Actor and performer Mark Dempsey (1936-1994) was born in Los Angeles and came to Seattle in 1951 with his mother, performer Bessie Hall Dempsey. He attended Queen Anne High School and the University of Washington's School of Drama. He lived in New York City from the early 1960s until his return to Seattle in 1982. This tambourine is marked with inscriptions related to various times and places it was played, including “L.A. 1975,” “N.Y. Gay Marching Band, October 19, ‘80” and “Aug 31, San Diego Balboa Stadium.” Dempsey was openly gay, and his cowboy-themed band "Flasher Heaven and the Blue Horizon Boys" performed in Seattle at the LGBTQ community event “The Prom You Never Went To.”