Alongside our workshops we are pleased to announce the launch of our Jr. Forensic Investigator’s club.  The club is open to youth age 7-14 who participate in our seasonal workshops.  Becoming a member is easy (see details here) and youth can receive some great museum-related benefits once they complete their workshops. We are excited to offer this opportunity to further engage youth in the fascinating world of forensic science. Those who become members during the break will have the opportunity to attend a ‘members only’ event on Friday March 12th.

If you aren’t able to attend a workshop then come by between 9:30am and 4:00pm March 8-12 to try your hand at one of our Drop-In Crime Scene Investigations. For more details about Spring Break activities  make sure to visit our website.

One of our first completed caches

A few weeks ago, we went out with a GPS device (Global Positioning System) and a few magnetic key boxes, hiding them around the city. This marked the start of our participation in a little sport/hobby called geocaching.

What is geocaching? According to Wikipedia:

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a “game of high-tech hide and seek”, sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. As of February 8, 2010, there are over 984,900 active geocaches over the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

Museums have been involved with the geocaching movement for awhile. Popular museum blog Museums 2.0 had a great post on geocaching a year-and-a-half ago. In fact, thanks to the recent introduction GPS-enabled cell phones, this activity is suddenly becoming much more approachable for the general public and geocaching, as well as other location-based activities, are likely to explode in popularity.

A quick search suggests that most Canadian museums have caches hidden close by, whether they know it or not; some, like the nearby Port Moody Station Museum have even been gracious enough to permit them on their property.

These three caches were placed in late January

So what about the caches we hid? (Pictures are on the right; click on the image for a closer look.)

Each our caches has been placed near a historical location in the city, and each includes information about the location. Our first three spots? A strip club with a racy history, a Chinatown alley that was once a bustling center of vice and a location with a creepy past–our own building. A list of our caches is available on the Geocaching website, but you won’t get to see the coordinates unless you sign up to become a geocacher yourself. Already, in just a few weeks, our three caches have been found almost 100 times!

We chose to use magnetic key boxes because they’re easiest to hide in an urban environment, although they have two important drawbacks: they’re not waterproof, and they don’t leave much room for those who find them to leave items for trade. We’ll be re-evaluating our cache containers for the next round of hides.

The initial contents of our first caches

As with any group, we didn’t want to get involved in something without understanding the expectations of the community; Anthony Floyd (Aerodoq on geocaching.com) has provided invaluable assistance in helping us learn what’s good practice and how to be an active participant in that community. We’re also glad we found the BC Geocaching Association.

One of the most important lessons was that commercial messages are strictly not allowed. It might be tempting to explicitly market our museum through our (or others’) geocaches, but this always instead works against you. Our caches only make a brief mention of the museum, just to point out that we placed it. Instead, we see them more as an educational tool: those who already geocache get introduced to places and pieces of history in a way they enjoy, and (hopefully) those who are interested in history will learn about this project and develop their own interest in geocaching. (It really is a fun activity!)

Each of our caches contains history info about its location

Mostly, we’re just excited for the possibilities that our involvement can contribute in a significant way to building a real sense of place. Just in a few weeks of searching for geocaches ourselves, we’ve already discovered gorgeous vistas, hidden treasures and special little places we would have never found without a little encouragement. Hopefully, the caches we’re placing will help encourage people to feel a deeper connection with the past lives of the places they frequent, but rarely think about.

We look forward to “losing” our keys (or much bigger things) soon.

Want to start geocaching, yourself? Visit the Geocaching website to sign up for a free account. Also, if you live in British Columbia, be sure to check out the BC Geocaching Association; they do great work spreading the word about learning opportunities, special events and more. Their memberships are also free.

We've got our game faces on!

Hard to believe it’s only a few days until the 2010 Olympic Winter Games descend on Vancouver; more than 350,000 visitors are expected to visit Vancouver and Whistler over the two-and-a-half weeks of the games. You can’t imagine how much we want to see some of those folks come through our doors…

The only problem? We’re not exactly rich, so we don’t have a million-dollar marketing budget. Buying advertising during the Olympics? Not unless you’ve got a sizable pile of cash. Guerrilla advertising? Risky, to say the least, since the rules are (understandably) super-strict for events like this. Do nothing? Seems foolish when so many people are coming to town.

Swiss House, German House, and... Big House?

So, what *is* our Games-time strategy? We can’t pay for advertising, but thankfully nothing beats word-of-mouth. We hope that our friends, both online and offline, will help us spread the word that we’re open, we’re worth visiting, and we’re up to interesting things during the Olympics.

