300407 - Topic: Mount Tacoma

 
 

 
So here’s the thing. If you’ve been reading many of these blog posts, you’ve come to understand a few facts about me.

·       I am kind of obsessed with the Empire Builders radio series.

·       I have a great deal of admiration for the men and women who participated, in a multitude of ways, in bringing Empire Builders to the air.

·       I can sometimes get a little critical, even flippant or snarky, in my reviews of the continuities used on this radio series. This is going to be one of those times.

Of all the stories used for Empire Builders, and even accounting for the possibility that 30-minute radio programs in the late-1920s/early-1930s could be pretty unsophisticated and still be immensely popular . . . given all that, this has got to be one of the most patently dumb scripts they came up with in 103 attempts.

Did young women of that era actually make life-changing decisions – including choosing a husband – based on such absurdly arbitrary mechanisms as the flip of a coin? Do young women (and men, for that matter) still make such monumental decisions in the same fashion today? Well, yes, sadly – I suppose some of them do. Like, tattoos, for example.  Sigh.

Anyhow, you’ve been warned. I do like much of the content of this broadcast, but the main story line just seems dumb. That said, let’s get on with it.

Most aficionados of the Great Northern Railway are well-versed with this railroad’s extensive promotion of Glacier National Park, and perhaps a few other tourist attractions along its line. One of the whole points of this advertising campaign was to shine a favorable light on still other lesser-known attractions. Not many may realize, for example, that in the early days of the GN the railroad promoted places like Lake Minnetonka (and the Lafayette Hotel), Lake Chelan, and travel across the Great Lakes (via the GN-owned subsidiary Northern Steamship Company). Over the years, the GN also aggressively promoted travel to Alaska, California, and the Orient. I even have a brochure they put out for travel the Caribbean.

In the state of Washington, a handful of significant cities were enough to lure many visitors, particularly for attending conventions. The GN also promoted travel to a pair of wilderness areas in Washington, although travel to each of these entailed travel arrangements beyond just riding a Great Northern train (an advantage enjoyed by Glacier National Park). These locales were Mt. Baker National Forest (established January 21, 1924) and Mt. Rainier National Park (established March 2, 1899). This night’s broadcast used Mt. Rainier as its primary setting.

Great Northern Railway advertising pamphlet, circa 1925. Author's collection

Mt. Rainier, which has a peak elevation of 14,411 feet, is a presently dormant volcano. It was named in 1792, by Captain George Vancouver, in honor of the captain’s colleague, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. The mountain was already known among the local Native Americans as Tahoma (or Takhoma, or Tacobet). Many people in the Pacific Northwest have long insisted Rainier is an inappropriate name for the mountain, and over the years have made various attempts to restore its name to one reflective of the indigenous inhabitants of the area. At the time of this radio broadcast, many residents of the city of Tacoma expressed their appreciation for the Great Northern Railway in commenting in the program on the generally popular alternate name of Mount Tacoma.

Luella was the name of the young woman protagonist of this night’s broadcast. I can’t say for a fact, but she was most likely portrayed by Virginia Gardiner (who did indeed appear in this program). Luella was caught up in reading cheap dime-store romance novels whose heroes were dashing cowboy types of the Wild West. Even while riding aboard the Empire Builder train to the state of Washington, Luella found no greater pleasure than losing herself in her books and their lure of romantic fantasies. It turns out Luella had two suitors (although I’m at a loss as to why, based on her being such a head case): Ralph and Bill. Luella was travelling on the train with her Aunt Martha. Ralph was also along for the ride, and seemed to occupy his time bemoaning the fact that he and Luella were not already married.

RALPH:          (SIGHS) I wish this was our honeymoon trip.

LUELLA:        Why, Ralph --- why?

RAPLH:          (DESPONDENTLY)  Then we wouldn’t have to have your aunt along and I’d toss all your strong men back to their silent plains. If I had to sit and listen to her talk for another two hours I think I’ll jump off the train. Just talk, talk, talk --- say! You aren’t even listening to me.

