ForeverMissed
Large image
Stories

Share a special moment from James's life.

Write a story

Jimmy's obituary published in the Seattle Times

June 29, 2016


 Jimmy Manolides, a Seattle musician and art curator, dies at 76

Originally published May 10, 2016 at 3:06 pm Updated May 13, 2016 at 2:21 pm

 

Jimmy Manolides, who opened one of the first galleries in Pioneer Square and played bass in rock groups the Frantics and Junior Cadillac, has died at 76.

Jimmy Manolides, 76, an early Seattle art curator, rock ’n’ roll bass player for The Frantics and Junior Cadillac, and gregarious bohemian bartender, has died.

Jimmy Manolides, who opened one of the first galleries in Pioneer Square during its 1970s revitalization and played  in the ’50s rock group the Frantics — and later with roots-rock revivalists Junior Cadillac — died Monday, May 9. He was 76.

The cause was a stroke, which he had three weeks ago, according to his sister, Sandy Parnell. Mr. Manolides had been living in Ocean Shores for 13 years and died in Hoquiam.

An effervescent bohemian, Mr. Manolides was known in the ’70s and ’80s to jazz fans as the gravel-voiced bartender with a million stories at Parnell’s jazz club, owned by Roy Parnell, Sandy Parnell’s late husband. In the 1990s, Manolides was a familiar figure behind the counter at Nickel Cigar, on Yesler Avenue, formerly the Manolides Gallery.

Born in Seattle, Mr. Manolides was the son of King County Deputy Prosecutor and Seattle District Court Judge Evans Manolides. Jimmy Manolides went to Ballard High School and began playing with The Frantics. A self-taught musician, he graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in art, was drafted, and served in the U.S. Army as an art instructor at Fort Dix, N.J. When he came home, he opened the Manolides Gallery.

 

“Jimmy was a bigger-than-life kind of guy, so naturally gifted with his music, his art,” Parnell said.

Mr. Manolides also loved golf and owned race horses — among them, Savannah Blue Jeans, a competitor at theLongacres racetrack in Renton, which closed in 1992.

About eight years ago, Parnell said, Mr. Manolides became a Christian and started playing keyboard at the Galilean Lutheran Church in Ocean Shores.

“Before you knew it, there was a ‘Jimmy Service,’ where he added his rock ’n’ roll touch to every gospel song he played,” she said.

Mr. Manolides married four times. He is survived by a son, Louie Manolides, 36, of Renton; his sister Sandy Parnell, 70, of Lynnwood; a niece and nephew; and two grandchildren.

A service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at the Galilean Lutheran Church, 824 Ocean Shores Blvd. N.W., in Ocean Shores.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247;

Letter I sent to the Seattle Times to fill out some of what they left out in the obituary they publish about him

June 29, 2016

Dear Sir,

I want to add a few things about Jimmy Manolides that were not mentioned in your obituary published last Tuesday May 10, 2016.

These are quotes taken from an article written  about  Jimmy in 1984 by Regina Hackett who was then the Art and Music critic for the PI.

"Unquestionably, Manolides is a bona fide local celebrity alternatingly charming his way into power and insulting his way out of it. 

He grew up in Ballard, a grade school wise guy renowned for his musical savvy.  He introduced his cronies to saxophonists Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Sonny Stitt and Ornette Cobb.  Hanging around in his parents' garage, he accompanied Spike Jones Records on washboards, tin cans and car horns.

When rock 'n' roll hit the mid 50s he was ready.  'The kind of rock 'n' roll I liked was kid jazz' he said, 'with saxophones in it.'  He thought of rock n roll as the musical minor leagues and wasted no time suiting up."...

Jimmy Manolides has the kind of voice alley cats defer to.  Harsh and gravelly, it digs into a melody the way a jackhammer digs into a street...

Success came easy and he's been a fixture on the rock n roll scene ever since, starting as bass player in the Frantics, playing with Jr. Cadillac, the Hardly Everly Brothers, and Les Follies a group of local musical all stars that plays only a couple of times a year...

On a shoestring budget, he has managed to become a wheeler dealer at the racetrack, owning a hefty percentage of such race horses as Savanna Blue Jeans and Vamp of Savanna...

The idea that a born-to-rock-'n'-roll good time guy could open an art gallery that would have a significant impact on high-art culture seems plausible today but must have been a novelty item in 1968, when Manolides return to Seattle after a stint in the Army and opened his space.

