Showing 1 - 20 of 88 results

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909): Music at the Fair

Washington's first World's Fair -- the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition -- was held in Seattle on the grounds of the University of Washington campus between June 1 and October 16, 1909, and drew more than three million people. Visitors came from far and wide to be entertained while Seattle promoted itself as a gateway to the rich resources of Alaska, the Yukon, and Asia. Among the many attractions were musical performances -- parades, dances, and concerts in the Auditorium, Amphitheatre, Music Pavilion, and central bandstand -- by a wide variety of entertainers representing various towns in the region, states in the union, and nations of the world. Included in the offerings were the exotic sounds of various foreign music traditions, big-time bands from Chicago and New York, a down-home southern vaudeville revue, and numerous local ensembles from Tacoma, Spokane, Yakima, Long Beach, and homegrown headliners from Seattle.
File 8876: Full Text >

Allied Arts of Seattle

Allied Arts of Seattle is one of the city's most influential advocates for urban design and the arts. It grew out of the Beer & Culture Society, a small circle of academics, architects, and artists who first met in early 1952. On October 3, 1954, they convened a Congress of the Arts that established Allied Arts as a permanent organization to advocate for public funding of the arts, better urban planning and architecture, and other civic improvements. Allied Arts has since played leadership roles in promoting the creation of the Seattle Arts Commission; the development of Seattle Center; the preservation of Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, and other historic landmarks; and other causes.
File 2212: Full Text >

Anderson, Ernestine (b. 1928): Jazz Singer

Ernestine Anderson launched her amazing career as a jazz singer while still a teenaged Seattle high school student back in the 1940s. By the 1950s she was an experienced performer who'd toured widely and sung with big-name bands led by Johnny Otis, Lionel Hampton, and Eddie Heywood. Anderson's debut album brought rave reviews from leading music critics which led to her being included in the all-star lineup at the very first Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, and she was soon heralded as an important new singing star by both Time and down beat magazines. In the decades since, she has cut more than 30 albums of sophisticated and sensual jazz and blues music, received four GRAMMY award nominations, and been honored with a command performance at the White House.
File 8520: Full Text >

Aqua Theatre -- Seattle

The Aqua Theatre was an open air stadium on the south shore of Seattle's Green Lake. The nationally famous Aqua Follies opened the new theater on August 11, 1950. Sell-out crowds came to see the water ballet, comedy, and dancers and singers, not to mention high divers plunging from two towers flanking a stage adorned with evergreen. Competition with the Seattle Center brought the outdoor theater's demise, and by 1970 it had closed.
File 1052: Full Text >

Barton, Kearney (b. 1931): The Man Who Engineered the Northwest Sound

Seattle's Kearney Barton is the man whose audio engineering work can be credited with forging the powerful aural esthetic that became widely known as the "original Northwest Sound." Numerous musicians also contributed to the process, but it was Barton who established what that "Sound" sounded like on classic records by pioneering area rock 'n' roll bands, including the Frantics ("Werewolf"), Playboys ("Party Ice"), Little Bill ("Louie Louie"), the Kingsmen ("Jolly Green Giant"), the Counts ("Turn On Song"), the Sonics ("Psycho"), and Don and the Goodtimes ("Little Sally Tease"). But Barton's half-century of work has also seen him produce recordings for a wide range of clients, including the Seattle and Portland opera companies, jazz/pop icon Quincy Jones, Scandinavian humorist Stan Boreson, country/pop diva Bonnie Guitar, the Supersonics and Sounders sports teams -- and even the performance soundtracks for Washington's 1984 Summer Olympics Gold Medalist swimmers, Traci Ruiz and Candy Costie. Perhaps most significantly though, through instructional classes held at his Audio Recording studios over the decades, Barton has trained and mentored an entire generation of students in the arts and sciences of audio engineering.
File 8719: Full Text >

