A South Sound history through words and pictures
100 YEARS AGO TODAY: SEPT. 26, 1912
Rising up from the Valley Fair grounds this morning as the fog melted away before the sun, like a huge gull from a glassy ocean, Aviator Harvey Crawford in his biplane, made his first trial flight at Puyallup in the machine with which he will circle over Tacoma Saturday morning in the News and Ledger trip announcing the opening of the Valley fair next week. He soared over the berry and hop fields and then lightly to the ground smiling with satisfaction.
75 YEARS AGO TODAY: SEPT. 26, 1937
Tuesday evening is going to be one of the big moments in the lifetimes of the four girls and four boys who survived the preliminaries in the Bing Crosby Talent Contest. Contest finals will be held on the Rialto stage Tuesday evening, and the girl and boy who convince the judges that they are tops in personal appearance, speech and diction, voice interpretation and personality will be sent to Spokane during the middle of October to compete for the trip to Hollywood and the screen test at Paramount studios.
50 YEARS AGO TODAY: SEPT. 26, 1962
The Pierce County commissioners – claiming “foul” – said today they would sue the state over announced intentions to apply operation and maintenance costs to tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The added cost would mean four more years of tolls for the profitable span – until approximately 1970. Prior to a month ago, the commissioners, state officials and others involved had estimated late 1965 or early 1966 as the date when the bonds would be paid off on the $16.5 million Narrows Bridge.
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