The Best Little Movie House in Vancouver

Photo Credit: The Cave Theatre Restaurant, 1950s

NOSTALGIC VANCOUVER Mickey Filippone was a client of mine. He and his brothers ran the Penthouse Cabaret, a fixture at 1019 Seymour Street since 1945. In its heyday, it was the city’s premier after-hours hangout, the place where stars like Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Louis Armstrong would come ’til the wee small hours. One day after I gave him a haircut he wanted a shave. “I don’t want to have any bleeding,” he said. He was a diabetic and it would have been hard to stop the bleeding. Afterwards, he got up, paid me $10 and went over to the mirror. “No blood,” he said. “That’s good!” He came back and gave me a $20 tip. –excerpt from My Greek Barber’s Diary.

There were lots of opportunities in those days. Mitzi Gaynor’s husband, Jack Bean, asked me to be a partner with him in a hair salon in Los Angeles. He was a friend of Dave Davies. During her nightclub years Gaynor rehearsed and broke in her nightclub routines at the Cave, located in the hub of the fancier end of Vancouver’s night life. The Cave was considered to be one of the most upscale clubs in western Canada. The Las Vegas shows were always tested out here in Vancouver before moving on to Las Vegas. I could have moved to Los Angeles but I was just getting established in Vancouver and decided to stay here. Besides, I had the pick of lots of business opportunities right here in Vancouver. -excerpt from My Greek Barber’s Diary.

Dave and Lillian Davies owned the Cave Supper Club in the late 1950s. They often complained about how difficult and egotistical many of the big name stars were, in particular Diana Ross. Dave Davies was an ex-fighter. Isy and Richard Walters owned the Cave from 1952 to 1959. They sold the club to Dave and he had it for six months. He had a final payment to make to the Walters and he could not pay so he made a deal with Ken Stauffer. Ken paid the Walters and he owned the Cave for the next 15 or so years. -excerpt from My Greek Barber’s Diary.

Rocky Marciano was in town with Bob Hope for a sports fundraiser at Hy’s Steak House. Dave Davies brought them both over for a haircut. The big boys looked after many of the celebrities from the Cave. Marciano had a hairpiece. It was so natural that I couldn’t even tell. He died in a plane crash on the 29th of August when I was in Greece. Bob Hope was always joking around. I met lots of celebrities. I cut Paul Anka’s hair four times and Wayne Newton’s brother Jerry. I met lots of comedians and singers at the Cave: Brenda Lee, Mitzi Gaynor, Anne Murray, Diana Ross. Ken Stauffer would introduce them to me. George Gobel, I cut his hair, and the Mills Brothers. The Cave was amazing. It held fifteen hundred people. It was the first Vancouver club to be granted a liquor license. The venue’s interior featured stalactites that hung from the ceiling.

Enjoying life! I was often at the Top of the Mark (a downtown nightclub owned by Herb Capozzi). My friend Peter Benias was the Maitre d.’ I baptized my daughter and my nephew at the Top of the Mark. One time we had a Greek night for Capozzi. We bought a hundred moustaches (Everyone thought Greeks wore moustaches in those days). There was Murray Pezim, Capozzi and Harry Moll. There were three Capozzi brothers. Besides being GM for the Lions, Herb, as I said, assumed control of the Vancouver Canucks in the 1970s and started the WHITECAP soccer team, bringing professional soccer to British Columbia for the first time in its history. –excerpts from My Greek Barber’s Diary.

Dining in the Old Club District (past and present)