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Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp, 2004)
Overshadowed by flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt in 1915, Vancouver mayor Louis Denison Taylor was a secretive man who made up in endurance what he lacked in zest. The accused embezzler served as mayor for a record eight terms, during three of the city's most formative decades, bouncing back to run each time he was defeated.
One incident in Daniel Francis's L.D. Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp $21.95) epitomizes the character of the redoubtable mayor. It happened in 1915 when Mayor Louis Dennison Taylor was excluded from a list of dignitaries selected to greet Theodore Roosevelt during the former American president's brief stopover in Vancouver.
Never one to take a snub passively, L.D. contrived to meet Roosevelt's train in New Westminster, climb aboard and greet Roosevelt whom he had met previously. When the train reached Vancouver, Taylor ceremoniously ushered Roosevelt on to the platform, introduced him, and then escorted him to his own car parked outside the station. Roosevelt addressed the crowd from the back of L.D.'s car, and then L.D. gave him a quick tour of Stanley Park, and delivered him to the Seattle-bound steamer to continue on his journey to San Francisco-much to the chagrin of his political foes.
This fondness of outwitting his opponents, and Taylor's refusal to accept defeat made him an indefatigable politician. He served as mayor of Vancouver for a record eight separate terms, during three of its most formative decades, bouncing back to run again after every defeat. As the book's title suggests, his story is closely interwoven with that of the city.
When his civic political career stalled, as it did in 1912, he ran in the provincial election. He stood as Liberal candidate in Rossland, even though he knew he had no chance of winning (every other Liberal candidate in the province went down to defeat). He declared one of his appearances during that campaign was "the most lively meeting I have been in."; It had erupted into fist fights, with windows broken, chairs being thrown, and noses bloodied.
When there was no election to run in, he concentrated on his other vocation-that of newspaperman. In 1905 he had acquired from Sara McLagan one of Vancouver's three newspapers, the World. In just over one year he transformed it from a small twelve page daily into a modern, urban newspaper twice the size, with a woman's page, a serialized work of fiction, comics and cartoons as well as news. Soon its circulation equalled that of its chief rival, the Province, at which he had worked previously as circulation manager. He ran the World until 1915, when he lost it to his creditors.
A crucial event in L.D.'s life was his 1927 meeting in Seattle with Charles Lindbergh just six months after the aviator's solo flight across the Atlantic. When L.D. invited him to visit Vancouver, Lindbergh replied that, since Vancouver had no airport, he could only fly over the city. His words convinced L.D. that Vancouver would miss out on commercial aviation if it did not immediately set about building an airport. Accordingly L.D. persuaded city council to lease land for an interim landing field, and eventually to approve construction of an airport on Sea Island.
During this period, L.D's enthusiasm for aviation almost resulted in his death. He was a passenger on the first B.C. Airways flight that inaugurated passenger service between Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle. When the flight ended at the interim airport in Vancouver, L.D. bounded off the plane with his usual exuberance. Unfortunately, he ran straight into the path of one of the propellers and fractured his skull. Doctors operated immediately and managed to save his life. One surgeon commented that if he'd been half an inch taller, he would not have survived-a remark that was subsequently rendered as "if he'd had an ounce more brain, he'd be dead.";
Yet the indefatigable politician managed to turn even this mishap to his political advantage. When the papers learnt of his possible death, they immediately prepared obituary notices. After his recovery, he managed to get hold of these notices, and delighted in reading them aloud to audiences during his next campaign for the office of mayor. Since the papers opposed his re-election, this trick was especially galling to his opponents, although it failed to bring him victory.
In spite of his accomplishments as mayor-the establishment of a town planning commission, the building of the first airport, and the amalgamation of Vancouver with South Vancouver and Point Grey-he gained no material wealth and little recognition for his years of service. When he died just before his eighty-ninth birthday, an editorial in the Sun declared that he had served Vancouver well, better than Vancouver served him.
Daniel Francis qualifies that verdict. He notes that L.D. arrived in Vancouver at the age of 39 as a fugitive from justice. He was an accused embezzler, who fled to Canada after being released on bail from a Chicago jail. When he arrived in Vancouver, the city was a decade old and full of opportunities. L.D. was able to shed his old identity and start anew. The city and the man, Francis concludes, were perfectly suited to one another.
Although Louis Dennison Taylor served more times as Vancouver mayor than anyone before or since, L.D. is the first full-length biography. Secretive about his private life, Taylor had escaped close scrutiny for decades. Francis, an historian who edited the Encyclopedia of B.C., was initially stymied in his research until he received a very welcome call from a distant Taylor relative who led Francis to a basement trove of unseen personal archives.
