100 years ago in Spokane: Robber flees when broom hits the floor

A robbery was foiled by “good luck” and a falling broom at the home of Anna Weston on West Broadway.

She was working in the kitchen when a man knocked on her back door and asked for something to eat.

She replied, possibly unwisely, that she was alone and could not let him in.

He pulled out a revolver, shoved her aside and walked into the house.

Mrs. Weston screamed and then “from some unknown cause,” a broom fell to the floor in the front room of the house. The robber, thinking someone else was coming to her assistance, ran out the back door without taking anything.

From the movie beat: A Spokane child was poised to become a movie star, claimed the Spokane Daily Chronicle. The child identified only as “Baby Melian,” the child of Mr. and Mrs. Fred P. Melian (or possibly Mellan), had been cast in a movie called “Rock-A-Bye-Baby” currently filming in Hollywood. Fred Melian had previously worked in the film studios at Minnehaha Park in Spokane, and the family had recently moved to Pasadena.

From the amusement beat: Natatorium Park, Spokane’s amusement park, did 28% more business in 1920 than it had done in 1919. The “Plunge” (the park’s swimming pool) had the biggest attendance in its history, according to park officials.