Neon Eulogy: Vancouver Café and Street

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

Keith McKellar (aka itinerant street artist Laughing Hand) fell in love
with Vancouver’s cafes and theatres, and particularly their classic
neon signs, while driving a cab in the 1970s. Taking up the life of a
professional artist in the 1980s, he worked from a pushcart on the
streets of Vancouver, to the delight of passersby. Over some 17 years he
was also capturing the images and characters of the old buildings and
their vibrant signs in the lively and intricate line-drawings reproduced
in this book. There are 40 subjects, including restaurants, theatres,
clubs, and hotels. Many are gone now. Others survive but in altered and
redeveloped forms.

As skilled with words as he is with his visual art, McKellar has
written eulogies for them that are both anecdotal and poetic, full of
history and reminiscences and nostalgia. Residents and visitors who knew
Vancouver in earlier days will find many memories in the tumbling images
and sensations of these pieces. They will also find a lot of
little-known Vancouver history. Names, dates, and lines of ownership
succession have been carefully researched and woven into the eulogies. A
bibliography of the sources is included. This is a wonderful collection
to explore and savor, and a fitting tribute to the memories of its
subjects.