At the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair the Paradise International floor show drew outrage due to its risque nature.
Fifty years later, those same floors inside the Gracie Hansen Community Center in Ravensdale are used for basketball games and batting practice.
This weekend, a group hosted by the Maple Valley Historical Society will relive the 1962 World’s Fair. 4Culture, a cultural service in King County, will put on a 50 minute, four actor production at the Gracie Hansen Community Center at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The production will cover the initial conceptions of the fair to the last days of the fair. For example, the production includes how the Space Needle was originally designed on a paper napkin inside of a restaurant. It also includes the controversy surrounding the Gracie Hansen floor show.
Dick Peacock, who is a long-time member of the historical society, felt the production would be interesting for whom the building is now a community icon.
“When we found out this play was available, I said ‘I know where the Gracie Hansen building is,’” he said.
The production is based on the book “The Future Remembered,” which Dick Peacock said is a take off of the 1962 World’s Fair theme “Century 21.”
“Everything was futuristic,” Peacock said. “They had an elevator that was a big plexiglass ball. They built the Space Needle and the Monorail and the (Pacific) Science Center. They had all those fancy cars that were going to be driving themselves.”
The building was named after Gracie Hansen, a woman who ran the Paradise International floor show and was known for her charismatic personality. The flair of the morally-loose Las Vegas-style show, which included topless showgirls, didn’t fare well with some community leaders in the relatively scandal-free Seattle of the time, Peacock said. Ultimately, however, a persuasive Hansen managed to convince the Seattle Censor Board to allow the show.
Peacock explained that the Gracie Hansen building was designed, along with many other structures at the world’s fair, to be temporary. After the fair ended, most buildings were discarded. Over in Ravensdale, King County decided to tear down the old school gymnasium built in 1914, according to Peacock.
“They told the people they would replace it,” he said.
With plenty of temporary buildings leftover from the fair, the county brought the Gracie Hansen building to Ravensdale to serve as replacement. Several problems arose with the switch. The Gracie Hansen building wasn’t designed as a gymnasium, Peacock explained, and the county, for unknown reason, did not renovate it. For years it remained vacant and was damaged by repeated vandalism.
Finally, the county agreed to install hardwood floors, heaters and a kitchen. It was renamed the Gracie Hansen Community Center.
The building is open during the week and is used for various athletic activities.The community center is located at 27132 SE Ravensdale Way. The cost per person for the production is $5.
