Don A., a bit of Seattle coffee house history:

"The Place Next Door" was opened by Bob Clark, owner of the Guild 45th Theater, who ran it from Spring of 1959 until sometime shortly after the Seattle World's Fair, which ended in October of 1962. Then, wanting to open another art film theater in downtown Seattle, he sold the Place to Seattle folk singer Stan James, who renamed it "The Corroboree." [Stan was an "Australophile," and a corroboree is an event where Australian Aborigines interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume.] Stan ran it for a couple of years, then sold out to a fellow named Dick Minor, who ran it for a several months, then disappeared, leaving all the bills unpaid. The Place / Corroboree went back to being an abandoned store front, eventually rented by someone. Its days as one of the nicest coffee houses in Seattle were over.

Eric Bjornstadt's first venture into coffee houses was The Eigerwand, which was too small to have entertainment. So Eric opened the "Queequeg," down the street. It was big, as I mentioned before, and was set up for entertainment. He ran it for at least a couple of years, and if Pat Garvey took it over from him, I was not aware of it. But then, that was getting into the first assaults of the "British Invasion," the Beatles, Petula Clark, et al, and the popularity of coffee houses as places to sing or hear folk music faded swiftly.

This was a manifestation of the ravages of folk music suddenly being sucked into the Pop music milieu and riding the Pop music wave. When the wave breaks, it's replaced by the next wave, whatever that might be.

So sic transit gloria "Folk Scare!"

Since then, it's no longer a popular music fad, but I think the "Folk Scare" left a large residue of people who are genuinely interested in the music rather than just because it was the latest pop music fad in the late Fifties / early Sixties, and all in all, it's healthier today than it was then.

This is not to say that Pat didn't run a coffee house himself, but if he did, I wasn't aware of it, and I was smack-dab in the middle of it all.

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And Don A., please give Victoria my very best wishes!!

Don Firth