Chicago's Awful Theater Horror Part 38

Q. That is correct, is it? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did you ever say anything to Mr. Noonan or Mr. Powers or Mr. Davis as to the importance of having men stationed there, instead of a gate, so that in case of fire this would not be an obstruction? A. No, sir; they were always unlocked after the second intermission.

Q. In what act was that? A. At the close of the second act they would be always unlocked. They were exits.

Q. At the time this fire began and people started out, were they still locked or unlocked? A. They were locked.

NEVER ANY FIRE DRILLS.

Dusenberry admitted that at the time of the fire's outbreak he was descending from the top balcony after having made an inspection of the entire house. This was his custom, to see that the ushers were in their places. He said that 100 persons were standing in the pa.s.sageway back of the last row of seats on the first floor and about twenty-five persons occupied standing room in the rear of the first balcony, and seventy-five in the rear of the top balcony.

He admitted that he had never received any instructions from any of the owners or managers of the theater as to what to do in case of fire. He said that he had been told in a general way by Will J. Davis that he was to instruct the boys in their duties as ushers and make them familiar with the house.

There had never been any fire drills, he said. He did not know, he said, from what point or in what manner the large cylindrical ventilator over the auditorium was worked. It was because this ventilator was open and those above the stage closed that the fire was drawn into the front of the house. He said the nine exits on the north side, three of which were on each floor, were all bolted at the time of the fire; also that the nine pairs of iron shutters outside the inner doors were bolted at the time, and that he had never received orders from any one to have these unbolted while the audience was in the house.

GATES WERE BATTERED.

"I found these gates in a battered condition by personal inspection, the next morning after the fire," Fire Department Attorney Fulkerson added. "I hunted up Mr. Dusenberry and took him to the place and examined him on the spot as to each minute detail. The examination was with reference to their being locked, and as to why a man had not been stationed there, in place of a gate, to direct the people.

"I called two policemen as witnesses. The reason I have kept this matter secret until now was the fact that this is the first day I have had an opportunity of examining Mr. Dusenberry under oath and taking his statements in shorthand to be used in any proceeding that may follow.

"The importance of his testimony is that he is the man the theater management had put in direct control of the audience and auditorium, and the facts which he has testified to speak for themselves. Let the public draw its own conclusions.

"I wish to say, however, with reference to those iron gates that they are no part of the building or the stairway as turned over by the builders and were not a part of the plans of the same, but a feature installed by the management after the stairways were finished and accepted, and no permit was obtained from the city building department to place the gates there.

They proved to be the gates of death. Until this time they have been overlooked in the general investigation and silence has been maintained by the fire department for the purpose of clinching the evidence concerning them. This was rendered necessary through the fact that those best qualified to tell of their danger gave up their lives in acquiring that knowledge. They were gathered from behind the deadly barriers and now lie in eternal silence beyond the reach of all earthly summonses and the jurisdiction of our tribunals."

Ernest Stern, 3423 South Park avenue, Chicago:

"There was nothing left in the playhouse but standing room when my sister and I arrived, so we bought tickets according that privilege and took up a position in the middle of the first balcony. We were standing there when we saw the first evidence of fire and at once ran out. We owe our lives to that fact.

"It was about the middle of the second act when I noticed the blaze on the upper left-hand corner of the stage. Those on the stage seemed to be in semi-panic. The people didn't know what to do. Then there seemed to be somebody giving directions for them to put down the curtains after a burning piece of scenery or something fell on the stage. A man came out and gave instructions for them to pull down the curtain and after that we went out the door, downstairs and came to a door on the left hand side in the foyer, facing the street, and in the inner vestibule. There was a man there. He was not in uniform. He was trying to open the door, which was locked. There was a pair--two doors--and one of them was open and a great crowd was going out. This man was trying to unlock the other door and he could not do it. I broke the gla.s.s, and that wouldn't do either, so I kicked the whole door out and we escaped."

DIDN'T BOTHER ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.

That the foyer doors, which the van of the fleeing audience found closed, were locked during the performance was the statement of Harry Weisselbach of Chicago. He was at the ticket office in the outer vestibule off Randolph street, some time before the fire and saw two men in an argument regarding the doors. They were coming out of the theater.

"That's a mean trick, to lock the doors so people can't get out," said one of the men. "They have locked the doors again," he continued, looking back at the door man. "I wonder if there is a policeman around here."

