50 years ago in Expo history: Fair marketing wasn’t just aimed at the potential tourists, one prominent S-R ad showed

Washington Trust Bank took out an ad in The Spokesman-Review directly targeting local residents.

The ad asked Spokane readers : “How many times will you visit Expo ’74?”

The ad supplied an answer, which was, in essence, “More times than you might guess.”

“Think of all the exotic restaurants at Expo,” the ad read. “How often will you want to take a friend to lunch, or meet a visiting relative for dinner? Probably many times. That’s why a season ticket makes so much sense.”

The ad offered an adult season ticket for $35, a $10 discount when purchased through the bank.

Because Spokane was the smallest city ever to host a World’s Fair, Expo ’74 was relying on tourists and out-of-towners to fill up the fairgrounds. But it also was relying on locals to show up – and not just a few times.

From 100 years ago: A posse was closing in on the man who allegedly murdered three men on ranches near Ephrata, and deputies expected they would soon “close in a death battle” with the suspect, an Ephrata rancher.

He shot and killed his brother and two neighbors, and wounded the wife of one of the victims. Her condition was described as “still dangerous,” and she was suffering from a loss of blood.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1865: President Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in U.S.

1965: Martin Luther King Jr. and 700 demonstrators are arrested in Selma, Alabama.