Seattle Mag
Cool Souvenirs from the World’s Fair
Sure, they’re kitschy now, but back in 1962, these items were hot property.
1. Champagne glasses (with Space Needle stems) used on opening night of the fair 2. A ticket book, with individual tickets for fair exhibits 3. An official Space Needle beanie, whose top shakes like a maraca 4. A commemorative egg timer on a piece of wood (of course!) 5. Porcelain salt and pepper shakers 6….
Vintage World’s Fair Cocktails to Make at Home
Cocktail expert A.J. Rathbun offers recipes for three retro drinks once served atop the Space Needle
In 1962, stylish guests dined and drank at The Eye of the Needle (now called SkyCity), while slowly revolving 500 feet above Seattle. While the days of a $6.75 three-course dinner are long gone, you don’t need a time machine to sample the drinks from the Needle’s menu. Seattle magazine’s cocktail expert A.J. Rathbun offers…
Seattle Center by the Numbers
A few fun (and somewhat random) statistics related our city's core cultural campus.
1,000,000: number of dollars the City of Fife offered Seattle to move the Space Needle to its downtown 600,000: number of dollars the City of Seattle paid for the monorail in 1965 500,000: total number of Belgian waffles sold during the six months of the fair. Stacked, they would have been higher than 70 Space…
Back to the Future: Why Seattle’s World’s Fair Mattered
Our own Knute Berger—who is the official writer of the Space Needle—looks back on the 1962 Seattle W
In the winter of 1962, my Cub Scout den had taken a field trip to the top of the Smith Tower, then one of the tallest buildings west of the Mississippi. We went to the observation deck, where we had an unobstructed view across downtown to a strange spire that was rising near Queen Anne…
The History of the Seattle Center: A Timeline
The events that shaped Seattle's 1962 World's Fair and, eventually, the Seattle Center as we know it
June 1–October 16, 1909: Seattle’s first world’s fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, takes place (see photo above). 1954: City Council member Al Rochester proposes the idea that Seattle host a world’s fair to mark the 50th anniversary of the A-Y-P. February 19, 1957: The World’s Fair Commission receives authorization from Washington Governor Albert Rosellini to hold…
The Must List, featuring Elvis Impersonators, MLK Day and Zoe Muth
MUST HEARZoe Muth and the Lost High RollersYou might guess this sweet country crooner hails from Nashville, but Zoe Muth is a Seattle girl, through and through. Backed by her Lost High Rollers, Muth has been compared to Kitty Wells, Emmylou Harris and Iris DeMent. The high praise keeps tumbling in for her most recent…
An Art Collection Emphasizing Emerging Artists
Kicking off our new series about local art collectors, Seattle mag's arts editor Brangien Davis shar
“I don’t dream big.” Having grown up with art-loving parents on teachers’ budgets, Davis takes a practical approach to buying art, seeking out emerging artists who aren’t yet represented by particular galleries. She often buys work directly from artists at open studio tours and art walks. On a couple of rare occasions she has spent…
Tini Bigs Celebrates 15 Years of Really Big Martinis
Long before the Canons and the Bathtub Gins, the Liberty Bars and the Oliver’s Twists, Seattle had Tini Bigs. Back when we were a town of beer snobs but not cocktail snobs, it opened on a Lower Queen Anne corner in 1996. Those were blissfully ignorant times when you could go right ahead and slap…
Recommended Reading on Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair
In case your inner Seattle Center nerd still isn't satisfied, go here for more history and memorabil
BOOKS The as-yet-unnamed Knute Berger history of the Space Needleby Knute BergerTo be released in spring of 2012 Seattle magazine’s own editor-at-large is also the writer in residence at the Space Needle. He penned this history of the Needle in his office on the Observation Deck. The Future Remembered: The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair And…
Space Needle Trivia!
Five things you didn’t know about Seattle’s Space Age icon.
The Space Needle Is Well Rooted (see above photo) The Space Needle has a 30-foot-deep foundation made with 2,800 yards of concrete and 250 tons of reinforcing steel. The above-ground portion of the Needle weighs an impressive 3,700 tons, but the foundation is even mightier, weighing in at 5,850 tons. Thanks to this massive hidden…
Commemorative Space Needle Toppers
Even better than a billboard, the Space Needle is a prominent way to get a message across.
Since its construction, we’ve been decorating the Space Needle to commemorate special occasions. A crustacean ascended the Space Needle in October, 1985 as a publicity stunt for Fish and Seafood Month. In July, 2008, the Sub Pop flag was flown in honor of the local record label’s 20th anniversary. Squatch helped paint a Sonics mural…
Gauguin’s Favorite Things
SAM’s new Gauguin show emphasizes the master painter's influences.
Paul Gauguin is known the world over for the vibrant paintings he produced while living on Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. But the “primitive” objects that inspired him, which he sometimes referenced visually, are often glossed over in discussions of his work. Not so with Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise, the new show at…