LUELLA:        Oh, pardon me, Ralph, but this book is so fascinating I can hardly stop. Just listen to this … “Bronco Pete was a man’s man. Standing six foot two in his stocking feet, he was a tower of sinewy strength – an Apollo in bronze. Two guns glistened in their holsters, and two eyes glinted fearlessly from beneath the broad sombrero. Bronco Pete had killed sixteen men, but he never killed without cause. No man in Graveyard Gulch was more gentle and courteous to frail womanhood than he …” Ah, Ralph, --- that’s the kind of man I want to marry.

RALPH:          Huh! A fine looking thing he’d be in a drawing room. Why, take a man like that, and twenty years from now he’d look like that old polecat sitting up ahead there. See him? --- that funny-looking old codger with the Santa Claus whiskers.

Harvey Hays as the Old Timer.

 

Ralph shuffled off to pout, and the Old Timer came along and engaged Luella in a conversation. Luella apologized for Ralph’s comments, and tried to explain that Ralph was just jealous of Bill.

PIONEER:      (OFF)  How’s that, Miss?

LUELLA:        Did you hear Ralph calling you an old polecat? I hope not – I mean – I’m sure he didn’t mean it. He’s just jealous of Bill, that’s all.

PIONEER:      (UP)  I see. He calls me an old polecat because he’s jealous of Bill.

LUELLA:        Yes. You see, he’s jealous of all you Westerners because I like Westerners. Bill’s a real Westerner – he lives in Tacoma.

PIONEER:      I take it, then, that you have two young men on the string.

LUELLA:        Yes! Isn’t it just too thrilling? Bill wants me to marry him and live in Tacoma, and Ralph wants me to marry him and live in New York. Which one do you think I should accept?

I’ll play the part of the Old Timer for a moment. “Gosh, I don’t know… let me get out a quarter and I’ll help you decide. Call it! Ooops – wouldn’t you know it? The coin landed in that deep pile carpet at my feet and is basically stuck on its edge. Looks like you’ll just have to make an intelligent decision on your own.” Or not. Let’s continue.

Luella tried to get the Old Timer to help her decide not which beau she should favor, but which city: New York or Tacoma. The Old Timer wisely avoided choosing sides, but offered that he could tell her about Tacoma.

PIONEER:      Well, you couldn’t ask for a better climate, nor for a prettier place to live. You can stand on one of those hills that rise up from Commencement Bay and watch the sun a-settin’ out in Puget Sound. Look east, and you see the Cascade Mountains in the distance. Look northwest, and you see the Olympic Mountains. An’ that ain’t all. Tacoma’s called “The City With a Mountain In Its Dooryard” – because – no matter if it is thirty miles away – you can always see Mount Tacoma, and it looks a lot closer.

LUELLA:        Mount Tacoma? You mean –

PIONEER:      Yes, Mount Rainier. Tacoma is the Indian name for that grand old peak, but the white man came along and called it Mount Rainier, and now people call it by both names.

LUELLA:        Why, that’s where we’re going now. We’re going to spend a whole week in Rainier National Park, and Bill’s going to join us there at Paradise Inn.

Paradise, eh? I’ll bet this airhead will be in her happy place with both of her suitors tripping over themselves to win her affections, but I doubt this will be much of a paradise for either of them. We’ll just play along for now and see where this takes us. This just doesn’t sound like the makings of blissful chemistry, stirring Luella and her two boyfriends in the same pot. Nothing violent will come of it, I hope. Perhaps between Aunt Martha and the Old Timer, the players in this odd, triangular romance will keep calm and carry on. It just so happened the Old Timer was on his way to Paradise Inn at Rainier National Park too.

LUELLA:        Oh, I’m so glad! We’ll all be there together, and maybe you can help me.

PIONEER:      Help you? Why, how could I help you?

LUELLA:        Oh, I’ll probably need help, all right. You see, Bill and Ralph will both be there, and I suppose I’ll have to decide which one I’m to marry. Oh, it’s such a problem! Ralph has a lot of money, but Bill – well, Bill says there’s a great future for him in Tacoma. He’s just out of college, you know.

