By Margaret (Imus) Kaiser, CHS Class of 1958
In 1949 a man from St. Paul Minnesota visited Seattle at the bequest of local city officials. St. Paul had an ice festival to celebrate their town and promote local business. Seattle was languishing in a post-war slump with only Boeing Aircraft left to put Seattle on the map. The local authorities thought they needed something to promote tourism and local businesses. The man from St. Paul had the solution. Build a city-wide festival similar to the one in St. Paul but featuring water festivities since that was Seattle’s main claim to fame: Puget Sound and many lakes.
My mother, Catherine Imus, was very involved in Seattle civic affairs. I was eight years old. I didn’t know it at the time, but that year was the beginning of over a ten-year relationship with Seattle Seafair. The central location for many of the Seafair activities was the Olympic hotel in downtown Seattle. It is now called the Four Seasons. It is a grand hotel and in those days always smelled of expensive perfume and cigars. You could lounge around in the lobby and just smell money.
Mom was in charge of the visiting queens. These were young girls that represented their towns from all over the state of Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska. Their chambers of commerce sent them to Seattle to represent their towns in the parades and public activities. Examples would be the Puyallup Daffodil Festival Queen, Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival Queen, Ellensburg Rodeo Queen. There was always one from Alaska and there was a Hawaiian princess who was Miss Oahu. Her name was Delphin Poaha. At eight, I thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen… and a real princess! She was very nice and taught me to dance and sing “The Little Brown Shack in Hawaii.” My brother Keith thought she was beautiful too and immediately established a relationship. Because of that I got to see more of her which was fine with me.
Seafair has its own royalty. There was always a king who was a local successful businessman. Then there were Seafair princesses, one of whom would be crowned Miss Seattle. These girls represented local businesses. Donna, my sister, represented a local photography studio. Of course, I thought she was the most beautiful one and should be crowned queen. But, as fate would have it, she didn’t win.
In the meantime, both of my brothers were in the Kings Guard. These were all tall young men in uniform who marched beside the float for the king and attended, at attention, all ceremonies that involved the king. Because Seafair lasted ten days with parades and special festivities in several different neighborhoods, there was plenty for them to do. My job at age eight was to be a court jester at the beginning of the ceremony to crown Miss Seattle. I wasn’t trained in gymnastics, but I could turn a good summersault or two and held up my end of the bargain. The whole thing was so exciting for me. The truth is I couldn’t tell a real king from a Seattle businessman.
The other thing I did, besides being a court jester, was to hang out in the central location for the visiting queens, which was my mother’s and her chaperone friend’s room at the Olympic Hotel. I took phone messages. I got good at it, writing down messages for the different queens and then delivering them to their rooms. Mom’s room was a large room with three beds that turned into couches during the day. One unique feature of the room was the door. It was a dark mahogany and rounded on the inside. This was so that if you sent out your laundry, the hotel staff would return it all cleaned and sharp, and place it with a special key, inside that door. I thought that was really living high.
Another wonderful thing about that room is that it was constantly filled with flowers, roses mostly. Small towns from all over the state of Washington would send flowers to their queens. They all ended up in Mom’s room before they got distributed to each girl. The smell of roses was intoxicating.
The other wondrous thing in Mom’s room was a Coke machine. It was a huge container full of ice and bottles of Coca Cola. You didn’t have to put money in it. You just reached in an got one if you were thirsty. Whenever the queens returned from one of their press events, they stopped by the room and picked up a Coke. Since I was a fan of Coca Cola from the time I was five, this was heaven for me. I drank my fill.
I got to go to all the events with my mother and the visiting queens. We rode in white convertibles with the tops down, the queens sitting up on the back, me in the front seat next to the driver. The girls wore white gloves and waved at the crowd everywhere we went. We had a police escort, and I thought it was thrilling when we drove right through the red lights as the police stopped traffic to let us through. It made me feel important and special and very lucky.
The other thing that was truly fun at that age was exploring the hotel. My mom said it was okay for me to invite a few friends down to the hotel. Because we were little kids, the hotel seemed to ignore us. We rode the elevator to the top and explored the penthouse; we ran up and down the back stairwells and explored other major rooms which were unlocked. One was a cabaret style lounge with a stage. We kids performed on the stage and pretended we were Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, singing and dancing for our imaginary audience. Another wondrous room was the Spanish Ballroom, a glorious brocade draped room with polished floors for dancing and crystal chandeliers that glittered when you turned the lights on.
We weren’t allowed to go into the Georgian Room which was a very fancy restaurant with more draped windows, chandeliers, crystal, and silver serving trays. The Georgian room was halfway between the lobby and the mezzanine. A short flight of stairs led to another whole section of small conference rooms. These were more business-like in design and boring to us kids. We pretty much explored the entire building and discovered a very glamorous world much like in the movies.
Downstairs from the lobby was a restaurant called the Grill. Here, we were allowed to eat, if we behaved ourselves. The whole thing went on my mom’s tab, which was picked up by the city of Seattle. My friends and I ate well for ten days every August. I think I got spoiled during that period, living like the upper crust. I began to understand why Mom was such a social climber. There definitely were benefits. Especially when you think about the city of Seattle picking up the tab for us kids. It’s pretty amazing! Of course, she volunteered her time, so I suppose it was the least they could do.
Mom remained involved with Seafair for over twenty years. I stayed involved by answering phones at the headquarters office, (Mom’s room) until I was well into my teens. It never changed; it just got better. I often had a couple of girlfriends around to enjoy the festivities and the glamour, all on the city of Seattle, of course. My friends thought my Mom was wonderful and indeed, her involvement was one of her strong suits. The privileges of Seafair and the glamour of the Olympic Hotel were a kind of Hollywood world that us middle class kids didn’t get to experience every day.
Meanwhile, Dad (Ray K. Imus, former beloved Cleveland Vice Principal) was unimpressed, preferring to stay home and work in the garden. I don’t think he minded Mom being involved with Seafair. She wouldn’t have quit even if he did. He just didn’t want any part of it. My brothers and my sister were only involved that first year but I caught the same bug as my Mom and stayed on. It was one of the most fun times of my life. And, maybe, it was a way to be close to my mother. In any case, it was grand!
Editor’s note – there are several articles in the Seattle Daily News (Seattle Times) about Mrs. Ray K. (Catherine) Imus and her dedication to Seafair. One article written about Mrs. Catherine Imus, Queens Visiting Seafair Find They’re Due for Aching Feet, dated August 6, 1958, gives a good explanation of the work that goes into making Seafair happen.
Photo credit: Seattle PI – A Brief History of Seafiar
