<Begin Segment 32>

TI: Well, and how did the mural at the Seattle Center, how did, that was done for the World's Fair?

BH: Uh-huh.

TI: And how was he selected to do that.

BH: There was a Mr. Norman Davis, who was a rich man here at the time, and he liked Paul. So he had something to do with the World's Fair, too, to the Center. So Paul was selected to do the mural. So Mr. Davis, Davies... Davis, I guess, so he said, well, then he started looking for tiles and he couldn't... there was one, I think, City Light building had a tile out in the front. So they went to look at it and he said he didn't get much for that. That got an idea, too, so he, Mr. Davis said, "Well, how about going to Venice?" He said, "Venice?" he says. But somehow or other, Mr. Davis says, "I'll go with you." He was a wealthy man, I think he was in some kind of liquor, I think, wine or something, I don't know what his line was. But anyway, he was very good to Paul. So he said, "I'll go with you," so he did, went to Venice. And got to meet the people that made all the glass, so he said it was very interesting. So that kept after him, so he says, "I'll maybe go over there and work for a while." So he was gone three months in Venice. And it was off-season mostly, in the winter months, he said, "Nobody there in Venice," he said, "it was so sad and lonesome." But he stayed there somehow or other.

TI: And he was there to kind of work on the mural?

BH: Mural, uh-huh. He went there to the glass, glass factory, yeah.

TI: And had the craftsmen there make the tiles and everything?

BH: Uh-huh, yeah. And so then he got it, so he got it all arranged, 'cause he took his own painting of what colors and stuff. So they left the, he left the painting there and they matched it up as far as they could. He liked black and dark colors better than the bright colors that he has up here. He didn't care much for that after it was all...

TI: Oh, so when the mural was finished, he didn't care for that?

BH: Not so much as he, like he wanted to do his own work, but he said Mr. Davis said, "Well, Seattle is such a dark city, wintertime, there's nothing there, so we need a little color." [Laughs] So he encouraged him to do it all in color. So after... that was in April, so from the time he left, they all worked on that thing until almost April, and then they said it was complete, so they were gonna ship it. So they sent fifty-two crates of all this, it came in little pieces, not pieces, but different forms. But there were fifty-four pieces, I guess, crates that they sent. And so then it was like a puzzle trying to put them the way... but somehow or other, they got it up.

TI: And when it was all done and they had the...

BH: The opening.

TI: ...the opening, what was that like?

BH: Oh, that was something. We didn't know why he had the black tarp all over it, so we didn't know what it looked like, except them, I guess. Paul must have seen it.

TI: Oh, so even you didn't get a chance to see it before?

BH: No.

TI: Okay, so describe the unveiling of it. What was that like?

BH: Oh, Mayor Clinton was the mayor at the time, and he was there and a few other city people there. And they said they want to take the screen off, so they wanted us to be there. So we went, and when they ripped it off, why, my goodness. It was so huge, it was hard to recognize that he did all that and they got it all into pieces together.

TI: And what was the reaction of the audience, the crowd when they opened it?

BH: I was so excited, I don't remember what they did, but they were all clapping and they thought it was beautiful.

TI: I'm guessing that must have been pretty exciting.

BH: It was.

TI: And do you, after that, do you oftentimes just go down there and look at the mural?

BH: Oh, yeah, Paul used to go down there quite often 'cause he wanted to see it after it's all up in different... and people would be standing in front, sometimes he'd miss it. [Laughs]

TI: And I'm guessing that really made him quite prominent.

BH: Uh-huh, but he didn't care much for that kind of work. But he did like, kept... so he did most of his work, got a studio and worked there.

TI: And so did your lives change after the mural?

BH: No, I don't think so.

TI: Pretty much the same? now, was he well compensated for the mural? Did he get paid quite a bit?

BH: I forgot how much they paid him. It wasn't very much. [Laughs] I have no idea what it was.

TI: It's such a famous landmark in Seattle.

BH: I guess it's just a little, slightly over a hundred thousand, I think it was.

TI: But still, for you, that was quite a bit of money.

BH: Oh, it was, all at once. [Laughs]

TI: But it's interesting, you said he didn't care for that kind of work. So he didn't pursue that...

BH: That was the last one.

TI: And so describe the work he did like to do. What did he do?

BH: Oh, he wanted to do his own work in his own studio.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.