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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Marjorie Harkness, 20, a clerk at the Copper Penny Arcade on Main Avenue, discovered it “pays to get in the limelight.”

She gained notoriety after she told Spokane city commissioners that her boss forced her to “short-change” the customers. Since then, she received job offers from two other theaters – this time, as a performer. She said the Lyric Theater in Coeur d’Alene offered her $18 a week to do a singing act and the Majestic Theater in Oakesdale, Wash., offered her $25 per week to appear in “character work.”

She noted that this is “some improvement” over the $6 per week she was getting at the penny arcade.

Marjorie said her notoriety had another result. She had also received a proposal of marriage.

From the evangelist beat: The Rev. William Smith, aka “Sin-Killing” Smith, arrived in Spokane from Alabama with pockets filled with recommendations praising his abilities as a pulpit orator.

He didn’t have time to prove it. He was picked up at Washington Street and Second Avenue, after “accumulating sufficient gin to make his presence on the streets undesirable.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1968: Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower in a private ceremony in New York.