He was, however, interested in the same thing in art that moved him in music.  He responded to humor, outrageousness and funky color...

Fortunately for him, his gallery opened at the same time as Northern California funk artists hit their stride. In introducing artists such as William T. Wiley, Roy DeForest, Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly and Irv Tepper to this area, Manolides was in the right place at the right time. 

His gallery also offered local artists working the madcap vein a place to show.  Howard Kottler, Fred Baure, Patti Warashina, Richard Marquis and T. Michael Gardiner all got the chance to show their work in a sympathetic context. "

Jimmy Manolides played a very important role in Seattle's music and art history.  I just thought this should be added to the information already published.

Liz Chenoweth

 

Jimmy tells about his house on Mead Street

May 29, 2016

Another story that Jimmy emailed me on 10-15-2013 and a drawing of the house by (I think) Les LePere:

 "pertaining to mead street:

various things pop into my head about that house and the way things happened.  in pioneer square was a handy man that worked for the underground tours.  he was a cigarette smoker, and i guess that's how i got to know him.  (can't even recall his name at the moment.  dave something)  anyway, he came at an affordable rate, and helped me at the house with certain electrical issues.  on one of the jobs he did for me, he brought along an assistant that was a lesbian woman.  it was to be her last job working for him as she and a couple of her friends were about to embark on a business adventure.  it was to be an adult bookstore and toy shop they would call "toys in babeland".  knowing her (but not in the Biblical sense) i of course patronized her new store.  it is where i acquired those two glass dildos that you saw on the window sill in the attic, among other things of a more pedestrian nature.  i have always referred to shops that deal in those and similar products with a term borrowed from an episode of fawlty towers.  it came at some point in the episode of the man that had died in his sleep. the term is "prophylactic emporium"   a couple other curious things about mead street were the bottle fences, and the alley "takeover".   i think i would rather describe these when i see you if you are interested.   materials frequently dictate design.     pacific iron on 4th avenue south for a long time was a very interesting building materials outlet that dealt in a lot of both salvage and liquidation at excellent prices, in many cases somewhat negotiable.  accordingly, i spent a good deal of time shopping there while involved in the major remodel.  one day i noticed a ten foot long piece of maple kitchen counter that had been removed from a restaurant at less than ten cents on the dollar.  needless to say, i snapped it up and it became part of my new kitchen.  not long after that, one morning while returning to the cigar store from the bank, i noticed that this little greasy spoon on occidental park was remodeling and had thrown out two similar maple counters of about seven feet in length.  they were simply leaning up against the dumpster, so i hurried to get my truck and snagged them.  gratis.  while chris was refurbishing the old garage, he recalled having seen a classified ad for some very large doors that had great panes of etched glass in them.  they had come out of the mirabeaux restaurant atop the rainier tower.  we should be able to discover some photos of how they looked as part of the project.  also at the same time, pacific iron had an ample supply of tongue and groove hemlock boards that were to become not only the floor for the garage, but the ceiling in the house remodel.  while designing the cigar store, he noticed another classified ad for 30 some odd sheets of walnut paneling, which i bought for $300.  the same material from a retail supplier would have cost $3,000. plus tax.  as you have seen, the serendipitous availability of certain sinks had a lot to do with the design of both the kitchen and bath here at amen corner. back to mead street, during a certain period of time, a lumber yard on rainier avenue had advertised on their marquee fir flooring "seconds".  that material became a herringbone floor in the old part of the house covering both living room and bedroom. leftovers from that project were used to create the tall tower in the garden that you saw a picture of last week. at another lumber yard on mlk way and just off rainier, i one day discovered a great stack of well weathered 6 x 10 timbers of various lengths, none shorter than ten feet.  these i was also able to get at "a steal", and they became an integral part of the gardens at mead street.  one morning while shopping at eagle hardware on rainier, i noticed a large dolly stacked with more than enough clear cedar 2x4s to build a 200 square foot deck.  it was leftover material from their having just erected their display at the home show, and i was the lucky one to grab it at less than ten cents on the dollar.  the chips have fallen my way so many times it is hard to fathom.  yet another feature in the remodel of mead street were the windows.  i had gone out to this place near lynnwood that manufactured custom windows and found in their "boneyard" four extremely expensive windows that they had made a minor mistake in the building of same and was able to acquire them for $500, their value if perfect $3,200 or possibly more.  the result was exquisite to say the least.   and good morning to you.  i believe i will now return to my bed."

