Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Mrs. Jennie Simpson, described as “46, Scotch, a housewife and intoxicated,” created an entertaining scene in a Spokane moving picture theater.

The movie was a newsreel about the suffragette movement in England.

When King George V appeared on screen, she jumped up and yelled, “There he is! I’ll put a bomb under him!”

She also continued to shriek enthusiastically when English suffragettes were pictured marching in London. The management of the Casino Theater called police, who came to remove her.

She stood and yelled, “I’m a Scotch lady; I’m a suffragette! Witness, you people, would you let a man drag you out like this?”

Witness, they did. Some of them were so caught up in Simpson’s drama, they followed her to the police station to watch the rest of the show. She was carried “kicking and yelling” by three policemen into the women’s section of the city jail.

A Casino Theater employee told police Simpson had been “effervescent” even before the suffragette movie began.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1934: The Dionne quintuplets – Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne – were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada. They were the first set known to have survived infancy.