Historical Calgary pictures

[jeffh]

And before wizard's castle it was called Laser Illusions. Complete with the Sega Genesis/SNES party room.
And Easy Street at Chinook where the food court is now.

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by jeffh
And before wizard's castle it was called Laser Illusions. Complete with the Sega Genesis/SNES party room.
And Easy Street at Chinook where the food court is now.

Ohh yeah, Laser Illusions in a neon pink sign iirc, recently I helped my parents move to a smaller place, I was told to go through a box before throwing it out, inside was a brown paper bag of 40 or so mint Easy Street coins, I wonder if people care about collecting that stuff.

Originally posted by civic_stylez
I totally remember that wizards castle elvis lookin goof with the quarter dispenser. Wonder what ever happen to that guy. Probably in vegas rockin Elvis shows.

I think at that time the wal mart across the street was still Woolco.

Yeah Woolco for sure, I think they basically took over every Woolco location in the country, the age of that specific building shows though.

The Elvis guy I saw just last year, same hair, leather jacket, he was getting bread and bananas from the Safeway near Ceilis on Macleod


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Southcentre in 1973 when it was brand new I guess, but I can't remember it having red or brown flooring for some reason, maybe because I never came to Calgary until 88 and I was little, always thought it had white floors:


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[Lex350]

I can remember going to the hobby shop at North Hill mall when it was an outdoor strip mall


Oh...and the best movie theatre in Calgary was at North Hill. It had that massive (curved?) screen. I saw 2001 a Space Odyssey and Led Zeppelin's The song Remains the same there.

[98type_r]

Originally posted by rotten42

Oh...and the best movie theatre in Calgary was at North Hill. It had that massive (curved?) screen. I saw 2001 a Space Odyssey and Led Zeppelin's The song Remains the same there.

It was defnitely curved, and it has the best sound in the city, at the time.

[supe]

Since this thread is about historical Calgary, and I never wanted to start a new thread, does anyone ever remember the time when you can park on top of Chinook mall? My debate with a friend was, is the big red ramp in front of the mall or behind it?

[civic_stylez]

Originally posted by supe
Since this thread is about historical Calgary, and I never wanted to start a new thread, does anyone ever remember the time when you can park on top of Chinook mall? My debate with a friend was, is the big red ramp in front of the mall or behind it?

The ramps were out front facing macleod.. and yes, they were red.

[speedog]

Originally posted by rotten42
Oh...and the best movie theatre in Calgary was at North Hill. It had that massive (curved?) screen. I saw 2001 a Space Odyssey and Led Zeppelin's The song Remains the same there.

That theater had a seating capacity of 785 or so - yupp, it probably was Calgary's largest.

[civic_stylez]

At one time, the Cecil was a top hotel in Calgary, sad to see it sit there and rot.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by 98type_r


It was defnitely curved, and it has the best sound in the city, at the time.

Best sound at that time hands down it was our first choice for theatres back then.

If memory serves the last movie I saw there was The Phantom Menace. Does that sound right? Was the theatre and bowling alley still there in 1999?

***Edit***

Found the answer to my own question from Wikipedia.

The North Hill Theatre and Fairview Bowling Alley, erected in the parking lot in 1967, had remained in operation until 1999, with the theatre ceasing business operations just after the run of Star Wars: Episode I.[3] The theatre was one of Calgary's last major old-style single-screen movie palaces at the time of its demolition in 2000. The structure was demolished in order to make room for more parking

I had no idea at the time it was the last movie shown there.

[Darkane]

Originally posted by jeffh
And before wizard's castle it was called Laser Illusions. Complete with the Sega Genesis/SNES party room.
And Easy Street at Chinook where the food court is now.

Awesome!

Old calgary - I went to Milton Williams junior high. Elbow and glenmore.

We'd go to chinook for lunches and I'd OWN ridge racer at the easy street.

Hahah so good.

[johnlennon]

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by civic_stylez
At one time, the Cecil was a top hotel in Calgary, sad to see it sit there and rot.

I have only been very close to there once in HS, we stopped to get liquor at that store adjacent to it, thought about going in just to see what it was like but we decided against it for obvious reasons after hearing some lady scream from one of the middle floor windows that was open .

Building the tower 1968, I remember coming back from certain parts of rural Alberta and you can see the skyline in on the horizon, back then I'm pretty sure it would've stood out quite a bit coming into town on the highway:


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Not really related directly to Calgary but apparently this is how the CPR used to clear the rail line from Calgary to Vancouver in the late 1800s, pretty cool:

Contained own means of propulsion to move to rotary blades. They were pushed into snow slide area by steam of diesel locomotive. Snow was discharged through upper portion and centrifugal motion caused it to be directed away from track.

