50 years ago in Expo history: John Denver added a special midnight show as the fair’s entertainment offerings proved too popular to meet demand

Several more acts were added to the Expo ’74 entertainment schedule due to “tremendous box office response and repeated sell-outs.”

The newly announced attractions included singer Jose Feliciano, the Mills Brothers with comedian George Gobel, and actor Henry Fonda in the one-man show “Clarence Darrow.”

Also, a second John Denver show was added after his first show at the Spokane Coliseum sold out almost immediately. This would be a “midnight special” on the same night, Aug. 23.

Expo general manager Petr Spurney said Expo entertainment had originally been “budgeted at a loss,” but now it was on the way to making a profit.

In other Expo news, the Whitworth College Children’s Theater was delighting youngsters at the “huge white bubble” stage near Expo’s multicolored butterfly. The show was titled, “The Wonderful Wizard,” and the wizard claimed to cast spells on the children to magically turn them into different animals.

At the end, he reversed his spell because “there might be a riot out there if all you ants and bees and wolves and bears walked outside!”

From 100 years ago: A Rathdrum man had accomplished a first at his fur farm – he had produced the “only genuine ranch-bred (pine) martens in the world.”

“If a man knows enough about their habits they can be raised as well as any other animal,” he said.