50 years ago in Expo history: Readers submitted their fair-related questions and suggestions

Here are a few of the questions and suggestions sent in by readers to The Spokesman-Review’s weekly “Ideas for Expo” column:

• A high school student wrote in to ask how to get a job in an Expo ’74 concession stand or ticket stand. She was told that the concessionaires would soon be hiring, “but don’t pin your hopes too high,” because thousands of other high school and college students were eyeing the same jobs.
• Several people wrote to ask whether there would be a special ticket prices for senior citizens or families of four and over. The answer: More than a million tickets had already been sold at a special $25 rate, allowing unlimited entry for the fair’s duration. That amounted to a less than 14 cents per day. However, this $25 advance-sale deal expired at the beginning of the year. The Expo ’74 general manager said “the whole ticket structure” would soon be reviewed and revised.
• Several people suggested that special passenger train routes be introduced to bring people to Spokane from all over the U.S. The “Ideas for Expo” writers agreed that this was an excellent suggestion, especially considering the gasoline shortage. They suggested that Expo officials pursue it.

From 100 years ago: Jascha Heifetz, one of the most famous violinists in the world, was booked into a Feb. 6, 1924, concert at the Lewis and Clark High School Auditorium. Heifetz was currently on a triumphant tour of the West, “drawing capacity crowds wherever he appears.”

He had emigrated to the U.S. from Russia with his family in 1917 and was immediately hailed as a virtuoso. Spokane newspaper ads called him “the eighth wonder of the world.”