Northwest Dance Halls

The Cave
Vancouver, British Columbia

Some of the bands that this place during those great years of NW music were:

 

The Action Louis Armstrong Bachman Turner Overdrive Josephine Baker Tony Bennett Chuck Berry Elvin Bishop Blood Sweat and Tears Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes James Brown Tim Buckley Eric Burdon Champ Buttler Frankie Carle Band Johnny Cash Centaurs Ray Charles China Girl Revue Dick Contino Billy Daniels Delta Rhythm Boys Bo Diddley (R.I.P.) The Dorsey Brothers Katherine Dunham & Co. Duke Ellington Nelson Eddy The Fifth Dimension Ella Fitzgerald The Four Aces Four Coins Four Knights The Gaylords Mitzi Gaynor Robert Goulet Johnny Hodges Guy Mitchell Gypsy Rose Lee Harlem Revue Rolf Harris Hoosier Hot Shots Lena Horne Ice o Rama Revue The Ink Spots Louis Jordan Band

Micky Katz David LaFlame The Lancers Peggy Lee Martin & Rowan Jack McVea Band Merry Macs Jane Mansfield Bette Midler Country Joe McDonald Meddy's People Chuck Miller The Mills Brothers Minsky Follies Ella Mae Morse Anthony Newly Wayne Newton Roy Orbison The Pied Pipers The Police R&B Allstars Paul Revere and The Raiders Della Reese Buddy RIch The Righteous Brothers Johnny Rivers Jimmi Rodgers Scatman Crothers Smiling Jack Smith Sonny & Cher The Supremes Teen Angel The Temptations Sophie Tucker Merrilee & The Turnabouts Ike & Tina Turner Tower of Power The Undisputed Truth The Ventures Jimmy Wakely Wiler Brothers Mirie Wilson Show Pay Yankee

 

My Mother, Shirley Reid (1928 - 2003), used to go to The Cave in the 1940's.  She saw Lena Horne & The Ink Spots there in June of 1947.  The same night she got Walt Disney's autograph.  Mr. Disney signed the outside of  THE CAVE photo folder.  Mom's dinner table group & the signaturess of Lena & the Ink Spots are on the reverse with the CAVE imprint. 
Gord Reid, May 2006

The Action in Vancouver with new drummer Ken Elliott at the Cave in 1968 Photo Courtesy of Bruce Howie

The 'Cave' supper club in Vancouver! This was a major spot in downtown Vancouver and just thousands of acts went through there over the years.   The inside of this place as it was actually built to look like the inside of a giant cave !!........great atmosphere and a real theatre nightclub

Chris Wolfe, November 2004

My uncle and aunt, Dave and Lillian Davies, owned the Cave Club in the 1950’s.  I remember them complaining about how difficult and egotistical many of the big name stars were, in particular Dianna Ross.

Richard Main, Elk Grove, CA, Mar 2007

Dave Davies was an ex-fighter that was a hang around person from the USA.  Isy and Richard Walters had the Cave from 1952 to 1959.  We sold the club to a man and he had it for six months.  He had a final payment to make to us of $10,000 and he could not pay.  He made a deal with Ken Stoffard.  He paid us and he had the Cave for the next 15 or so years.

Isy and Richard built Isy's Supper Club in December 1959 and had that club until Isy died in the 1970's.

Richard (Ricthie) Walters, August 2007

Please read my story about Jimmy McGarry, who performed his Jolson act at the Cave in 1953-54.  Click here.

Ralph Lortie, June 2007

Remembering Louis Armstrong performing in Vancouver's "The Cave" ...  it was either 1963 or 1964.  I have several slide photos of Mr. Armstrong in performance at The Cave somewhere in a locker, buried deep in my cave.  Great times -- I was an assistant film editor on the TV action series "The Littlest Hobo" at the time.

David M. Robertson, Montreal , January 2010

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Last Update:  3 February 2010

Credits: Bruce Howie, Chris Wolfe, Brian Medway, Mel Patrick, Greg Thacher, John Gedak, Rick Hill, Gord Reid, Michael Hawley, John Gordon, Gary Johnson, Richard Main, Richard Walters, Andrea Mikulan, Bill Wilson, Susan Hardy, Ralph Lortie, Joel Johnson, Wendy Malesku, Richard Walters, Alastair Glass, Dallas Hinton, Susan Fulton, David Robertson, Lorne Swenerton