We are offering our popular Sins of the City tour every day during the Games; we’re also extending our hours by staying open on Sundays. Some have even suggested that we re-brand ourselves as the “Big House” for the Olympics. (Not so sure about that idea… but if you want to get your mugshot taken here, we’d be happy to oblige!).

So, to put it as plainly as we can, we need your help.

Not for you. (But you can have a great t-shirt!)

Do you have a great idea on how we can promote ourselves or our walking tour over the next few weeks? Do you know someone (who knows someone) who’s profoundly influential and willing to let people know we exist? Can we put our logo on the side of your poodle? If so, or if you have a better idea, post them in the comments below or send us an email at chris@vancouverpolicemuseum.ca. We’ve got a stack of “Sinner” shirts looking for new homes, and we’re happy to pay (in apparel, not in cash… although $1.2 million looks appealing, doesn’t it?) for your great ideas.

You know this place

Milling about outside the Penthouse Nightclub before our (a group of us staff from the Police Museum) Heritage Vancouver-arranged tour, it was interesting to note how many different kinds of people had gathered for a peek inside one of Vancouver’s most notorious hot spots.  The crowd was definitely what you’d call ‘multi-generational’ (one sweet little old lady claimed to have visited the Penthouse in her youth…over 70 years ago!), and most of them looked like they wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around a peeler bar any night of the week, even a tame Wednesday evening at 6pm.  No one quite knew what to expect, but we all hoped for something interesting.

The Penthouse is an iconic building in Vancouver.  Who could claim themselves a Vancouverite and not know about that purple stucco building with the green tin showgirls (who have graced its façade since the 1940’s,  fyi), the lit marquis, and finally, the neon green Penthouse sign?   Well it turns out this place is more than just a strip club.  It is a vibrant piece of Vancouver’s history, and we were about get an ear, and an eye – ful.

The Penthouse is a family business, one of the oldest in Vancouver; Danny Filippone, our guide for the night, told us that his father Ross, and his Uncles Joe, Mickey, and  Jimmy opened the club in 1947, and that this bar and neighbourhood have been a part of his life as long as he can remember.  In fact, he tells us, the late, great George Burns was performing stand-up at the Penthouse the night Danny was born and handed celebratory cigars out to the patrons!  Danny likes to tell people that “God” handed out cigars to celebrate his arrival.   George Burns was not by far the only celebrity to have patronized this club.  Danny, our dynamic and obviously passionate guide, regales us throughout the tour with wonderful stories of the “good ol’ days” when ‘Uncle Joe’ and the Penthouse hosted the likes of Jimmy Durante, Carmen Miranda, Bing Crosby, and a hundred other Hollywood hotshots!

Where Sammy Davis Jr. jammed

Originally, the main floor of the club was a boxing arena and athletic club for youth.  Uncle Joe was big on boxing and passionate about getting troubled kids off the streets.  The grown-up action happened upstairs.  Encouraged to “use our imagination”, we were brought into a small room with a black baby grand piano, a few small tables and chairs, and two mirrored dancers pedestals in the corner.  This is The Lounge.  Slightly rundown in its present form, it once was privy to some real action.  Big names like Sammy Davis Jr. jammed in here and played this very piano!

How would you like your steak, sir?

We were next lead into The Steak Loft.  Again, this room revealed only hints of its previous grandeur, and it was through Danny’s story-telling that we were able to imagine it as it once was:  The Penthouse was a “supper club” in the 1950s, and it was the place to be and be seen in Vancouver.   A small open grill against one wall was one of the many reasons people came:  this was the first restaurant in Vancouver to serve steak!  (The Penthouse also claims to be the first place in Vancouver to serve pizza by the slice.)  The club didn’t open until 10pm, after other clubs in the city like The Cave and The Palomar closed.  In those days, Penthouse patrons wore tuxedos and evening gowns, and if you wanted a drink of liquor, you brought it yourself.  With imagined scents of open-flame grilling and cigars, we moved along.

The Green Room. Pretty self-explanatory.

As we shuffled even further towards the back of the building, we ventured into The Green Room.  Now, if you were someone in Vancouver, you would definitely be seen in The Lounge or in The Steak Loft, but only if you were really the crème de la crème, could you possibly endeavor to enter The Green Room.  The Green Room was aptly named, as the entire room is covered in gorgeous green velvet wallpaper.  It was in this room that the Mills Brothers stayed when they were in town, and where Frank Sinatra went to avoid the crowds.  That’s right, old Blue Eyes himself.  Frank Sinatra famously stood on stage at the Orpheum after a show and announced “I’ll see you at the Penthouse!”  You can imagine the line.

