Knute

When people came from other places to the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, Knute “Skip” Berger is the person they expected to meet…a true Northwesterner, independent, curious, smart and a little bit “bushy”.  Skip and I first got know each other in the 1900’s (you remember them) when our offices were in the same building on the Seattle Waterfront in what is called Pioneer Square.  We used to run into each other as we walked the alley behind our building to lunch or home.

Just over a year ago, the Space Needle chose Skip to write the definitive book on the Space Needle for its 50th Anniversary and I whole-heartedly concurred.  We had a book deal celebration at the Needle with publisher Petyr Beck on the left, Skip, me and Mary Bacarella, VP of Branding for the Needle.Skip is a great writer, journalist and, above all, a World’s Fair aficionado par excellence.  He attended the Seattle Fair in 1962 and has been to every World’s Fair since then.

We ‘ve gotten to know each other better during the past year while Skip assumed his title of “Writer-in-Residence” atop the Needle with chairs and a table where he could write and interview.  I helped him open some doors to people and stories that make the Space Needle really come to life.
During the year, we both met many of the founding family members, people who actually built the Needle and those who drew attention to it here and around the world.  When Astronaut Buzz Aldrin came to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary, Skip was actually a bit in awe of the guy and wrote about it. I accompanied him to many interviews for the book. One that comes to mind was a meeting with one of the original builders and his family.  I got to the location early in a driving rain storm.  Shortly, a figure in a thin hooded parka came out of the mist down the street.  It was Skip, looking somewhat like an otter with his hair and beard drenched.  Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat…you know the line.
Last weekend on April 21, Seattle celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Space Needle and the opening of the Fair.  It was a glorious day in every respect.  I’ll write more about it later but one of the highlights for me was seeing the smile on Skip’s face as he signed copies of his just-delivered book, Space Needle, The Spirit of Seattle.  He said he was “as high as the Space Needle”.  We all were. It’s a trip into the heart and history of our city.

At noon on Saturday, Jeff Wright, chairman of the Space Needle and son of its builder Howard S. Wright, and his whole family hosted a Legacy Luncheon at the Needle.  A couple hundred people with very close ties to the Space Needle and the World’s Fair had the time of their lives reminiscing. Pictured here is Jeff Wright with two ironworkers who actually bolted the Needle together. In the middle of the festivities, there was a short program with three speakers…Jeff Wright, Mayor Mike McGinn and, you guessed it, Knute “Skip” Berger.  The text of Skip’s remarks follows and, if it doesn’t entice you to read his book, you’re not paying attention.  I’m proud to call Skip a friend and colleague. He represents the soul of our city. He makes me even more proud to call Seattle my home.  It’s a very special place on this planet.

