50 years ago in Expo history: Hope was dwindling for a presidential visit to the fair, but Ford’s new campaign itinerary kept it alive

Expo ’74 officials still held out hope that President Gerald R. Ford would show up to Expo’s closing ceremonies, even if the chances were increasingly slim.

Yet at least a visit had not been specifically ruled out.

A presidential aide told the Spokane Daily Chronicle that even though Expo was not on Ford’s Western campaign travel itinerary, new details of the schedule “could be announced en route.”

Ford was scheduled to be in Portland during that week, which raised hopes that he might stop in Spokane on his way to Salt Lake City and Denver.

Expo’s U.S. commissioner general provided a reality check when he referred to a presidential visit as only “a very slim possibility.”

In other Expo news, attendance now stood at 5,006,493, and every click of the turnstile put Expo even farther ahead of its goal of 5 million. Before the fair opened, many people felt that goal was too optimistic.

From 100 years ago: The Spokane County prosecutor’s office announced “open war on sale of cigarettes to boys.”

The prosecutors had received numerous reports from teachers and parents that local grocers and confectioners were selling to “school boys and other minors.”

The first salvo in the war had already taken place, when Mrs. F. Diluzio was fined $15 for selling cigarettes to children at the David Bemiss School.