Interestingly, it was in this room that Errol Flynn spent some of his diminishing coin on drinks and entertainment the night before he ended up dead and on our autopsy table here at the Vancouver Police Museum.

Joe Filippone’s Supper Club was definitely a lively place to be in Vancouver’s early social scene.  Before the club had its liquor license, ‘Uncle Joe’ hired full time lookouts that patrolled on top of the roof.  When a fleet of coppers was spotted, alarms were rung throughout the club, and everyone knew to hide their liquor.  However, since most of the club’s regulars were celebrities, judges, and off-duty cops… as long as the booze was hidden, the raiding police officers turned a blind eye.  Around this same time, ‘Uncle Joe’ was holding private parties in his apartment in the house next-door.   These parties were not immune to police raids, and the headline “Joe Filippone’s Penthouse Raided Again” appeared the papers so often, that when the club owners finally got their liquor license, there really was only one name for the place:  and so The Penthouse was born.

Where the end-of-evening magic happened

We were served a lovely Indian buffet and treated to an interesting presentation on the Nightclubs in Vancouver in the 50s and 60s.  Our next, erm, “presentation” was a house specialty, and it’s possible that while mired in all the history we’d forgotten what the house was: a strip club.  If so, the petite girl in the scandalous Minnie Mouse outfit who methodically removed her clothes (all of ‘em) was an excellent reminder.  The Penthouse first got into burlesque in the 1960s and 70s, becoming a full-fledged strip club by the 1980s.  It was fun to watch the expressions on the faces of the history buffs as they nervously watched the dancer flip upside down on the gleaming pole center-stage.

Business at the Penthouse is booming, and that’s a good thing.  After decades in the business, this place is a true piece of Vancouver. It is through Danny Filippone’s willingness to share his family stories that we are able to appreciate it.  So here’s to another 63 years of the Penthouse!  Here’s to keeping the stories coming!  And oh – here’s to keeping the condos at bay!

Support one of Vancouver’s most interesting places and go see some peelers will ya?

Heritage Vancouver has added another date for this awesome tour – You should go.

Our 2009 Business Plan

I love working for a small organization, like ours, because you get to see the direct effects of your ideas; a decision made on Monday can have an effect on the attendance by Friday. Although there are always great opportunities coming our way, we can’t possibly take advantage of all of them, so every year we devote significant time to writing our business plan. Not only does it help us keep us focused on our goals, it also gives us a way to measure our progress.

In our 2009 Business Plan, we come up with some pretty ambitious goals; for example:

• Increase our walk-in visitor numbers by 20% compared to 2008. (We hit 22%, actually. In a recession.)
• Increase public program attendance by 20% (We saw an increase of 28%.)
• Increase gift shop sales by 20%. (Blew that away with a 39% increase, thanks in part to our new store stock.)

We also managed to make big strides in organizing our collection of artifacts, we built all of the new exhibits we had planned, we expanded our artifact collection, and we significantly increased our membership. We even managed to accomplish some things that weren’t part of our plan, such as winning a big technology sponsorship from Zero One Design, getting a sizable grant to digitize our artifact collection and building a ton of great relationships in the social media world. Yup, we feel pretty good.

So now, we’re writing our plan for 2010. The Olympics will dominate the next two months, but after that we want to keep taking little risks, try new things, and keep having fun. We have a ton of our own ideas, but we’d love yours.

What would you like to see the Police Museum do in 2010? Is there an event we could run? A group we should host? A partnership we can build? A resource we should create? Share your ideas with us and they might end up in our official plan.

Today’s guest blogger is Violet Dear, from the fantastic travel blog “Madness and Beauty“.

Violet Dear goes on the strangest fieldtrips.

The Old Morgue is the coldest room in the building that stands at 240 Cordova Street in Vancouver’s – hell, Canada’s – most notorious neighbourhood: The Downtown Eastside. Here, amongst the oldest buildings in the city stands the Coroner’s Court. This art deco building (1932) houses the Vancouver Police Museum’s collection of guns, gore and city-specific crime lore and just happens to be curated by my good friend Joanna.

She is the reason that I find myself here, in the sketchiest part of my fair city on this subzero degree day shivering and cursing the airplane that ever pried me from Fiji. As I am not working until I start school I find myself with the luxury to volunteer and flit around for a while this December. Because I know that Joanna always needs help down at the Museum I decided to pop in for a few days to research some topics for their blog.