The Space Needle 'has a thousand fathers'
By Knute Berger
Editor's Note: The following remarks were made at the Space Needle's 50th Anniversary Legacy Luncheon on April 21, 2012. The event marked the official opening of the Needle and the Seattle World's fair in 1962. Also speaking were Space Needle chairman Jeff Wright and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. Attending were individuals and families who played roles in the fair and Needle's history, from ironworkers to engineers, from elevator operators to executives. There were many familiar names represented: Gandy, Carlson, Rochester, Wright, Steinbrueck, Graham, Minasian, Dingwall, Clinton, Moffett, Rockey, to name a few. This was a day to pay tribute to the amazing people and unique accomplishments that gave Seattle not only a fair to remember, but a permanent civic center and an international icon.
As the Seattle world's fair was being built, President John F. Kennedy quoted an old saying in the wake of the Bay of Pigs debacle in Cuba: "Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan."
Century 21 and the Space Needle were victories — huge successes. They are certainly not orphans. They have a thousand fathers, and mothers, and children and grand children — including you, the people attending this 50th anniversary Legacy Luncheon. You represent their vision and their living legacy, their memory and impact. You were witness to amazing events and part of an important story in the history of our city, our country, and the world.
A year ago, I was hired to write the story of the Space Needle for its 50th anniversary. I was given the title of Writer-in-Residence at the Needle and  a desk and chairs on the Observation Deck which I used to conduct interviews, write for the Needle's blog, and to meet the people who pass through the "Eye of the Needle" on a daily basis.
I quickly realized three things on this project. First, that I couldn't complain about the deadline. If the Space Needle was built in a year, I certainly could research and write a book about it in a year. The Needle sets the bar for all of us.
Second, I came to understand that the Needle, like Century 21, has no single story. How could it? More than 50 million people have visited the Space Needle since it opened in 1962. It has been a place featuring births, anniversaries, engagements, marriages, first dates, and even a few deaths. When the flag was raised on the 10th anniversary of 9-11 last fall, it was a statement about endurance, remembrance and hope. The Needle has been at the center of Seattle's civic and cultural life for half a century. I met more than one person who told me proudly, "my father built the Space Needle."  No one is putting the Needle up for adoption.
Although some have tried to steal it away. You might remember that the city of Fife offered to buy and move the Space Needle there in the late 1970s. Some said they'd change its name to the "Fiffel Tower." As Walt Disney predicted when he visited the Seattle fair, Needles would soon be cropping up everywhere. This one is staying where it is.
The third thing I realized was that if you want to experience the thrill of the world's fair, if you want to experience the wonder, the fun, the chaos, the energy, there's one place in America where you can still do it. America has not hosted a world's fair since 1984, and likely won't for many years, if ever. Generations of Americans are growing up with no sense of what world's fairs are like, or even that they are still happening around the world, which they are. There's one this summer in South Korea, in a coastal city not unlike Seattle in '62.
But our fair is still here to remind Americans of the power of such events to inform, entertain, to reshape cities, to uplift people with science, technology, the arts, even Belgian waffles. The Seattle Center has some of the characteristics of a permanent fair.
If you want to experience what a world's fair is like, go to the top of the Needle on a crowded summer day. You will hear the gasp of newcomers as the elevators lift-off. The restaurant still turns and the view still stuns. You will meet passengers from around the world as they look out on the amazing city and landscape that inspires and nurtures us, and hear them exclaim in many languages. As King Olav of Norway said when he saw the view, "Dette var flotte" — "That was impressive."
He could have been speaking of the entire Century 21 legacy.
Wonder, inspiration, fun, aspiration. The Needle and the fair were offered as antidotes in a world threatened by nuclear war. It was a statement to the world: While you build walls and guard towers and bomb shelters, in Seattle we build global vistas and dream of new frontiers. The utopian vision still lives in our civic discourse.
I fell in love with the Needle, when I first saw it from the Smith Tower, as it was being built in 1961. I was an 8-year-old Cub Scout. You could get a clear view of the Needle from the Smith Tower back then; there were no skyscrapers in between. To me, the Needle was the future, being built right there on the horizon, in my home town. It was being built by some of you, for a fair that galvanized the city as nothing else has before or since.
I'm here today to thank you fathers, mothers, families and friends of the fair and Needle, for what you have done for the city. It was an honor to tell my version of the Space Needle's story because it embodies the collective story of Seattle's spirit.
Thank you.
Knute Berger is Mossback, Crosscut's chief Northwest native. He also writes the monthly Grey Matters column for Seattle magazine and is a weekly Friday guest on Weekday on KUOW-FM (94.9). His newest book is Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes On Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice, published by Sasquatch Books. In 2011, he was named Writer-in-Residence at the Space Needle and is writing the Needle's official 50th anniversary history. You can e-mail him at mossback@crosscut.com.

Big Doin's

Spending my summers on the farm growing up while my dad was moving every year in the Army, I learned a lot from my grandmother.  One of her favorite terms was “Big Doin’s”.  Whenever she saw a gathering with lots of cars and people around, she would say “There’s Big Doin’s over there.”  The family joke that my dad and uncle always told was when she made that exclamation one time and they drove a mile to get closer to the cluster of cars which turned out to be a junkyard with “no doin’s” at all.

