The Patricia Theatre

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Theatre seat rescue unfolds like movie drama

Ann and Brian Nelson

GETTING BACKS UP: Ann and Brian Nelson are placing the first of 300 seats salvaged from the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver in rows at the back of the auditorium, greatly increasing comfort while watching a show in Canada's longest-running movie theatre company's premises in Townsite. (paul galinski photo)

For the price of transportation, auditorium receives furnishing makeover

by Paul Galinski | reporter@prpeak.com

Friends of the Historic Patricia Theatre Society members take comfort in the fact that the theatre's new furnishings will not take a back seat to any.

A contingent from the society staged a rescue mission this summer after finding out that all of the theatre seats at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver were being replaced and were destined for the landfill. Some phone calls were made and 300 seats were acquisitioned. The seats are now replacing the old rows of seats that have been in the Patricia for decades.

Ann Nelson, who owns and operates the theatre with her son, Brian, was very pleased on Canada Day after the new flagpole atop the theatre was commissioned, and never envisioned how the rest of the day would unfold. Little did she know that when she returned to her office after the flag-raising, she would face a monumental task that would require the unflagging attention of her and several volunteers from the theatre society.

"I came back upstairs and there is a frantic email from a young man, Ryan Grant, who was raised in Powell River and lives and works in Vancouver," Nelson said. "He said the Orpheum Theatre 'is throwing out its seats and you have to get hold of someone right away.'

* "This is a stat holiday. I'm trying to get hold of Ryan and we're trying to find someone at the Orpheum to talk to. That's a Wednesday. Thursday, the whole day is spent tracking down the right person at the Orpheum."

Nelson determined the Orpheum's contractor was coming in to throw out every one of 2,700 seats into the landfill the next Monday, July 6, unless the seats were salvaged. "We could take every penny we have in our seat sponsorship fund and our fundraising, disrupt everyone's lives and go down there and rip these seats out, but are they going to fit?

"The head stage carpenter down there, Pierre, took a bunch of digital photos of the seats in situ, and some of the ones they had already started removing, and emailed them," she said. "We had a big conference and got back to Pierre. We had him measure the seats and went back and forth. Finally, we decided to strip every penny out of the bank, had a look at the load capacity of rental trucks and rented two vehicles."

Nelson said her recovery crew was off to the city on the first ferry on Saturday morning, July 4.

"We had to determine which seats would be the most appropriate," Nelson said. Even though the Orpheum opened in 1927 and was built to the same architectural and aesthetic standard of the time as the Patricia Theatre, there still are some differences.

"However, the angle of the Orpheum floor and its gradation is almost identical to our theatre, so what Brian had to do is determine which of the seats on the main floor were going to best suit the needs."

Vancouver's Vogue Theatre salvaged 400 seats from the Orpheum and a theatre in the Interior salvaged another 100. Altogether, there were 800 seats of 2,700 salvaged and 1,900 went to landfill on the Monday.

Nelson said the Orpheum opened in 1927, the Patricia opened at its current location in 1928 and the Vogue was opened in 1929 so the interconnectedness of the seats "is cool."

The seats salvaged for the Patricia were not the original Orpheum seats. "These were seats that were put in during the 1940s in one of the upgrades," Nelson said. "In a more recent upgrade, when they reupholstered them, they discarded the horsehair and the tied springs and put in high-density foam, which, in a way, is a shame, but it makes them easier to maintain. We can reupholster a seat with high-density foam very easily."

The new seats are upholstered with exactly the same red velvet as the curtains in the theatre. Nelson said this will mean the Patricia has a unified aesthetic in the auditorium for the first time since 1981, when many of the current seats were brought in.

"We can make these Orpheum seats last another 20 or 40 years," Nelson said. "It solves a problem we have been facing—uncomfortable seating and not enough parts to keep the ones we do have functional.

"What we haven't solved is our heating problem. Our mission now is raise the money to re-deck the auditorium and put radiant heat in the floor...After seeing what they have done at the Orpheum, we are determined."

The fact that the Patricia does not have to make the expected expenditure for new seating moves the heating upgrade way up the priority list. "Now that the seat problem is resolved at less than the $85,000 target that we thought we were faced with, let's move on," Nelson said. "What is going to make this place comfortable so the experience is better for everyone? That is how this place will survive, is people loving the experience."

The Patricia's old theatre seats are now up for adoption for a modest donation to the restoration fund. "The fund is how we are going to get that lovely radiant floor heating," Nelson said. "The seats we are taking out, because they are cast for level floors, are ideal for home theatres. If you have a basement or family room where you want to put in a couple of rows of seats because it's cool and funky, please adopt some."

