Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

This Day in Vancouver... 74 years ago!

Welcome to This Day in Vancouver where we filter through old newspapers, sharing tidbits that we feel might be interesting to you today. HERE is the archive.

Welcome to This Day in Vancouver where we filter through old newspapers, sharing tidbits that we feel might be interesting to you today. HERE is the archive.

Today we're digging into THIS edition of the Vancouver Sun which was published on October 14th, 1940. Escept for tiny Weather and Tidal reports the entire front page was dedicated to WWII news, and the single photo on it was one of Princess Margaret Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth talking on the radio about how "In the end all will be well".

vancouversun-october-1940

Beyond the front page most of the articles were about the war as well, and if they weren't many had a war slant to them. Even the ads, like this one for skating at the Forum where women who brought a man in uniform got in for free.

forum-skating

Now, I noticed it was starting to go this direction in my last post, so I might as well acknowledge to you that a lot of the things I'm going to be sharing moving forward with this feature are advertisements. They're always an interesting indicator of what's happening at a certain time, or maybe just what people are looking for beyond the news. I wouldn't buy life insurance from this company below because the man looks like he's plotting something, but there are a few similar ads where you could buy protection for your family. Maybe security was top of mind because there was a war going on.

life-insurance-angry-guy

Or maybe you just really needed a deal on stationery, drugs or notions. The Bay had you covered for 9 cents.

hudsons-bay-sale

Maybe you just wanted a good smoke. SPUD brand smokes were about a million miles away from the SPUD that now does business in Vancouver (and delivers healthy groceries).

spud-cigarettes

Ripley's was a bit of a reprieve from the news of the day, and this Cat Spanker is... well... interesting. Also interesting to note is that Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison currently owns all right to the Ripley's franchise in 2014.

ripleys-cat-spanker

Things really were different back then. This random bible quote was a random standalone at the bottom of a page.

bible-quote

I'm going to assume that this was funny at the time.

war-humour

Lastly, if you're looking for a good wiener and horseradish sauce I would really love it if you made this "tested prize recipe" and then sent me a photo of it so I can publish it in a different post on the blog. Email contact@vancouverisawesome.com if you're up for the challenge.

wiener-recipe