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| Photo by Clarence Hammons, Scoutmaster |
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| Ballard High School Graduation Photo, 1931, age 18. |
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| By Joseph Scaylea, Seattle Times, 1956 |
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| 1970 by Joseph Scalylea, Seattle Times, Seattle's most colorful character, waterfront booster, business man |
Monday, January 31, 2011
Photos of Rudi Becker, 1931 Troop 125 Eagle Scout.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Rudi Becker, Seattle Character
Rudolph "Rudi" Becker was a Seattle character. He was born in 1912 in Seattle at the Zindorf Apartments at Seventh and James Street. His father, who had come over from Germany as a youth, worked as a waiter and matire d' at Chauncey Wright's, Manca's, The Rathskellar, and Blanc's, fine old Seattle Restaurants. (Seattle Times, 26 Oct 1976, Magazine, page 5.)
They must have moved to the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. He said that when he was twelve years old he played a game at the Cream Parlor, near Ballard High School, called penny boards. They would drop in a penny and it would bounce on brass nails and go down to and fro, and if it landed on the right spot, you would get a candy bar. (Seattle Times, 1975)
He attended Ballard High School and was kicked out for playing practical jokes. He spent a few years in Benton City, in Eastern Washington, where his uncle was superintendent of schools.
When he was eighteen, in 1931, he was awarded his Eagle badge from Boy Scouts of America, Chief Seattle Council. He was in Troop 125, at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, at NW 70th and Palatine NW . He was pictured in uniform with the troop as a fifteen year old scout in 1927. Some of his friends said that at that time the troop enjoyed being involved in the Scout Circus at Hec. Edmonson Pavilion, at the University of Washington. They had a good tumbling and parallel bar act; they practiced at the boys' gym at Ballard High School. The official troop merit badge was firemanship, and through that, they were exposed to fire fighting.
Rudi did not mention this award in later life interviews, nor did he ever used his full first name.
He had three wives before his met "Kay", "his best wife". She was a teacher at Lake City elementary school.
He said that he was a professional beachcomber for about five years: 1946-1950.
"I ran the 'For Sale Tug Boat Company' every time I came into the dock, I put a For Sale sign on the tug.
Mostly, I was collecting logs that got lost from log booms for those little gypo log outfits on the San Juans. I got deer on Blakely, had a little garden patch on another island, ate clams, oysters, fish and apples from abandoned orchards. Anyone can live off of the land in God's country."
In 1950 he met Ivar Haglund, who opened the Acres of Clams restaurant on the waterfront, Rudi was hired to help decorate it. He was a great beach comber and scrounger and could come up with all kinds of used nautical gear to decorate with. There was a heroic photo portait of Rudi in the lobby, looking like an old sea captain or Paul Bunyon. Ivar paid Rudi $50 a month rent for the photo, and he thought he was getting a good deal. He seemed to think that if the tourists thought that it was his portrait, so much the better. The portrait is still there.
Joseph Scaylea, the Seattle Times award winning photographer, said that Rudi was his favorite subject for portraits as he was always available and looked like a waterfront person.
Emmett Watson, of the Seattle P-I, said that Becker was: "bearded, burly and strong and he had a deep rich voice that sometimes shook receiver when you picked up the telephone."
Starting in 1950 he worked for about ten years on the waterfront on the dock next to Ivar's. In the summer he was a barker and manager for Campbell's Elliott Bay Harbor Tours company that provided tour boat trips. "I had a chaise lunge next to Ivar's Acres of Clams rigged up with a periscope, a rear-view mirror and a cup holder", he said.
In 1956 Ivar closed his aquarium and no one else moved to open a new one. Rudi was not happy. He had a small glass jar with some seawater, sand and rocks with barnacles, and a sign saying: 'Seattle's Only Public Aquarium'.
To be continued.
They must have moved to the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. He said that when he was twelve years old he played a game at the Cream Parlor, near Ballard High School, called penny boards. They would drop in a penny and it would bounce on brass nails and go down to and fro, and if it landed on the right spot, you would get a candy bar. (Seattle Times, 1975)
He attended Ballard High School and was kicked out for playing practical jokes. He spent a few years in Benton City, in Eastern Washington, where his uncle was superintendent of schools.
When he was eighteen, in 1931, he was awarded his Eagle badge from Boy Scouts of America, Chief Seattle Council. He was in Troop 125, at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, at NW 70th and Palatine NW . He was pictured in uniform with the troop as a fifteen year old scout in 1927. Some of his friends said that at that time the troop enjoyed being involved in the Scout Circus at Hec. Edmonson Pavilion, at the University of Washington. They had a good tumbling and parallel bar act; they practiced at the boys' gym at Ballard High School. The official troop merit badge was firemanship, and through that, they were exposed to fire fighting.
Rudi did not mention this award in later life interviews, nor did he ever used his full first name.
He had three wives before his met "Kay", "his best wife". She was a teacher at Lake City elementary school.
He said that he was a professional beachcomber for about five years: 1946-1950.
"I ran the 'For Sale Tug Boat Company' every time I came into the dock, I put a For Sale sign on the tug.
Mostly, I was collecting logs that got lost from log booms for those little gypo log outfits on the San Juans. I got deer on Blakely, had a little garden patch on another island, ate clams, oysters, fish and apples from abandoned orchards. Anyone can live off of the land in God's country."
Joseph Scaylea, the Seattle Times award winning photographer, said that Rudi was his favorite subject for portraits as he was always available and looked like a waterfront person.
Emmett Watson, of the Seattle P-I, said that Becker was: "bearded, burly and strong and he had a deep rich voice that sometimes shook receiver when you picked up the telephone."
Starting in 1950 he worked for about ten years on the waterfront on the dock next to Ivar's. In the summer he was a barker and manager for Campbell's Elliott Bay Harbor Tours company that provided tour boat trips. "I had a chaise lunge next to Ivar's Acres of Clams rigged up with a periscope, a rear-view mirror and a cup holder", he said.
In 1956 Ivar closed his aquarium and no one else moved to open a new one. Rudi was not happy. He had a small glass jar with some seawater, sand and rocks with barnacles, and a sign saying: 'Seattle's Only Public Aquarium'.
To be continued.
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