Chicago's Awful Theater Horror Part 13

This load came near not arriving. The smoke was so thick that Smith had to find the girls and drag them into the elevator and by the time he had done this he was almost overcome. The elevator was burning at the place where the controller was located, and Smith had to place his left hand in the flame to start the car. The hand was badly burned, but the car was started and came down in time for the girls to receive a.s.sistance from the men who were waiting. When the last girl was out the men left the building.

Up in the gridiron, where the smoke was thickest, the four German boys who worked the aerial apparatus were caught, fully sixty feet from the stage floor, and no one had time to come to their a.s.sistance or to pay any attention to them, because there were too many other people to be saved.

At first, they did not know what to do. As the smoke became thicker and the heat more intense they moved to get out. One of them, who was some distance from his companions, was caught in the flames of one of the burning pieces of draperies, and either because he lost his presence of mind or because he could not hold out any longer, he jumped. Some of the people on the stage floor heard him fall, but he did not move and no one could help him. He could not be found after the other people escaped from the stage. His three companions climbed over the gridiron scaffolding and made their way down the stairway to safety.

"I heard the little fellow fall," said Arthur Hart, "and that is the last I knew of him. It was a long jump, and I presume that he was badly injured."

"I stuck to the car until the ropes parted," said young Smith, the elevator boy, "and then I began to get faint. Someone reached in and pulled me out just in time to save my life. The larger part of the girls were in the dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they all tried to get out at once. A great many tried to crowd into the elevator and it was hard work to keep it going. I made as many trips as I could."

TWO BALCONY HEROES.

A man who gave his name as Chester, with his wife and two daughters, was a hero who escaped without letting the police know who he was. This man was in the lower balcony of the theater and in the panic he succeeded in reaching the fire escape with his children and wife. After getting on the fire escape, the flames swept up and set the clothing of his wife and girls on fire. Burned himself, he fought the flame and then realizing that delay meant certain death he dropped the children to the ground, a distance of ten feet, and then dropped his wife. Then he leaped himself.

W. G. Smith of the Chicago Teaming Company, 37 Dearborn street, saw them jumping and with some of his men he picked them up and carried them into his store. This was before the fire department arrived.

When all had been taken in Smith rushed back into the alley to find the lower fire escape filled with screaming, struggling women. All were hatless and their faces were scorched by the intense heat. He shouted to them to wait a moment, as the firemen were coming, but one woman leaped as he spoke. She too was taken into Smith's store and all his patients were taken later to nearby hotels, where their injuries were attended to.

After Smith left the alley Morris Eckstrom, a.s.sistant engineer, and M. J.

Tierney, engineer of the university building, ran to the rescue of the women on the fire escape. The firemen had not yet arrived, and the screams of the women with the flames creeping upon them were frightful to hear.

"Jump one by one," shouted Eckstrom, "and we'll catch you."

Tierney grabbed a long blanket from the engine room, and the women, realizing it was their only chance, leaped into it. In some cases they were injured, but none was seriously hurt.

"I know we caught twenty women that way, before the flames got so terrific that none of them could reach the fire escape," said Eckstrom. "I saw a dozen women and children and some men, through the open door to the fire escape, fall back into the flames."

THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S STORY.

Musical Director Herbert Dillea of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, who was one of the first of the members of the orchestra to see the fire, had several narrow escapes from death while he endeavored to rescue four of the chorus girls who had fainted in the pa.s.sageway which leads from the armor-room to the front smoking apartment.

Dillea was nearly overcome by the thick smoke which filled the areaway, but, with the a.s.sistance of some of the stage employes, he succeeded in carrying the unconscious actresses to the street. The young women, upon reaching the fresh air, soon revived, and they were taken care of in stores until they got their street clothing.

Dillea said that several other members of the orchestra vainly endeavored to persuade some of the audience who were occupying front seats to enter the pa.s.sageway, but no attention was paid to them.

