50 years ago in Expo history: Toasts were offered as Spokane prepared for the 1974 world’s fair

Spokane residents were offering a special toast on New Year’s Eve – a toast “to the success of Expo ‘74.”

These toasts were made with considerable trepidation. People in Spokane were nervous about whether they could pull off this ambitious feat, which was scheduled to open in just five months. Spokane was the smallest city ever to host a World’s Fair, and doubters were easy to find.

Yet Spokane had plenty of reason for optimism. Spokane Daily Chronicle reporter Neil Felgenhauer listed the progress that planners had made in 1973.

Canada and Iran had reversed their decisions to withdraw from the fair, which brought the number of foreign exhibitors from four at the beginning of 1973 to 10 at the year’s close.

Several big corporations, including Ford and General Motors, had also committed. Big name entertainment had been booked, including Bob Hope and the Kirov Ballet. The Spokane Opera House was “well on its way to completion.”

Perhaps most heartening of all, advance ticket sales had hit the $2 million mark, dispelling fears that Spokane would throw a party and nobody would come.

From 100 years ago: Police believed the Medical Lake bank robbery gang had pulled off an even bigger heist in Seattle a few weeks earlier.

In that incident, five robbers accosted a Bank of California messenger on a downtown Seattle street and relieved him of $25,000 in bonds. A motorcycle policeman came to the scene, but the gang overpowered him and handcuffed him with his own cuffs.

Ollie Hill, “girl bandit,” was said to be with them in Seattle at the time.