The Fancy Cow at the Olympic
An Arlington-raised butterfat producer makes a grand entrance at a Seattle banquet hall to promote local milk.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Nancy Lee, the 570-pound butterfat producer of the Guernsey herd of Valley Gem Farm, Arlington, was the honor guest at the Washington Guernsey Breeders’ Club banquet held in the Italian room of the Olympic hotel, on the evening of April 4th. Nancy Lee’s introduction into the bright lights of Seattle was part of an advertising program being put on by the Guernsey Breeders’ Club to further the sale of Guernsey milk in this city. The cow was brought to the city in a motor truck by J. H. Wrage, one of her owners, and had as her attendant, N. E. Popham, herdsman of Valley Gem Farm.
“Nancy Lee’s introduction into the bright lights of Seattle was part of an advertising program.”
While farm-to-table marketing is common today, bringing a live cow into a luxury hotel dining room for a banquet would be a viral stunt even by modern standards. This event reflects the 1920s boosterism that sought to link high-society Seattle with the pastoral agricultural economy of the rural state.
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