50 years ago in Expo history: Would the fair be a moneymaker? Well, it was now projected to at least break even

Expo ’74 general manager Petr Spurney said he still believed the fair was on track to at least break even on finances.

With a month to go, Expo had “ 98.5% of the amount necessary sitting in a trust fund for repayment of our revenue bonds.”

He emphasized that the ultimate result still depended on attendance in the closing weeks, as well as “recoverable expenses from the sale of Expo-owned facilities.”

He said he was still optimistic that Expo would meet the break-even attendance number of 5 million visitors. Spurney’s optimistic prediction would soon prove well-founded.

In other Expo news, the stage show “Polynesia” played to a packed Opera House. A cast of 30 from Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa and Tahiti performed the music and dances of the islands.

A Chronicle reviewer praised the “brilliant costuming, the beat of drums, the plaintive singing and war chants and the ever-smiling beautiful people.”

From 100 years ago: Two gun-toting masked bandits entered the Commercial Pool Hall in St. Joe, Idaho, and ordered everyone to reach for the sky.

The robbers lined 19 men against the wall. One bandit held a revolver in each hand, while the other searched the men and came away with $700 in cash and a number of watches and rings.

When they left, they took two victims with them, to prevent anyone from firing upon them. They released the two hostages “a half mile up the railway track.”

A posse was searching the area toward Plummer, Idaho.