100 years ago in Spokane: Big stars help celebrate birthday of today’s Bing Crosby Theater

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars were scheduled to help the Clemmer Theatre, known today as the Bing Crosby Theater, celebrate its second birthday.

Mary Pickford, the biggest star of all, was one of several film idols scheduled to send a film clip in which she “speaks a word of greeting to Clemmer patrons” and congratulates the theater on its birthday. One of Pickford’s films had opened the Clemmer two years earlier and her movies “have been seen there exclusively ever since.”

The stars of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation also made a film clip of its stars wishing the theater a happy birthday. That studio was one of Hollywood’s most prestigious, and would later evolve into Paramount Pictures.

The Spokesman-Review said that the Clemmer had “achieved a national reputation among picture theaters.” It was known for its Saturday morning kiddie program, “The Klemmerklink Hour.” It was also known for its fine theater organ.

From the hospital beat: A full-page ad asked the question, “What Does a Hospital Mean to You?”

It was an appeal for the St. Luke’s Hospital Building Fund Campaign, to raise $200,000 to rebuild St. Luke’s, which had been gutted by a catastrophic fire. The $200,000 building was intended as the first phase of a long-term $1 million construction project to build a modern, four-story hospital of 600 beds.