Well, there is going to be “Big Doin’s” in Seattle this summer, thanks mostly to the “Big Doin’s” in the summer of 1962 when the Space Needle and the Seattle World’s Fair opened.  Earlier this week, we brought out three generations of World’s Fair and Space Needle Seattleites to begin painting the Needle back to its original “Galaxy Gold” color from the Fair. It got everyone in town excited about all the activities coming up, starting with the official 50th Anniversary this weekend on April 21.
From now until the end of year, we’ve got a series of openings, events and activities that qualify as “Big Doin’s” and we’re knee-deep in all of them.  I’m outlining all this commotion mostly to let you know we’ll be distracted from time to time.
Space Needle’s 50th Anniversary—it coincides with the 1962 World’s Fair celebration, which means a lot to Seattle.  That really marks the time when Seattle became a world city and has grown ever since.  Elvis even came to the Fair and made a movie about it.  The Needle has become an icon for our city around the world and a beacon to our future.  It’s always leading the way.

University of Washington, Professional and Continuing Education Centennial comes next.  It’s nestled inside of the University’s 150th Anniversary and it celebrates the tens of thousands of local citizens who have come to the University with life-long learning as their goal.  We’re instituting a way for graduates to continue their education for years to come. And bring all who have participated over the years together in a series of reunions and gatherings.

Space Race 2012—the brain-storming session that spawned this idea started by talking about the success of sending Visitor Number 45 Million to our sister landmark, the Eiffel Tower.  Because of the success of that promotion, we began to discuss other places we could send people and someone said “How about sending them into space?”  We all looked at each other and asked “Could we really do that?”  The answer was yes and, since then, we have gone from 50,000 online entries to 1000 invitations to send a video about why you would want to go into space, to 20 semi-finalists who were voted for online and now it’s down to 5 people from around the country who will compete in tests of skill to determine the ultimate winner.  Astronaut Buzz Aldrin will open the envelope in May to congratulate the winner.

Not slowing down a bit, King Tut hits town on his final stop ever in the US next.  He’s going back to Egypt to his permanent home and will not ever tour again.  I still have the program from his first visit to Seattle over 30 years ago.  The real significance of that is that it tells me there is entirely too much “stuff” in my basement.  Being the marketing member of the board at the Pacific Science Center, host for the visit, makes this exceptionally sweet.  Advance ticket sales and exposure for his visit are way ahead of any previous venues.  The city is even changing the name of King Street Station to King Tut Street station during the 6 months of the visit.  Exciting!

Then comes Chihuly Garden and Glass—this spectacular exhibition has been almost 3 years in the making.  When a space became available next to the Space Needle, its owners approached renowned artist Dale Chihuly with the idea of a major exhibition of his work there.  We faced the test of Seattle’s process, gained permission from the city and have been working 24/7 since August to open in May.  It is all coming together in an amazing way and the artwork is being installed as I write this.  The most comprehensive exhibition of his work will move Seattle’s position in the world of art up a significant number of notches and those of us involved will be very proud to help open its doors to everyone.
Never far from the mountains, at the same time, we’re working on a PBS documentary about the love and attraction of the mountains.  We’re using the life of famed mountaineer and consummate guide, Lou Whittaker, whose career has spanned over 60 years, as the foundation for this program.  Lou is highly respected and revered in outdoor circles and he is a close and valued friend.  This documentary for network placement next winter or spring pays appropriate homage to Lou and his influence on climbing and guiding around the world.
All this is just in time to connect with the XXX Olympiad in London.  We’ve worked on the last several games with the local organizing committees including Beijing and Vancouver, BC.  We continue to talk with our Olympic contacts and have several lines in the water that we hope will bring us onto the scene in London.  Right now, our talks have been focused on security, which is a very delicate subject as we get closer to the Games.
All these “Big Doin’s” play out through the end of 2012.  What a benchmark year for this city.  If there weren’t an important election coming up in the fall, people would be dancing in the streets already.  It’s going to be incredible though and we’re smack dab in the middle of it all.  Grandma couldn’t have said it better.  There are “Big Doin’s” here and we’re in the game. In case you’re wondering what we’re up to…now you know.