I mentioned last week on my own blog that I am always fascinated by the turning shifts and changes in any city’s history, especially my own. I don’t know whether it is the traveler or the historian in me but I cannot think of a better spent afternoon than one elbow deep in the seedy underbelly of this Klondike port town turned beacon of livability. The Vancouver Police Museum – whose building also houses the former morgue and CSI lab – is at the navel of this belly (too far?)

Care for a cold one?

On this brisk December morning the old morgue was really, really cold. Perhaps that is why one infamous Vancouver coroner was known to keep one of the big slab drawers reserved exclusively for beer….. The rest of the morgue has been converted into a display showcase for some of the city’s most infamous crimes pre 1960 – macabre cases of murder that make people gasp and tarnish our affable reputation. Who’s livable now, wikipedia?

Sir, I am not willing to overlook your, um - warts.

Through the morgue is the autopsy room – famous for one very special visitor, one Mr. Errol Flynn, legendary film actor of Robin Hood and swashbuckling fame. In 1959 a nearly bankrupt Flynn arrived in Vancouver, a 16 year old plaything in tow, to sell a yacht to a wealthy local businessman. After a few days of parties and rich food he retired to his room on Burnaby Street complaining of a sore back. He was discovered dead by the girl hours later  and transported to the City Morgue for his autopsy.

Over the next few days press and gossip rags from around the world descended on Vancouver to dissect the case of Flynn’s death. The news of his humdrum heart attack was spiced up by his practically pubescent companion and the fact that his wife was safe at home in Hollywood, oblivious to the teenager’s existence.

No mention of any unmentionables in the autopsy report.

But most gossip centred on Flynn’s most, ermmm, prodigious feature. Women were said to line up by the hundreds to try and catch a glimpse of his member – but would they have felt the same way if they had known what coroner Glen McDonald had known? Flynn had been afflicted by “huge VD warts,” four of which McDonald’s partner removed and set in formaldehyde. Upon some consideration of the potential scrutiny their handiwork may face during a second autopsy in Los Angeles the coroners elected to replace the VD warts – with scotch tape. Apparently, no further questions were asked of the duo regarding the subject. It seems they got away scotch free (way too far, yeah? Sorry. It’s been a pun-filled day.)

Atmospheric Autopsy Shot to end with.

I emerged from the morgue feeling that warm (now there’s irony) sense of connection to my city’s history and my forebearers lives that can only come from setting your feet (and keister) where those who have come before you have stood. Joanna had many, many more surprises to show me in the Coroners Court building – downstairs and down, downstairs hold many treasures (Tommy guns! Opium pipes! Old crime labs! Mannequin after mannequin!) that I will tell you about very soon.

In the meantime, try not to get Shanghaied as you wait for my post on Vancouver’s seedy opium history. You’d best also try to avoid Mr. Flynn’s, ermmm, condition as well….

One of those most commonly used examples of “Showbiz Forensics” is the amazing power that “software” has to “enhance” an “image”. This video, that we found on YouTube this morning, helps show just how common this trick is:

(Thanks to http://dunk3d.tumblr.com/ for this!)

In real life, of course, forensic techniques like this don’t exist, or don’t work nearly the way they’re shown. Instead, most investigation involves really hard work, a strong intuition and a significant amount of deductive reasoning. And even when you have access to magical technology, sometimes the low-tech solution, combined with lots of hard work, beats the high-tech one. (But that makes bad TV.) You could spend hours trying to lift and identify a minuscule portion of a fingerprint on a drinking glass, or you could start by seeing who had a reservation for that table that night and interviewing eye-witnesses.

Next time you watch a forensics-themed TV show, be sure to pay attention to all the fantastic examples of “showbiz forensics”. Usually, it’s painfully funny. What’s your favourite example of impossible forensics?

ps. We’re doing a bunch of workshops for kids on the forensic sciences this Winter Break; if you’re an adult and want us to do forensics workshops for you, be sure to let us know.

Recently, I was contacted by Shimona Henry who totally name-dropped when asking if she might be able to use our space for an unusual sort of photo shoot.

Name-drop you say?  Shimona’s dad is our good friend Al Arsenault, a retired Vancouver police officer and a founding member of the award-winning Odd Squad productions, of whom I am a BIG fan!

Shimona, meanwhile, is the sole proprietor of ‘Pin-up Perfection Photography‘; a photography business based out of White Rock, BC.  Shimona describes herself as a “Special Education Teacher’s Assistant by day, glamour and gore girl by night!”