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[finboy]

Originally posted by speedog

Actually North Hill has changed quite a bit over the years. The theatre and bowling alley are gone. What used to be a Loblaws (eventually Super Valu) at the southwest end was bulldozed long ago. Safeway used to be at the east end near Sears in the 80's and is now at the west end in a newer addition. Also added recently - the Renaissance condominiums. Even the interior underwent some big changes over the years - this was, in it's beginning, an exterior strip mall, the enclosed section was added in the early 70's..

I definitely remember pre-reno north hill, it still weirdos me out to think where Safeway used be vs. what's there now

Originally posted by speedog
Really, it is kind of amazing to see how the city is evollving even in such a short time.

How many can remember the ESSO that used to be on the SE corner of 16th Ave and 10th St NW

Losing that esso really pissed me off, it made filling up in my neighborhood so easy

Originally posted by RY213
I'd love to see picture of inside and outside of Chinook Center back in the late 70's early 80's. Anyone remember Kresges and The Met inside Chinook? The Met had a little cafeteria inside of it.

I can barely remember what chinook looked like before renos, but I remember that easy-street was the shit!

Originally posted by rotten42
Oh...and the best movie theatre in Calgary was at North Hill. It had that massive (curved?) screen. I saw 2001 a Space Odyssey and Led Zeppelin's The song Remains the same there.

I miss a lot of the theatres at malls, but I really miss the one that was in fifth ave place downtown, I guess there is eau Claire still but when that closes down there won't be a mainstream theatre anywhere close to the core.

[civic_stylez]

Was anyone here ever brave enough to go to Banzai Waterslide on McLeod and Heritage? If the shallow pool didnt kill you at the bottom, the uneven slides cut your back up like razor blades. I still remember my raw shoulder blades as a kid after that dump.

[takkyu]

Yea I went to banzai a few times.. it was all about trying to get an inner tube or receive 30 lashings from the slide itself. I didn't think the pool was all that shallow at the end but maybe I was little enough to not notice.

[MalibuStacy]

Originally posted by rx7_turbo2


Best sound at that time hands down it was our first choice for theatres back then.

If memory serves the last movie I saw there was The Phantom Menace. Does that sound right? Was the theatre and bowling alley still there in 1999?

***Edit***

Found the answer to my own question from Wikipedia.

The North Hill Theatre and Fairview Bowling Alley, erected in the parking lot in 1967, had remained in operation until 1999, with the theatre ceasing business operations just after the run of Star Wars: Episode I.[3] The theatre was one of Calgary's last major old-style single-screen movie palaces at the time of its demolition in 2000. The structure was demolished in order to make room for more parking

I had no idea at the time it was the last movie shown there.

I only saw one movie there and that was when they re released the original trilogy of Star Wars in the nineties. Mum and Dad took my brother and I there so we could see "A New Hope". I still remember the big screen and the velvet carpets/seats.

[speedog]

North Hill Theatre was quite the experience - the immense size of the theatre, the huge screen and even having 700+ people seated for a movie added to the experience. Calgary will probably never see a theatre like this again - kind of like the disappearance of outdoor drive-in theatres, another great experience that so many will never know. Those blow-up/moveable outdoor theatre screens - most definitely not the same thing.

Sunset Drive-In opened May 5, 1950...


Closed down in the early 80's and is now the new Centre Street church campus - can't find any pics of the actual drive-in.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by takkyu
Yea I went to banzai a few times.. it was all about trying to get an inner tube or receive 30 lashings from the slide itself. I didn't think the pool was all that shallow at the end but maybe I was little enough to not notice.

Ya I made the mistake of riding the normal slides once, cut my back to shreds. From then on the only thing we did there was ride the tube section. Which was what everyone else did so there was always a shortage of tubes. Getting a tube consisted of tipping a smaller kid over and stealing it, then hoping a bigger kid than you didn't steal yours.

Speaking of waterslides, anybody remember the original setup at Village Square Leisure Centre? They had those side by side slides that emptied into the main wave pool. We used to "drag race" each other. They were just poured concrete with a slippery coating sprayed on, hurt like hell if you slammed your head on it.

[90_Shelby]

Originally posted by speedog
SW corner of Centre and 16th Ave North - spent a bit of time in the basement of this place back in the 80's...

Isn't that where Peepers was? I think that building had a strip joint in it.

[DEATH2000]

Originally posted by rx7_turbo2


Speaking of waterslides, anybody remember the original setup at Village Square Leisure Centre? They had those side by side slides that emptied into the main wave pool. We used to "drag race" each other. They were just poured concrete with a slippery coating sprayed on, hurt like hell if you slammed your head on it.

I remember those. Wasnt the reason they took them out because someone did hit their head and ended up dieing?