100 years ago in Spokane: Humane Society rounds up scraps; plans unveiled for new movie studio

Spokane’s dogs had a Christmas request for downtown diners: “Please order chicken or turkey and please do not pick the bones too clean.”

That was the whimsical message supposedly signed by 38 dogs at the Spokane Humane Society barns.

The society was planning to pick up all of the “choicest discards” at downtown’s best restaurants and distribute them to the dogs as a Christmas treat.

“We expect that on an occasion like this, there will be a good many pounds of chicken and turkey left clinging on the bones,” said the Spokane Humane Society director.

From the movie beat: The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran an architect’s drawing of an exciting new endeavor for Spokane: the studios of the Washington Motion Picture Corporation at Minnehaha Park.

Movie star Tyrone Power was the driving force behind this new studio, which had the potential to become “Spokane’s newest big industry.”

The drawing showed a new “administration building” to house writers, actors and technical directors and an “outdoor stage for the production of high-class photoplays starring Tyrone Power.” The two existing park buildings would also be part of the large studio complex.

The studio was already under construction and would soon be complete. Filming would commence a few months later, but the excitement would soon dissipate. Power decamped after only one movie, claiming a nervous breakdown, and the studio would go into receivership before 1918 ended. Power’s son, Tyrone Power III, would also go onto become a famous actor.