Former Vancouver Sun editor and columnist Alex MacGillivray dies at 87
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2019 01:53:33 +0000
Alex MacGillivray wasn’t very tall, and was very quiet. But he had a big impact on The Vancouver Sun.
Many readers will remember him from the restaurant and nightlife column he wrote from 1964 until his retirement in 1996. But behind the scenes he was one of the Sun’s most respected editors.
The unflappable MacGillivray was the night editor when the Second Narrows Bridge collapsed on June 17, 1958, killing 18 men. To get columnist Jack Wasserman to the site, he hired a tugboat, then coolly co-ordinated coverage for the next 12 hours.
In 1962 he founded Leisure, the Sun’s entertainment and weekend features section. Before MacGillivray, the entertainment section was almost an afterthought; during his reign, Leisure was arguably the best entertainment section in the country, boasting writers like Barry Broadfoot, Don Stanley and Lloyd Dykk.
“It was very good, very successful, and it was a great place to work,” said another former Sun editor, Mike McRaynor.
“He always stood by (his writers). People like Lloyd Dykk. He was heroic with that, he would never back down (when they came under fire).”
MacGillivray passed away early Sunday morning at Vancouver General Hospital. He was 87.
Former Vancouver Sun editor and columnist Alex MacGillivray, April 21, 1988. Deni Eagland/Vancouver Sun.
Alexander John MacGillivray was born at VGH on March 17, 1932, the seventh of 10 children. After graduating from John Oliver High School, he attended the University of B.C., but spent most of his time at the student newspaper.
“My mom used to say my dad was flunking out because he was working so hard on the (student) paper,” said his daughter Caroline. “(Sun) publisher Stu Keate took a liking to him, because he had a similar story.”
MacGillivray started freelancing for the paper in 1950, and never looked back. For his first few years he was a sportswriter, then he shifted to the city desk and finally entertainment. He eventually rose to be the assistant managing editor, second in command at the paper.
He met his late wife Pam when she was one of the “China Dolls” act at the Marco Polo restaurant in Chinatown.
“Apparently he gave her a bad review, so she went to go tell him off,” said Caroline MacGillivray.
Instead he wooed and married her. It was probably one of Vancouver’s first mixed-race marriages, but Caroline said her parents didn’t make a big deal of it.
They may have been too busy keeping up with McGillivray’s busy nightlife.
“My mom and him were going out all the time to different restaurants,” she said.
McRaynor was intrigued by MacGillivray when he joined the Sun in 1968.
“I used to see this guy come in, over in the far corner,” he said.
“He’d come in at 10 o’clock. Then he would get a cup of coffee. He would work away, delegate — great delegator — and then go up the stairs for his lunch. At two o’clock he would put his fedora back on and take off.
“I thought ‘Hmm. That’s where I should be.’ And a couple of years later he brought me over (to Leisure).”
There was a reason for the short shift.
“He told me he was always out at night, gathering his food column,” said McRaynor.
“He used to pal around with Jack Wasserman, so he was working nights. He had a half-shift at the Sun, and a half-shift downtown at night.”
Former Vancouver Sun editor and columnist Alex MacGillivray. The April 10, 1964 photo by Deni Eagland has been marked up for “routing” by an unknown Sun editor to crop out the background, which makes it a classic artifact of the MacGillivray era at the paper. Deni Eagland/Vancouver Sun.
Back in the ’60s and ’70s, the Sun was known for its columnists — it ran a campaign that boasted it was “where the writers are.”
MacGillivray’s promo was headlined “When Alex writes a column, readers eat it up.” It was illustrated by MacGillivray laughing with a glass of wine, charming a restaurateur and chef.
He was a photogenic fellow, the most dapper man you could ever hope to meet.
“He never, ever took his jacket off,” said McRaynor. “The only guy in the newsroom who never took his jacket off.”
He did make some concessions to the times. In 1969, he appeared in a psychedelic promo ad for Leisure. Someone drew in a go-go dancer across his forehead, a guitarist was playing on his right cheek and a bartender was serving someone on his left.
His photo file is utterly fantastic. In a 1964 pic, Deni Eagland shot him smoking a cigar, and in 1974, Danny Scott captured him with the longer hair and sideburns of the era.
He was a man who loved his job.
“He called himself a newspaperman,” said Caroline MacGillivray. “He kept his press pass in his wallet for years. It was an old one, from the ’80s, I think, judging by his hair.”
He had a very wry wit. McRaynor recently asked MacGillivray what was his enduring memory of the Sun. He replied: “(Former I.T. head) Craig Ferry’s patience and pea soup in the cafeteria.”
His health failed in recent years and for the past few months he was at the Brock Fahrni care home. He was predeceased by his wife Pam, and survived by his daughter Caroline and son Alexander.
“When he died I sang all his favourite Judy Garland songs (to him), and Time to Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman,” said Caroline.
“Right at the end, my boyfriend put his hand on my dad’s knee and told him, ‘I’ll take care of your girl.’ And Dad did a little cough. Then I said, ‘I’ll take care of my brother,’ and he coughed and then he passed.
“As far as death goes, it was peaceful.”
Alex MacGillivray ad from the Nov. 1, 1973 Vancouver Sun.
Psychedelic Alex MacGillivray promo ad in the Oct. 4, 1969 Vancouver Sun. MacGillivray was the editor of the Sun’s Leisure magazine at the time.
Alex MacGillivray (Center holding glass) with wife Pam and friends for dinner.
Former Vancouver Sun editor and columnist Alex MacGillivray, Sept. 13, 1974 Dan Scott/Vancouver Sun.