It's the final weekend of Seafair, Seattle's annual summer megafestival, which traditionally culminates in the Unlimited Hydroplane Race at Stan Sayres Memorial Park on Lake Washington, and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels show.
These days I think most people outside of Seattle tend to avoid the event, myself included, because the traffic is horrendous, parking is horrendous, and there are just too many people everywhere (i.e. even worse than usual).
But once upon a time, Seafair was really more a regional event, particularly the hydroplane races, which are said to have attracted 500,000 people in their heyday a half century ago. That's half a million people -- in 1960, Seattle's entire population, according to the U.S. Census, was 557,087.
I have few bits of ephemera from "the old days" of Seafair -- including the 1961 program you see above.
My favorite part of the Seafair program, however, are the advertisements, such as this classic one from "Light" Olympia Beer, at left.
"A brisk and refreshing companion, light Olympia Beer is always 'welcome aboard.'"
And lest we forget, "It's the Water." (the ending tag "... And A Lot More" came later in the 1970s).
These days, you're more likely to find microbrews filling the coolers of hydro race fans. One can hope that there are a few bottles of Olympia being shared out there for old times sake, but sadly, Olympia Beer is no longer even brewed in Tumwater, WA, where the Olympia Brewing Company was founded in 1896.
The Seafair tradition continues for a new generation, as Beth Knox, Seafair's CEO, insists in a Seattle Times interview last month. For the rest of us, there are just memories... and a few cool souvenirs.
Now, why on earth would I burst into tears at this news?
I think because, like many "Patches Pals" around the Puget Sound are feeling right now, I feel as though I have lost someone who, while I didn't know him personally, felt like my friend.
I watched "The J.P. Patches Show" religiously from the time I was old enough to sit up and watch TV, until the final show in 1981 — yes, 1981, when I was entering my freshman year of high school.
The show went off the air just at that moment I found myself at that fragile threshold between childhood and adolescence — where I still wanted to play with Barbie dolls, but also yearned to wear makeup (Cover Girl makeup, not clown makeup).
It was literally not just the end of an era, it was the end of my childhood.
While the show was on, though, I had the opportunity to meet him not once, but twice: first, on a tour of the KIRO-TV studios in elementary school, and the second time, during the summer of 1979, when my lifelong friend Ilga and I entered ourselves into the Arlington Children's Parade as a pair of gypsies. We won first prize in the "group" category, and were presented with a cash (!) award by J.P. and Gertrude.
At its peak, "The J.P. Patches Show" on KIRO/7 had more than 100,000 daily viewers daily and was broadcast in the morning and afternoon. It debuted Feb. 10, 1958, and when it went off the air in 1981 it was the longest running locally-produced kids show in the United States. — seattlepi.com
Now as an adult, Wedes' passing signals another end of an era, the loss of one more icon of the Seattle of my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, a place that had true character... and characters.
So thank you, J.P., for being my "pal." You will be missed, and always remembered.
Google reminded me with this clever and creative "Doodle" that today is the 79th anniversary of the opening of the first drive-in movie theatre.
Coincidentally (or not), it also happens to be my father's birthday today — he himself a writer and historian of varied interests, in particular that of drive-in theaters and historic movie houses.
An article which he wrote in 2005 for Journeys, AAA's magazine, "When drive-ins die... and when they won’t" is sadly no longer online (the subject of relying on newspapers and magazines to maintain archives is a topic for another time).
However, I happen to have a copy on my hard drive. The full article is now archived here on this Beyond the Depot page, for those interested.
It all began in Camden, New Jersey in 1933:
Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr. had a whale of a notion during the early years of the Great Depression. After tinkering with bedsheets, drop cloths and a secondhand Kodak film projector, he filed for exclusive rights to protect his idea. In May 1933, the U.S. Patent Office granted Hollingshead approval on patent number 1,909,537. He immediately formed Park-In Theaters, Inc., erecting the world’s first movie facility accommodating both patrons and their automobiles. On June 6, 1933, the Camden, a converted vacant lot, screened the long forgotten talkie Wife Beware for the paying public. (Source: Rolin Miller, ("When drive-ins die... and when they won’t")
June 1959 Everett Motor Movie ad.
The concept of the drive-n theater didn't really take off on the West Coast until after World War II, and perhaps was a little slower coming north from California because of the Pacific Northwest's rainy reputation.
Eventually, Washington State was home to more than 40 at the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s— and nationwide, more than 5,000 drive-in screens.
Locally, I'm sure many readers remember Marysville's Thunderbird Drive-In, Burlington's Skagit Drive-In, the Everett Motor Movie and Puget Park in south Everett, Lynnwood's Sno-King, and the Kenmore Drive-In.
