50 years ago in Expo history: The world’s fair was coming to Spokane, but it had a marketing problem

With Expo ’74’s opening just four months away, the overwhelming challenge was simply getting the word out.

Spokane’s Lilac Queen, Vicky Hayter, realized how daunting that task could be when she participated in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.

“I guess I was expecting more, but people don’t seem to know about it,” she said.

She passed out brochures in the staging area and discovered that “some people said they heard about the fair, but most had not.”

“Word just has to get out more,” she said.

As the day went on, however, the publicity campaign received a huge boost. The Expo ’74 float, with Hayter and other beauty queens aboard, received 2 minutes of TV time and won the parade’s Queen’s Trophy.

“That’s $150,000 of coverage in television advertising dollars,” said George Chambers, the fair’s public relations director. “We bought a lot of goodwill on that trip. … And we haven’t even started our major advertising push yet.”

From 100 years ago: Police raided an alleged “life pool” game at the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club and arrested the manager and four others on gambling charges.

Life pool was a form of pool that allegedly had a gambling component. Life pool and another pool game called “pea pool” had been banned in Spokane as of Jan. 1.

Pool players asserted that it was a game of skill, and no more of a gambling game than bridge or golf.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver to the U.S. government.