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Quirky tale #8:
Pigging out on the shoreline
He hid it well, but Seattle Mayor Carl Hinckley moonlighted as a bedraggled buffoon on the downtown waterfront in 1908-09. Masquerading as “Uncle Hiram and His Pig,” he induced his porcine partner, Betsy, and various dogs to perform crowd-pleasing tricks, while his hay-filled “Studebaker” wagon poked gentle fun at his campaign contributors. Hinckley built a following as what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called “one of the best impersonators of the original down Easterner in the country.”
Of course, we’re pork-ribbing you! April Fool if you thought Hinckley (“Uncle Hiram”) was a Seattle mayor and prowled the waterfront. But Hinckley did play “Uncle Hiram” and had a robust, dual life as a clown and actor. His real venue was Luna Park, the vast, private amusement center stretching into Elliott Bay from Duwamish Head in West Seattle from 1907 to 1913. (Its saltwater natatorium continued until 1931.)
