Ouija Broads: Skid Road

Skid Road is our first experiment with the season idea, where we tie a handful of episodes together around a specific theme. In Skid Road, we explore a small but significant part of downtown Seattle where many quintessential Seattle stories played out: fortunes were made and lost, sex was sold, businessmen were fleeced, trash was piled, and history was reinterpreted.

We kicked the season off with Skid Road: The Three Loves of Henry Yesler (October 1, 2021). This is the tale of Henry Yesler, Seattle's city father who's really more of a city vodka aunt, his adventures, his influences, the Seattle he knew, and the intriguing women he loved. This episode also provided the inspiration for this season’s signature sticker, “Seance and Chill?”

Our second episode was Box Houses and Sawdust Women (November 7, 2021), an exploration of how the business of pleasure shaped early Seattle. We meet the gum-chewing King of the Box Houses, John Considine, and learn how Seattle sailors in search of negotiable affection may have indirectly funded early Hollywood productions. That flows nicely into the story of the Flower of the North, Katherine “Klondike Kate” Rockwell (December 6, 2021). A dance hall damsel with a heart of gold, Kate is our doorway to the world of on-stage entertainment in the early Northwest, as well as to Considine’s main rival (and eventual in-law) Alexander Pantages of the famous Pantages Circuit.

Next, we go all in one one block. Yes, one individual singular solitary block of Seattle. But there's quite a bit to say about this block, as it turns out. Henry Kubota and the Sinking Ship (January 3, 2022) tells the tale of Henry Kubota, a man who put his blood, sweat, and tears into Skid Row for half a century— and who lost everything when he was betrayed by the city he called home. This is also an episode where the story necessitates talking about the anti-Asian attitudes and policies of late 19th/early 20th century Washington State and the U.S., including the anti-Chinese riots in Seattle, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. You know our style, we don't get into detailed descriptions of hate crimes or anything, but like always, use your judgment and be good to yourselves.

No true exploration of Skid Row could ignore the colorful historian Bill Spiedel and his famed Seattle Underground tour. In Under The Surface (February 21, 2022), we learn about this anti-establishment Seattle character and the unique world he helped preserve beneath Seattle's streets. And finally, we get some ghosts in the mix!

Finally, we close Skid Road with “the man who invented Seattle” in The Three Loves of Doc Maynard. (March 10, 2022). What makes a middle-aged doctor leave his family in Cleveland behind and trek the Oregon Trail? How far can someone go for the chance to marry the woman he loves? Most importantly, what is a magoozle and how does it give us not just Skid Road, but Seattle itself and even the entirety of Washington State? Only one way for you to find out... come join us for one last romp on the wrong side of the tracks.