Annnnne

Book includes Patricia

by Laura Walz — Peak Editor
06/12/2008

Royal BC Museum celebrates province's anniversary

A story written by Powell River's Ann Nelson has been included in a new book about BC's 150th anniversary.

Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC is part of the Royal BC Museum's Free Spirit project which celebrates BC's 150 years of being a British colony and a province of Canada.

The book tells the stories of some of the people and places that have shaped BC.

Nelson's story is called "Princess Patricia and the Ghosts." Nelson is the owner and operator of the Patricia Theatre, western Canada's oldest continuously operating movie theatre.

Nelson said she was thrilled that her story was included in the book. "They weren't necessarily trying to be geographically even-handed," she said. "I was thrilled that they would take it and that they would feel that it properly represented Powell River."

Her story is one of the few stories in the book, Nelson pointed out. "Most of it is photographic or reproductions of paintings that were done contemporary to the particular era that they're talking about in the towns, with a couple of lines about the person. Ours is the only real story. Here's this whole page of story and the colourful photographs."

The book spans 150 years of history through photography, stories and a video disc featuring travelogues taken across the province.

The other components of the Free Spirit project are a major exhibition presented at the Royal BC Museum from March 2008 to January 2009; a smaller exhibition travelling via railway throughout parts of the province in the latter half of 2008; a Conservation Tour, focusing on energy conservation, in the fall of 2008; a website, featuring a virtual exhibition; and the People's History Project, inviting the public to contribute family or community histories.

Two Powell River stories were the first from a community to be uploaded to the website. In addition to Nelson's Patricia Theatre story, an account of the sinking of the Teeshoe launched the site. It is told by the only survivor of the tug's sinking, Fred Ilott, who was 12 at the time, and includes video and audio clips from the documentary produced by filmmaker Jan Padgett through the company Bear Productions.

Click to see original Powell River Peak story

©The Powell River Peak 2008
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Seats cushion audience

Norah LeClare - Peak Contributor

from the Powell River Peak

In 2008, the Historic Patricia Theatre will celebrate 95 years of continuous operation and 80 years in the "new" building. Thanks to the interest and involvement of the community, an unexpected early birthday gift has arrived in the form of 48 new seats at a substantially reduced cost. The Friends of the Historic Patricia Theatre and co-owners Ann Nelson and Brian Nelson are delighted that their goal of replacing all the seats is that much closer.

Brook Maguire of Shaw Cable TV contacted Ann Nelson and offered to do a story on the Patricia to renew awareness of the need for new seats. As a result of that program, Mark Kerr called to say that he had seen some used seats on the BC Auction website. Ann immediately followed up and found the seats to be hardly used and historically appropriate, with six ornamental cast iron end stanchions included. An acquaintance in the industry valued the lot at $18,000.

The bidding started at $11 for the entire lot. Two weeks, and one very anxious final day of bidding later, Ann put in the winning bid of $2,500. Another $1,000 brought the seats to Powell River, saving a very impressive $14,500. Brian, with the help of Al Lalande, installed 44 of the new seats over several days in the loge boxes, the rows in front of the boxes and in the balcony.

Replacing the seats in the Patricia has been an ongoing challenge for a number of years. The sloped floor requires that each chair be specific to its location, which means that all the chairs must be replaced at once. For even mid-line chairs, the cost is projected at $85,000.

To meet the financial challenge of replacing the seats and undertaking other needed restoration, Roberta Pearson, along with Ann and other local cinema buffs, started the Friends of the Historic Patricia Theatre in 2005. In addition to fund raising events, the group started a seat sponsorship campaign. To date 25 per cent of the total funds needed for the seats has been raised through corporate pledges, individuals and families. Ann said, "Next month we will use money raised from events to install a seating plan board in the lobby of the theatre that will have plaques for each of the contributors."

A challenge that will come when all the new seats are purchased is how to dispose of the old seats in a way that is not detrimental to the environment. Ann says that they are open to any suggestions people have to offer. It's already been suggested the seats be sold to individuals for home theatres as part of the ongoing fundraising.

"The willingness of the community to support the project and invest their energy gives us hope that our goal will be reached sooner rather then later, " said Ann. "When that time comes, no one will ever have to miss sharing the big-screen experience because of seats that hurt their backs," she added with a smile.

©The Powell River Peak 2008

Yes, we do weddings!

Contact Ann to book your wedding in the fabulous Patricia Theatre!

All the weddings we've had so far have been in the auditorium, and summer weddings have taken advantage of the garden and grounds for their photo shoots. In the winter, we also get bookings for photo shoots in the auditorium for weddings that have taken place in a church, or elsewhere, so we have something to offer any time of the year.

Call 604-483-9345 or email Ann.