Secrets of the Penthouse is back! This Halloween, tour inside Vancouver’s most notorious venue with club owner Danny Filippone as your guide. You’ll hear stories of vice squad busts, mobsters, bootlegging, Rat Pack parties and murder, plus the tale of the fabled Penthouse ghost…
In its 66 years the Penthouse has survived blue-nosed liquor laws, police-raids, fires and robberies. It has been a favourite watering hole of celebrity glitterati like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. The only place in Vancouver’s history where a judge, a crime boss and a dancing girl could rub shoulders without an eyebrow being raised. Remarkably, the Penthouse is still in business today. Still owned and managed by the Filippone family, just like in 1947.
Joining Danny are historian Aaron Chapman, author of Liquor, Lust & the Law – the history of the legendary Penthouse Nightclub, and retired-VPD cop Grant MacDonald. Grant was himself part of VPD dry squad raids at the club in the ’60s and joined in undercover surveillance operations there in the ’70s. Your three guides have between them more dirt on Vancouver’s murky underworld past than Mama Filippone made meatballs.
Secrets of the Penthouse Halloween 2014 Edition
- Date: Thursday, October 30
- Time: Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; Tours at 6:00 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Club opens for normal business at 9.00pm.
- Cost: $49, book online here.
- Location: The Penthouse Nightclub (1019 Seymour Street, Vancouver)
Image by R R Horne
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