PIONEER:      What’s his line of work?

LUELLA:        He studied electrical engineering.

PIONEER:      Then he’s dead right when he says there’s a great future for him in Tacoma, and there’s a reason for it, too. There’s more hydro-electric power going to waste out there in Washington and Oregon than there is to any other part of the country – enough power to just about run all the factories in the world. All around the Tacoma district, there are rivers and swift mountain streams, formed by the glaciers meltin’ up in the mountains. All they got to do is harness these streams for their power.

LUELLA:        Then why don’t they?

PIONEER:      Bless you, Child, that’s just what they’re beginning to do. Out at La Grande, the City of Tacoma has a hydro-electric plant that generates 32,000 horse power, and up in the Olympic mountains they’ve got their five million dollar Lake Cushman plant that’s good for 50,000 horse power. Power rates for factories, they say, are cheaper than in any other city in the whole country. And Big Business is really moving into the Northwest, because they can see that there’s where the future of industry lies. Tacoma’s one of the biggest lumber manufacturing cities in the world and when more big factories – factories of all kinds – move out there, more power’s going to be needed, and young fellows like your Bill will find that they got in on the ground floor.

True to form, Empire Builders reported mostly factual information once again. The dam and power plant at La Grande, Washington, were originally constructed in 1912 (and later upgraded and/or replaced, I believe). Here's a Google Maps view of the dam in relation to both the city of Tacoma and Mount Rainier:

Screen capture from Google Maps

Contemporary photo of La Grande power house. Photographer unknown.

Luella was eager to get to their destination. She asked the Old Timer what time they should be arriving at Tacoma (after stopping at Seattle). The Old Timer whipped out his timetable, and Luella commented on the goat on its cover. This got the Old Timer talking about the Great Northern’s trademark, the Rocky Mountain Goat. Luella asked the Old Timer what a billy goat had to do with a railroad company. The Old Timer straightened her out.

PIONEER:      (CHUCKLES)  Now, that is kind of a hard one. ‘Course, this Great Northern goat isn’t a Billy goat at all. It’s a mountain goat! Ever see one?

LUELLA:        No, did you?

PIONEER:      Yes, I’ve seen ‘em, but believe me, it ain’t no easy matter to get in seein’ distance of one of ‘em, they’re that shy and retirin’. Fact is, a mountain goat isn’t really a goat at all. He belongs to the deer family. Maybe you’ll see one on Mount Rainier – that is, if your eyesight’s good.

LUELLA:        Oh, wouldn’t that be just splendid. Where’s the best place to look for them, Old Timer?

PIONEER:      ‘Way up in the highest, roughest crags of the whole mountain. These mountain goats are smart, you know. They get up on the most unscalable peaks, where neither man nor beast can get near ‘em. And they’re that sure-footed they climb around cliffs and crags where dog my cats, there doesn’t seem to be anything to cling to at all. And maybe that’s how the Great Northern happened to use the mountain goat for its trademark. Was a time, you know, when the Great Northern did just about the same thing with its tracks across the Cascade Mountains out there in western Washington – just chiseled ‘em right into the sides of the rock walls … ‘Course, that’s sort of out of date now, ‘cause the Great Northern doesn’t have to climb like that anymore – it goes under those mountains through that eight-mile tunnel they’ve got … Then again, maybe the Great Northern got that idea from its railway going through so much mountain country where there’re lots of mountain goats, and the goat stands as sort of a symbol for wild mountain scenery. I dunno exactly, but I do know one thing, that now an’ then, when some tourist manages to get a shot at one of ‘em – that is, with his camera – he’s the happiest man alive.

Wm. P. Kenney

About the origin of the GN’s mountain goat trademark – there’s a story in GN lore that attributes the idea to William P. Kenney, who apparently suggested the goat as the corporate trademark shortly after Glacier National Park was established and the GN had opened some of their tourist facilities there. Kenney was vice-president of the company’s Traffic Department at the time, but eventually took the helm as president when Ralph Budd left to run the CB&Q. But I digress.

