This day in history: Tickets went on sale for Elvis at Spokane Coliseum. Air mail delivery from the East Coast was about to get to Spokane faster

From 1976: Elvis was coming to Spokane Coliseum, and the line for tickets stretched for blocks. Many buyers had to wait three hours or more before they finally reached the ticket window.

At least one young fan was so excited – or maybe so exhausted – that she “fainted dead away” upon receiving her tickets.

In this pre-online ticketing era, the only way to be sure of getting good seats was to do what hundreds of people did – get to the Coliseum’s box office hours before it opened at 10 a.m. and wait patiently.

When asked if it was worth the wait, one woman said, “Are you kidding, man? It’s definitely worth it.”

By the end of the day, about half of the 8,000 tickets were gone for the April 27 concert.

From 1926: A new era in mail delivery arrived in the region, as the first airmail plane was scheduled to “hop off from Pasco at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning for Elko, Nevada.”

This was occasion for celebration, since it meant that mail would now be routed much faster to and from the East Coast. A ceremony was scheduled at the Pasco airfield, and many Spokane aviators were flying down for the occasion.

A “special box” was being prepared at the main Spokane post office for the reception of letters to go by airmail. Thousands of people prepared special letters to go out on the first night of the new service.

Elko was a main refueling stop on the established airmail route between the East Coast and San Francisco. Spokane business people had been lobbying for years to get the Inland Northwest hooked into that fast air-mail route.