James Willis Sayre

J. Willis Sayre (December 31, 1877 – January 11, 1963) was an American theatre critic, journalist, arts promoter, and historian. A longtime resident of Seattle, Washington, Sayre was an influential figure in writing and conserving the history of theatre in Seattle.

He was born James Willis Sayre in Washington, D.C. His father James Mathew Sayre served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His mother, Maria Burrows Sayre, was a field nurse for the Confederacy. The Sayre family relocated to the Pacific Northwest sometime around 1890.

At the turn of the century, Sayre left Seattle to fight in the Spanish–American War in the Philippines. After his return, he lobbied local officials to rename City Park, located on Capitol Hill, to Volunteer Park to honor the volunteers of the Spanish–American War. A 1901 ordinance changed the name.

Emulating Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg, in 1903 he set the world record for circling the earth using public transportation exclusively, completing his trip in 54 days 9 hours and 42 minutes.

Sayre married Pearl Myrtle Shakelford Sayre (January 4, 1884 – May 23, 1978) in 1904. They had one child, Elinore Pearl Sayre (January 21, 1906 – September 12, 1992), who was born in Seattle, King County. Sayre lived in Seattle until 1959, when he moved to Santa Cruz, California due to failing health. He died at the age of 86.

Sayre’s involvement with the theatre began around 1891 when he took a job at the Seattle Opera House folding programs. In 1899, Sayre began working as an advertising director for theater manager John Cort and soon opened Seattle's first theatrical advertising agency. In late 1907, he began his career as a theatrical critic with one of Seattle’s weekly papers, The Argus. He worked briefly for the Seattle Star in 1909, then returned to the Seattle Daily Times, where he edited the paper’s theatrical department and wrote reviews. He worked as the manager of the Seattle Symphony from 1908 to 1909. From 1924 to 1936 he worked as an independent promoter of theatre productions and films and wrote several books on the history of Seattle. One of these books, This City of Ours, was a standard history text in Seattle public schools for many years.

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