Countless scribes, journalists and biographers have documented country music queen Loretta Lynn鈥檚 chords and undeniable cachet over the decades.
Rob Howatson has instead chosen to devote his research to a chicken coop.
According to Howatson and fellow researcher Mike Harling, Lynn got her first big break in the music business in Vancouver, along a stretch of road near East Kent Avenue and Elliot Street.
The setting?
A chicken coop.
鈥淚 grew up in South 麻豆传媒映画and when I was a kid I didn鈥檛 think it was an interesting place and I didn鈥檛 think we had many celebrity stories,鈥� Howatson said. 鈥淭his one kind of blew my mind and it opened the door to all kinds of other stories that I鈥檝e since uncovered.鈥�
Howatson, who wrote a 2012 feature story on the subject for the Courier, will unravel his years of research into Lynn鈥檚 backstory as part of a Museum of 麻豆传媒映画event called Unbelievable Stories, Aug. 17. He鈥檒l be joined by Harling and local historian John Atkin, who鈥檒l speak to the development origins of the West End.
Howatson鈥檚 yarn began in 2010 while walking through a back lane in Fraserview. A couple of 鈥渙ld timers鈥� stopped him, pointed to a nondescript property and told him it once contained a chicken coop later converted to a live music and gathering place.
It was there, he was told, that Lynn performed in 1959. The now-85-year-old country star lived in northern Washington State at the time and it鈥檚 believed she had heard about the coop on the radio. She came up north to give it a go at a Sunday afternoon hootenanny and was discovered by Canadian music producer and label owner Don Grashey.
As Lynn went on to achieve mega superstardom, seldom did she reference the coop or that 1959 jam session.
Oftentimes, she left Grashey鈥檚 name out of the story altogether, or referenced Grashey鈥檚 business partner, Norm Burley, as her ticket to fame. 聽
Between Howatson and Harling, the pair have interviewed Lynn, Grashey and other players in the story in an attempt to get to the truth. Instead of black and white, they continually find varying shades of grey.
鈥淲hen I confront [Lynn] with what Don Grashey claims, she never contradicts that 鈥� she says, 鈥榃ell if that鈥檚 what he remembers, then he鈥檚 probably right.鈥� It鈥檚 a very frustrating story to share,鈥� Howatson said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 not a wealthy superstar like she is, so I鈥檝e often wondered if she鈥檚 had some legal advice given to her around how she doles out credit and to whom. This is a theory I have but I鈥檝e not been able to prove it.鈥�
Disproving theories is the business Atkin will tend to when his portion of the talk and museum tour takes shape. A civic historian who鈥檚 combed through decades of bylaws, newspaper articles, photos and other reference material, Atkin provides a timeline from the West End鈥檚 transformation from rooming houses to homes in the sky.
鈥淚 actually read [zoning bylaws] 鈥� it鈥檚 weird and fun,鈥� Atkin said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 also curious about the built form in terms of why things look the way they do.鈥�
Atkin鈥檚 research suggest the period between 1927 and 1929 as being the critical moment in the area鈥檚 transformation: single-family houses were out, while apartments and up to six-storey walk-ups were in.
The three municipalities that became 麻豆传媒映画as we know it today 鈥� South Vancouver, 麻豆传媒映画and Point Grey 鈥� amalgamated in 1929 and many of those zoning bylaws were kept. Interestingly enough, city hall was built at 12th and Cambie because it served as the geographic centre point of those three former boroughs.
鈥淪ome people demolished their homes out of spite,鈥� Atkin said. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l see early photographs from the 鈥�30s and into the early 鈥�40s of new emerging apartment buildings and these ratty old rooming houses. We forget that the West End went through that phase of dilapidation.鈥�
Atkin鈥檚 research points to the 1960s, when highrises with ever-valuable balcony space became the new norm, as another turning point. The period from 1964 forward is when the area took on the character that鈥檚 largely seen today.聽
鈥�This tour is about explaining stuff that makes people go, 鈥榬eally? I didn鈥檛 know that,'鈥� Atkin said.
The two presentations are slated for Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. Tickets range in price between $15 and $17, while museum members get in free. For info, see .
