Pre-History of the Pirates

In the old days. — That’d be before the Space Needle, before the “Bite,” before Hendrix, before the Stadiums, Seahawks, Mariners & Sonics, before 747’s, before bridges to Bellevue, before Blue Angels, before Latté stands, before Hydros, before Political Correctness, before most of the things Seattle is now known for,* there were the Seafair Pirates. In fact it can be said that there were Seafair Pirates before there was Seafair.

Well that’s rather a long story. Seattle was founded on the beaches of one of the finest natural ports in the world in 1851. After about nine decades of maritime prosperity it seemed a pretty good idea to celebrate the centennial of that event when it was scheduled to roll around in 1951.

Seattle’s most recent annual festival had been the “Potlatch.” But it had fallen on hard times with the coming of W.W.II and a post-war attempt to revive it failed. Other ideas were explored but it soon became obvious that Seattle needed an annual celebration that could unite the region year after year. So, as the centennial year grew ever closer, Greater Seattle was incorporated and Walter Van Camp, impresario of a festival in the Mid-West was persuaded to come out and organize the thing. To flesh out the details of the celebration Van Camp turned to the Washington State Press Club, then one of the most active Press Clubs in the nation. It was here that Van Camp met Jack Gordon and a great partnership began. Together they devised the festival that we now know as Seafair. To celebrate Seattle’s status as a great port city the festival was to have a nautical theme. And Gordon devised the “Seafair Legend” with it’s battle between King Neptune and Davy Jones, Captain Kidd & his pirates as a basis for the pageantry and drama needed to make the festival a success.

The Press Club also made another important contribution to Seafair’s beginnings: The Ale & Quail Society. A club within a club, having as members many of the organization’s most active members. The group functioned as a combination action committee and drama club, producing and promoting among other things, the Press Club’s annual “Grid-iron Show,” a popular evening of satirical political skits, akin to the “Friar’s Club Roast” or the productions of Harvard’s “Hasty Pudding Club.” — While they worked to develop and promote the infant festival, the Ale & Quail Society secured what would turn out to be the best job for themselves: Initially forming a “clown” committee, the Ale & Quail Society quickly dropped this in favor of supplying Davy Jones with his nefarious pirate crew, thus the Seattle Seafair Pirates were born. Throughout 1949 and in the Spring of 1950 the Seafair Pirates made many public appearances to build excitement for the first Seafair in the summer of 1950.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that day way back in 1949 when a handful of Press Club’s finest first became pirates. They could not have imagined the fifty Seafairs that have come and gone since. Nor would they have dreamed that their Pirate “descendants” would represent the city they all loved so well in far away places like Japan, and Mardi Gras, Grand Cayman and Korea. Or near to hand with the Seafair Pirates appearing in virtually every community festival across the Great Northwest. — We don’t know about you Seattle, but the Seafair Pirates are ready for another fifty years if you are.

* The Seafair Pirates don’t actually accept any blame for any of these things.


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