1927:

The climate, the city’s nearness to Hollywood, and the “attitude of the populace” are noted by Lion’s Gate Studio founder Frederick M. Ryder, as three compelling reasons why Vancouver will one day become an international “movie centre”.

“Motion pictures in Vancouver will become a reality,” Ryder declares, after announcing the reorganization of his studio’s board. “Nothing will stop us now.”

British Columbia has occasionally been used for film productions, beginning in 1910 with “The Cowpuncher’s Glove” and “The Ship’s Husband”, both produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. However, the region has never stood in for any location other than itself, and, as a result, is only utilized when American productions intend to set a feature in Canada. Nonetheless, Canadian film companies continue to be created throughout the 1920s,  spurred on by the passing of a British statute in 1927, which declares that 7.5% of all films shown in Dominion theatres must be of British origin.

“These men look on motion pictures as a legitimate and substantial business venture,” Ryder explains. “They are going to act as if they were banded together to go into any other business, say the steel business. It it were steel we would go to Pittsburgh and get the best steel makers we could find. When we are ready to produce we will have the best picture makers we can find.”

Unfortunately, significant landmarks still stand in the way of Canadian film companies, including lack of capital, and the monopoly of Hollywood film companies, who, fearing the growth of an industry which could rival their own, will make it extraordinarily difficult for Canadian producers to obtain equipment, or get distribution. Lion’s Gate Studios, like its predecessors, will vanish before the end of the 1920s, without having shot a single film.

However, by 1977, with the creation of a film development office (whose role is to market B.C. to international filmmakers), the domestic film market will explode, with a total of 192 productions filmed in the year 2000, and a gross of $1.8 billion.

 

IMAGE: The Orpheum Theatre, during a promotion for the film “Til The End of Time”, circa 1946. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.