The Palouse Cowboy who Invented John Wayne

A rodeo champion from Palouse, WA, became a Hollywood stuntman just as "action Westerns" took off at the box office. Yakima Canutt could leapfrog onto a horse, fall off it, stage a wagon wreck or a fight, and usually as the double for a star. John Wayne studied Canutt, and modeled his famous walk and talk after him.

How Tugboat Annie pulled Seattle onto the silver screen

The first Hollywood movie ever shot in Seattle was "Tugboat Annie," which turned into a movie series and a TV show celebrating a fictional woman tugboat captain. The smash-hit 1930s film featured the Emerald City and many locals as background actors. Annie was a salty, formidable woman who was able to constantly outsmart her rivals.