Then and Now: Columbia Cavalcade

As 1939 dawned, Spokane wanted to celebrate the state’s Golden Jubilee, 50 years of statehood since 1889. The celebration would tell the saga of half a century in the rugged Northwest while also recounting Spokane’s reconstruction after its catastrophic fire, also 50 years prior.

Starting in April of that year, the Spokane Chamber of Commerce publicity staff organized a multiday festival they named the Columbia Cavalcade. Events would include a downtown parade, a Miss Spokane beauty pageant and dances at the fairgrounds. The culmination would be a historical stage play with hundreds of actors, singers, dancers and musicians. Larry Doyle, well known in theater, was hired to produce the spectacle.

To get Spokanites in the spirit, stores and offices filled their display windows with antiques and historical artifacts and workers dressed in the clothing of the 1890s. High school students passed out flyers and sold tickets.

Doyle and crew recruited more than 1,200 actors and 100 horses and mules. The stage was 300 feet wide and up to 400 feet deep and included 45 set pieces resembling historic buildings. Doyle continued recruiting actors to find men who could drive wagons or ride horses .

The two-hour show dramatized the arrival of explorers, missionaries and settlers to the region, their battles with Native tribes, the building of trains, Spokane’s great fire and many other events.

Newspapers estimated 40,000 people watched the opening day parade. Each evening, thousands crammed into the fairgrounds’ grandstand for the play under giant floodlights. News reporters wrote the historical pageant was long -winded and slow. Doyle assured critics that the massive amateur cast would improve each night of the five-day run.

On the third night, tragedy struck. As 120 teenage ballet dancers ran onstage waving sparklers, several of the girls’ filmy costumes burst into flame. The horrified audience of 7,000 watched firefighters smother the flames and take the injured away. Doyle rushed on to the next act to calm the crowd.

In spite of the accident, the show continued for its final night. But two of the girls died from their injuries and the Spokane coroner charged the show’s producers with criminal negligence. A jury declined to convict them though the girls’ families later sued the producers.