"Hold That Tiger" at The Garden of Allah 1950.
Seattle's first LGBTQ owned and operated bar The Garden of Allah was open from 1946-1956 at 1299 1st Ave. In Seattle.
"Hold That Tiger" was a popular Dixieland rag first recorded in 1918 and made popular by the Mills Brothers. It was probably pounded out on the Garden’s Wurlitzer organ which included a simultaneous piano and may have sounded like this performed by Winnifred Atwell.
See this and other pictures at "Steps to the Future 80/40/20", the Come Out Seattle exhibit at Union Seattle now until Sept.15.
From left: Tigers Bily DeVoe, Jackie Starr, Hotcha Hinton, Francis Blair. Animal Trainer: Kenny Bee.
Picture courtesy of the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, SOC7432/UW43632.
For the full story see “An Evening at the Garden of Allah” by Don Paulson & Roger Simpson 1996.