However, by the 1990s, the lure of rising real estate prices saw many local drive-ins shuttered.
The sprawl of suburbia brought with it a wave of mall and commercial strip development. Sparsely settled space that not long ago was the domain of roadhouses, two-pump filling stations, $3-a-night Bide-A-Wee auto courts — and, today, only memories of lost landmarks like the Everett Motor Movie — became high-priced real estate. By 1997, only 14 outdoor theaters remained operating in the state, and each passing year has marked the closure of another of the survivors.
Today, there are just six drive-in theaters left in Washington State. Since his article was written in 2005, Puget Park Drive-In in south Everett and the Vue Dale in Wenatchee have closed, both in 2010.
The future is uncertain for the remaining theaters, as they face the same dilemma as small movie houses such as the Olympic Theatre in Arlington: the impending switch from 35 millimeter film to digital. The conversion can cost tens of thousands of dollars — for independently owned theaters, it's a make or break deal.
So where can you still see a movie locally through your windshield? I'll let Rolin Miller take over here.
The Blue Fox (Oak Harbor WA): The most ambitious multi-purpose drive-in complex in the state, it is home to a go-cart track, game entertainment center, and the Brattland Express train ride for children. All of this is in addition to an ambitious, usually first-run playbill changed weekly during a year-round operation. Opened in 1957, it “seats” under 200 cars, many belonging to appreciative Navy families, and boasts the spiffiest (and newest) restroom facilities a mother could wish for at any theater.
Valley 6 Theaters (Auburn WA): The Valley began life as a “one-lunger” in 1960 and just kept growing. In terms of dimensions alone, this 55-acre 6-plex is the state’s lollapaloosa, hemmed in by the city of Auburn. Manager Keith Keel masterfully books and pairs up the latest releases, operating all six screens during June, July and August (cutting back to three before Memorial Day and after Labor Day). Try for a high summer visit: the drive-in aficionado will grow goose bumps, after dark, taking stock of a half dozen simultaneously lighted screens. It’s a sight.
Wheel-In Motor Movie (Port Townsend WA): Located just south of town on Theater Road, off Highway 19, this well-concealed gem carved out of native evergreens, is cute as a bug’s ear — and about the same size. Richard Wiley, who has operated his father-in-law’s creation nearly all of its 52 years, runs a tight ship for all ages, including those who are too young to remember Johnny Mathis. Parking is on grass and listening via original Eprad speakers you’d best never try to make off with.
Rodeo Triple Drive-In (Bremerton WA): Washington’s oldest active drive-in — since 1946 — is located minutes west of Gorst in Kitsap County. Don’t blink or you’ll overshoot the entrance hewn out of the woods along this stretch of Highway 3. Owner Jack Ondracek has enjoyed increasing success with the Rodeo in recent years. However, with three double features to choose from, it’s a good bet the uninitiated will find one worth watching anytime during the spring-to-fall operating season. The Rodeo’s rural setting is deceptive — the theater is state of the art and there isn’t an RCA speaker to be found anywhere on the sprawling complex.
Skyline Theater (Shelton WA): From the tasteful neon sign just off Highway 101 to the manicured landscaping incorporated into the facility, the Skyline is an impeccably cared-for centerpiece of Americana. Every speaker on the lot is in operating condition, each pair residing on a stanchion crowned with a guiding red light. Parking for about 275 vehicles is regulated so that big rigs don’t ruin the viewing for ground-huggers. Large, appreciative crowds are allowed to make themselves comfortable in an all-ages-kid-friendly atmosphere. The first run double features (nearly always PG) are a bargain for big and little families, and the booming snack bar is a sight to behold.
Auto Vue Drive-In Theatre (Colville WA): Celebrating its 60th year in operation in 2013, the Auto-Vue has been owned by the same family since opening (the Wisners also operate the indoor Alpine Theater in town). Today the theater is looking at a fourth generation legacy. It’s a long drive from anywhere, to be sure, even for the $10 a carload Wednesday night double feature, but it’s a worthwhile effort. You’ll never see a darker night than the kind served up in Colville for an outdoor movie.
Another one of those head scratchers -- there may well be thousands of these postcards, and variations thereof, still in existence:
Notice anything odd?
Some early enterprising photographer rushed to get this view of Whitehorse mountain and a young Darrington onto the postcard carousels at newsstands, post offices and general stores around the Puget Sound region.
The only problem? The Great Northern Railway never had a route to Darrington. It was the Northern Pacific Railway that built a branch route to Darrington, arriving there in June 1901.