How intriguing?   How exciting?  How could I say no?  Shimona, five models, and a make-up artist showed up at the museum this past Sunday for a ‘Zombie-Pin-Up-Girl’ photo-shoot.  The girls were all airbrushed into the creepiest, bruisiest, most ghoulish body make-up, doused themselves with a healthy quantity of blood, and then took some sexy photos (sexy zombies? YOU BET!) in our morgue, autopsy suite, and old elevator cage.  The results are awesome and I want to thank Shimona for sharing them with us, and allowing us to share them with you.

It is exciting to see the different ways our space can be used when artistry and imagination come into play.

Who ever would have thought the morgue was racy or risqué…

Phyllis', early in her career. (VPM Archives)

This past week, we paid tribute to a woman who served as Vancouver Police Department’s first female Sergeant. Phyllis Mortimore passed away two weeks ago at the age of 92, after both a long and distinguished career and also a long and distinguished retirement. She helped pave the way for the 316 women that currently serve as members of the Vancouver Police Department.

Phyllis’  long life intersected with many different parts of our city’s history:

• She was the longest living member of Christ Church Cathedral, christened there in 1917 and active in church affairs until her passing.
• She was voted “most beautiful baby” at the PNE in 1918.
• She was taught to swim as a child by the legendary Vancouver lifeguard (and VPD Special Constable) Joe Fortes.

Phyllis (3rd from the left) and others at a VPD Function. (VPD Archives N01200s)

At 27, she was hired to the Vancouver Police Department as one of its early female officers. The Second World War had depleted the ranks of the VPD as many officers went overseas to serve, and so a number of women were hired as constables. At that time, she was supplied with a whistle, a badge and a police call box key but had to provide her own uniform.

Almost right away, her life intersected with a pivotal moment in Vancouver’s history. She described it as follows: “During World War II I became involved in a government-initiated plan that remains one of the greatest injustices of the 20th century, the confinement of Japanese-Canadians… During this horrendous episode, one of my duties was to assist the RCMP who were charged with escorting these poor people to the trains that carried them to the interior of the province for internment.” Certainly a challenging way to begin a career!

Phyllis, about to demonstrate her judo training? (VPM Archives N01195c)

A decade later, she played an important role in ensuring pay-equity for women in the VPD. In her own words: “One day in the mid-1950’s I saw Chief Constable George Archer getting into an elevator and I knew this was my chance. He had no way to escape the confined space so I asked him why we were not getting the same pay as the male officers. He replied “Well, you do not do the same work as the men.” I said, “I hate to contradict you, sir, but we do exactly the same work, but for much less pay.” Although taken aback, he asked me to submit to him personally a detailed report on our work within the police force, documenting the inequality between the men’s and women’s pay. I did this and forwarded my report to him. He took action. The Police Commission granted the raise in 1956…”

Wayne Mortimore with Chris Mathieson, discussing donated items. (Photo by News1130)

A year after that, she was the first woman promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Vancouver Police Department, earning the highest score of the 127 constables who wrote the exam that year. Despite her score, she still had to lobby for the promotion but her persistence was rewarded, opening up the opportunity for others to follow, which they did.

Phyllis also made a name for herself through her expert shooting ability, competing in (and winning) many different pistol and revolver competitions during her time on the job. (She was a member of the club mentioned in this post.)

She continued to serve with the VPD until March 1973 when she was rear-ended by another driver on her way to work. She took medical leave and tried to return to a desk job but chose instead to retire in 1974. Although no longer on the job, she kept active by dedicating herself to the Girl Guides organization as well as police-related organizations like the Vancouver Police Credit Union and the Vancouver Superannuated Police Officers Association (retired VPD member’s association). She was granted lifetime memberships to many organizations for her involvement and dedication to those causes.

Some of the items donated by the family.(Photo by News1130)

Last Thursday, we held a small press conference at the museum, providing the media information about her life and achievements. One of the members of her family, her nephew Wayne, joined us and shared some of his personal recollections of her. He also brought a number of items the family had found that related to her time as a police woman and donated them to the museum. Once we’ve processed them, expect to see her retirement badges, Long Service medal, shooting awards and more on display. In two years, when we’ve finished our major exhibit on the history of women in the VPD, expect Phyllis to be a significant part.

Her passing was noted in many media outlets including News 1130, CBC-TV (streaming video), Vancouverite, Vancouver Sun, and Global BC (streaming video). Please check them out!

You can also find out more about Phyllis, in her own words, by checking out the following interview transcribed by the staff at Christ Church Cathedral for their newsletter in the summer of 2009.

Thank you, Phyllis, for the trail that you blazed; our city and our police force are the better for it.