PYGMY PAVILION
1931 – 2008
The doors of the Pygmy Pavilion were opened by owner/builder Shelby M. Saunders on May22, 1931.
His intention was to build a large Dance Hall resembling one he had seen on Coney Island. The Chapel St. location was close to the heart of Nanaimo right around the corner from the new Malaspina Hotel.
It is thought that the name Pygmy is also the name of a travelling fair or company in the amusement park business as dance halls and amusement parks went hand in hand in those days.
The Pygmy boasted the largest dance floor in
Western Canada and was sprung with railway coil springs, not the usual horse hair. With over 7000 sq.ft. of danceable space it was more than double the size of the Newcastle Island Pavilion, which opened later in 1931. People came from everywhere. In the early days a passenger ferry would come from the mainland. Revellers would take the windy route up Commercial St. to the dance.
Marie Boulet met the father of her four children at the Pygmy in 1947. “He tapped me on the shoulder when I was dancing with somebody else. After that night we started going steady and went back to the Pygmy every Saturday night for dancing.” About the building she said “The washrooms were large. The floor was wonderful! And the music was wonderful! It was all big band then you know.”
The Pygmy was a jazz mecca featuring greats like Louis Armstrong and Harry James. The
contemporary Nanaimo jazz scene with graduates like Diana Krall and Ingrid Jensen can be traced back to roots at the Pygmy. Musician Al Campbell remembers playing for crowds of over 1000 dancers.
The dance hall days were numbered as times
changed. And the building began its second life in the early 50’s as a bowling alley. Although the icon we will likely remember best is the F for Fiesta, it wasn’t
called that until 1969 when Mladen Zorkin bought it.
Any sadness felt over the loss of such a great venue is 50 years overdue. Still there is a note of finality to the piles of rubble and twisted timbers along Chapel Street this September. As you finish reading this try to imagine dancing all night without getting tired, negotiating your way through hundreds of other couples, dancing to hit music that we will still be dancing to in 2009 and for years to come. That was the Pygmy Pavilion.
For physical events that happen at a specific time. For example a concert, or dance performance. If there are multiple shows, you can still duplicate your event to cover them all.
