Seattle SeaChordsmen stage a musical in barbershop harmony

Wealthy Miss Cruella DeVil lives in the new Smith Tower penthouse and has plans to chase the bums out of Hooverville and buy that land for development. Photo by Jerry Pickard.

Photos by Jerry Pickard

On Saturday, June 25, local barbershop music organization, the Seattle SeaChordsmen, staged Disney Noir, a performance with a plot, dramatizing their songs with props, costumes, and a backdrop of historical local photographs from 1930s Depression era Seattle.

The year is 1933. The place, Seattle, Washington. DISNEY NOIR follows ruthless real-estate developer Cruella de Vil as she plots to eradicate the impoverished inhabitants of what was, in real-life, one of the largest, most well-organized Hoovervilles in America, located on a nine acre site just west of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct. 

Heroine Belle manages the SeaChordsmen Mission, a soup kitchen for the starving Hooverville inhabitants.

Cruella schemes with the city manager to round up and jail the Hooverites and throw them in jail to clear the property she wants. Hero Steve Walker offers to help Belle get the Hooverites out of jail.  

The backdrop is a photo from the Smith Tower

Cruella has her "enforcer" bring Steve in and tries to "reason" with him to stop helping the Hooverites but Steve refuses her offer.

Hero Steve is headed for the bottom of Elliott Bay
as the Kalakala heads for Seattle

Cruella orders her "enforcer" to get rid of troublemaker Steve. The Enforcer takes Steve down to Elliott Bay to "Sleep With The Fishes".

Steve regains consciousness and realizes he has drowned as he is amid the sea life at the bottom of Elliott Bay.

  

The production included current Evergreen District Quartet Champs 4.O, AND international quartet Main Street.

The Seattle SeaChordsmen rehearse every Tuesday evening at 7pm at the Queen Anne Baptist Church, 2011 First Ave N. Google Map. Men of all ages and experience are welcome!

Performances are in Shoreline.