There are many people who helped move this project along, but I’ll start with an apology to most of them. Northwest Picture Show has been a long time in the making, and there have been innumerable librarians, archivists and museum staff along the way who have offered all kinds of help, both large (“Have you tried looking at this collection?”) and small (“Have you tried turning the machine on?”). I did not keep track of them all, so just understand that your work was essential and appreciated – you make important (and unheralded) contributions to research projects such as this. That said, I’m giving a special shoutout to the unknown librarian at the University of Washington who, after watching me wrestle with their microfilm printers for several weeks in a row, took pity and handed me a special adapter allowing me to make copies at will, after which I could pay for my printouts at the end of each session. Normally I arrived at the library with fistfuls of quarters and struggled to keep my cursing to a minimum; this was a much better option.

I will also single out the staff and volunteers at any number of historical societies around Washington, who were always willing to field questions and occasionally did some digging on my behalf. These people are powered by a love of local history, which they’re only too happy to share. If you do any kind of historical research and have an opportunity to use them, please do. You might end up meeting to someone like Barry George of the Okanogan County Historical Society, who was so enthusiastic about introducing me to his area’s early movie history that he spent hours (and I mean HOURS) scanning old newspapers and sending me everything he could find. I didn’t ask him to – Barry just sorta volunteered, and I sorta didn’t stop him. For about three weeks, every few days, I’d receive a large PDF from Barry with articles he not only copied but sometimes annotated by hand, whenever he wanted to add some detail or correct a factual error. At one point he even apologized for taking a day off and going golfing. For God’s sake, Barry, go golfing – you more than earned it.

Rosemary Hanes with the Moving Image Section at the Library of Congress deserves thanks for letting poke through their materials on the Searchlight Theatre in Tacoma. I’ve been to the Special Collections Division at the University of Washington so many times over the years that I can probably count on one hand how many people haven’t helped me. The late Walt Crowley, co-founder of HistoryLink, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history, took some of my early work and put it on the website. Later, Jennifer Ott, HistoryLink’s current Executive Director, was kind enough to share her expertise on converting my book project into a web project. HistoryLink is an indispensable resource for Northwest history, partnering with schools, museums, nonprofits and heritage groups from around the state to make Washington’s past come alive. I’m proud to have written for it. I also want to thank Charles Musser of Yale University for reading and offering thoughts on Mrs. Sloan and Mr. McConahey, the story that partly inspired this project in the first place. Sam Kishline and the folks at Odins3 helped make the website a reality, and did so in spite of my efforts to, uh, “help.” (If you think my skills with a microfilm printer need improving, you should see me work the back end of this site.) And finally, because there won’t be an audio version Northwest Picture Show, just know that you can stream the (un)official soundtrack at any time by logging on to KEXP – 90.3 FM in Seattle.

Closer to home, no one gets top billing over my wife Angie, who gives me enormous amounts of time to pursue whatever screwy thing I think I need to pursue. She’s my best friend, my partner in everything, and doesn’t charge for proofreading. She pats me on the back when the writing goes well, hoists me from the pit of despair when it does not, and does so even when those moments are separated by only three or four minutes. She also, apparently, took no notice of how much money I was spending at the UW library over a multi-year period. I also want to recognize my kids, Katie, Ty and Max, and share a story. One morning, when Max was learning to walk, he careened over to the desk where I was indexing my latest batch of trade paper articles. When I wasn’t looking, he reached up and grabbed a handful of photocopies, pulling them off the desk, which also brought down the large cup of steaming hot coffee I just poured. The drink went everywhere, including all over him, which caused me to leap out of my chair and shout “Oh my God, it’s gonna stain my research!” Max: according to your mother, that was not the correct response. But two decades later you began working as a barista, so really, did it do much harm? I think not. Credit should also go to my cat, Oliver, for helping me maintain a clutter-free workspace, in that he regularly took it upon himself to knock research materials, pens, post-its and other sundry items to the floor – where they belong.

Finally, special thanks goes to my mother, Cathy, who served as my unwitting research assistant. Sometime in the mid-2010s the Seattle Public Library put a digitized version of the Seattle Times online, but my family was living in Atlanta at the time, so I no longer had access to the full library site. I guilted her into going there, feigning interest in a library card, then turning over the account to me. This wasn’t inconsequential – without the ability to access Seattle newspapers from afar (the Library has continued adding digitized content over the years), a lot of this research was dead in the water. So Mom, I appreciate your willingness to lie, cheat and raise a middle finger to the rules, all on my behalf. Your secret is safe with me.