 

Luella had a light bulb go off. She figured out how to solve her dreadful dilemma. She would send her two fellas off on a camera hunt, and first one to come back with a photograph of a mountain goat would prove his worth, and be rewarded with her hand in marriage. Yeah. That sounds rational. Sure. “Bring me a photo of a goat, and holy matrimony shall be ours ‘til death do us part.” I want a girl, just like the girl, who married dear old Dad. Or maybe I’ll try to find someone with a half a brain. Just sayin’.

PIONEER:      Say, Miss, you don’t mean to say you are going to try to take a picture of one?

LUELLA:        Oh no, not me. Listen – it’s like this. Bill and Ralph will be in Rainier Park with me, and they both want to marry me. Well, I want to marry the one that loves me the most – the one that would be the bravest and the most daring –

PIONEER:      Young lady, do you mean ---

LUELLA:        I’m going to marry the first one that gets me a picture of one of those Great Northern goats!

                        (PIONEER LAUGHS)

Seems like the Old Timer was trying to be as diplomatic as possible, under the circumstances. Laughing was probably the most appropriate reaction. At least the author, whom I assume was Bierstadt, was willing to treat Luella’s proposition as a bit silly, to say the least.

The next part of the story found our odd assortment of folks traipsing around the base of Mount Rainier, variously running in terror from a tourist-conditioned local bear, admiring the glaciers and wildflowers, and sliding down a snow field on “tin britches.” Eventually the Old Timer happened upon Ralph, and he asked him about his photographing endeavors. Ralph snapped at the Old Timer about it being none of his business.

PIONEER:      Oh, I’m just naturally curious, I reckon, but I heard you were out to get a good picture of a mountain goat.

RALPH:          Yes, fine chance! I never even saw a trace of one.

PIONEER:      I’ve got a pretty good picture of a mountain goat here myself – one I took up on Cowlitz Glacier last summer.

RALPH:          You’ve got a picture of a mountain goat? Here, man – let me see that. Oh, say – that’s a beauty! Here, I’ll give you ten dollars for it!

PIONEER:      No, no, I don’t want your money, son. If you think that picture will do you any good, why – you’re welcome to it.

RALPH:          Say, thanks awfully. You don’t know how much this means to me.  (RECEDING)  I – I’ll see you later. So long!

Okay, this is from Glacier Park, not Rainier. But the photographer, T.J. Hileman, was an official photographer of the Great Northern Railway.  Author's collection

 

Well, you can see where this is headed. Ralph used his noggin, and no small amount of good fortune. He stumbled upon what you might call a shortcut to the finish line. The Old Timer took a front row seat at the finish line to see it play out. He was especially interested in how Ralph would make out, what with his obvious advantage over Bill at this point.

PIONEER:      (CHUCKLES – THEN WHISTLES)  That’s him, January – that’s the fella that called me ah old polecat!

(DOG BARKS)

Both goat-chasing suitors showed up at Luella’s door at almost the same time. Bill got there first, and as Ralph arrived, Bill announced that he had at least three nice shots of a mountain goat. Ralph challenged him for a look-see, and Bill explained that the images were caught on film, but he hadn’t yet developed the photos. Ralph triumphantly exclaimed that he had not only shot a photo of a goat, but arrived with a developed print of it. To make matters worse for Bill, he suddenly realized there was no film in the camera, and therefore did not even have undeveloped mountain goat photos after all. But Bill distinctly remembered loading the camera that morning . . . hey – wait just a doggoned minute!

BILL:              Why – – – I can’t understand it. I put in a fresh roll of film this morning. Somebody must have taken it out – – – SAY, Ralph! Didn’t you hold my camera when I took that snow slide this morning?

RALPH:          Don’t be a poor loser, Bill – – – and don’t be accusing me of something you can’t prove … you low-life – – –

Uh-oh. Didn’t I say something earlier about hoping there would be no violence? Things were quickly becoming more tense. Luella got the boys to calm down, and asked to see Ralph’s goat photo.