1-55152-156-3
-Joan Givner
One incident in Daniel Francis's L.D. Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp $21.95) epitomizes the character of the redoubtable mayor. It happened in 1915 when Mayor Louis Dennison Taylor was excluded from a list of dignitaries selected to greet Theodore Roosevelt during the former American president's brief stopover in Vancouver.
Never one to take a snub passively, L.D. contrived to meet Roosevelt's train in New Westminster, climb aboard and greet Roosevelt whom he had met previously. When the train reached Vancouver, Taylor ceremoniously ushered Roosevelt on to the platform, introduced him, and then escorted him to his own car parked outside the station. Roosevelt addressed the crowd from the back of L.D.'s car, and then L.D. gave him a quick tour of Stanley Park, and delivered him to the Seattle-bound steamer to continue on his journey to San Francisco-much to the chagrin of his political foes.
This fondness of outwitting his opponents, and Taylor's refusal to accept defeat made him an indefatigable politician. He served as mayor of Vancouver for a record eight separate terms, during three of its most formative decades, bouncing back to run again after every defeat. As the book's title suggests, his story is closely interwoven with that of the city.
When his civic political career stalled, as it did in 1912, he ran in the provincial election. He stood as Liberal candidate in Rossland, even though he knew he had no chance of winning (every other Liberal candidate in the province went down to defeat). He declared one of his appearances during that campaign was "the most lively meeting I have been in."; It had erupted into fist fights, with windows broken, chairs being thrown, and noses bloodied.
When there was no election to run in, he concentrated on his other vocation-that of newspaperman. In 1905 he had acquired from Sara McLagan one of Vancouver's three newspapers, the World. In just over one year he transformed it from a small twelve page daily into a modern, urban newspaper twice the size, with a woman's page, a serialized work of fiction, comics and cartoons as well as news. Soon its circulation equalled that of its chief rival, the Province, at which he had worked previously as circulation manager. He ran the World until 1915, when he lost it to his creditors.
A crucial event in L.D.'s life was his 1927 meeting in Seattle with Charles Lindbergh just six months after the aviator's solo flight across the Atlantic. When L.D. invited him to visit Vancouver, Lindbergh replied that, since Vancouver had no airport, he could only fly over the city. His words convinced L.D. that Vancouver would miss out on commercial aviation if it did not immediately set about building an airport. Accordingly L.D. persuaded city council to lease land for an interim landing field, and eventually to approve construction of an airport on Sea Island.
During this period, L.D's enthusiasm for aviation almost resulted in his death. He was a passenger on the first B.C. Airways flight that inaugurated passenger service between Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle. When the flight ended at the interim airport in Vancouver, L.D. bounded off the plane with his usual exuberance. Unfortunately, he ran straight into the path of one of the propellers and fractured his skull. Doctors operated immediately and managed to save his life. One surgeon commented that if he'd been half an inch taller, he would not have survived-a remark that was subsequently rendered as "if he'd had an ounce more brain, he'd be dead.";
Yet the indefatigable politician managed to turn even this mishap to his political advantage. When the papers learnt of his possible death, they immediately prepared obituary notices. After his recovery, he managed to get hold of these notices, and delighted in reading them aloud to audiences during his next campaign for the office of mayor. Since the papers opposed his re-election, this trick was especially galling to his opponents, although it failed to bring him victory.
In spite of his accomplishments as mayor-the establishment of a town planning commission, the building of the first airport, and the amalgamation of Vancouver with South Vancouver and Point Grey-he gained no material wealth and little recognition for his years of service. When he died just before his eighty-ninth birthday, an editorial in the Sun declared that he had served Vancouver well, better than Vancouver served him.
Daniel Francis qualifies that verdict. He notes that L.D. arrived in Vancouver at the age of 39 as a fugitive from justice. He was an accused embezzler, who fled to Canada after being released on bail from a Chicago jail. When he arrived in Vancouver, the city was a decade old and full of opportunities. L.D. was able to shed his old identity and start anew. The city and the man, Francis concludes, were perfectly suited to one another.
Although Louis Dennison Taylor served more times as Vancouver mayor than anyone before or since, L.D. is the first full-length biography. Secretive about his private life, Taylor had escaped close scrutiny for decades. Francis, an historian who edited the Encyclopedia of B.C., was initially stymied in his research until he received a very welcome call from a distant Taylor relative who led Francis to a basement trove of unseen personal archives.
1-55152-156-3
-Joan Givner
Submitted on May 19, 2004 in By David.
