50 years ago in Expo history: World’s Fair ticket sales manager files lawsuit after being ‘discharged’ from position

Expo ’74’s former ticket sales manager filed suit asking $325,000 in damages over his dismissal.

Yet the most sensational part of the suit was his claim that Expo “faces almost certain bankruptcy” and would end up nearly $3 million in debt.

“He’s just making wild assumptions,” responded Expo officials. “He just doesn’t have access to the correct information.”

Joseph B. Scholnick had originally been contracted to handle all of Expo’s off-site ticket sales, but was “discharged” on July 29. Expo then filed a suit against him and one of his employees for selling tickets in competition with Expo and violating his contract.

Later that same day, Scholnick filed his own suit, alleging that the fair was teetering on the edge of financial disaster.

Expo officials reiterated they were on track to at least break even before the fair ended, if not come out ahead.

From 100 years ago: People were drinking in a room on the third floor of the Model Hotel, 109 N. Division St., when an argument broke out between a woman and her husband. One of the other occupants of the room was “an old-time sweetheart” of the husband. A jealous flight flared.

“Shouted threats by the husband, followed by the breaking of glass, a scream, and a heavy thud as the body struck the paving below were heard by witnesses,” the Chronicle wrote.

The wife, 40, was hurled through the window. She died soon after at the emergency hospital. The husband was jailed on a first-degree murder charge.