Bill Gallant, 48, was a member of a rapidly disappearing species--a liberal on talk radio. He was perhaps best known as a midday host on KIRO-AM from 1991 to 1996. He also held stints, at various times, on KOMO-AM and the old KING-AM. He left his on-air career in 1998 to take a behind- the-scenes job at NorthWest Cable News; in 2000, he took a PR job with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. He started the weekly television talk show Northwest Catholic, and was the local archdiocese's press-conference voice during the recent scandals over sex-abuse charges against priests. Gallant died on November 26, following a six-year bout with colon cancer.
The United Artists Cinemas 70/150 at Sixth and Blanchard was finally demolished on November 15, four years after the United Artists (UA) chain abandoned its only Seattle branch. The twin-cinema (Seattle's first) was built in 1962 to exploit two of the postwar film business' big-screen fads, 70 mm and Dimension 150. The 70/150 had its most famous moment as the local first-run home for the original Star Wars in 1977 (at the height of the film's popularity, the movie ran there 24 hours a day). In the mid-'80s, the UA chain leased the house to local operators, who briefly renamed it the Seattle Cinedome (no relation to the national Iwerks CineDome chain). UA retook operation of the 70/150 in 1992, operating it for six years as a discount house with midnight cult-film screenings. For its final demise, workers put up one final title on its long-empty marquee: DEMOLITION MAN.