At the south east corner of Jackson Avenue and Hastings Street Ferrera Court is an imposing presence with its tan brick and striking terra cotta ornament. On Hastings Street to the right of the entrance is a yellow oval plaque put up in 1986 as part of Vancouver’s Centennial celebrations. These plaques detailed interesting events and snippets of city history.

Here, the plaque offers the story of how a young American comedian visiting the city met his future wife. The plaque text states that “In 1922 Ferrera Court was the home of Vancouver tailor David Marks, where vaudeville comedian Benny Kubelsky met thirteen-year-old Sadie Marks. They dated in 1926 and married the next year. As Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone they often returned to the city of her birth.”

So there are a few things wrong with this account.

First off, the Marks family never lived at Ferrara Court. They were at 233 Templeton Street until 1917 when they moved to the West End to 1649 Nelson Street until 1924. David Marks was not a tailor as described but was involved in the scrap business with his firm the Canadian Pacific Junk Company and was the first president of the Schara Tzedeck synagogue at Heatley and Pender.

Benny Kubelsky was on the same vaudeville bill as the Marx Brothers and appeared at the Orpheum in 1922. The trio were invited to Passover at the Marks residence along with Benny and this is where he met Sadie Marks for the first time. They would meet a couple times before getting married in 1927. Sadie’s parents would eventually move to Los Angeles and her brother Hilliard (Harry) would become the producer of their popular radio program.

Jack Benny played at the Orpheum again in 1974 with the Vancouver Symphony as a fundraiser for the restoration of the theatre.