The man's companion replied that he wasn't going to bother about the matter and the two left the theater. Weisselbach went around to the Northwestern University school and was there only a short time when the fire in the theater started. His story of the fire from that viewpoint was similar to that told by Witness Fred H. Rea.

CHAPTER XXII.

DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.

Heroes and heroines--every one of them--the members of the octette told the coroner how they sang and danced to rea.s.sure the vast audience of women and children while death lowered overhead and swept through the scene loft, a chariot of flame. Modestly they revealed the part they played in the catastrophe while billows of flame, death's red banners, menaced their lives.

Madeline Dupont, 145 Franklin avenue, New York:

"I first saw just a little bit of flame, which was on the right hand side of the first entrance on the west, the first drop of the curtain. It was just above the lamp that was reflecting on the moonlight girls. It was a calcium light. I went back and got in my place with the pale moonlight girls and the boys came out and sang their lines. Then we eight girls went on the stage--as we always did--went down to the front of the stage--and going down stage I saw the flame getting larger. Mr. Plunkett, the a.s.sistant stage manager, was in the entrance, ringing for the asbestos curtain to come down. He rang the bell until we reached the front of the stage, where we went on singing. We sang one verse of 'The Pale Moonlight'

song, and then Mr. Foy came out and spoke to the audience. What he said I don't know, and then Miss Williams fainted. She was one of the 'pale moonlight' girls, and stood alongside of me. She was taken out, and then Miss Lawrence and myself were the last girls to leave the stage. I went downstairs to notify the girls down in the bas.e.m.e.nt in the dressing rooms. I called to them that there was a fire, and advised them to run for their lives. n.o.body was coming up then. Then I went out of the regular stage door entrance."

Ethel Wynne, New York City:

"When I was about to make my exit I noticed a very small flame to the right of the stage at the first entrance. It was really above the short fellow--a little gentleman, rather--who stands on the bridge. This flame was above his head. When he noticed it he put both hands up to get the burning material--just grabbed up to get the material that was burning.

But the flame was away beyond his reach.

"The calcium light is below that, and it appeared to me as though it was the side of the curtain where the curtains are drawn up, or something. The flames spread very rapidly. I remember seeing Mr. Plunkett very plainly in the first entrance and hearing bells ringing for the curtain to fall. I said to Miss Dupont and Miss Williams, 'The curtain will fall in the meantime, the bells have rung.' We went to the back to make our entrance and the bell still continued to ring. I remember very plainly that I heard some one yell, 'Drop the curtain.'

"I noticed clearly that the curtain was caught, and it must have been on our left. It came down on the right hand side. The flames were going up very rapidly. I very foolishly lost my reason and walked back to the back steps, where I had made my entrance. From there I unfortunately had to watch the awful sights that we know of. I don't know to this hour how I got out of the burning theater."

Gertrude Lawrence, 5 West 125th street, New York:

"I was the leader of the octet, and I was on the platform going to meet my partner when I first saw the flame. I went on working as usual, down to the front, and paid no more attention to it because I thought it would soon be out. It was on the right hand side of the stage, above the stage.

I noticed there was quite an excitement on the other side, but I went on working. I thought if there was an awful fire there would be a panic, and I thought by working I would quiet the people. Then I turned and saw the flames and went up the steps, there looking back and seeing the audience in the awful panic. Then I went out the usual stage door."

Daisy Beaute, 178 West 94th street, New York:

"I was standing in the third wing ready to go on, and I saw a flame on the left hand side, facing the audience, from the draperies above the first entrance on my right hand side. It was in the draperies clear at the top of the arch in the stage opening. We kept on dancing, but Miss Williams fainted. I ran for my life without waiting to see anything more."

Miss Edith Williams, the member of the octet who fainted on the stage, swooned again soon after she took the witness stand. Deputy Coroner Buckley had just administered the oath and asked the young woman to be seated, when she fell backwards. The fall was broken by a stenographer, and the woman saved from serious injury. She was a.s.sisted to the witness room and revived. Another witness was called.

Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence, Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.

"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:

"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight, bringing the members to the center of the stage, when I discovered the fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene, a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however, did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley.

The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a part.i.tion behind me, I think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she revived."

Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):

"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet.

Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered--I could not say exactly which entrance--and then out of the stage door, which was wide open."

Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:

"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights, when Miss Williams fainted, which attracted my attention to some flames up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I don't know how I got there."

John J. Russell, Boston, Ma.s.s.:

"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.

"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.