Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A columnist named “Madame Isebell” in the Spokane Daily Chronicle provided what was headlined as “Home Exercises for Fleshy Women.”

She described some moderate arm exercises to firm up the flesh under the arms, which is “a bad place for excess flesh, for it makes the bust look large and causes the arms to hang in awkward fashion.”

Her hip reduction advice was unusual, to say the least. It involved “salt rubs.”

“Make a very strong brine in sea salt in the bottom of a big tub and soak two large Turkish towels; hang these over the tub and let them drip until dry,” she wrote.

“After the usual bath, rub the body with a salt towel, treating vigorously the loose flesh over the hips and upper legs.”

From the music beat: Six world-famous classical music stars were booked into Spokane for the upcoming season.

They were Alma Gluck, soprano; Olive Fremstad, soprano; Josef Lhevinne, pianist; Evan Williams, a Welsh tenor; George Barrere, flutist; and Efrem Zimbalist, a young Russian-born violinist.

Zimbalist went on to become a big star, but perhaps not as big as his son, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who starred in “77 Sunset Strip” and many other TV shows and movies.