Free celeb photos! Dig into The Herald’s Hollywood time capsule

EVERETT — Own a piece of newspaper — and Hollywood — history.

Free to the first 500 people who reply.

What’s up with that?

I’ve got a box stuffed with black-and-white celebrity glossies — hundreds of them — pulled from The Daily Herald’s old photo morgue. It’s a star-studded time capsule, ready to be rehomed.

We’re talking: Tom Hanks. John Wayne. Gene Hackman. Gilda Radner. Linda Ronstadt. Robin Williams. David Bowie. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Clint Eastwood. Farrah Fawcett. Bette Midler. Bruce Willis. Carol Burnett. Cary Grant. Liz Taylor. Katharine Hepburn. Jane Fonda. Brigitte Bardot. Natalie Wood. Captain Kangaroo. Michael Douglas. Dick Van Dyke. Drag queen Divine. A shirtless Richard Gere. Snoopy. Twiggy. “Dallas” star Patrick Duffy, a Cascade High School graduate.

And scene-stealing stills from: “Happy Days.” “All in the Family.” “The Golden Girls.” “The Elephant Man.” “Grease.” “Peanuts.”

Many were sent by studios in the 1970s and ’80s with typed notes on the back for press use.

In the pre-digital era, these photos ran with TV listings, Sunday features, obits, scandals — anything that made headlines. Pages were assembled by hand. Cut-and-paste meant using X-Acto knives, hot waxers and layout grids. Images for paste-up came from these very photos.

Photos were measured with pica poles. Many still bear crop marks and editorial notes. Some even have headshots glued to the back, ready to be reused in the next edition.

I’ve had this box of glossies since 2013 when The Herald left its downtown compound on California Street and West Marine View Drive and relocated to a floor in the Frontier Communications building at 41st and Colby. The presses were long gone, but the morgue remained: cabinets filled with negatives, clippings and contact sheets.

The truly important items — staff work, local history — were archived.

“Over the years, the downtown library did a vigorous job of maintaining our back issues,” former Herald executive editor Neal Pattison told me by text recently. “But the real champion who saved, sorted and labeled old clips after the move was Kim Heltne (longtime executive assistant to the publisher). She was the angel of our archives.”

The fluff stuff had no savior.

Back in 2013, the news department was on the main floor and I was in the basement dungeon where they kept the features department. Nothing had been thrown away for decades. Closets, corners and drawers were crammed with press releases, books and bribes that flooded our mailbox daily. My favorite: packets of Ed Hume Seeds.

To prep for the move, stacks of papers went straight into recycling. The glossies seemed headed there, too — until I became the self-appointed savior of the fluff stuff.

I rescued more than 1,000 photos, packed them into two boxes, and hauled them home, along with a few pica poles and dusty packs of Hume seeds. Then I stashed them on a shelf in the garage.

“Can’t we get rid of those?” my husband asked — more than once.

One day, driving down Evergreen Way past Barney’s Pastrami Dip, I had an idea.

David Barney, the owner, was known for his wall of celebrity glossies, all humorously renamed “Barney.” Marilyn (Monroe) Barney. Dean (Martin) Barney. Hilary (Swank) Barney. You get the picture.

I figured he could use more.

So I brought Barney a box. He was behind the counter, slicing pastrami for the regulars in his four-table dining room with plastic lawn chairs.

I told him I had hundreds of potential new Barneys for his wall.

“Just put it in the kitchen,” he said with a nod.

A year later, I went back.

The box was still there. Same spot. Same Barney. Still slicing. Still spicing.

“Been meaning to get to it,” he said.

I understood. That box is overwhelming. So full of stories you don’t know where to begin.

When Barney’s suddenly closed in 2021, I was oddly relieved. One less box to feel guilty about. No idea what happened to the photos. I imagine them still sitting there. Waiting.

Meanwhile, the stashed box moved with me to a new house. Different garage. Same husband.

“Can’t we get rid of those?” he asked again during a recent garage purge.

I opened the box, for the first time in over a decade.

A young John Travolta stared up at me with those eyes. Beneath him: A voluptuous Ann-Margret. A dozen Mel Gibsons. Lulu Roman from “Hee Haw” — did you know she died in Bellingham?

Then it hit me: These shouldn’t be forgotten in a garage. They deserve a second chance at stardom with people who’ll cherish them, or at least smile at them now and then.

So here’s the deal:

Drop me a line at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598. I’ll keep you posted about a pop-up giveaway happening sometime in August, date TBD, after The Herald moves (again), this time to an office at 2500 Hewitt Ave. I’ll be the frazzled woman with a car full of black-and-white photos.

Five glossies per person. First come, first served. These are for personal enjoyment, not for resale.

Also up for grabs:

One pica pole.

A 5-pound, 3,000-page dictionary.

Maybe even a pack or two of Ed Hume Seeds.

Got a story for “What’s Up With That?” Hit me up at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598.