The error continued on several variations of the postcard, including this Puget Sound News Co. version below; its divided back and German origin indicates it would have been published between 1907 and 1915.
Lowman & Hanford Co., a Seattle postcard publisher in business from 1894 to 1955, continued the error on the hand tinted color version below, probably produced between 1915 and 1930.
I don't think the error was ever corrected, as I have never found any newer versions of this card — which is not surprising. Postcard companies routinely updated their images every few years as towns and landscapes changed.
Perhaps Lowman & Hanford commissioned a photographer to return to Darrington to take a new photo — or maybe they gave up on producing postcards of the northwestern Washington region when Arlington's J. Boyd Ellis of the Ellis Postcard Company began producing higher quality real photo postcards.
A postcard of Monte Cristo from the 1960s -- 50 years later, there are few structures remaining on the town site.
Monte Cristo has been a "ghost town" far longer than it was a bustling gold mining town, more than 100 years ago.
Located on the Mountain Loop Hwy between Darrington and Granite Falls, Monte Cristo's is a colorful history -- though there are few original residents left to tell its tale.
Despite being one of many isolated destinations in the adjacent Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, the four mile hike to the town is also very popular. That's where the Volunteer Monte Cristo Stewards come in, providing tours for visitors and maintaining the town site, camp areas, information boards, registration boxes and trails.
The volunteer commitment is a minimum of three days during the summer, which in the rugged wilderness surrounding Monte Cristo is short -- but beautiful.
This year's steward training is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon, Saturday, June 2 at the Verlot Public Service Center, 33515 Mountain Loop Highway, in Granite Falls.
For more information and an application contact Matt Riggen at 360-436-2333.
May 31, the CTC will be presenting an afternoon walk and an evening presentation for those interested in the development plans for the Whitehorse Trail.
The afternoon event starts at 5:30 p.m. as a trail walk and tour at Cloverdale Farm, located 1/2 mile north of Hwy 530 on 115th Ave NE, near Trafton. The walk will view the stretch of the Whitehorse Trail between Cloverdale Farm and the “Tin Bridge,” just under a mile west of the farm.
Following the walk, at 7 p.m., room 65 in the Trafton School building, 12616 Jim Creek Road, the CTC will host its general meeting, featuring a representative from Snohomish County Parks, and local residents who have been active in promoting the Centennial Trail.
With the Centennial Trail's last gaps now being filled in, the timing is right to get the Whitehorse Trail, once the Northern Pacific Railway's branch line connecting Arlington and Darrington, on the map.
Snohomish County has estimated some 500,000 walkers, hikers, horseback riders and cyclists are now using the Centennial Trail each year. The Whitehorse Trail, which branches off the Centennial Trail just north of downtown Arlington, would provide another 27.7 miles for recreational traffic (currently, approximately six miles of the trail is open from Darrington to the Swede Heaven Road; the trail is also now partially accessible from the original railroad switch just past Haller Bridge in Arlington).
But the Whitehorse Trail's potential is not just recreational; it's an economic opportunity that residents of northeast Snohomish County should take seriously.
Early postcard of NPR tracks near Hazel, with Mt. Higgins in distance.
There are a number of small communities on the route -- including Trafton and Oso -- that became towns as a result of the route opening in 1901. Other place names we know today -- Cicero, Halterman, Hazel, Fortson and Whitehorse -- were also once bustling communities along the rail line. As the logging industry declined, so did the populations of most of these whistle-stops.
When the Whitehorse Trail is completed it will bring in thousands of visitors a week, and with them, money to patronize local businesses. Merchants with the foresight to offer goods and services that cater to trail users are the ones that will probably benefit the most.
Considering the economic challenges our area has experienced over the last 30 years with the decline of logging, farming and fishing -- our heritage industries -- these recreational trails serve not only as a key to our future, they also would be a way to help honor and preserve our area's heritage.
In honor of Memorial Day, here is an Ellis Postcard Co. real photo post card depicting Arlington's Lions Park in the 1940s, what we now know as Legion Park.
The top photo points north, showing a sign advertising Murphy's Feed Store, founded in 1892. Murphy's burned down some time in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The grain elevator and the Northern Pacific depot would have been to the left (west) of that building, just out of camera range; City Hall would be to the north of the feed store, if I recall correctly.
Today the one constant in both photos is the service memorial now maintained by the American Legion, hence the park's name.
Now the memorial is joined by the new gazebo, built almost entirely from donated material and labor, as well as the new Arlington Depot visitor's center, and the Centennial Trail. The park finally feels like a true community gathering place... but still stands as a place to remember our fallen service personnel.
