Let’s remember when the Show Box formally opened, on this day in 1939 (July 24)
The Showbox, just recently declared a historic landmark last week, celebrates a huge birthday today.
As HistoryLink’s Peter Blecha says:
On the night of Monday, July 24, 1939, grand-opening celebrations kick off in the swanky new Show Box at 1426 1st Avenue (known in 2014 as the Showbox Ballroom). Proprietor Michael Lyons (1891–1965) — a longtime local tavern and movie-house operator and owner of Lyons’ Music Hall (located just across the street at 1409 1st Avenue) — aims for this latest gem, a venue he will promote as the “Palace of the Pacific,” to be the crown jewel of his showbiz empire.
But wait, there’s more:
On the very day of its public debut, Lyons told the Seattle Star that, “I feel I can be justly proud of my new club. It will be equal or better than anything they have in Hollywood or New York. The field of entertainment as well as the newest fixtures and ideas have been put into this super, de luxe establishment which will give Seattle its first up-to-the-minute entertainment center.” Duly impressed, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer agreed, stating that the Showbox is “Easily the most magnificent place of its kind Seattle has ever known”
…
In late July 1939 Seattle was packed with thousands of visitors who had arrived to take in the town’s Golden Jubilee Potlatch celebrations and, on the Show Box’s grand-opening night, long lines of anxious attendees stretched down the block, as standing-room-only crowds filled the evening’s multiple shows. Onstage, Jack Russell served as Director of Festivities and emcee, Seattle’s Eddie Zollman played the organ, and a series of notable vaudevillian acts brought down the house. Warner & Margie (“Two Nuts Looking for a Squirrel”) performed, as did Mona “The Singing Dog.” “Blonde Magician” Lucille Hughes offered her “A Study in Silk” routine; Ray and Bee Gorman provided laughs with their comedy/dance shtick; Earl, Fortune, & Pope did a dance revue; and “swing harpist” George Lyons plucked away. Meanwhile, periodically “a goodly number of jitterbugs danced enthusiastically to the hot swing tunes of house-band Jimmy Murphy and his Musical Men.”
I just want to say I hope the Showbox lives another 80 years.
Read the whole thing here:
