Victor Aloysius Meyers (September 7, 1897 – May 28, 1991)Don Duncan
Vic Meyers' Main Legacy Is Laughter -- Quick Wit, Wild Stunts Marked His Long Career
''Seattle Times'', May 29, 1991. Accessed online 23 August 2008 was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

bandleader and politician. He served for 20 years as the 11th

Lieutenant Governor of Washington The lieutenant governor of Washington is an elected office in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The incumbent is Denny Heck, a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who began his term in January 2021. The lieutenant governor s ...

and an additional eight years as the tenth

Secretary of State of Washington The secretary of state of Washington is an independently elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Washington. Fifteen individuals have held the office of Secretary of State since statehood. The ...

.Michael Hood
Meyers, Victor A. (1898-1991)
HistoryLink, December 4, 2007]. Accessed online 23 August 2008

Early life and education

Born in Little Falls, Minnesota, Little Falls,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, Meyers was the fifteenth of 16 children. His mother was a pianist; his father

Morrison County Morrison County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,010. Its county seat is Little Falls. Camp Ripley Military Reservation occupies a significant area in north-central Morrison County. His ...

treasurer. Meyers became a multi-instrumental musician, with drums as his first instrument. His family moved to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. In his teens, Meyers played drums professionally at a

Seaside, Oregon Seaside is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, Clatsop County, Oregon, United States, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The name Seaside is derived from ''Seaside House'', a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay ...

hotel.(Anonymous), "The Late Hotel Butler", '' Seattlife'', April 1939. Page unknown, this was in a clipping file on Meyers at the Seattle Public Library.

Career

Music

At age 21, he put together a 10-piece band. In 1919 Meyers was given a two-year contract to lead the house band at the Rose Room in Seattle’s Hotel Butler. The band enjoyed local success, and Butler's contract continued to be renewed. In 1923,

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...

chose the group to record during the record company's West Coast field trip, the first records billed as "Vic Meyers Hotel Butler Orchestra". The band made further series of recordings for Brunswick the following year, and toured nationally before settling in Seattle, where he played on the radio. In 1927 his band first got a residency at the

Trianon Ballroom The Trianon Ballroom was the name given to a number of ballrooms in cities during America's big-band era. The first and most prominent Trianon opened December 6, 1922 in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, and was marketed as "The Wor ...

in the Belltown/

Denny Regrade The Denny Triangle is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, that stretches north of the central business district to the grounds of Seattle Center. Its generally flat terrain was originally a steep hill, taken down as part of a ...

area north of downtown Seattle's leading dance venue of the time, well known for its flouting of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. the same year the band made the first of a series of recordings for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

which would continue through 192
Articles p4
Meyers' compositions as a musician included "Ada", composed with Harold Weeks and Danny Cann; "Isle of Dreams", composed with Weeks and

Oliver Wallace Oliver George Wallace (August 6, 1887 – September 15, 1963) was an English composer and conductor.''Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime'', Volume 3, ed. Benjamin F. Shearer (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 200 ...

; and "I'm Happy Now That You're Gone", composed with

Al Thompson Al Thompson (September 21, 1884 – March 1, 1960) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 170 films between 1916 and 1958. Well known in the industry for performing the more difficult stunts, he kept busy as a stunt doubl ...

and

Harry Von Tilzer Harry Von Tilzer (born Aaron Gumbinsky, also known as Harry Gumm; 8 July 1872 – 10 January 1946) was an American composer, songwriter, publisher and vaudeville performer. Early life Von Tilzer was born in Detroit, Michigan. His parents, Sarah ...

Early political career

By 1932, Meyers had left the Butler Hotel and was holding forth at his own Club Victor back up in the Regrade, often nearly broke, and continuing to get in trouble with the authorities enforcing the Prohibition laws. Covered constantly by the local press, he was one of the city's best-known figures. That year was a local election year, and assistant city editor Doug Welch and some other newspapermen at the ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

'' decided to urge Meyers to enter the city's

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

spring 1932 mayoral race against business candidate John F. Dore (a trial lawyer) and a field of "fatuous has-beens and never-wases".Vic Meyers Enters Politics
, p. 263-267 Murray C. Morgan, ''Puget's Sound: A Narrative of Early Tacoma and the Southern Sound'', University of Washington Press, 1979. Accessed online on the site of the

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

Public Library, 23 August 2008. Welch saw Meyers as a joke candidate he could use as an anchor for

satiric Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

stories on the race. The ''Times'' trumpeted Meyers entry into the race with an eight-column page one headline, and gave him daily coverage. Meyers chose the meaningless campaign slogan "Watch 'er Click with Vic". He drove a beer wagon around town—this in the midst of Prohibition—with his band playing "

Happy Days Are Here Again "Happy Days Are Here Again" is a 1929 song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Jack Yellen. The song is a standard that has been interpreted by various artists. It appeared in the 1930 film '' Chasing Rainbows'' and was the campaign song for ...

"; he started out campaigning in shirt sleeves, to prove he was not a representative of the vested interests; later he campaigned in a

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

, silk scarf, top hat, velvet-lapeled overcoat, and kid gloves. His speeches were often parodies of Dore's. He came out in favor of

graft Graft or grafting may refer to: *Graft (politics), a form of political corruption * Graft, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Graft-De Rijp Science and technology *Graft (surgery), a surgical procedure *Grafting, the joining of plant t ...