RALPH:          Here you are, Luella. I came in about an hour ago and got my picture developed right away.

LUELLA:        Why, Ralph – you’re wonderful! How on earth did you manage to take such a nice picture?

RALPH:          Well, I walked up to Mr. Goat and I said “Don’t move now, and look pleasant, please, because this is for a fair lady.” And do you know, that old goat actually smiled.

AUNTY:         Remarkable!

BILL:              Well, you win, Ralph. I – I guess I’ll be going now.

LUELLA:        Oh, Bill, I’m awfully sorry – really.

Gosh, gee, shucks, oh well – maybe next time. Oh, right – there is no “next time.” Drat. Curses. Poor, poor, Bill. Those are just the breaks I guess. Gosh. But it’s okay – Luella is awfully sorry. Really. At this point I’m thinking Bill ought to count his blessings for missing this close call, and move on. Not only are there other fish in the sea, there are plenty of others that are actually worth going after. But wait! Maybe Bill’s not out of the woods after all! C’mon, Bill – fight it, man, fight it! Too late.

PIONEER:      (OFF)  Hey, Bill!

BILL:              Hello, Old Timer.

PIONEER:      (UP, CHUCKLING)  Me an’ January have been pacing up and down out here, jest waitin’ for you. We sorta figured you’d be out ‘fore long. Is your friend Ralph still inside?

BILL:              Yeah, he’s inside – – –and I guess I’m outside – – –

PIONEER:      Y’know, Bill, I never did take to Ralph very well. (CHUCKLES) You know, he called me an old polecat once.

BILL:              Yeah? Why didn’t you sock ‘im?

PIONEER:      No, I’m not that way, Bill. Me, I believe in returning good for evil. Why, just a few minutes ago I gave Ralph a nice picture of a mountain goat he wanted pretty bad.

BILL:              What? You gave him that picture?

PIONEER:      Sure! But just to show you I ain’t a-playin’ no favorites, here’s another picture just like it, only this one’s been enlarged and put on a postcard. Thought maybe you might want to mail it to your girl sometime.

Just then, Luella was approaching. The Old Timer and his dog January made their exit, so Luella and Bill could talk.

LUELLA:        (UP)  Oh, Bill, I don’t know what to do! I broke my promise.

BILL:              What promise?

LUELLA:        I said I’d marry the one that got me the mountain goat’s picture, but I thought all along that you’d win. Well, I can’t help it if you didn’t. I love you, and I’m going to marry you anyhow.

BILL:              Luella, Darling ….  (PAUSE)  Oh, by the way, here’s a postcard the Old Timer just handed me.

LUELLA:        Bill! Why, it’s the same goat!

BILL:              Yes, it’s Ralph’s goat all right, and we’ve got it!

A brief musical bridge brought the drama to a close, and John S. Young wrapped things up with some final thoughts on the attraction of Rainier National Park.

ANNOUNCER:



            Rainier National Park is one of those many delightful mountain retreats that make the Pacific Northwest the summer playground of America. The Great Northern Railway will be glad to send you a booklet on Rainier National Park as well as literature descriptive of the mountain vacation lands of the Pacific Northwest. Address your request to the Great Northern Railway, Saint Paul, Minnesota. This railway maintains travel offices in nearly all of the large cities from which this program is broadcast, and its representatives will be glad to assist you in planning a delightful summer’s vacation. You will find the address in your telephone directory under Great Northern Railway.



This program, on which you have again heard Harvey Hays as the Old Timer and Miss Virginia Gardiner, as well as Bob MacGimsey, harmony whistler, and Andy Sanella in a guitar solo, has come to you from the New York Studios of the National Broadcasting Company. This is John S. Young announcing.

Postscript: Yes, mountain goats really are still among the wild inhabitants of Rainier National Park.

Until next week, keep your dial tuned to Empire Builders!

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LATE UPDATE (April 12, 2015):  I found the letter shown below as I was working with some of my other Empire Builders papers. It serves as another tangible example of the positive response many people had to the radio broadcasts (even if the storyline was sometimes dumb).