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 ...
Edgar Eisenhower (1889-1971), brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), passed the Washington state bar examination on October 18, 1914. Edgar, one of six brothers including the United States presi...
The most fabled of any historic dancehall in Washington -- the Evergreen State -- the Evergreen Ballroom stood for nearly seven decades along a section of Highway 99 called the "old Tacoma and Olympia...
Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, a rising star in the 1930s, is remembered today more for her unfortunate life story than for her once promising career. Talented and beautiful, Farmer was also wil...
Film star Frances Farmer (1913-1970) was a senior at West Seattle High School in April 1931 when she gained her first taste of national notoriety, with this award-winning essay, titled "God Dies." The...
Woody Guthrie was a Dust Bowl refugee from Oklahoma. A wandering troubadour. He was also a natural-born populist whose guitar was bravely emblazoned with the in-your-face slogan: "This Machine Kills F...
Ivar Haglund, Seattle character, folksinger, and restaurateur was known as "King of the Waterfront," and also "Mayor" and "Patriarch" of the waterfront. He began as a folksinger, and in 1938 establish...
The irrepressible and brash Gracie Hansen -- best remembered for presenting shapely showgirls in her glamorous Las Vegas-style burlesque nightclub at Seattle's Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's F...
Jimi Hendrix -- the single most famous musician to ever emerge from the Pacific Northwest's music scene -- rose from extremely humble beginnings to establish himself as perhaps the most gifted and inv...
Milton Katims was a violist and orchestral conductor of world renown. From 1954 to 1976 he was Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. During that time he worked to build the organization fr...
Kurt Cobain (1967-1994) was the lead singer of the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. He commited suicide in 1994. In this People's History Clark Humphrey reflects on his life and music.
Former Seattle resident Bruce Lee, martial artist and actor in film and television, starred in many Hong Kong movie productions as a child before he came to worldwide fame with his role as Kato in tel...
Bruce Lee popularized Kung Fu and other Asian martial arts disciplines during a brief but influential career as an instructor and as an actor on television and in feature films. Born in San Francisco ...