Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
It's not the lunchbox - it's where Vertigo now is.
A lot of the original bones of the two theatres are still there, now used for live productions.
I don't know why they replaced the windy staircase because that thing was awesome. But they re-purposed the bulk of the original theatres for Vertigo. Great use of space.
In between the theatres shutting down and Vertigo moving in, it was being used as a church for several years.
In the final days of the Palliser they had Friday and Saturday midnight showings of movies like Alien, Raiders, The Shining, etc. It was fantastic.
Another under-rated old theatre of the downtown was the Showcase Grande, which had stadium theatre in one of them, well before that style made a comeback. When it closed it was converted into a golf centre before The Grande moved in.
|
Here is a pic I snapped on third level of Palliser Square coming in from parkade doors. What on earth was ever on any of these levels? To get to the first level there are no stairs. If you get to that level there is stairs to the top level but that space has about 6ft of headroom? Why was it even built? Unless there was something on the level underneath it that needed the height, or they built over something at was ther but absolutely ghastly useage of space...but it had to be used for something at some point to have stairs put there.
Only thing I can think of was that this area was mostly enclosed at one point and it was for Hotel or VIA luggage storage, but it doesn't look setup for that either, for workers to navigate into and walk around that area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
It was quite something in its day. A huge ballroom and also an aquarium on the grounds. It was one of the real gathering places for Calgary.
For a long time the ballroom was in there still, and I would have loved to have gotten access to see it. My understanding is that almost everything from those days is now gone.
|
It was a Carling Brewery as well. Had a Chinese Gardens in the back, and across the street, where WCC now is, a beer store where you bought by the flats on rollers. This is mid 80s when my Grandparents still lived in Ramsay.
Just a heads up, if you have or get a free Calgary Public Library account, the Calgary Herald digital archives are available online to find all sorts of things.
Searchable, I.found stuff my parents sold in the classifieds in the mid 80s. Look at old newspapers of Calgary Edmonton hockey rivalries. Found a picture of our house when it was listed in 1975 also in classifieds.
But because it's behind that wall, you can't link the pages directly from there.