Bellevue Film Festival, 1967-1981

The Bellevue Film Festival (1967-1981) was born in 1967, under the leadership of longtime Bellevue Arts & Crafts Fair volunteers Carol Duke and Mary Jo Malone. Most of the handful of U.S. film festivals in the late 1960s devoted to short experimental films had grown directly out of a struggling national network of fringe arts communities in larger cities such as New York and San Francisco, or on college campuses with film schools, such as the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Despite their lack of direct experience in this fringe artworld, Carol Duke and her Arts & Crafts Fair colleagues quickly learned how to set up and run an experimental film festival that became one of the three most respected in America by media artists and the denizens of their world.
File 3469: Full Text >

Boles, Joe (1904-1962): Seattle's First Hit-Making Sound Engineer

Jay F. "Joe" Boles -- well-known founder of the Seattle Harbor Water Tours -- is far more famous as the proprietor of Seattle's first truly successful recording studio. A one-time hi-fi audiophile who initially snuck into various local concert halls in order to surreptiously record his favorite touring acts, Boles progressed from being a dedicated hobbyist to a recognized master of the recording arts. Although he conducted countless sessions in his home studios, his skill behind the mixing console will always be associated with seminal Northwest rock 'n' roll classics including the Fleetwoods' No. 1 hit ("Come Softly to Me"), the Ventures' smash ("Walk -- Don't Run"), and Rockin' Robin Roberts and the Wailers' timeless No. 1 regional fave, "Louie Louie."
File 8924: Full Text >

Bumbershoot

By an estimate inflated, perhaps, with euphoria, more than 125,000 -- roughly one Bellevue plus one Walla Walla -- gathered at the Seattle Center for Festival '71 on August 13-15, 1971. For inspecting pundits, Seattle's first summer arts festival was a "populist grab-bag," a "smorgasbord of experiences," a "multimedia extravaganza," a "big box of gift chocolates," the "metropolitan telephone book." But not yet, a Bumbershoot.
File 1655: Full Text >

Century 21 Exposition (1962): Music at the Fair

Seattle's Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's Fair) was initially conceived to be the major attraction of the decade -- and with over 10 million tickets sold to both locals and visiting tourists during the fair's six-month run of April 21, 1962, through October 21, 1962, it proved to be exactly that. In addition to the many other entertainments offered up to those attendees was music. It was all booked by a Performing Arts Division team directed by a big-time New York-based classical music talent agent, Harold Shaw. The vision was to have varying forms of music (and/or dance) presented at such fairground venues as: the Opera House, the Playhouse, the Arena, the Stadium, Show Street, the International Bandstand, the International Fountain, the Rose Garden, the Plaza of the States, the United Nations Pavilion, the Horiuchi Mural area, and the Space Needle. Thus, there would be an incredibly wide range of music -- excellent music imported from nearly every corner of the globe including: England, Germany, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Spain, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Japan, China, Tahiti, Mexico, Jamaica, Canada. Not to mention top-notch music brought in from all across America: New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu. Just about everywhere, it seemed, except from the Pacific Northwest itself -- where mainly volunteer amateur musicians were welcomed, and so visitors were largely deprived of hearing the best professional groups from this region.
File 9367: Full Text >

Century 21 Exposition (1962): Performing Arts at the Fair

Seattle's Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's Fair) was conceived to be the major attraction of the decade, and with over 10 million tickets sold to both locals and visiting tourists from every corner of the globe, it proved to be exactly that. During the futuristically themed and science-oriented fair's six-month run from April 21, 1962, through October 21, 1962, those attendees enjoyed a broad range of attractions and entertainments, including more than 2,500 events produced by the fair management's Performing Arts Division. Headed by big-time New York talent booker Harold Shaw, that team's mission was "to be sure that each country that had a pavilion was represented in the cultural section so the lives of the people involved, and their countries, would be reflected, as well as scientific and technological achievement" (Century 21 Final Report, p. 7). The goal would be to have varying forms of performance art -- music, stage shows, and dancing -- presented daily in fairground venues including the Opera House, the Playhouse, the Arena, the Stadium, Show Street, the International Bandstand, the International Fountain, the Rose Garden, the Plaza of the States, and occasionally at the United Nations Pavilion, the Horiuchi Mural area, and the Space Needle.
File 9371: Full Text >

