Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Whitehorse Star

MUSICAL DUO – Grant Simpson performs with Claire Ness July 11 at Arts in the Park.

Image title

Photo by Whitehorse Star

SOLO CONTRIBUTION – Grant Simpson provides the entertainment on May 26 with one of the Whitehorse street pianos at the Yukon Transportation Museum’s season kick-off barbecue.

Curtain falls on performer’s local career

For decades, Grant Simpson has entertained both locals and tourists with his vaudeville acts and music.

By Stephanie Waddell on August 29, 2018

For decades, Grant Simpson has entertained both locals and tourists with his vaudeville acts and music.

Now the veteran of the territory’s music scene is heading south – though he says he’d still like to bring his Klondike Follies back to Whitehorse next summer if there’s a contract for the show.

Simpson said in an interview Monday he and his partner will be heading to Winnipeg after Oct. 1 as his partner gets set to study set design through a program there. He aims to get into the busy music scene there.

While Simpson said he loves the territory and the capital city that has been his home base for decades, he said it’s time to move on.

It’s difficult to make a living in Whitehorse working in music, Simpson said.

While he’s able to stay in the territory through the summer, he noted, he’s normally had to tour down south from about October to February.

Leaving Whitehorse to tour also comes at a much higher cost than going on tour from a more southern centre.

As Simpson described it, while he’s keeping his head above water, it’s becoming more difficult to do so.

It’s been clear for some time that he would have to make a change.

“The timing is right,” he said.

He’s had his eye on Winnipeg for some time, with its booming music scene, and a number of friends based out of the Manitoba capital.

Once his partner started talking about studying set design there, it was clear the move was meant to be.

He pointed out that Winnipeg is home to the Pantages Playhouse Theatre, which had been built by Alexander Pantages in 1914, with the theatre set to be the hub of his vaudeville chain he ran throughout North America.

Before that, Pantages was one of the many who made their way to Skagway and eventually Dawson City during the Gold Rush. As it was noted on the theatre’s website, it was in Dawson where he met Klondike Kate Rockwell.

“He soon gained her confidence, took up residence with her and, it is said, that they even talked of marriage,” it’s noted

“In 1902, with the Gold Rush winding down, Pantages moved to Seattle while Kate stayed in Alaska on the promise to join him later.

“Using Kate’s money, he opened the Lois Theatre. Unbeknownst to Kate, Pantages met and married Lois Mendenhall while she was still in Alaska.”

Pantages would go on to become a theatre tycoon, owning 30 theatres by 1926 and having controlling shares in another 42. At the peak of his career, his net worth was estimated at $50 million.

Noting the history of the Pantages Playhouse Theatre and the Yukon connection, Simpson said he’d love to explore the possibility of doing some vaudeville shows there.

Many long-time Yukoners have been shocked by Simpson’s plans to relocate.

He points out he really hasn’t spent a full winter in the Yukon for a number of years given his touring schedule.

“I love Whitehorse,” he said, adding that the community proved a great place for his now-adult children to grow up.

But now it’s the right time to make a change, he said.

It’s a move that comes nearly 40 years after Simpson first arrived in the territory from Nanaimo, B.C., when he was just 20 years old.

He was hired by the Frantic Follies vaudeville show to perform similar shows at Diamond Tooth Gerties in Dawson City.

The following summer, Simpson was asked to be part of the Follies’ Whitehorse show, which he later bought into as a partner.

As he recalled in an interview when he announced the Follies would no longer be staged, the Frantic Follies gave him a life in vaudeville, and “it’s been great.”

The show featured, as Simpson described it, “goofy humour” of the Gold Rush era through a vaudeville performance.

The Follies had started in the late 1960s as an amateur production before the first professional season in 1970.

It expanded through the 1970s and would also be staged in Florida over four months in the early 1980s as well as take to a 10-city North American Tour over two weeks in 1990.

In 2017, when Simpson announced the show would no longer be performed, he explained it was no longer sustainable.

It had lost 60 per cent of its revenue a few years earlier when Holland America cancelled its confirmed bookings for their guests for the performance.

It had operated on a shoe string budget since then and couldn’t keep going as it had.

Simpson did host two Klondike Follies events in the summer of 2017, with a more full schedule this season.

As Simpson noted though, the Klondike Follies is a different show from the Frantic Follies was.

The new show featured a number of headline acts with about 20 shows this season aimed at entertaining the local audience as well as tourists.

The Frantic Follies had been aimed largely at the revolving stream of tourists with shows performed every night through the summer.

Simpson said he was pleased with how well the Klondike Follies was received in this first year, and he hopes to be back next season if a contract for the show comes his way. `

Comments (4)

Up 7 Down 0

Carol Traviss on Sep 1, 2018 at 6:56 am

To my wonderful cousin. Wishing you all the best. I know good things will continue to happen. And I am also sure that you will return for all the folks to enjoy your show in Whitehorse again too. All the best to both of you. Carol

Up 10 Down 2

Jessica McMurphy on Aug 30, 2018 at 4:59 pm

Grant and his partner are going to be truly missed it was great getting to work with Grant he always makes you smile. Safe travels to you both.

Up 21 Down 0

My Opinion on Aug 29, 2018 at 10:16 pm

That was a long Gig. You can't beat doing the same show for 40 years. That was like Broadway long. Good Luck Grant.

Up 32 Down 0

Bernie Phillips on Aug 29, 2018 at 5:48 pm

Along with a host of Yukoner's I will miss this fine fellow who many of his younger cast call The Vaudfather. Since I am older than him, I just call him Grant. He is a true friend as well as the perfect guy to be on stage with. Throughout my years at The Frantic Follies as stage manager and performer, Simpson never failed to amaze me. How he put that ripped up newspaper back in one piece in The Cabin Scene is above my pay grade. Shock and awe each time!
As a musician, Grant can play with everybody but there are few finer at ragtime. He has taught a number of kids who have gone on to great things and he has nurtured so many others to find confidence on stage. He is loved and the legacy that he leaves in our town shines bright.

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.