's and Bamboo Terrace? Reminds me of the earlier pics of the 20's. Finally, Vancouver begins to look like a world-class city with a lot of class! There you have it - my opinion, and I'm sticking with it. Cheers, and enjoy the fabulous views that still exist! Wish I still lived there. HOW ABOUT A NICE Saskatchewan January winter? Yuck!!!
You mean a city that looks like 100 other cities with a lot of glass.
i loved gritty old vancouver of the 60's and 70's
Thanks for posting these. Do you have photo credits for them all? I'd like to find out more about the photographers who took some of them.
Thanks Phil
Awsomme!!1
We had the best years, then we let the skihs in.
I REMEMBER WHEN MOST OF THE WEST END WAS HOUSES............AND IT WAS A MUCH BETTER TIME THAN WHAT THE KIDS HAVE TO GROW UP IN NOW..............JUST NOT THE SAME......PEOPLE ARENT ANYWHERE NEAR AS FRIENDLY AS THEY WERE THEN.....NOW EVERYONE IS IN A REDICULOUS RUSH SO THEY CAN PAY THE MORTGAGE AND EAT........THOS WERE FAR BETTER TIMES......
How did you ever get this thru the filters?? I get flagged if I have the beach boys playing on AM radio in the background if filming out the window. good for you!
Well, thanks for that.
Phil Carroll, 0:58 seconds is a building. Where and when was this building torn down? 1:06 is another building and 1:17 is a location not recognizable. At 1:23 is Pender and Columbia? 2:22 High Low use to be what type of business and what where was this located?
I was born in the mid 70's and make out most of the pictures but some I still am not sure of. Thanks!
0:58 is Lions Gate Hospital ca. 1963
High Low was a grocery store owned by Jim Pattison. The one shown is across from the old Lougheed Mall.
1:19 edgemont village?
Would it have killed you to include the YEAR of each photo? Sheesh. I bet almost all of these photos have the year included with them.
Only a baby boomer would title a video like this. I know it's authentic.
@2:00 in there is a picture of Rickshaw Restaurant... i had always thought the only one was here in Surrey on KGH... was there others, much like the Dragon inn?
Hi, ya I think that One was on the Burnaby side of East Hastings, just before the hill down to the PNE.🇨🇦
@@sandyburns3635 Firstly what a great video - Rickshaw was on the Vancouver side on Hastings between Skeena and Kootenay streets same side as what was known as the Kootenay loop where the trolley buses turned to go back downtown, we used to sell sacks of pigeons to the Rickshaw which we caught be the 2nd narrows bridge, pigeons were pretty chubby all grain fed from scraps from the Wheat Pool next to the bridge, think it went in the chicken chow mein, a box of beer was $2.65 back then, we were all under the 21 yrs drinking age but could get in to hang out at the Stratford,Dufferin,St Regis and the Waldorf to name a few, those were the days, ( the chant report when Templeton High School led the first student strike in Van's history inciting Brit and Tech high schools ) I think I could right a book as could most of us!
@@johng6509 My Bad, Ya you’re right with the location, & especially Right when talking about Our Fair City that we Love,
There should be a Social site for all of Us born here in Beautiful Vancouver B.C. One that includes ALL BACKGROUNDS
Because a lot of uncredited Labour went into Building this Town.✌🏾
Was that the High-Low supermarket near Lougheed Mall tucked behind the Denny's? 2:22
I do believe so. Lived near there on Dansey Drive
The Burner Boys onstage!
@ 0:33 is @ Yew & 41st
Thanks William.
Your Welcome Phil.
Did you live near there?
@@capnvancouver Once.
Before the ugly condos invaded
Great 2:47
Thanks Jim
OOHHHYES
was joni mitchell from vancouver ?
No, Fort MacLeod, Alberta
She was born in Ft Macleod, grew up in Saskatchewan, but has had a long association with Vancouver as an adult. She was involved in the "60's music scene in Vancouver and in the early '70's bought a country retreat outside the city which she owns to this day and visits frequently, and her Manager is based in Vancouver.
2021 Vancouver Replied, not much difference and the economy dropped.
Would’ve been a nice video if it hadn’t been for the song.
Hard to please everyone crawnorris. But thanks for saying it would have been nice. LOL
Okay...love the pictures but for crying out loud lose the annoying and distracting transition effects from pic to pic. They do nothing for this presentation. Or any presentation for that matter.
Sorry, not the same vibe without the homeless and the crack-heads :(
Baby Boomer is the latin term for " we fucked up the whole world"
This video shows the Golden Age of Canada, it's over now😫😩