Century 21 Exposition (1962): Theme Songs and Souvenir Records

Seattle's Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's Fair) successfully sold more than 10 million tickets to visiting tourists and locals during its six-month run between April 21,1962, and October 21, 1962. And -- as with every prior World's Fair -- legions of enterprising companies and individual entrepreneurs emerged with "collectible" items produced in an effort to separate tourists from their money. Amidst the myriad array of trinkets were Space Needle knickknacks, Monorail mementos, Bubbleator buttons, and countless other twenty-first-century tchochkes of every imaginable type. Included among them were fair-related songs that were marketed in souvenir sheet-music form and/or musical recordings. Indeed, it was reported at the time that nearly 100 such tunes were submitted in advance to the fair's management -- each composer likely hoping theirs might be selected as the exposition's "Official" theme song. Today we know that at least 200 songs were composed -- and more than 50 saw release as vinyl discs.
File 9372: Full Text >

Century 21: Seattle's September Days with Elvis Presley, 1962

Countless celebrities, from astronaut John Glenn (b. 1921) to Walt Disney (1901-1966) visited Seattle between April 21 and October 21, 1962, to attend the 1962 Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's Fair). Although each received their share of media coverage and/or adulation from giddy fairgoers, none garnered the sustained media fanfare whipped up for Elvis Presley (1935-1977). During the week and-a-half -- September 5-15, 1962 -- that he was in town to work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's feature-length $2.5-million musical It Happened At The World's Fair, crowds of fans gathered on the fairgrounds and also kept a vigil outside his downtown hotel. Although Seattle's mainstream media had never liked rock 'n' roll -- The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had both been editorializing and sniping at the music (and its fans) for years -- they and local television outlets covered his every move with breathless daily reports while the town's radio hyped endless Presley oldies. Even though Presley had, by 1962, long since passed his rockin' rebel peak -- he'd served in the Army and was well into his Hollywood doldrums -- the establishment was still reluctant to accept him. Seattle Post-Intelligencer scribe Jack Jarvis bragged about how he initially went down to the film-set with the full intent of writing a scathing review about The Side-Burned One, "and I was determined to cut him up into little pieces." Yet despite serious misgivings, the scribe quickly discovered that "I like the guy -- but will reserve judgment on his singing" (September 6, 1962). Regardless, for 10 consecutive days in September 1962, Elvis Presley's presence rocked much of a thoroughly star-struck Seattle.
File 9363: Full Text >

Charles, Ray (1930-2004)

Ray Charles was a poor, blind, newly orphaned teenager living in Tampa, Florida, in 1948 when he decided to move to Seattle, picking the city because it was as far away as he could get from where he was. He stayed only two years, but during that time he cut his first record and began to develop the genre-bending musical style that would make him an international star. Charles often spoke of Seattle as a pivotal point in his long and hugely successful career as a singer/songwriter. "I met a lot of very good friends here," he told one interviewer. "I liked the atmosphere. The people were friendly, the people took to me right away. Seattle is the town where I made my first record. And if you ever want to say where I got my start, you have to say that" (The Seattle Times).
File 5707: Full Text >

Collins, Dorothy Priscilla (Patsy) Bullitt (1920-2003)

Dorothy Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins, a member of one of Seattle's oldest and wealthiest families, devoted much of her life to working for the public good, donating first her time and energy and then -- after receiving a multi-million-dollar inheritance -- giving away a great deal of her money. "I don't give back; I give forward," she once said, explaining her attitude toward philanthropy. She embraced the idea of stewardship, supporting projects that touched the future in some way, whether by nurturing a love of reading in children, preserving the legacies of the past, or setting aside open spaces for generations to come. Self-deprecating and unpretentious to her core, she shunned the spotlight but left an indelible imprint on the cultural life of her hometown by the time of her death in June 2003.
File 4214: Full Text >

