Capitol 6 Theatre
820 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K3
820 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K3
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 40 comments
PSTOS link about the Capitol.
https://www.pstos.org/instruments/bc/vancouver/capitol.htm?fbclid=IwAR2xA32CE3BcwEANJHbKWHazoRhgc-8Mx5z7Pk5-1GM4F0ssAHmBHXRiLTE
2012 video of a Capitol ghost sign revealed during demolition of a nearby building. Google: “Grandma’s Boy Capitol Vancouver Ghost Sign” for multiple images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K41C8ucWWM
March 18th, 1978 ads
Capitol 6 opening 1 Fri, Mar 18, 1977 – 12 · The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
and
Grand opening ad
This opened on March 13th, 1921. Grand opening ad below and in the photo section.
Thank you for that link hermangotlieb! AWESOME!
To BCexpatriate
Here is the Google newspaper archive for the Vancouver Sun. The coverage is very spotty and ends around 1987 but it does feature the paper cover-to-cover.
They are all organized by decade and then by year.
Be prepared to lose a few hours as it’s quite interesting to see how many theatres there were back then and, unlike today, how few theatres showed the same movie.
Here is the link:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ifIdVpG6JtcC&hl=en
The original Capitol was indeed a Cinerama house, although it was the 70mm version only.
Three Strip was at the Strand.
This was a Cinerama theatre from 1965 to 1969. It would be cool if there were some pictures of the theatre during that time and/or ads that mention Cinerama for the movies that played there.
http://incinerama.com/capitol.htm
Best source of those is a library with microfiche archives and a lot of time to go through them. I did it many years ago and its really quite something to look at.
Does anyone know where one can possibly find new and different pics of the Vancouver Sun movie listings from the 1980s (for this theater and others)? I would live to see more of those photos.
I worked at the Capitol 6 in the very early 1980s; its manager was named Cliff Gallant, who by 1985 had been transferred to the Stanley. His replacement was Doug Smith. Any idea if Cliff or Doug is still alive? I knew them a long time ago, and they weren’t exactly teenagers then (although Cliff was still in his 30s).
1977 grand opening in photo section.
I remember seeing a lot of movies at the old Capitol 6, namely ‘The Ghost and The Darkness’, ‘Alien’, and ‘Titanic’. I agree with rl_83 that FP neglected it sadly and letting it die the way they did; sadly, this seems to have been their policy with a lot of classic Vancouver-area theaters.
Cap 6 was pretty much a cesspool right at the end with ads for the new Paramount ( later named Scotiabank ) all over the place.
The place did have an odd, musty smell to it. But I don’t think it was cigarette smoke.
The chairs left an odor on your clothes, and the stairway on the south side of the building, which oddly enough had a bathroom mid way between the 1st and 2nd floor, reeked of piss.
The place also had major water damage from leaks that were not repaired promptly. The Granville side entrance, which had skyline windows in the ceiling leaked for some time before it was fixed ( or was it? ) and caused brown stains all over the ceiling of the granville entrance roof.
I also recall at a sneak peek of the first “ Underworld ” , looking up at the booth and seeing what looked like black tarps or garbage bags taped to the ceiling of the booth.
But all in all, I still loved the place. The Main house ( #1 ) was something that cannot and will not be matched in terms of the size, uniqueness, and just pure awesomeness.
I fully blame FP for not taking care of it properly and letting it die a horrible death, leaving it’s last years' a dark spot on the memories of many movie-goers.
Wow. I wouldn’t really take the experience of that one situation to make a blanket statement about all Canadians…
I imagine there’s been a few American mega-chains that have “pulled the plug” on an old theatre before they actually closed it!
My last visit to the Capitol 6 was a few months before Famous Players closed the cinema. The place was a pigsty; it reeked of cigarette smoke, the seats and carpets were filthy and many of the seats were broken. A manager stood near the candy counter, so I asked him about the squalor. He said, “I apologize for this, but we’re closing the place soon, so we have discontinued all cleaning and maintenance.” I noticed, however, that their ticket/confection prices were as high as ever despite refusing to spend any $ on providing a comfortable viewing experience for their guests. I used to manage a movie house in a major US city and we would never have pulled a stunt like that on our customers. Canadians don’t understand (or care about) the concept of customer service.
A picture of the theatre’s Seymour Street entrance c. 1926 from the City of Vancouver Archives (click upon it to expand) View link
Two pictures of the Capitol from some time in the 1940s from the City of Vancouver Archives (click on them to expand):
Exterior: View link
Interior: View link
Great Photo!
That Capitol 6 “ Extension ” out into the sidewalk was there up until around 2003-2004, when it was demolished.
I didn’t know about the monitors built into it, I wonder when those were removed? They weren’t there in 2002-2004.
I thought you would be adding to this Jason! haha
Speaking about the sound in #1, they were equipped with ALTEC Stanley Screamer subs ( same ones used during Pink Floyd’s The Wall Tour ) for extra bass impact.
Here is a link to a Tyee article circa 2005 when the cinema closed. It has some rather interesting comments as well, even from one of the former managers who didn’t appear to like the place very much.
Cinema One was a glorious room. It was anywhere between 1031 and 1012 seats over the years (I believe some seats were removed for more wheelchair spots), and it pretty much filled up every Friday and Saturday night, no matter what the movie. Huge screen, incredible SRD sound system, the seats were okay and it was always a treat to see a movie there.
Just don’t let anyone tall sit in front of you…the sight lines were TERRIBLE in that cinema, and I think the unofficial rule over the years was for everyone to “lean down” when they saw a flick there. :)
Yeah #1 was something else, 1021 seats I believe.
2 & 3 were decent screens as well, but the top floor of the complex was nothing to write home about, especially towards the end.
That’s too bad…would love to see shots of the Cinema 1…that was the big one that sat over 1000…would love to have seen each cinema.