THEN: Stu Moldrem’s Space Needle-based prelude for the 1974 National Governors’ Conference graced the Seattle Post-Intelligencer front page on the gathering’s first day, June 2. Then-Gov. Dan Evans is at bottom. At top are then-Govs. Reubin Askew, Florida; Dale Bumpers, Arkansas; Ronald Reagan, California; Wendell Ford, Kentucky; Jimmy Carter, Georgia, and Winfield Dunn, Tennessee. On the elevator is then-Massachusetts Sen Edward Kennedy. (David Eskenazi Collection)NOW: Former Washington Gov. and U.S. Sen. Dan Evans repeats the 1974 pose drawn by artist Stu Moldrem. “Now & Then” enlisted Evans’ son, former corporate-communications writer Dan Evans Jr., as our guest photographer to capture his dad for this installment. (Dan Evans Jr.)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Sept. 12, 2024
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Sept. 15, 2024
Presidential puzzle jogged Evans-led governors session in 1974
By Clay Eals
May 18, 1973, Herblock editorial cartoon on Watergate TV hearings.
However unfathomable this year’s presidential marathon may seem, certainly it’s memorable. Oddly enough, that’s how many of us felt a half-century ago, in 1974.
It wasn’t a presidential-election year, but the nation’s top job topped the country’s consciousness. In Congress, 51 days of Watergate hearings had supplied riveting television. By the time of the National Governors Conference, hosted June 2-5, 1974, by then-Gov. Dan Evans in Seattle, impeachment hearings had begun against the scandalized Richard Nixon. The guvs’ hottest speculation focused on who would become the next elected president.
June 2, 1974, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p1.
Presciently depicting this puzzle on the June 2 Seattle Post-Intelligencer front page, artist Stu Moldrem drew Evans anchoring a Space Needle crowded with political celebs.
On top were six attending governors, including two future presidents: Reubin Askew, Florida; Dale Bumpers, Arkansas; Ronald Reagan, California; Wendell Ford, Kentucky; Jimmy Carter, Georgia, and Winfield Dunn, Tennessee. Riding the Needle’s elevator was Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who spoke to the conference in favor of national health insurance and was presumed to top the 1976 Democratic ticket.
June 2, 1974, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p11.
Conferees fished for salmon in Westport, visited the Longacres horse track and dined black-tie at the Olympic Hotel. A few even stopped by Spokane for the Expo ’74 world’s fair. But they also speechified and swapped presidential predictions. From the KING-TV studio, six governors, including Evans, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” during which Evans three times cited “this time of national turmoil.”
Two months later, Nixon resigned. A month after that, his successor, VP Gerald Ford, drew scorn for granting him “a full, free and absolute pardon.” Talk about turmoil!
Kennedy, it turned out, didn’t run in 1976. Carter became the Democratic nominee and defeated Republican Ford. Four years later, Republican Reagan defeated Carter.
NOW: Kneeling to photograph his dad is Dan Evans Jr. For more of his work, visit DanEvansJr.Photography. (Clay Eals)
This July 24, Evans repeated his pose in person at the Needle. Just shy of 99 and revered as a liberal Republican and environmental champion, the former three-term governor (Washington’s first) and six-year U.S. senator fondly recalled the 1974 conference.
He also tersely eyed today’s political scene. No fan of re-nominee Donald Trump, he lamented, “There aren’t any Republicans left in Seattle.” Is democracy on the ballot this November? “No. We’ll survive OK.”
THEN2: In December 1968, P-I artist Stu Moldrem inks in a Pilot Profile in advance of the 1969 debut of Seattle’s major-league Pilots baseball team. Moldrem also designed the team’s uniforms and logo. (David Eskenazi Collection)
News artist Moldrem died in 2015 at age 90. For 34 years, he produced countless creations on myriad topics, mostly sports. The P-I labeled them “Sportraits.”
His daughter Lisa Moldrem, of Kirkland, rates his elaborate end-of-year sketches, in which he incorporated hundreds of names of Seattle sports celebs, among his best work. “He knew that people enjoyed it,” she says, “but he always wondered if they would remember it.”
We do!
THEN: Baseball was the theme of an original late-1951 Moldrem names sketch, complete with penciled guidelines. “The more famous you were,” says his daughter, Lisa Moldrem, “the bigger or more centered your name was.” The names of Lisa and her brother typically were slipped into the annual pieces. (David Eskenazi Collection)THEN: For Tommy Harper Day, Aug. 22, 1969, Moldrem depicted the beloved Seattle Pilots base-stealer on the canvas of second base. The base came from now-demolished Sicks Stadium in south Seattle and was presented to Harper. (David Eskenazi Collection)
WEB EXTRAS
Big thanks to Dave Eskenazi, Lisa Moldrem, Genny Boots and especially Dan Evans Sr. and Jr. for their invaluable help with this installment!
To see Clay Eals’ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.