In describing his experiences Dillea said:

"It was during the second verse of the 'Pale Moonlight' song that I suddenly saw a red light to my left in the proscenium arch. The moment I saw the red glare I knew there was a fire, and in whispers I ordered the other members of the orchestra to play as fast as they could, as I thought the asbestos would be lowered. We had hardly begun to play when the asbestos started to come down, but right in the middle it stopped, and it remained so.

"By this time the chorus girls were shrieking with terror, as the fire brands were falling among them on the stage. As soon as the audience saw the fire brands they began to arise, but Eddie Foy ran out and begged them to remain quiet, a.s.suring them that there was no danger. The audience paid no attention to him and the panic followed. Then I thought it was time to make our escape, and I turned to the orchestra men and told them to follow me to the pa.s.sageway. While I was running through the areaway I shouted to the actresses. They ran from their rooms, and four of them fainted. It was only with the greatest difficulty they were carried out."

CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.

Willie Dee, the 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dee, who lost two children in the fire, by a presence of mind and bravery that would have been commendable in a person of mature years saved himself and a smaller brother not 7 years old.

The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Dee attended the theater on the fatal afternoon in company with their nurse, Mrs. G. H. Errett. Besides Willie, the oldest of the children, there were two twin boys, Allerton and Edward, between 6 and 7 years of age, and the baby 2-1/2 years old. Willie was one of the first to notice the fire and called to the nurse to go out. The nurse did not grasp the situation, thinking the flames a part of the act, and hesitated. Noticing her hesitation, Willie seized the nearest one of the children, Allerton and pulled the smaller boy with him down the stairs from the first balcony in which the party was seated. The two boys were unable to move fast enough to keep ahead of the crowd, although they were the first ones out. They were overtaken and both of them shoved through the doors in front, where they became separated. Willie thought his little brother lost and went home without him. The smaller boy was later picked up and taken into Thompson's restaurant, from which place he was taken home, practically uninjured.

The other twin, Edward, was killed where he sat. The nurse and baby succeeded in reaching the first landing, where they were trampled underfoot. A fireman took the baby from the nurse's arms and placed it in charge of Dr. Bridge. The doctor succeeded in resuscitating it and took it to his home at Forty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue, where it died early the following morning.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE--THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE LIGHTS.

The real story of the origin of the fire was told by William McMullen, a.s.sistant electrician. He said: "The spot light was completely extinguished at the time of the fire. I am positive of this, because I was working on it. Three feet above my head was the flood light. I noticed the curtain swaying directly above it and suddenly a spark shot up and it was ablaze in a second."

McMullen called the attention of his a.s.sistant to the flame.

"Put the fire out," he said.

"All right," said the other man, reaching down, using his hands to put out the small flame.

"Put it out! Put it out!" shouted McMullen.

"I am! I am!" said the other, clapping the flimsy stuff between his hands.

Some of the stage hands at this moment noticed the fire.

"Look at that fire!" these called out. "Can't you see that you're on fire up there! Put it out!"

"D---- it, I am trying to," said the man who was clapping away at the burning paint impregnated muslin.

Then a flame a foot high shot up and caught the draperies above those on fire.

"Look at that other one. It's on fire," some one on the stage yelled.

"Put it out!" shouted another.

"All right," said the man on the perch. But he did not clap hard enough or fast enough, and in ten seconds the flames were beyond his reach.

It was after these hand clapping attempts to extinguish the fire had proved futile that McMullen shouted a call for the asbestos curtain to be put down.

"I did not see the curtain move."

ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN.

W. H. Aldridge, who was employed to operate one of the so-called calcium lights, told how the fire started.

"I was about twenty feet above the lights which were being used, having left my place to watch the performance," he said. "While I was looking down on the performers I noticed a flash of light where the electric wires connect with the calcium light. The flash seemed to be about six inches long. As I looked a curtain swayed against the flame. In a moment the loose edges of the canvas were in a blaze, which rapidly ran up the edge of the canvas and across its upper end.

"A man named McNulty was in charge of the light. Whether he accidentally broke the wire and caused the flash I do not know. The light was about twenty feet from the floor. It consisted of a 'spot' light, used to follow the princ.i.p.al performer, and a 'flood' light, which was used to produce the moonlight effect."