Jimmy's life in the army

May 29, 2016

Another story that Jimmy emailed me 9-25-2013:

 "it appears that you enjoy these little biographical sketches, so here's another.

  my time in uniform.  a significant period.   i was drafted into the army in march of 1965 and sworn in on the 6th of april.  we immediately were bused from the induction center and put aboard an airplane bound for fort leonard wood missouri in the ozark mountains.   ordinarily, the destination would have been fort ord california, but there was a quarantine at the time.   at the reception center, where all new recruits and inductees received their uniforms, had their hair all but shaved off, got shots and took a battery of intelligence and aptitude tests, the word was made clear by the soldiers stationed there, "don't volunteer for anything".  about three days later we were herded onto a bus and driven to the barracks that would be our home for eight weeks of basic training.  once there, as we stood in formation, a very tall and impressive black drill sergeant stood before us and asked "do any of you play the drums?".  i chose rather quickly to disregard the "don't volunteer" advice and announced myself.  i was told to go into a room inside and pick myself out a drum.  the advantage of being the very first of course gave me the best option, and a came back outside with the snare drum hung around my shoulders as i played the standard marching paradiddle.   (there were two more volunteers, the last of which carried the big bass drum.)   i thus was deemed necessary to always be on the march, and accordingly was excused from the duty roster, which meant no KP. and of course someone else had to carry my rifle for me where ever we marched.  plus, it turned out that our company was invited to march in the memorial day parade in columbia mo.    after our training had been completed, it was home for two weeks before my next assignment for advanced training at fort ord california, the quarantine having been lifted.  now here another interesting thing occurred.  one of my best friends of childhood had been stationed there some years earlier and raved about the golf course.  well i threw my clubs in my car and drove south.  when i arrived, i discovered i wasn't allowed to have a car.  perplexed, i found a lot off post where i could store it for the eight weeks i would be there, with my clubs locked in the trunk.  so on the first day of class, (i was assigned to clerk/typist school) the sergeant in charge of our group asked "do any of you play golf?".  volunteering again, i was sent to see the colonel who asked me upon reporting, "what is your handicap?". i told him that before i left for basic, it had been 12.  apparently, i qualified for what he was looking for, and he assigned me to suspend my typist training to play golf daily and improve my handicap, as the competition was to begin shortly.  i was of course allowed then to retrieve my car and assigned a locker for my clubs and civilian clothes at the golf course clubhouse.  i was well liked, and nearly landed a job there as my permanent assignment with special services as a recreation specialist.  alas, as the paperwork was being submitted, my orders came through for transfer to fort benjamin harrison indiana for training as a payroll specialist.  i finished second in a group of a couple hundred, and six weeks later was transferred to fort dix new jersey.   there another interesting thing happened.  i made the trip by train and bus, and once there was driven to my assignment by taxi.  on the way, a place called the arts and crafts center caught my eye as we passed by it.  a few days later, i announced a toothache, and might i be excused to see the dentist.  i was given the afternoon off, and decided to drop by and have a look at this arts and crafts facility.  as i walked around paying close attention to all that i saw i was being observed by a civilian gentleman that was the "main man" there.   he invited me into his office for a little chat, the end of which found me permanently assigned as recreation specialist in charge of the fine arts department, where i spent the remainder of my time in uniform, about a year and a half.  quite significant a period, as things i did and saw while there gave rise to the desire to have my own art gallery back in seattle.  and the rest, as they say, is history.   there are oodles of stories about my time there, but i will leave them for now."

Jimmy's race horses

May 29, 2016

Jimmy and I did a lot of our courting by email.  I asked him to tell me about his life. This is a story he wrote me 9-23-2013. He didn't like to capitalize any letters when he typed as you will see:
 

"willing to share.  i suppose at this stage i would be willing to make my life an open book, and it is a book that has many chapters.  there is the music, the art gallery, the army years, the cigar store, the house on mead street, the house on the lake with its woodworking shop, the race horses and more.  of course i could tell you about this girl named liz that smiled at me a long time ago.

