100 years ago in Spokane: Tango dancing and the origins of Memorial Day

More than 3,000 people showed up at Whitehead’s Dance Palace to watch one of the biggest stars on the planet, Rodolpho (Rudolf) Valentino, dance the tango.

Valentino, in addition to being a famous tango dancer, had now become the most popular movie actor in the country. He had reached stardom as a heartthrob with “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and “The Sheik.”

Yet he was apparently ambivalent about his movie career, telling the adoring Whitehead crowd that he was currently engaged in a fight with the large movie corporations, and “expressed his dislike for some of the parts which have made him famous.”

Mentioning “The Sheik,” he said he hoped he might someday “be forgiven for such sins.”

He danced to the accompaniment of his Argentine tango orchestra, and judged a beauty contest. The women in the crowd greeted him with “shrill cries.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle’s editorial page was clearly appalled at the reception the women gave him, comparing them to “idol worshippers.”

From the Memorial Day beat: Decoration Day – increasingly being called Memorial Day – was commemorated in Spokane with a parade of veterans and with crowds of people laying wreaths on graves.

“Some took advantage of the holiday to make it a day of joy and hilarious pleasure, but these were few, and for the most part Spokane will be able to look back on this Memorial Day as one well and appropriately observed,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “Lines of autos that crowded the roads to the cemeteries and streetcars taking the capacity of the tracks, gave evidence that Spokane’s war heroes had not been forgotten.”