. His answer to the problems of Seattle's ailing streetcar system was to add hostesses. He appeared at a

Shriners Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Shriners International describes itself ...

' candidates' forum at the Olympic Hotel dressed as

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, leading a goat, sipping goat's milk and munching raw carrots, and wearing gold-rimmed eyeglasses. In the mayoral election, Meyers finished sixth in a field of ten.

Lieutenant Governor

After briefly going back to being a full-time bandleader, he decided to run for lieutenant governor in the fall 1932 election, this time without Welch and the ''Times''. Actually, he originally decided to run for governor, but didn't want to pony up the $60 filing fee; the filing fee for lieutenant governor was only $12. He continued to use humor (for example, repeating the Gandhi bit) and music (playing

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

at his own campaign appearances), but also campaigned more seriously. He appeared on an

Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...

talking about how the Indians were not allowed to vote. He came out for

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

child welfare Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways to e ...

, and

unemployment compensation Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

. He gained the Democratic nomination in the September

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

, thereby becoming the running mate to Clarence D. Martin; both went on to win in November in conjunction with

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's landslide victory in the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

. Meyers and his band played at the inaugural ball. Meyers first ran for lieutenant governor without even being clear on the duties of the office. He became known as a leader of the

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

of the state Democratic Party, often putting him at odds with the more centrist Governor Martin, but getting on well with rising star

Albert D. Rosellini Albert Dean Rosellini (January 21, 1910 – October 10, 2011) was an American politician who served as the 15th governor of Washington from 1957 to 1965 and was both the first Italian-American and Roman Catholic governor elected west of the ...

. When, in the midst of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the left-wing Unemployed Citizens' League marched to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

to confront Governor Martin, Meyers opened his home to the marchers. He won five terms as Lt. Governor, which at the time made him the longest served occupant of that office. He lost a bid for a sixth term to Emmett T. Anderson in 1952, during the

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

landslide.

Secretary of State

During that time, he twice again ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Seattle, losing to

Arthur B. Langlie Arthur Bernard Langlie (July 25, 1900 – July 24, 1966) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Seattle, Washington and was the 12th and 14th governor of the U.S. state of Washington from 1941 to 1945 and 1949 to 1957. To date ...

in 1938 and to William F. Devin in 1946. He later ran successfully for

in 1956, and again in 1960. He lost a third bid in 1964 due to being implicated in a scandal related to the mishandling of the petition for an anti-gambling

initiative In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a pu ...

. He entered the race to regain his position as secretary of state in 1976, but withdrew for health reasons. Meyers' son Victor Aloysius Meyers, Jr. served two terms in the state legislature (elected from the 31st District in 1958 and 1960) and ran unsuccessfully for state secretary of state in 1980, before dying in 1981 at the age of 57. Myers, Sr. was the last Democrat in the state to hold this position until Steve Hobbs was appointed (and later elected outright) to it in November 2021.

Historical archives

While serving as Washington's Secretary of State, Meyers published a booklet entitled ''Historical Highlights''. The booklet is written from a political perspective as tied to events within local communities and populations. Meyers summarized events beginning with the Spanish Expeditions in 1543 to the first territorial governor,

Isaac Stevens Isaac Ingalls Stevens (March 25, 1818 – September 1, 1862) was an American military officer and politician who served as governor of the Territory of Washington from 1853 to 1857, and later as its delegate to the United States House of Represen ...

, in 1853, before adding in-depth state history from 1853 to 1959. Territorial and State Governors' influences and contributions during periods in office serve as the basis of historical documentation with details pertaining to legislation and the citizenry.

Later career

In the years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Meyers also took a shot at the

prefabricated housing Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. ...

business, partnering with his brother Joseph Meyers and State Senator Howard Bargreen of

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

in a venture selling "Honeymoon GI homes". Many of these still stand in

. Late in life, he managed a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

and apartment complex in

Kent, Washington Kent is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and t ...

. His last years were spent in a nursing home.

Honors

In 1977, the Washington legislature designated the

at Sun Lakes State Park as the "Vic Meyers Golf Course" and renamed Rainbow Lake as "Vic Meyers Lake".RCW 79A.05.260
Accessed online 23 August 2008 The park had been a pet project of his. Considered too out-of-the-way when Meyers first backed it, "Vic's Folly" is now one of the busiest parks in the state. Meyers is a member of the Northwest Music Association Hall of Fame.

Partial discography

* "Mean Mean Mama / Shake It and Break It", Brunswick 2501 (1923)
Accessed online 24 August 2008. * "Helen Gone / Springtime Rag", Brunswick 2630 (1924) * "Beets and Turnips" / "Weary Blues", Brunswick 2664 (1924) * "Heartbroken" / "Burmalone", Brunswick 2685 (1924) * "Mean Looks" / "Tell Me What To Do", Brunswick 2733 (1924) * "The Only, Only One For Me" / "No Wonder (That I Love You)", Brunswick 2774 (1924) * "Sad" / "Shimmy", Brunswick 2800 (1924) * "Congratulations" / "Melancholy" Columbia 2026D

Notes

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyers, Victor Washington (state) Democrats Politicians from Seattle Secretaries of State of Washington (state) Lieutenant Governors of Washington (state) Musicians from Oregon 1897 births 1991 deaths People from Kent, Washington 20th-century American politicians