This film was produced by the Vancouver Harbor Commission, the state agency that looked after port development, and the Shipping Federation. Due to its length, the three parts of the original production are now distinct sections. First, we are shown the wide array of goods produced which find their way to the port of Vancouver. In his Ph.D. thesis on the history of the Vancouver waterfront, Andrew Parnaby describes how the waterfront workers are portrayed “as efficient, frictionless, and almost machine-like and the wider "industrial ethic" of which it was a part” …. What is significant about the film, Parnaby observes, “is not just its intended message, but, more importantly, what the picture suggests about how workers and the work process were viewed by employers….” (Andrew Parnaby, On the Hook: Welfare Capitalism on the Vancouver Waterfront, thesis 2001 p. 34)

To the Ports of the World Through Vancouver, film 1927, 34 minutes 9 seconds, Canada. Ports Canada, Accession number 1983-0112, Item number ISN166702, Library and Archives Canada

Film editing and musical direction: Mariana Hutten

Songs: Part 1: The Old Town Pump by Harry Reser; Paul Rickenbach; Harry Reser

Among My Souvenirs by Palais D'Or Orchestra; B. A. Rolfe; Horatio Nicholls

The Clock and the Banjo by Harry Reser; Paul Rickenbach; Harry Reser,

Part 2: When Day Is Done by Edisonians; Robert Katscher

Once Over Lightly (Cabriola) By Al Goering's Dance Orchestra; Pettis; Moore; Goering

Dawn by Frank Cornwell Orchestra; Robert Stolz

Part 3: Five Pennies by Phil Napoleon Orchestra; Red Nichols

The Pay Off by Golden Gate Orchestra [California Ramblers]; Howdy Quicksell

My Blue Heaven by Muriel Pollock; Walter Donaldson

All songs are from 1927

Further Reading

John Bellamy Potter, "Two Ages of Waterfront Labour." Labour/ Le Travail,26 (Fall 1990), 155-163.

Andrew Parnaby, ‘'Man On The Shore'': Working-Class Community and Politics on the Vancouver Waterfront 1898-1945 (unpublished Ph. d thesis) 2002 https://memorial.scholaris.ca/items/fa8eb5f6-7de9-40e0-8d7d-2b616613e9fd

Andrew Parnaby, Citizen Docker: Making a Deal on the Vancouver Waterfront 1919-1939, University of Toronto Press, 2008, 308 pgs.