Forbidden Vancouver Explores Secrets of the Penthouse with Historian Aaron Chapman

ByJon Dykstra May 29, 2024September 13, 2024

Forbidden Vancouver Penthouse tour — Forbidden Vancouver explores the history of the Penthouse Nightclub on May 29. Photo: Forbidden Vancouver

Forbidden Vancouver is organizing a series of special cultural walking tours featuring author/historian Aaron Chapman. Tonight, Chapman, along with club owner Danny Filippone and retired cop Grant MacDonald, will be leading a tour behind the scenes at Vancouver’s Penthouse Nightclub, 1019 Seymour Street. Doors for “Secrets of the Penthouse” open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $70. Chapman is the author of Liquor, Lust and the Law: The Story of Vancouver’s Legendary Penthouse Nightclub, while Filippone and MacDonald have their own intimate knowledge of the Penthouse’s heydays as ground zero for Vancouver noir. If you can’t make it to tonight’s tour, the good news is it’s not a one-off, as Chapman’s going to be doing more of them. He’s written several essential books on Vancouver history for Arsenal Pulp Press, and future tours will be based on his research into the Commodore Ballroom and The Last Gang in Town. The latter will feature a walking tour around the Clark Park area in East Vancouver, where the Clark Park Gang thrived in Vancouver’s post-1960s counterculture. Dates for the Commodore and Clark Park tours have yet to be announced.

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Jon Dykstra

Jon is a long-time Metro Vancouver resident where he owns an interior design firm and home design publication. As a prolific writer who enjoys much of what Metro Vancouver has to offer, he couldn't help but write about the goings on in Metro Vancouver which resulted in the launch of The Burrard Bulletin.