This is an excerpt from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context paper, ‘Building Social and Community Life: Performing Arts’ (pp. 76-92). For more on the history of our neighborhood, check out the full paper: https://www.hsca.ca/historical-context-paper.
One of the earliest examples of the performing arts, and an important example of intangible heritage in Hillhurst- Sunnyside, is the bandstand in Riley Park, which was planned for at least by 1913. Funding was made available for a new bandstand as a commemorative project in 1980, but it was not constructed until the late 1980s. This bandstand was in turn replaced in 2018.
The youngest daughter of pioneers Felix and Florence McHugh, Florence McHugh Piercy (1901-1984), was a talented artist who achieved renown for her roles - many of them leading roles - in plays, light opera and musical comedy in live theatre and film. She was still a student in the field when she moved in 1921 to London to finish her training. After establishing a successful career in London she made it her permanent home. With the introduction of the Plaza Theatre, a small theatre house created by adapting and renewing the façade of a 1929 garage, to the community in 1935, a wide variety of affordable films aimed at diverse age groups were accessible to residents.
The Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, a 2,700- seat concert hall and theatre was built between 1955 and 1957 as a venue for both local and international performing artists. From 1982 to 2004 the basement was reconfigured to add a second more intimate 250-seat auditorium, the Dr Betty Mitchell Theatre, named for Betty Mitchell who founded several Calgary theatrical groups in the 1930s-40s 100.
Residents have been attracted to the neighbourhood by the thriving local arts centres and in turn have shaped and fostered the local culture in the community. This was no more evident than during the counter-culture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For a few years Riley Park became a magnet for free-spirited, anti- establishment youth. It began in July 1967, when an estimated 5,000 hippies and spectators participated in a Love-In, a full year before San Francisco’s 1968 ‘summer of love’. The Love-In was promoted by Luvinc, a free society for the promotion of arts and artisanry in Calgary. In her community newsletter article ‘Confessions of a Hippie’, long-time resident Patti Dawkins, explains that these gatherings were her introduction to Riley Park and the wider community of like-minded individuals and disillusioned youth. Another sign of the times in the community was the Garnet Block which became the Headquarters head shop which advertised with psychedelic posters by artist Bruce Pearson.
Another long-time resident Brian Smith, who was born at Grace Hospital eight decades ago and was raised in the community, began his fine arts studies at AUARTS in 1960. At that time he connected with musicians and to form a band. The Sunnyside property he rented in the late 1960s was a gathering place for both artists and musicians. At that time he also was involved with the ‘Diggers’ a counter-culture movement of social activists and street performers that originated in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco that promoted the idea that everything should be free. Smith helped others in need find free accommodation.
100-Another theatre that opened in the Allied Arts Centre (non-extant) in 1962 was also named in her honour.