Elise Olmstead, originally from England, was the second wife of Roy Olmstead, one of the most notorious bootleggers in King County during the Prohibition years of the 1920s. In October of 1924, the couple started a radio station called KFQX. There was a studio in the Smith Tower but mostly Elise did the broadcast from their Mt. Baker home. The most popular program was “Aunt Vivian” in the evening when Elise read bedtime children’s stories. Prohibition agents speculated that the stories contained coded messages for rumrunners. On November 17, 1924, the Olmstead home was raided while Elise was broadcasting and KFQX went off the air. This carbon microphone is said to have belonged to Elise Olmstead and been used for the KFQX broadcasts. The four loops placed around the outside would be used to suspend the microphone within a ring which could then be mounted to a base. A photo of Elise Olmstead in the MOHAI collection shows a similar microphone in a ring atop a piece of wicker furniture that has been draped in a scarf.