(WSB photo)
That’s the newest signal-box portrait painted by West Seattle artist Desmond Hansen. It’s at California and Hanford [map]; a reader tipped us about it today. It’s a tribute to Earl Robinson (1910-1991), an accomplished composer who spent his early and late life in West Seattle. His life was chronicled by West Seattle filmmaker, storyteller, and educator B.J. Bullert in a televised documentary, “Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American,” after his death in 1991 in a car crash on Admiral Way.
Earl Robinson Ballad of an American from BJ Bullert on Vimeo.
You can also thank Bullert for the new portrait, as well as Hansen – it’s the result of her winning bid at this year’s Southwest Seattle Historical Society auction (as we noted in our report on that event). After her $1,200 bid scored the right to commission a box by Hansen (his donation for the auction), she said she was envisioning Earl Robinson. She was there today as Hansen worked on the box:
(Photo by Ken Workman)
The location is doubly relevant – Mr. Robinson attended West Seattle High School, around the corner, and, Bullert says, lived at 41st and Manning, blocks away, a few years before his death. Some of his better-known songs, she says, are “Joe Hill” – “Joan Baez sang ‘Joe Hill’ as did many on picket lines. Frank Sinatra sang ‘The House I Live In,’ and Paul Robeson sang ‘Ballad for Americans.’ Three Dog Night made ‘Black and White’ a hit. Lots more. One of his last songs was ‘Message from a New Address’ about death. It’s in the film.” In addition to watching her film, you can learn more about Earl Robinson from this HistoryLink essay.
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