The Sylvia Hotel and Vancouver Writers

“The Americans have a new war

that’s how we know the generations have changed.”

– George Fetherling, “First Signs of Wartime Spring,” The Sylvia Hotel Poems

The Sylvia Hotel is a venerable institution, and this is my first visit.

I was curious about whether the Sylvia had made it into any crime fiction. My research only turned up a true-life double murder several years ago; crucial pieces of evidence were dropped in the hotel’s bushes.

There is one short story, by Brad Bennett. Courtesy of the Amazon blurb: “The Secret of the Undead Room: A corrupt Hollywood director stages a Zombie festival in Vancouver’s historic Sylvia Hotel, setting the scene for a crack detective faced with an unsolvable murder mystery.”

Mostly, though, the hotel’s literary reputation rests on a series of three children’s books featuring the hotel cat, Mister Got to Go.

Writers who frequented the Sylvia include George Fetherling (who lived, or lives, nearby, and who composed a series of themed poems about unrequited love set here); Earle Birney; Douglas Coupland; and going back rather further, Robert Service.

Pierre Trudeau and Errol Flynn have both been guests, although their quarters were likely more luxurious than the “petite” room I selected.

Flynn is, in fact, rumoured to haunt the hotel, although he had his final and fatal heart attack in a nearby West End apartment, age 50; he was visiting the city in the company of his seventeen-year-old girlfriend, which raised eyebrows. Vancouver c. 1959 was a fairly staid place. The city’s first cocktail bar had opened only five years earlier–at the Sylvia, which became a favourite drinking hole for writers.

I’ve set up drinks and breakfast with Vancouver writer friends, to keep up the tradition. And I’ll be re-reading Sam Wiebe’s wonderfully atmospheric Sunset and Jericho this weekend; he captures Vancouver in a distinctive noir style.

Other Vancouver writers to look out for: Caroline Adderson, Carleigh Baker, and Carellin Brooks, to cover only the first few letters of the alphabet.

And here’s a rather lovely song by American songwriter Cheryl Wheeler, “Sylvia Hotel.” The cat gets a mention.