Hollywood Theatre gets a refurbished sign and a new life as an arts space
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 21:48:23 +0000
At the height of Vancouver’s neon era in the 1940s and ’50s, the city had an estimated 18,000 neon signs.
They’re almost all gone. But last week, a Kitsilano neon landmark went back up at 3123 West Broadway — the art deco sign for the Hollywood Theatre.
Well, part of the sign, anyway. The 18-foot, nine-inch tall fin that projects up the front of the building is up, but its red neon lettering isn’t lit just yet.
The two neon signs on the theatre’s marquee (one reading “Hollywood,” the other “Pick O’ The Best Plays”) are still in the shop and won’t be erected for a few days.
In any event, the renewed sign looks awesome, as does the restored façade of the Hollywood, one of the city’s last surviving neighbourhood theatres.
The theatre closed in 2011 after it was sold to Dino Bonnis’ 4184 Investments for $2.85 million. The Bonnis family has owned property on the block for decades and assembled several lots for a condo project. After negotiating with the city, Bonnis got a heritage density bonus for restoring the 594-seat theatre.
“It’s going to look ‘period’, as it was built, not the revamp that was done in the ’70s and even in the ’50s,” explains David Hawkes, who will be running the new Hollywood with Dave Mawhinney.
“We had to go back to the 1935-built Hollywood Theatre. We had to do the neon sign. And on the inside, the clock will be back. The lights on the ceiling that were all art deco we had to redo, and we had to re-create and remake some of the interior lighting.”
The neon sign is a re-creation of the original, which was in rough shape after eight decades in the elements.
“We took the sign off the wall and when we got it down it kind of crumbled,” explains Paul Dobson of Mainland Signs. “It was up there since 1935, so something like the angle iron was no longer angled. … It was just not safe to put back up.”
The neon letters were also broken.
“Somebody had already taken off the word ‘Hollywood’ on both sides and all the neon was gone,” said Dobson. “They were trying to do renovations when it was run by a church about three or four years ago. The church had somebody take it off and they were going to restore it, but when we got the neon, it was all broken.”
The refurbished neon sign at the Hollywood Theatre at 3123 West Broadway in Vancouver.
The church ran out money, but when Bonnis stepped up to rebuild the sign, Dobson had the old neon to use as a template.
“We built the new sign based on the old sign, to the exact specifications that they had,” he said. “We had it here, so we were able to completely mimic it.”
It’s a big deal, literally — the neon on the marquee sign is about 30 feet wide, while the “Pick O’ The Best Plays” neon is about six feet wide. Dobson is also doing new signs for coming attractions on the sides of the marquee.
The Hollywood hopes to open by the spring. It will be a multi-purpose entertainment venue with movies, live music, comedy and various events. Hawkes will be working with the Vancouver International Film Festival to “secure really interesting films.”
Those films will be shown on a new 25-by-16-foot screen, and projected by a Barco Laser Projector.
“It’s a drive (where) you can order the film and it’s downloaded,” said Hawkes, who says it will be the first Barco Laser Projector in B.C. “The clarity will be insane.”
The venue has also gone high-end for sound.
“We have THX Lucasfilm surround sound (for films), and then we have our own live concert P.A., separate from that,” said Hawkes. “We also have our own lighting system for live shows.”
Hawkes declined to say what the cost of the restoration was, but the city report on the Hollywood estimates the heritage revitalization would cost $2 million. The density bonus works out to two storeys, which allows for a six-storey condo building instead of four.
Paul Dobson of Mainland Signs with Hollywood Theatre sign.
The Hollywood theatre’s beloved neon sign lit up at night in 2010.
An artist’s conception of what the Hollywood Theatre and a condo development next door at 3123 West Broadway in Vancouver will look like. Illustration from MA + HG Architects.