119 years ago, 602 people lost their lives in the Iroquois Theater Fire in downtown Chicago.
In the book “Tinder Box,” Anthony Hatch details how the performance descended into chaos: The theater’s lone fireman sprayed the useless fire extinguishers at the growing blaze, and the asbestos fire curtain failed to lower all the way. Several of the exits had been locked or the doors opened inward. As the panicked crowd rushed to escape, many were trampled or asphyxiated to death because of the blocked exits. The roof ventilation was nailed shut, and when performers opened a backstage door, a fireball ripped through the audience and instantly killed many people in the upper gallery. The theater was plunged into darkness, with no illuminated exit signs to show the way out.
Because the theater didn’t have a fire alarm or telephone. A stagehand had to run to the fire station to notify the firefighters. By the time the firefighters entered the building, 575 people were dead. (The fire actually killed more people than the Great Chicago Fire, which decimated the city).
One page in the January 1, 1904, Chicago Tribune (see below) had a listing of all the unidentified dead, most of them women and children. Each indentation is another unclaimed body in columns 2-6.
Here is a list of a few of the infractions that lead to so many deaths:
The theater could hold 1,600 people, but there were approximately 2,000 audience members for this matineé.
The stage curtain wasn't fireproof. It was analyzed as being mostly wood pulp with some asbestos.
The stage curtain got stuck and wouldn't lower all the way to the stage, which caused a back-draft that hurled a fireball into the seating area about 20 minutes after the blaze started.
Exterior doors opened inward.
No exit signs on fire escapes.
Some exit doors were covered by tapestry.
No emergency lighting.
Some stairways were gated off to prevent people from sneaking into the more expensive seats.
THERE WERE ORNAMENTAL DOORS THAT WEREN'T REAL DOORS. WTF??? 200 people died piled up behind a fake door.
Imagine narrow, metal fire escapes at the end of December. Treacherous. 125 people died trying to use them.
You'd probably like to think that in the "olden days" capitalism wasn't a big of a monster as it is today. Well, you'd be wrong. The owners of the theater rushed the build and all of the safety features weren't in place before it opened a little more than a month prior to the fire. And if you're thinking, "Surely, someone paid for this injustice! Someone had to go to jail for the insurmountable amount of deaths!" Wrong again.
According to the literature, the theatre owners, Harry J. Powers and Will J. Davis, were sued individually for 575 counts of manslaughter. Their defense attorney was Levy Mayer. The motion to quash the criminal indictments was argued by Mayer before Judge Kersten, Chief Judge of the Criminal Court.
Judge Kersten quashed the criminal indictments and also dismissed the common law counts. The case was moved out of Chicago. The civil case did eventually go to trial in Vermillion country in March of 1907, more than three years after the deaths. At one point more than 100 actions for damages at law were filed. None of these cases reached a jury. No one was held liable in civil or criminal action, and no fines were paid. Sigh.
After the fire, the Iroquois Theatre was renamed and reopened as the Hyde & Behman's Music Hall in September 1904. In October 1905, it was rechristened as the Colonial Theatre. In 1926, The building was razed and rebuilt as the Oriental Theater, which retained the facade. In 2019, the Oriental Theatre was renamed the Nederlander Theatre.
The alley behind the old Iroquois Theater is said to be haunted and is known as “Death Alley,” The Chicago Daily Tribune called it “The Alley of Death and Mutilation” in their 31 December 1903 issue, along with an amazing illustration, below.
Comments