"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror

BARNHEISEL, CHARLES H., 3622 Michigan avenue; unknown to family that he had attended theater, and published list of dead containing name conveyed the first information to family...

From two women who sat within a few feet of the stage when the fire broke out in the theater, and who remained calm enough to observe the actual beginning of the holocaust, ther...

No disaster, by flood, volcano, wreck or convulsion of nature has in recent times aroused such horror as swept over the civilized world when on December 30, 1903, a death-dealin...

Scores and scores of witnesses assembled in the little committee rooms and antechambers of the council hall in the great Chicago administrative building, each with his story to...

On the heels of the firemen came the police, intent on the work of rescue. Chief O'Neill and Assistant Chief Schuettler ordered captains from a dozen stations to bring their men...

Examination of Robert E. Murray, engineer of the theater, and through that fact, the man in charge of its machinery and mechanical equipment, revealed in a startling way the abs...

Those in greatest danger through proximity to the stage did not throw their weight against the mass ahead. Not many died on the first floor, proof of the contention that some re...

All the world was startled on Sunday, February 7, 1904, just 39 days after the Iroquois theater horror, by another sickening visitation of the fire fiend. This time the devourin...

Never before in the history of amusements has so excellent an opportunity been afforded to look behind the scenes of the mimic world and study the real life of the actor. To one...

Since the time that civilized man first met with fellow man to enjoy the work of the primitive playwright, humanity has paid a toll of human life for its amusements. Oftener tha...

Many of the members of the "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.," company were arrested and retained as witnesses in the trial, on a charge of manslaughter, of Messrs. Davis and Powers, Building...

The real story of the origin of the fire was told by William McMullen, assistant electrician. He said: "The spot light was completely extinguished at the time of the fire. I am...

One of the heroes of the Iroquois theater fire was Peter Quinn, chief special agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad system, who assisted in saving the lives of 100 o...

All but one of the 348 members of the "Bluebeard" company escaped, although many had close calls for their lives. Some of the chorus girls displayed great coolness in the face o...

In drays and delivery wagons they carried the dead away from the Iroquois theater ruins. The sidewalk in front of the playhouse and Thompson's restaurant was completely filled w...

Eddie Foy, whose real name is Edwin Fitzgerald, has faced many audiences under all conditions and circumstances during his stage career of a quarter of a century, during which h...

More than a quarter of a century ago the prophecy was made by the _Chicago Times_ that a terrible calamity was in store for the public on account of the lax provision made for e...

"Location--All theaters to be in buildings by themselves, like the Illinois and Iroquois. No stores or offices to be located in them. Buildings should be isolated, with wide pri...

A majority of the victims of the fire were laid to rest, however, during the Sabbath succeeding the awful calamity. The main thoroughfares of the benumbed city leading north and...

"If you ever saw a field of timothy grass blown flat by the wind and rain of a summer storm, that was the position of the dead at the exits of the second balcony," said Chief of...

Robert S. Lindstrom, a well known Chicago architect, makes the following suggestions: "It is earnestly requested that the following suggestions be published for the benefit and...

Heroes and heroines--every one of them--the members of the octette told the coroner how they sang and danced to reassure the vast audience of women and children while death lowe...

That two iron gates, securely padlocked, across stairways in the Randolph street entrance, held scores of women and children as prisoners of death at the Iroquois theater fire h...

Miss Charlotte Plamondon, daughter of the vice-president of the Chicago board of education, who waited until the fire had caught in the curtains over the front box, in which she...

Bishop Muldoon selected as the one familiar hymn most deeply expressive of the city's mourning, "Lead, Kindly Light," which he declared should be the united song of all Chicagoa...

"We couldn't see any opening, but we could see the light from the opening, and then we went over the seats. I didn't look back after I started. My wife and sister-in-law followe...

Jan. 1--day of funerals--was received in silence. Streets were almost deserted, even downtown. Men hurried silently along the sidewalks. There were not half a dozen tin horns in...

Ten days after the fire horror, while blood curdling disclosures were coming to light revealing the fate of the penned-in fire victims in a new and more ghastly aspect, and whil...

MRS. SCHWEITZLER'S STORY OF THE BURNING OF THE CURTAIN--ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN-- EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD--ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE THEATER PARTY--ALL HIS FAMILY GO...

SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS--SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME-- PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH--BURY CHILDREN AND GRAND-CHILDREN--FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE--ENTIRE FAMILY IS BURIED--MRS. FOX AND THREE...

NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS--CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG-- WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED--MASSACHUSETTS THEATERS INVESTIGATED--ACTION IN MILWAUKEE-- PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS--OR...

GREAT PILES OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THE THEATER--MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO SAVE--NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY--DEAD AND DYING CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAU...

ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN--WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS TURNED OUT?--STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS, MANAGERS OF THE THEATER--FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DI...

HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING AUDITORIUM--THE GALLERY HORROR--GIRL'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE--AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES--INSPECTION AFTER THE FIRE--A YOUNG HEROINE--A N...

MOURNING AND INDIGNATION--NOTHING ELSE SO HORRIBLE--UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS--FIRE! FIRE!--BEFORE THE DISASTER--THE HOLOCAUST--THE STAMPEDE BEGINS-- ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS--CURSED...

EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN--BISHOP BRAVES DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE--WOMEN AND FOUR CHILDREN SUFFER--LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED--FINDS HIS DAUGHTER--MR. FIELD'...

THE FIRST WITNESS--MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE--MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT--MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE--UP AGAINST LOCKED DOORS--BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY--JUST OUT IN TIME--SPORTING MEN T...

MISS CHARLOTTE PLAMONDON'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE-- SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD--CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE, PARTLY CLAD--FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC--ESCAPE OF ANOTHER SOCIETY WOMAN--MINNEAPO...

A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY--A CLERGYMAN'S STORY-- THE FLY MAN'S STORY--SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE--GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE--THE LIGHT OPERATOR--THE JAMMED THEATE...