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Guide to the Stephen R. Blair Papers
1919-1996

Stephen Blair, undated. Special Collections, UW Libraries, UW23545z

Biographical Note

Stephen Richard Blair was born on July 19, 1917, in a sod house built by his father in Swanville, Minnesota. His parents, Louis and Eva (McPhee) Blair, raised a large Catholic family in Minnesota and Saskatchewan, Canada. Blair attended Duluth Central High School and the University of Minnesota in Duluth. In January 1936 Blair entered the U.S. Army and served as a field paramedic. He was discharged for suspicion of homosexuality in October of the same year. He later moved to San Francisco, where he met his partner Frank McCormick. Blair and McCormick's relationship lasted roughly forty-one years, until McCormick died of lung cancer in the 1980s.

When Blair and McCormick met, McCormick was serving as a union officer for the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards (NUMCS). He was also on the executive board of the California Congress of Industrial Organizatons (CIO) and was actively involved in the Pacific coast maritime strike of 1936. NUMCS was a small union known for full integration of African American and gay members. NUMCS leaders were blacklisted in the 1950s, and the union was expelled from the CIO in 1955 for communist leadership. Blair became involved in NUMCS while working as a ship's delegate on passenger cruise lines and freighters. He served as a delegate for a union-wide meeting on the S.S. Aleutian. Blair earned top wages waiting tables on luxury liners before being blacklisted in the 1950s by the Merchant Marines. He also held positions as an hospital orderly, a medical assistant for an Arctic oil rig named Kavik, and a studio prop man on Hollywood movie sets.

McCormick and Blair were born twenty years apart but had similar interests in theater and performance. In World War I, McCormick served in a drag troupe called the Pink Stockings. He also sang in the Fighting American Quartet to entertain troops. In World War II, Blair performed in the United Service Organizatons' (USO) theater and entertainment shows. These experiences sparked a continuing interest in theater. Blair played in stock theater shows in Hollywood, San Diego, and Los Angeles, California. After visiting Hawaii with the USO, he decided to stay and work in advertising. He performed under the name "Mickey Blair" in a 1945 Honolulu Community Production of The Petrified Forest by Robert Sherwood.

McCormick and Blair moved to Seattle in the late 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Blair was involved in Democratic election campaigns. In 1980 Blair sang in the Seattle Men's Chorus, which formed in 1979. Blair was also one of five Seattle gay and lesbian elders who performed their own life stories in the 1992 Alice B. Theatre production, Hidden History: True Stories from Seattle's Gay and Lesbian Elders. The play was directed by Patricia Van Kirk and was based upon interviews completed as part of the Alice B. Theatre Oral History Project. Stephen R. Blair died in April of 1997.

Arrangement

Arranged by type of record.

Scope and Content

The papers include subject files related to various aspects of Stephen R. Blair's life, including his military service, his participation in the Alice B. Theatre and the Seattle Men's Chorus, and his experiences as a maritime worker and member of the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards. Also included are playbills, clippings, correspondence, and the transcript of his interview for the Alice B. Theatre Oral History Project.

Restrictions on Access

The collection is open to all users.

Restrictions on Use

The creator's literary rights have been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Preferred Citation

Stephen R. Blair papers, Accession No. 5172-001. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.

Custodial History

Before his death, Blair gave a collection of scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials to friends with instructions to make them available to the public. The papers were donated to the Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project, where volunteers completed initial processing. They were then transferred to Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries.

Acquisition Info

Donated by the Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project, November 12, 1999.

Processing Info

Processed by Noella Natalino in 2004.

Four scrapbooks, three photograph albums, 30 negatives, and 137 photographs were relocated to the Stephen R. Blair Photograph Collection, PH Accession No. 2004-083, on April 22, 2004.

Other Finding Aids

An unpublished, preliminary finding aid to the Stephen R. Blair Photograph Collection is available in Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries. The subjects of the visual materials include Blair's childhood and family, military and non-military theater experiences, and male friends.

Related Material

Also available in Special Collections are the Alice B. Theatre Records, Accession No. 4199-001, which include the original recording and transcript of Blair's interview for the Alice B. Theatre Oral History Project.

Inventory