100 years ago in Spokane: Silent film star looking for leading woman

From our archives, 100 years ago

Romaine Fielding, a silent film star who was starting his own motion picture company, announced that he was searching in Spokane for a “leading woman” for his movies.

Fielding, who was appearing in a stage play at the Pantages Theater, invited Spokane girls to submit their photographs for his perusal.

He was met with an enthusiastic response. He received more than 100 photos in just a few days. His spare time, when not onstage, was “taken up with the task of looking over the photographs and dictating letters to the girls.”

He said he will “make his selections carefully.” He was inviting all of the girls to the Thursday matinee, where he would announce the names “of those photographs that suit him.” Those girls would be brought onstage for a personal interview with the actor.

The “final test” would be made before a camera, in which the young women would do a brief screen test. He said he planned to “produce a little motion picture comedy” in Spokane featuring some of the girls.

Then he planned to return to San Diego and establish a studio and, presumably, make a movie starring one of the Spokane girls.

From the army beat: A number of National Guard soldiers on the Mexican border in Calexico were disappointed to learn that they would not be discharged to return to college.

A new order halted “any attempt of Spokane schoolboys at the border from securing discharges.”

About 25 of the 300 soldiers were reported to be “desirous of returning to school.”