Many Vancouverites would like it known that this city has produced its fair share of entertainment talent over the past century. So the city-operated Civic Theatres has literally impressed the names and talents of some of the best known in a series of tablets on the down¬town sidewalks of Granville Street around the Orpheum Theatre:
it’s aptly called the Starwalk. More than ioo people so honored to date include Bryan Adams (pop mega-star), Juliette (singer), and John Avison (conductor); also Larry Lillo (theater director), Ruth Nichol (actor), and Red Robinson and Vicki Gabereau (radio personalities).
Starwalk is part of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, which continues with a Starwall outside the Orpheum Theatre’s Granville Street entrance, bearing photos of other artists and performers. At the Seymour stage door (865 Seymour Street, Downtown), you’ll find pix of international entertainers who, over time, have won the hearts of Vancouverites. These include Harry Belafonte, Mitzi Gaynor, Milton Berle, and Bob Hope. (All the hall’s members can be found at www.city.vancouver.bc.ca, under “theatres.”)
Volunteers of the Orpheum Theatre’s own Hall of Fame (604-665-3050 for bookings) host public and group tours year round, when the theater’s schedule permits. This masterpiece of oddball Spanish Baroque style was built in the late ‘205 by Seattle impresario Alexander Pantages for the fledgling talking-pictures circuit. The tour shows off the theater’s long staircase corridor, the plush lobby of more stair¬ways and balconies, and the deftly painted allegorical scene on the ceiling of the sumptuous 2,800-seat auditorium.
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