Topic: Celebrities
In this People's History, HistoryLink staff historian Cassandra Tate (b. 1945) recalls a memorable encounter with Elvis Presley at Sicks' Seattle Stadium in Rainier Valley, on Labor Day weekend, 1957.
A half-decade prior to the Pacific Northwest's great rock 'n' roll eruption of 1959-1960 -- a period that saw a series of teenage groups (including the Fleetwoods, Frantics, Shades, Gallahads, Wailers...
World War II army veterans M. Leo Bradshaw (1916-1993) and Earl Leonard Irwin (1909-1973) opened the B&I Sales Company, an army surplus store located in Lakewood in southern Pierce County, in 1945...
Bobo the gorilla entertained visitors to the Great Ape House at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for 15 years. He was a mainstay attraction for both young and old. A somewhat grumpy gorilla, Bobo love...
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 du...
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 cor...
Roger Martinsen (b. 1936) was born in Seattle and attended Roosevelt High School and the University of Washington, graduating in 1958. After three and a half years serving in the United States Navy, M...
Countless celebrities, from astronaut John Glenn (1921-2016) to Walt Disney (1901-1966) visited Seattle between April 21 and October 21, 1962, to attend the 1962 Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's...
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 w...
The actor and director Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) taught lifeguard training classes at Beaver Lake (King County) one summer in 1953. This account, written by Phil Dougherty, reprints his article "Clint ...
Kurt Cobain, among the most famous musicians to emerge from the Pacific Northwest, established himself as the iconic rock 'n' roll anti-hero of his time. Born in Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County, Cobain ...
Dave Holden was born on May 21, 1937, in Seattle. Son of local jazz legend Oscar Holden, Dave got his first paid gig as a jazz musician in the late 1950s. From that time on, Dave's keyboard and vocal ...