Huckleberries

Mary Souza took her activism to a higher level 10 years ago when she ran for Coeur d’Alene mayor.

Until May 31, 2013, when she announced her candidacy, Mary was simply an influential gadfly.

She wrote the City Pulse column for The Coeur d’Alene Press, circulated a private newsletter and contributed to a watchdog blog, OpenCDA.com, all critical of City Hall and urban renewal.

Her outspokenness got her kicked off the city planning commission.

Rather than slink away, Mary redoubled her efforts as a self-appointed voice of the people. And she gained diehard followers who believed, as she did, that City Hall wasn’t responsive to constituents.

When three-term mayor Sandi Bloem and three council members approved the $20 million reconstruction of McEuen Park without a public vote, Mary pounced.

In April 2012, she and the late Kathy Sims launched a recall effort against Bloem and council members Mike Kennedy, Deanna Goodlander and Woody McEvers that almost succeeded. Recall foot soldiers with petitions were everywhere — at city parks, on street corners, at political events. RecallCDA got off to a great start by trolling Tea Party and Republican gatherings for signatures. But lost steam when a counter-movement took hold, led by Sarah Meyer and Jennifer Drake.

Ultimately, Mary and Kathy Sims failed to collect the signatures needed for recall elections.

But the brutal recall effort took its toll on Mayor Bloem, who decided not to seek a fourth term.

“I’m tired of all this,” the mayor said on the day of Mary’s 2013 announcement.

Mary didn’t win the mayor’s seat, finishing second to Steve Widmyer in a three-way race. But her political fortunes were changing. Six months later, aided by the closed GOP primary, she upset John Goedde, a seven-term state senator from Coeur d’Alene, and easily won the general election.

And there Mary remained happily for four terms until giving up her state Senate seat in 2022 to run for secretary of state. That’s when she discovered she didn’t have the backing of former allies, like Chairman Brent Regan and the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

Mary finished a distant third in the three-way race. And fumed.

After finishing her duties as a state senator, Mary returned to muckraking.

In a Press column and on her Facebook page, “Mary Souza: Uncanceled and Unfiltered,” she used her insider knowledge to target Regan and the two organizations he rules with an iron fist: the local central committee and the Boise-based Idaho Freedom Foundation.

She revealed the central committee’s dubious vetting system for GOP candidates, questioned the grading methodology for the legislative scorecard circulated annually by the Freedom Foundation and unmasked the Libertarian/anarchist/bully bent of the IFF staff.

Mary Souza loses some, she wins some. But she never gives up.

Brent Regan is the latest to learn that fact.

Movie heyday

In 1977, when Marvin and Pat Miller moved here from Dillon, Mont., the Wilma was the only movie theater in town. So they bought it and built the Showboat (now Candlelight church on U.S. 95).

Within three months in 1978, however, the number of theater auditoriums here jumped from one to seven. And by spring 1983, when the Millers reopened the remodeled Wilma at Second and Sherman, theater owners were busy expanding, and there were about 3,000 seats available — Showboat (1,300 seats), Coeur d’Alene Luxury Tri-Plex (1,000), Wilma (500) and Coeur d’Alene Drive-in (300-500).

Even as ticket prices approached $4, the theater business was doing so well here that a Press reporter referred to Coeur d’Alene as “Movie City.”

The Millers reopened the Wilma on May 27, 1983, after revamping it to look like a 1930s cinema with plush carpets, a velvet curtain that opened before showtime, and a bona fide loge section. They anticipated a good summer with possible hits including the third “Star Wars” movie and a new Burt Reynolds film, “Stroker Ace.”

Marvin Miller wasn’t worried about the competition: “If you’ve got a good movie and a good theater, the people will come.”

Newspaper feat

Two brothers and a sister accomplished a newspapering feat 70 years ago that wouldn’t be possible today.

On May 1, 1953, Joe, Charles and Jennie Cope were honored by the Rathdrum Chamber of Commerce for publishing the Rathdrum Tribune for 50 years to the day. One-fifth of the town — 125 people — turned out to honor the Culps with a buffet supper and a three-tiered cake in the high school gym.

Guest speaker Burl Hagadone, publisher of the Coeur d’Alene Press, quoted from an editorial written by the Culps in the first issue of their paper: “We have no ambition for selfish, personal aggrandizement. We aspire only to a warm place in the hearts of our fellow citizens.” Said Hagadone: “Surely these three people have accomplished this.”

The Culps moved from Montana to operate the paper, changing its name May 1, 1903, from The Silver Blade to the Rathdrum Tribune.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: That bundle of feathers/you could hold in your hand/is making more music/than a fifteen-piece band — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Little Finch Out Back”).

• No-Tie Season: Once upon a time, Coeur d’Alene merchants ushered in summer by shedding their ties for casual wear. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, they wore sports shirts as Coeur d’Alene played host to thousands of tourists. Traditionally, the advent of tourist season was marked by a front-page Press photo of a mayor removing his tie.

• Bumpersnicker (spotted by Randi Currie of Post Falls at Highway 41 and Mullan): “Three things I hate: 1. Bumperstickers, 2. Irony, and 3. Lists.”

• Mini Protest: Males dressing as females are passe today. But 40 years ago (May 25, 1983), Coeur d’Alene High students Kirk Jacobsen and Dave Hart made a splash by donning miniskirts to protest a dress code they considered unfair. Their cause? CHS had banned boys from wearing shorts to school but allowed girls to wear miniskirts, which showed as much — or more — flesh.

• Sign of the Times: On a recent road trip to Boise, reader Rich Nyquist spotted this message on the Viewpoint Design Center reader board: “Don’t Change Idaho, Let Idaho Change You.”

• Banned in CDA: The message on Gumball Poodle gym socks for sale at New Seasons market in Vancouver, Wash., would be fashionable here, even at $14.99 each: “I Read Banned Books.”

Parting shot

Louise Shadduck, known to admirers as “The Lioness of Idaho,” rose from a dairy operated by her pioneer family to become a national political force. She was as comfortable with presidents, congressmen and governors as she was on horseback, writing books and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with townspeople munching a burger at Hudson’s. Occasionally, she needed a Hudson’s burger for her own well-being. On May 16, 1993, she wrote in her Letters from Lyondale Landing column for The Press: “Sometimes it takes a few days for me to figure out that it has been a long time since I’ve eaten a Huddieburger.” Then, she described her symptoms: “When I begin to shake and my knees grow weak and I become irritable, then it is when I realize that (Hudson's) burger is the only cure.”

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.