This Week in History: 1908 — An opera house opens in roller rink on English Bay

There were a ton of live theatres in early Vancouver. But they’re virtually all forgotten, partly because many of them popped up in existing buildings, and were only in operation for a short time.
A classic example is the Imperial, a theatre that opened on June 15, 1908, in a converted roller-skating rink at Denman and Beach streets, where the statues of the laughing men are today.
The Imperial opened to great fanfare, taking out half-page ads in The Vancouver World and Province for its re