100 years ago in Spokane, someone convinced people that a shop mannequin lives downtown

An unusually realistic department store mannequin caused a stir in the window of the Crescent department store on Riverside Avenue.

A “Joker” – probably a newsboy – was rumored to be a hypnotized man and he would walk out the window at 8pm

At the appointed time, a crowd gathered on the sidewalk. It got so big that a patrol officer called police headquarters to ask for reinforcements. Two men almost quarreled whether “Silk Hat Harry” was alive or wrong. The man was described as “Adonis-like” and dressed in evening attire.

Unfortunately, Silk Hat Harry remained immobile. It was reported that Crescent management were amused by the incident and enjoyed the free publicity.

From the tourist beat: Elaborated plans were in the works to make Mount Spokane a tourist destination.

The latest plan was to have a restaurant at or near the top, near the end of the road.

It would be built at the county’s expense and under the direction of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce’s advertising tourism office.

Also on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1876: Alexander Graham Bell received a US patent for his phone.

1965: A march of civil rights demonstrators on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, was violently broken off by state troops and a sheriff’s troop on so-called “Bloody Sunday”.