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.