 

let's go with the race horses.  a memorable part of my autobiography, i suppose it begins the first time i went to longacres with my family as a very young boy.  maybe about twelve years old.  i was fascinated by the beauty and splendor of it all, and can remember making a bet on a bay filly named miss fir.  well now, she won the race and my mom cashed the ticket for me.  but that was that.  nevertheless, i was interested enough to begin looking at the results of the races on the sports page of the daily paper, and cutting out pictures of the kentucky derby winners and things like that.  but i don't think we ever went back to the races.   now when i was in the army, some twenty three years later, while stationed at fort benjamin harrison in indianapolis, i became friends with one of my barracks mates who happened to be into the ponies.  every morning in the mess hall, he would go straight to the results in the sports pages.  well, we decided to make a trip to latonia race track in kentucky across the river from cincinnati.  soon i was sent to fort dix new jersey, and nearby was garden state park, one of the tracks that al had routinely checked the results of.  so i got on a bus and went there by myself to spend a day at the races.  won nearly every bet i made and was "hooked".  couple weeks later i decided to go to aqueduct outside of brooklyn ny.  but that was that.  about a year after i opened my gallery in pioneer square, a collector named morrie alhadeff came to one of my shows and we "hit it off" as they say.  the following spring (1970) arrived in the mail one day complements of mr. alhadeff, an envelope that contained a preferred parking sticker and two season passes to longacres, of which he was president and general manager. i made significant use of that gift and became extremely interested in the sport.  when you and i first met, i was going to the races nearly every day.  and as time went by, i began to learn more and more.  about the trainers and the jockeys and the breeding of these beautiful creatures.  it was three years later that a strange blessing happened.

 

lightning in a bottle.

 

in early summer of 1973 i sold my gallery (really just the key and the opportunity to pick up the option on my lease) to a fellow that wanted to open a bookstore.  i had rented a couple adjoining rooms upstairs for storage, which in those days were very cheap, so i kept them while deciding what to do next.  coincidentally, my grandma had decided to gift each of her grandchildren a couple thousand bucks.  it was early in august when one morning i kind of jokingly said to my landlord, something like "hey richard, the yearling auction is coming up in a few weeks.  you wanna go 50/50 in a racehorse with me?"  well much to my surprise he said something like "get the catalogue and find out where we can look at some of the stock".  i was stunned.  now across the hall from my rooms sat the studio/office of one jean burch falls, wife of gregory falls, the founder of ACT theater.  i spent a lot of time visiting her for conversation and coffee, as she had been one of my patrons over the years in the gallery.  and when i mentioned to her what i had said to richard and his response, she seemed hurt that i hadn't asked her.  how was i to know?  so i said something like the more the merrier.  very next day, richard backed out, so it became jean and me.  she to control 60% and me 40.  we went to just one yearling preview at a farm owned by mutual friends (more patrons in my case) mr and mrs howard s wright and ned skinner.  there was a filly that we liked, and a couple weeks later we made the winning bid and became the proud owners of a yearling bay filly by captain courageous out of spooky creature, she by blue prince.  we decided to call her "ghost writer", but that name was already in the registry.  i came up with "savanna blue jeans" which was approved by the jockey club in new york city. 

 

fast forward a little over a year and a half to her first start.  she was now a three year old.  she had gotten the attention of the "racetrackers" on the backstretch and went off as second favorite and won by three lengths in a very fast time.  after that she reeled off two more victories in a row before a lay off of about six weeks.  when she returned, she was beaten on a muddy track, but two weeks later won the championship for three year old fillies.   the following summer, she was not the same.  perhaps due to our misguided decision to change trainers, which also became a change in riders.  but in august, we hired her regular jockey of the previous summer and she won three in a row to become the champion "older filly".  as a five year old, she was plagued by various minor injuries and won only one race near the end of the season.  so we retired her to the breeding shed and in march of 1979, she gave birth to a chestnut filly that we named "vamp of savanna".  vampy, as we called her, was extremely fast and talented.  we had changed trainers again, this time to a man that had stalls at santa anita, outside of los angeles (arcadia), which is one of the worlds premier race tracks.  and there she won her first start at extremely long odds and went on to win one more in each of the following two years.

 

that may be a bit more story than you thought you'd get, but once i got started . . . ."

Share a story

 
Add a document, picture, song, or video
Add an attachment Add a media attachment to your story
You can illustrate your story with a photo, video, song, or PDF document attachment.