1950: Emmett Watson is lured away from The Times with the promise of higher pay and more creative freedom. For the next 30 years, he is the city’s most popular columnist, champion of civil rights, detester of pomposity, befriender of the anti-war movement and 1960s counterculture, and founder of the Lesser Seattle movement. In the 1960s, he protests a P-I ban on beards by growing one. The ban is repealed. (Seattle P-I)
(1959) THAT’S MY HONEY BUN: The handsome, neatly dressed customer walked into the tiny coffee shop at KING-TV the other day and said, “Do you happen to have change for a 20-dollar bill?” The proprietress, lively Peggy Zachary, fixed him with a look of surprise, bordering on astonishment. “Listen, honey,” she said, “what do you think this is—Canlis’?” Well, there’s not much more to it, except that Peggy is now more than just astonished. Because “honey” turned out to be Mayor Clinton.
Best DJ crack of the week: via KOL’s Ric Thomas: “I’m in an evil mood today. In fact, you can say I’m the surly with the fringe on top.” (I can, but I won’t.)
(1964) A MATTER OF TASTE: The quivering voice full of adolescent rage was on the line to KIXI the other day: “Your station is bad, bad, bad! You take all the GOOD songs from KJR and turn them into music!”
(1965) Dan Niles does the record spinning at the Kalua Room’s discotheque, where his spiel goes as follows: “Welcome, this is Seattle’s original discotheque and the ONLY one of its kind.” Meanwhile, down at the Roosevelt’s Lanai Room, another Niles (Steve) is delivering the same speech. Finally, a night-crawler challenged Dan at the Kalua Room. “How come that big story about you being the ONLY disco in town,” he demanded. “Don’t you know there’s another one just a few blocks away?” “Sure,” shrugged Dan. “But my brother handles that spot—and I don’t even count him.”
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The Kalua Room, in what was then the Windsor Hotel at 6th & Union. I know, because I spun records there in 1968, and then a couple nights week at the Lanai Room in '68 and '69, alternating with my KOL colleague Tom Connors.
Dan Niles was Seattle record promoter. Here he is in 1969 handing off a new Beatles release to Tom Murphy at KJR. Ever the PR man, Dan hired an off-duty policeman to ensure "security" when the record was delivered.