The Setting

I wanted to keep things pretty simple.   I didn't want to go too space age, I wanted the decorations to be subtle, something only Mary would connect to the whole Century 21 anniversary.  Of course, I think Walter P. gave it away when they walked in the door!

Walter P. Chrysler

If you are an Elvis fan, you'll recognize the name of the movie he filmed at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962.  Even if you don't recognize the name of the film, you may recognize that Walter P.'s toupee is made from Elvis's hair.  Taken from a screen shot I found from the movie, and once again I'm amazed at how well it fits on Walter P.'s head.  Unfortunately, the photo was so dark I had to lighten it up considerable to show any detail.  So Walter P./Elvis looks a bit like he needs Grecian Formula.  

Your toupee is so natural looking!

I was lucky enough to find a couple of souvenir plates at Goodwill.  Again, I'm amazed at the serendipity of  shopping there!  The first time I looked, I found two plates, one in Monroe, and one in Everett.  And haven't found any since.  Which was fine, I didn't need a lot of them, just the two to help set the scene.

The Beam bottle Space Needle we already had, from my husband's grandfather.

I have this great vase that I got from Goodwill some time ago.  When thinking about this party, I realized it was the perfect vessel for flowers!  The shape is very much like the space needle, and the colors echo the original paint.  Orbital Olive, Astronaut White and Re-entry Red.  All I needed to add was the Galaxy Gold!  Which, by the way, is historically more tangerine than gold.   

That's Galaxy Gold, not orange!

These colors also became the basis for my decor.  

Along with the dinner menus, I found pictures of the drink menu from 1962.  I used the pictures to create souvenir coasters.

Can you see Mt Rainier today?

The flip side

I searched everywhere for a tablecloth similar to the original ones, which can be seen here.  Check out all the photos there, they are great!  But alas, I couldn't find one.  Neither could I find the great salt and pepper shakers, which I know I've seen in the past.  Oh well.  You do what you can.

So, I pulled out my gold tablecloth from Target, and used it.  I found the red chargers at Goodwill.  I recreated the candle holders, using vellum paper wrapped around a glass vase I got at Fred Meyer.  Simple, and it works!

I struggled with the flowers, and ended up going with a simple bouquet.  But I loved the exuberant colors, so it's okay.

Where I put the most of my time and energy was the menu.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  There were a couple things that still needed tweaking, but with the death of our printer in the midst of my preparations, I flat out ran out of time.  

As I mentioned, a few months back Sue and I were at an estate sale, and happened across one of the original Space Needle menus from 1962.  From what I remember it looked similar to this.  I think the original menu was a tri-fold.  I opted to go bi-fold, just to save my sanity in the formatting of it.  I found a terrific Space Needle die cut at my local craft store.  It went on front.  I picked fonts similar to the original.  I couldn't find an exact one, but the one I found was pretty close.  And I paraphrased the descriptions from the original texts I found.  They had a different way of saying things in 1962!

Here's what I came up with.  You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The front of the menu

Lots of courses to work through!

Just for the fun of it!  Paraphrased from the original.

Okay, my dining room doesn't rotate like the real Space Needle.  I thought about having everyone change seats after every course, but it seemed pretty disruptive.  So, I found some pictures of the view from the Space Needle back in 1962, and played a slide show of them during dinner.  So, to quote the original menu, "From no other dining table can you look out upon such an extraordinary changing scene".

Tomorrow I will share the appetizers.