Coppock, John Lee (1899-1959) and his Deluxe Electric Guitars

As the Electric Guitar Era progressed from its infancy back in the 1930s and 1940s into the "Space Age" 1950s, many new ultra-modern models were being introduced into the marketplace. But of the numerous well-known companies that produced such instruments, very few can compete with the visual splendor of one particular, if wholly obscure, brand that was created by the hitherto unheralded Peshastin-based guitar-maker, John Lee Coppock. Although a member of one of the pioneering families of Peshastin, Coppock was not the first local to make electric guitars -- Seattle's Paul Tutmarc (1896-1972) and Harvey Hansen (1898-1990) were both active with their respective Audiovox and Hanburt lines by the 1930s, as was Bud Tutmarc (1924-2006) with Bud-Electro by the 1940s. Coppock was, however, an early West Coast recording artist, an innovative luthier, and a popular music teacher who over the decades helped bring a lot of music-making to the small Washington communities of Peshastin, Dryden, Cashmere, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee.
File 9160: Full Text >

Cornish School

Nellie C. Cornish (1876-1956) founded the Cornish School, known today as the Cornish College of the Arts, in Seattle in 1914. She served as director for its first 25 years. Cornish recruited artists such as dancers Martha Graham (1894-1991) and Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), the painter Mark Tobey (1890-1976), and the musician John Cage (1912-1992), who were little known at the time but were destined to become major figures in twentieth century arts. The Cornish School quickly attained a national reputation.
File 596: Full Text >

Cort, John (1861-1929)

Although never known for the cultivation of theatrical talent, during the early twentieth century Seattle had more than its share of businessmen make their mark on the entertainment industry. The starting points for two of the nation’s largest vaudeville circuits, headed by John Considine and Alexander Pantages respectively, the city was also home to John Cort, who concentrated his business efforts on legitimate stage productions. Starting as a small-time variety manager in Seattle, Cort eventually parlayed his local success into becoming part of the New York theatrical establishment, and at one point owned more high-class theaters than any other single individual in the United States.
File 3296: Full Text >

Country Music in the Pacific Northwest

Country music has a remarkably long history in the state of Washington -- but just as with the genres of jazz and rock 'n' roll, some of the earliest players actually brought their music to the Pacific Northwest from elsewhere. America's geographic frontier of the "Wild West" attracted newcomers who brought their cultural traditions along with them, and the opportunities for homesteaders, miners, cattlemen, loggers -- and musicians -- abounded. Although other locales in America -- like Tennessee and Texas -- are more closely associated with the hillbilly yodeling and "twangin" tunes of country music, history reveals that there has also been a thriving-if-underappreciated scene based here for many decades.
File 7441: Full Text >

Crocodile Cafe: Seattle's Icon of the Grunge Rock Era.

A beloved local live music venue, the Crocodile Cafe & Live Bait Lounge (located in Belltown in Seattle at 2200 2nd Avenue), was founded by Seattle attorney and local music fan Stephanie Dorgan, along with a couple of other business partners. The "Croc" opened in April 1991 and for 16 years was hopping with live performances. As the Grunge scene exploded, it became a leading venue for local bands and for numerous famous touring stars. On the night of Saturday December 15, 2007, the Croc closed abruptly after a final show. And although reports and rumors of the Belltown neighborhood fixture's financial woes had been circulating for some time, it was still an event that shocked the area's music scene for its sheer finality.
File 8448: Full Text >

Crosby, Bing (1903-1977) and Mildred Bailey (1907-1951): Spokane's Jazz Royalty

The music careers of a couple of the twentieth century's most significant singing stars -- Bing "The King of the Crooners" Crosby and Mildred "That Princess of Rhythm" Bailey -- are so intertwined that their stories are perhaps best told as one. Those two innovative Jazz Age vocalists both went on to conquer the music world in big ways, but their shared beginnings on the fringes of the Spokane, Washington, Prohibition Era speakeasy jazz scene were quite humble.
File 7445: Full Text >

< Show previous 20 | Show Next 20 >