"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
"Then I tried to pacify the people from rushing or crowding, tried to save
the panic, but it was no use. I would judge there were probably a dozen,
not more than a dozen, cleared the door before the crush came. I recollect
the first person to go down seemed to be a rather stout woman, who seemed
to be free herself, somebody stepping on her skirt. She turned to gather
up her skirts and she was borne down by the crowd, and then they piled on
top of each other. I did what I could to release the jam, pulling the
people from under the crowd and getting them out into the entrance, out
into the street, but all the while the vestibule was filling up by those
returning to help their friends, and people rushing into the street and
helping to bring the crowd to. I tried to open the outside entrance door,
the west door, which I found was bolted on the inside at that time. I
tried to lift the bolt, but I couldn't do that.
"Then I kicked out two of the panels. I kicked the glass out of the
panels, and I then returned to the west vestibule door and I kicked out
the panels of these two doors, that is, the west door, and tried to take
some of the people out through the openings. After we got out of the
doorway I walked back into the entrance gallery and walked around, and
there was a dense smoke coming from the theater.
"I was expecting a big crush in the vestibule, a much larger crush than I
saw. I thought there would be a jam on that stair, but nobody came down
the stairs to my recollection, not a soul. They never lived to reach it.
All the time I was there I saw no one whose dress or demeanor would
indicate they were policemen, firemen or attaches of the theater. I
remained doing what I could to relieve the situation until driven out by
the smoke. I then went across the street and watched the destruction of
the theater."
MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE.
James C. McGurn, 2 Rosemont street, Dorchester, Mass., known on the stage
as James C. Marlowe:
"I was in the Garrick theater, a block distant, to see the show. At the
first alarm I hurried out and went down to the Iroquois theater entrance.
I went inside and the firemen were in working at the time, getting lines
of hose in there. Some of the firemen were already pouring streams through
into the lobby. There was a tremendous draft there and the lobby was
clear, but directly inside the door that had been opened there were dense
volumes of smoke. The first thought that struck my mind, being conversant
with theaters, was that there might be somebody in the house. Just then a
man came in there, followed by another man, a citizen, and we were the
only men in the lobby outside of the firemen. He asked for the gallery
stairway and immediately after that I saw him going up the stairs to the
right as you go in the lobby. He went up these stairs with his men and a
fireman followed him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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