Topic: Celebrities
One of America's original cowboy stars, James "Texas Jim" Lewis had (as a showbiz veteran) seemingly done it all by the time he moved to Seattle in 1950. Having played live country music over the radi...
The first book written by Betty MacDonald, The Egg and I, rocketed to the top of the national bestseller list in 1945. Translations followed in more than 30 languages, and the book was made into a ser...
Between 1930 and 1932, Seattle swimmer Helene Madison owned 23 world records for swimming and won every freestyle event at the U.S. Women's Nationals three years in a row. Madison won three consecutiv...
Don McCune was renowned as TV's Captain Puget. In this People's History, Garry Christenson and "Captain Puget's" wife. Linda McCune recall his life.
Norway's Crown Prince Olav (1903-1991), later King Olav V, and his wife Princess Martha (1901-1954) excited the Northwest's Norwegian community and local skiers when they went skiing at Mount Rainier ...
Krist Novoselic rose from the Pacific Northwest’s 1980s underground punk rock scene to earn global fame as bassist with Nirvana. In that Aberdeen-based grunge band’s brief span of activity...
This essay contains Seattle historian and photographer Paul Dorpat's Now & Then photographs and reflections on the visit of Northern Pacific Railroad president Henry Villard to Seattle on Septembe...
During Seattle's "dry" years of the 1920s, Roy Olmstead, through guts and guile, became the biggest bootlegger and one of the most well known personalities in Northwest history. He began as a police o...
The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, bounded by 4th and 5th avenues, and University and Seneca streets in downtown Seattle, was built in 1924 and expanded in 1928. Its construction was financed with community ...
Clyde Pangborn, born in Bridgeport, Washington, was one of the leading "barnstormers" -- aerial stuntmen -- of the 1920s. Known as "Upside Down Pang," he performed stunts such as slow-rolling an airpl...
From 1958 to 1981, Julius Pierpont (J. P.) Patches hosted one of the longest-running children's TV shows in American history on the Seattle-based station KIRO TV. Portrayed by Chris Wedes (1928-2012),...
Humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935) and aviator Wiley Post (1898-1935) began what would be their final journey at the Renton Airport on August 7, 1935. They took off for Alaska with plans to travel onwar...
A founding father of Northwest rock 'n' roll, Tacoma's "Rockin' Robin" Roberts (1940-1967) initially sang with that town's trailblazing 1950s white rhythm & blues combo, the Blue Notes. But in mid-195...
Jeffrey Lee Smith, nationally known as The Frugal Gourmet, was an immensely popular cooking-show host and cookbook author who attracted a near cult-like following. Born in Seattle in 1939, he was rais...
Adam West (1928-2017) was born William West Anderson, raised in Walla Walla and Seattle, and found fame in the mid-1960s playing Batman in the camp television series of that name. After graduating fro...