"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror — John Shaqi
"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
There were similar scenes at all of the undertaking rooms to which bodies
were taken.
"When the fire broke out I was taking tickets at the door," said E.
Lovett, one of the ushers. "The crowd began to move toward the exits on
the ground floor, and I rushed to the big entrance doors and threw three
of them open. From there I hurried to the cigar store and called up the
police and fire departments.
"When I returned I tried to get more of the doors open, but was shoved
aside and told that I was crazy. The crowd acted in a most frenzied manner
and no one could have held them in check. Conditions on the balconies must
have been appalling. They were well filled, but the exits, had they been
opened, would have proved ample for all."
Michael Ohle, who was ushering on the first balcony, noticed the fire
shortly after it started. He hurried to the entrances and cleared the way
for the people to get out. Then, he says, he started downstairs to find
out how serious the fire was. Before he could return the panic was on and
he fled to the street for safety.
"Mrs. Phillipson, Phillipson--is Mrs. Phillipson here?"
That cry sounded in drug stores, cigar stores, and hotels until three
little girls, Adeline, Frances, and Teresa, had found their mother, from
whom they were separated in the panic. At last at the Continental hotel
the call was weakly answered by a woman who lay upon a couch, more
frightened than hurt. In another moment three little girls were sobbing in
their mother's lap.
FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER
HOLOCAUST.
Friends sought for information of friends; husbands asked for word of
wives; fathers and mothers sought news of sons and daughters; men and
women begged to be told if there was any knowledge of their sweethearts;
parents asked for children; and children fearfully told the names of
missing playmates.
The early hours of the evening were marked by many sad scenes. Men would
rush to the desk where the names of the missing were being compiled and
asked if anything had been heard of some member of their families, then
turn away and hurry out, barely waiting to be told that there would be no
definite news until nearly midnight.
"Just think!" said one gray headed man, leaning on the arm of a younger
man who was leading him down the stairs, "I bought the matinee tickets
for the children as a treat, and insisted that they take their little
cousin with them."
"Have you heard anything of my daughter?" asked a woman.
"What was her name?"
"Lily. She had seats in the first balcony with some girl friends. You
would know her by her brown hair. She wore a white silk shirt waist and a
diamond ring I gave her for Christmas. I went to the theater, but I
couldn't get near it, and they said they were still carrying out bodies."
"And her name? Who was she?"
"She was my daughter--my only one!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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