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THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
Keith was
beginning to
suspect that he
wasnʼt meant
to work in that
partnership.
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 5: BUILDING ON BUILDING
SELLING UP
Keith and Fred continued to work on every project that came their way.
One evening, as the two men were working late in the workshop to fi ll an
order, they noticed a man who had sauntered down the back lane casually
examining their building and operations. After having a good look, he
approached the pair and asked them a few questions about their business.
At the end of his inquiries, he introduced himself as Mr. Beatty and offered
Keith and Fred $5,000 for the building if they could be out by the end of the
month. He explained that he was starting a company to manufacture plywood
sheets covered with a walnut fi nish and he thought their workshop would
perfectly suit his purposes. He wanted to start right away, which meant they
had to get out fast. “That was huge money for back then,” says Keith. “We
were making 30 cents an hour.” It was a good offer, but the two didn’t know
what would happen to their business if they sold the workshop.
Despite the relative success that Keith and Fred were enjoying,
Keith was beginning to suspect that he wasn’t meant to work in that
partnership. “Fred was, for the majority of the time, a nine-to-fi ve guy
and I wanted to put in as many hours as required to make sure we
completed our orders on time,” says Keith. Th e temptation of a good
off er for the building was the push he needed to broach the possibility
of dissolving his partnership with Fred. “I told him we could stay
friends, but sorry, that’s the way it was,” says Keith. “So,
we broke up the business.” Keith and Fred accepted
Beatty’s off er. In addition to the money they had spent
purchasing the property, Keith and Fred estimated
they had put a couple of thousand dollars’ worth of
materials into building the workshop. “Plus, a whole lot
of work,” says Keith. “But for that price, we were happy
to sell the building.”
On their last job, Fred and Keith completely outfi tted a
Catholic church in the West End of Vancouver in the late
1940s. Th ey did all the work in oak and manufactured
the pews, confessionals, communion rail, holy water
font and a couple of other miscellaneous items. It was
the biggest job they had ever done. When Keith went to
collect the payment, the priest kept putting him off and
putting him off . Keith fi nally went to the head of the
diocese in downtown Vancouver and was told that they had no power
over the priest’s actions. Keith found this hard to believe.
Fred and Keith desperately needed the money, so Keith went to the
priest’s home, which was adjacent to the church. He was told by the
priest’s attendant that the priest was at home, but he was busy. Keith
informed him he was going to sit and wait for the priest, even if took
all night, because Keith was desperate to get paid. Keith was told he
couldn’t stay, but he refused to leave. One thing Keith had noticed
when he came into the lobby was a pair of white, ankle-sized rubber
boots that was the style for women in those days and this made him
kind of suspicious. Aft er about an hour, the priest came downstairs
tying up his shirt, and behind him there was a good looking lady doing
up her blouse. When he saw Keith the priest almost fell off of the stairs.
Keith stood up, walked over and said “Father, I need my money.” Th e
priest said “just a moment,” went into his offi ce and a few minutes
later came out and said, “I had the cheque all made up, I was going
to mail it to you tomorrow, but seeing as you are here, here is your
payment.” Keith wondered what motivated the priest to fi nally pay
him that night.
During the sale and move out of the workshop, Fred, Keith and Fred’s
brother Max entered into an agreement with the Pacifi c National
Exhibition to build all the show fronts, ticket booths and
entrance gates for the Fair. Although the boys made their
deal with the PNE, they had sold the rights to operate
the Midway during the Fair to a man named R. Gordon
Hilker. Getting the work done in time for the PNE was a
real push. Keith, Fred and Max started work on the various
structures in their workshop before moving operations to
an empty building on Hastings Street to be closer to the
Fairgrounds. Nearly everything was fi nished in time, but
the day before the gates were due to open, the ticket booths
were still unpainted. “I stayed until 5:00 a.m. that night,
spraying a fast-drying paint on all the booths,” says Keith.
“First thing the next morning, Max arrived with his truck
and we set up the booths barely in time for the 10:00 a.m.
opening.”
Th e boys were relieved to have completed the work just under the wire.
Unfortunately, halfway through the two-week Fair, R. Gordon Hilker
went bankrupt. Since they hadn’t yet been paid, Keith approached a
Veterans Aff airs lawyer for some advice on how to proceed. “He told
me we were legally entitled to close off the ticket booths and block the
entrance until we got our money,” says Keith. “But since there were
only three days to go on the Fair, it didn’t seem like the proper thing
to do.” Instead they went to the Midway manager, Dave Dauphinee,
Photo: City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 180-1533, Artray.
Th e main entrance to the
PNE, 1948.
Nearly everything was
fi nished in time, but the
day before the gates
were due to open, the
ticket booths were still
unpainted.
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