The Commodore Ballroom first opened its doors at 868 Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on December 3, 1930, as the Commodore Cabaret. George Conrad Reifel built it in 1929 on the former site of the Commodore Cafe. Designed in the Art Deco style of the time by H.H. Gillingham, the room boasted a sprung dance floor where the hardwood was laid over tires stuffed with horsehair.
As luck would have it, the Commodore opened at the exact worst time: just after the 1929 stock-market crash, which shut it down just two years later. Near the end of ’31 it reopened under Nick Kogas and Johnny Dillias as a dance hall and supper club.
Known as being the largest room for dancing in all of Canada, the early days of the Commodore saw the likes of the Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Cab Calloway and even the Will Mastin Trio featuring a young Sammy Davis Jr.
This shifted in the summer of love, 1969 when local promoter Drew Burns secured a liquor license and started booking folk and rock acts. For the next three decades he’d bring in iconic artists regardless of style.
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