Who is Gracie ?
Gracie Hansen was a housewife from a small town in Washington (Morton) and gained prominence as the Queen of the'62 World's Fair where she operated her Gracie Hansen's Paradise Pavilion right off of "GayWay", the youth amusement section. Her show 'featured' topless women in Ziegfeld Follies costumes. She wasn't the first to do this, as in 1939 at the San Francisco World's Fair, Sally Rand was featured with her topless cowgirls. But, Gracie said, "I can do it better", and she did! Bob Hope, Carol Channing and many other celebrities visited at the Paradise and it became the big hit of the World's Fair. In fact, some say that Seattle's Red-Hot Mama (as she was dubbed as her style was similar to Mae West or Sophie Tucker) saved the World's Fair (and not just from science!).
Harvey Dick, who owned the Hoyt Hotel on 6th and SW Hoyt Street (a block away from Union Station) was so impressed with Gracie that he turned a covered parking garage into a world class show room. Before it opened, he christened it the Gracie Hansen's Roaring 20's Room. She not only starred in the room with a variety of people for five years she also managed it . During that time such celebrities as Anne Francis, Johnny Carson, The Glenn Miller Band, Les Brown and his band of re-noun, Count Basie and the great Duke Ellington either visited or performed there. Many female impersonation/ drag balls were held there as well in the early '70's.The grand lady called the Hoyt Hotel is now gone, and in its place sits the Greyhound bus station.
In 1970, Gracie takes a shot at running for Governor of Oregon - she is believed to be the first women to do this. She ran against Bob Straub on the Democratic ticket and came in third - Tom McCall a Republican was reelected a second term that year.
After leaving the Hoyt Hotel in February 1971, she starred in a movie (The Circle), was on stage in two opera's and moved to Los Angeles to work on stage as a stand-up comic and was featured on the CBS comedy 'Arnie'.
She under went surgery for diabetes and lost her right leg in 1980 and in 1985 when she went under surgery for the the left, she died on the operating table. Her life is quite an adventure...and its all true!