50 years ago in Expo history: Spokane’s turn as the World’s Fair destination was getting some love from Moscow – and not the one in Idaho

A short-wave radio enthusiast wrote into The Spokesman-Review’s weekly “Ideas for Expo” column. He said he had recently tuned into Radio Moscow, which aired a “dandy English-language 15 minutes promoting Spokane’s Expo ’74.”

“They said that the Russian exhibit would show the many facets of life among the many races making up the Soviet Republic,” he said. “They promised they would also stress the environmental-energy theme.”

The reader’s question was this: Why did he have to hear this kind of excellent Expo promotion on Radio Moscow instead of on the Voice of America or other American-produced worldwide broadcasts? He monitored those broadcasts constantly, and had never heard one word about Expo.

The S-R offered this “good news”: The paper said the Voice of America was planning some strong Expo stories, and that Radio Free Europe was already carrying bimonthly 5-minute features, produced by Expo.

From 100 years ago: Police weren’t the only threat to the area’s bootleggers. They also had to worry about booze “hijackers.” who chased down rum-runners and stole their cargo.

Two Spokane rum-runners told police that it happened to them twice in two days. In the first incident, they were driving a load of high-end booze – champagne, vermouth and creme de menthe – through Stevens County. The car slid off the road and broke a wheel. While the rum-runners went looking for a garage, a “hijacker” pulled up to the scene. They returned only in time to watch a Marmon car drive off with their cargo.

Two days later, the same duo had a new cargo parked on a Spokane street.

One of them saw the same Marmon car parked next to it, and ran up to find his cargo had been lifted again. He fired two several shots at the Marmon car as it drove away.

The next day, police arrested a former railway conductor from Whitefish, Mont., for allegedly stealing the booze.