50 years ago in Expo history: Hometown hero Bing toured the fair site – and got in a dig at frenemy Bob Hope

Bing Crosby, Spokane’s favorite son, finally showed up at Expo ’74, but not as an entertainer.

He was just a visitor – although an honored one – touring the fairgrounds in a golf cart.

Crosby was still recovering from a serious lung ailment and had been unable to perform for many months. Yet as he toured the Opera House, he sang a few notes from the stage and said, “Hey, it really bounces right back.”

Then he managed to get in a few digs at Bob Hope, his movie partner and faux rival, who had performed earlier at Expo.

“Of course, Bob played the Coliseum,” he said, from the Opera House lobby. “You couldn’t let Hope in here. This is for artists.”

Crosby had done his part for Expo by writing articles for national magazines extolling the attractions of his home city and urging people to attend the fair. Expo officials presented him with engraved Expo souvenirs.

From 100 years ago: A group of business people identified a problem in Spokane – a lack of respect for funeral processions.

They said that “little attention was being paid to the law which denies the right of vehicles to pass through the line of a funeral procession.”

In Europe, they said, “all vehicles stop and pedestrians stand at attention with bared heads in respect to the departed.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1501: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture

1938: Alexander Cartwright, the “father of baseball,” is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame decades after his death.