This day in history: Symphony and ‘guitar pickin’ melded genres for a show that divided critics

From 1975: Guitar legend Chet Atkins headlined a pops concert at the Spokane Opera (Opry?) House, and Atkins opened by saying, “I hope you like guitar pickin’, because that’s all I do.”

Yet a few other musicians – the entire Spokane Symphony – were playing backup.

Spokesman-Review critic Les Blumenthal was apparently unmoved by Atkins’ guitar virtuosity, saying it sounded like “top-notch Muzak,” or “a cut from a ‘101 Strings’ album.”

He declared the whole show “low key.”

Denis Stamaris, of the Spokane Chronicle, was far more impressed, saying Atkins played “magnificently through songs ranging from Beatles hits to the complicated works of Mozart, all with unbelievable ease.”

From 1925: Two 12-year-old Boy Scouts received official letters of thanks from the superintendent of the Northern Pacific railroad for “flagging down an on-rushing passenger train” near Marshall and preventing a serious accident.

The boys had seen a huge boulder on the tracks but were unable to shift it. One of them “tore off his red sweater” and waved it frantically as they raced up the tracks to get the attention of the engineer.

“There was a screech of brakes and the train was brought to a stop a short distance from the obstruction,” the Chronicle reported.

In other news, Mrs. A. Curtis earned the dubious honor of winning the Chronicle’s Heaviest Woman contest. She tipped the scales at 450 pounds and won by a margin of 116 pounds.