People don’t scowl in photos the way they used to.
That was the first thing that struck Ryan Martin when he discovered a historical shot of the Hume Hotel’s staff in the Touchstones archives recently. The second thing he noticed about the 1930s shot? There weren’t many women.
“Nobody used to smile in photos,” Martin told the Star.
“It makes you wonder if it was the byproduct of living in a depressing time, because they were in the middle of the Great Depression, but on the attire side everyone looks so classy in their three-piece suits, all dressed to the nines.”
Another thing that intrigued him were the people in the windows, behind the posing staff.
“The people in the windows look very ghost-like, almost half-real, and I have a couple other versions of the shot where the people in the windows change. There’s one with a little boy staring out the window, and it totally gave me chills.”
Instantly Martin was inspired to recreate the shot with his staff — an endeavour they enthusiastically got behind — and last Sunday they amassed on the front landing in-costume to pose for local photographer Adrian Wagner.
And everyone got into the spirit.
“I must say, we’re very lucky to have a resource like the costume department at the Capitol Theatre, with wonderful people who want to see you find exactly what you’re looking for,” he said.
“Myself and my wife Leandra and a few others went in there, and we really enjoyed the process of trying on hats and coats. The cool thing about a Prohibition theme is a fedora hat, or even a headband, can go a long way. It’s an easy decade to embrace.”
The ultimate shot only took three minutes to take on a Sunday afternoon.
“I was disappointed at first because there was so much rain, but once the picture was over we realized it really added to the somber mood of the shot.”
Martin was using the image to promote the hotel’s new signature event, Grapes and Grains — a wine, spirit and craft beer festival — which is coming up on Saturday, April 22. It will feature musical performances in both the Hume Room and Spiritbar.
Martin said now is the right time to host this kind of event.
“We used to have a beer festival 15 years ago, but it eventually ran out of gas. But if you look at how far the B.C. craft beer industry has come, coupled with the wine industry, we’re seeing a real shift away from the big companies that used to own the marketplace.”
The way he sees it, “People aren’t as brand-loyal and they want to try new and different wines and beers.”
There are 30 vendors confirmed for the event, and all of them will be embracing the Roaring 20s theme — and he hopes attendees will too.
“With the heritage hotel as a backdrop, we thought it would be fun to encourage everyone to dress from that era and really get into the spirit.”
