"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater HorrorEverett, Marshall
History
"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
Everett, Marshall
Iroquois Theater, Chicago -- Fire, 1903; Theaters -- Fires and fire prevention
"Back of me, I remember, there was a sheet of flame that seemed to be
gathering volume and reaching out for us. Then I forgot again, and not
until the crowd surged toward the wall and caught me between it and the
marble pillar did I realize what the danger was. The pain revived me. I
know I was almost crushed to death, but it didn't hurt. Nothing could
hurt, with the screaming, the agonizing cries of the women and children
ringing in your ears.
CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE PARTLY CLAD.
"And then, somehow, I found myself out on the street and the dead and
dying were around me. When I realized that I was out of the place and safe
from the fire and crush, all my strength seemed to leave me. But the cold
air braced me after a moment and I went around to the drug store, where
the dead were being brought in and the poor actresses and chorus girls
were coming in with scarcely anything on them.
"I never felt as I did when it dawned upon us that the theater was on
fire. It seemed like a dream at first. The border curtain right near our
box blew back, and I think it hit a light or something, for when it fell
back into place I saw it was on fire.
"The chorus girls kept right on singing for a couple of minutes, it
seemed. Then one of the stage men rushed out and shouted: 'Keep your
seats.'
"Oh, the stage men behaved like heroes! As I think of it now, they
conducted themselves with rare courage. I saw a couple of the girls fall
down, and I knew that they were overcome."
FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC.
"Just then Eddie Foy ran out on the stage, partly made up, and cried:
"'My God, people, keep your seats!'
"When Foy said this I regained my senses, and when the asbestos curtain
did not come down I felt that the situation was critical. The flames had
taken hold of the front row of seats behind the orchestra and were
creeping up the curtains over our box, when I jumped to my feet and leaped
over the railing.
"I saw the children lying in heaps under our feet. Their little lives were
ended, and rough feet were bruising their flesh; and such innocent
children! Men leaped over the rows of prostrate forms and fought like they
were mad, trying to get out of the entrance."
ESCAPE OF ANOTHER SOCIETY WOMAN.
Mrs. A. Sorge, Jr., whose husband is a consulting engineer, with offices
in the Monadnock Building, and who lives at the Chicago Beach Hotel,
attended the theater in company with Dr. Jager, who is a guest of Mr. and
Mrs. Sorge. They occupied a seat well down in the parquet.
"When the fire started," said Mrs. Sorge, "persons on the stage told us to
keep our seats. Dr. Jager also told me to sit still, and we did until the
flames began to come near us. Then we clasped hands and started for the
door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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