Retirement and Death
Ackery, then aged 69, retired as manager of the Orpheum in 1969 after Famous Players introduced a new clause requiring mandatory retirement for its employees at age 65. Despite retirement, he carried on in public life in Vancouver, most notably spearheading the campaign to save the Orpheum when, in 1973, Famous Players announced plans to have the palatial cinema gutted and turned into a multiplex (a fate which would later befall the nearby Capitol, also FP-owned). Thanks to Ackery's efforts, which included contributions by Vancouver city council and other entities and several benefit concerts (including an engagement by Jack Benny), the city bought the Orpheum on March 19, 1974. The theatre showed its final movie, Return to Macon County, on November 23, 1975, then was renovated over the next year and reopened on April 2, 1977 as the new home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Ackery wrote his autobiography on his years with Famous Players and in theatre management and promotion, Fifty Years on Theatre Row, which was published in 1980. He died on October 29, 1989, in West Vancouver, British Columbia, one day shy of his 90th birthday.
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