100 years ago in Spokane: Theater company thrives despite poor economic conditions

“The general depression in business” throughout the U.S. did not seem to be hurting Spokane.

This was the opinion not of an economist, but of E. Forrest Taylor, the new leading man of the Woodward Players, Spokane’s resident theater company.

He made that judgment after seeing the crowds attending his first shows in Spokane.

The depression “seems to have touched Spokane lightly, judging by the prosperity of your stock company.”

“For a town of this size to maintain a high-class stock company throughout the season, when other cities much larger are being deprived of this sort of entertainment, is a distinction highly creditable to Spokane,” said Taylor.

The opening play was “Pals First,” which also featured a new leading lady, Anne Berryman

From the missing persons beat: Otto Snyder, described as an “old settler” of the Coolin, Idaho, area, became lost in the woods in the vicinity of Jack Pine Flats while tending a trap line.

He was missing for three days, and finally emerged from the woods near the Halfway House “in a demented condition.”

He was brought to Sandpoint for medical evaluation.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1802: Washington, D.C. was incorporated as a city.

1937: Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, “Gone with the Wind.”

1948: The Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable.