415 results for: Entertainment
Photograph
Cowboy trick rider, 1909
Crowds flocked to Cheyenne Bill's Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders in July 1909. This photo shows a cowboy trick rider in the 1909 Wild West Show. The Seattle Times reported that rider Jim Kennedy did somersaults on the galloping horse's back, hung by his heels, and ended his performance with a headstand in the saddle as his…
ID Number:1983.10.8328.1
Date:1909
Photograph
Coliseum Theatre on a snowy night, Seattle, February 1916
By 1915, Seattle's downtown commercial core was booming. In March 1915, local lumber baron and businessman C. D. Stimson leased lots on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Pike Street to the newly-formed Coliseum Company to build a theater designed specifically for movies, then called photoplays. The Coliseum Photo Playhouse was designed by noted theater architect B. Marcus Priteca,…
ID Number:1983.10.8590
Date:1916
Photograph
Bear cage at the Woodland Park Zoo, circa 1910
In 1899, Seattle bought Woodland Park and its small zoo from the Phinney family. Most of the animals were kept in cages with bars and concrete floors. Visitors could go right up to the cages and feed the animals.This photo shows the Woodland Park bear cage in about 1910. The city had received a gift of two bear cubs that…
ID Number:1983.10.8977
Date:Circa 1910
Photograph
Sells-Floto Circus elephant, circa 1912
For a number of years, the Sells-Floto Circus played to standing-room-only audiences in Seattle. The company set up its tents near where Seattle Center is today, and kicked off its visit with a parade through the downtown area. The herd of elephants was particularly popular--and hungry. On May 31, 1910, the Seattle Times reported that "the peanut vendors did a…
ID Number:1983.10.9487
Date:Circa 1912
Photograph
"La Tortajada" in Orpheum Theatre dressing room, Seattle, September 1910
Consuelo Tamayo Hernández (1870-1957), known professionally as La Tortajada, was a vaudeville singer and dancer from Spain. She toured internationally for more than twenty years, retiring in 1913. Ms. Hernandez performed a one-woman show, “The Adventure of a Toreador,” at the Orpheum Theatre in Seattle in September 1910. She played all four characters in the show—a bull fighter, his wife,…
ID Number:1983.10.10104.2
Date:1914
Photograph
Exterior of the Pantages Theatre, 1915
In 1911, Alexander Pantages built a new Pantages Theatre in downtown Seattle, on the site of the old Plymouth Congregational Church. Like the other theaters in Pantages chain, the new theater showed movies and also featured live entertainment. The theater continued under various names until 1965, when it was torn down to build a parking garage.This 1915 photo shows the…
ID Number:1983.10.10119
Date:1915
Photograph
Carousel at Luna Park, Seattle, circa 1913
In 1906, construction began on Luna Park at Alki Point in West Seattle. Named for Coney Island's Luna Park, it extended out over the water. From 1907 to 1913, adults and children flocked to the amusement park to enjoy its carousel, roller coaster, dancing, swimming, drinking, and other pleasures. The park's developer Charles Looff hand-carved the carousel figures. Luna Park…
ID Number:1983.10.10292.3
Date:Circa 1913
Photograph
Mrs. Dwyer on seesaw with two lions, circa 1917
The Al G. Barnes Wild Animal Circus visited Seattle in May 1917, setting up its tents near Fourth Avenue and Lenora Street. The Barnes circus specialized in live animal acts. The Seattle Times reported that, "The rings and platforms inside the big tent are enclosed in steel grating, and inside these enclosures, the wild animals astonish the old folks and…
ID Number:1983.10.10668.1
Date:Circa 1917
Photograph
Go Hing Festival decorations on King Street, Seattle, May 1921
On May 23 through 28, 1921, Seattle's Chinese residents held a week-long carnival to raise money for the Chinese Famine Fund, which was raising money for the those impacted by famine in northern China. The event was called Go-Hing and was sponsored by the China Club, Chinese consul Goon Dip, and an advisory committee of Seattle and Washington state civic…
ID Number:1983.10.10959.2
Date:1921
Photograph
Andy Gump visiting Seattle, June 1926
The Gumps was an extremely popular comic strip about a middle-class family created in 1917 by Sidney Smith (1877-1935), running in nation-wide newspapers until 1959. Readers anxiously followed the convoluted story lines, and by1919, this popularity prompted an interest in film adaptations. Between 1923 and 1928, Universal Pictures produced at least four dozen Gumps two-reel comedies starring Joe Murphy (1877-1961),…
ID Number:1983.10.11801.2
Date:1926