The Iroquois Theater Disaster | Historical Disaster Documentary | Fascinating Horror
"On the 30th of December, 1903, a fire began on the stage at the newly-built Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois..."
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LearningTranscript
00:00On the 30th of December, 1903, a fire began on the stage at the newly built Iroquois Theatre
00:18in Chicago, Illinois. Advertisements for the theatre had boasted that it was absolutely
00:24fireproof, but it was far from it. Indeed, the design of the theatre building led to a death
00:31toll that outstripped that of any single building fire in all of American history,
00:37and led to changes to the design of mass occupancy buildings that are still in place today.
00:44Construction of the Iroquois Theatre was completed just a few weeks before the fire,
00:50with the venue opening on the 23rd of November, 1903. The building was a grand edifice,
00:58fitted out with marble staircases, soaring ceilings, and huge amounts of polished mahogany
01:03trim. Critics went so far as to call the building a temple of beauty, and to state that no other
01:11theatre could match the architectural perfection of the Iroquois. But the building wasn't perfect,
01:19not by any stretch of the imagination. The fire safety standards of the day were far
01:24more lax than they are now, but even so the building didn't come close to meeting them.
01:31Workers had gone on strike during construction, and so the owners had to push for the build to
01:36be completed on time. Certain luxuries were left aside to be added at a later date
01:44fire alarms, a sprinkler system, and emergency telephones among them.
01:50At the same time as corners were being cut for expediency the architect was also fine-tuning
01:57the design. Lighted exit signs just didn't fit the decor, and so they were scrapped too.
02:05The vast majority of patrons, few of whom were likely to read the criticisms of the
02:10venue in Fireproof Magazine, were largely unaware of any issues. They flocked to the Iroquois
02:18Theatre. Seating was offered on three levels with a corresponding tiered pricing system.
02:25The cheapest seats were way up high in the gallery, far from the action, and accessible
02:30only via a complicated series of narrow staircases and landings. Those who could afford a little more
02:37might plump for seats in the dress circle, which was accessed via the sweeping marble staircase in
02:43the foyer, or in the ground-floor orchestra seating area, which was up close and personal
02:48to the action on stage. Of course, gates were installed between each level and locked during
02:56performances to prevent patrons in the cheap seats from sneaking down and taking open spots
03:02in the more expensive tiers. Even without the gates theatregoers attending the 30th of December
03:10matinee wouldn't have been able to sneak a seat. The place was sold out. The Iroquois had a capacity
03:18of around 1,600 persons, but that evening it welcomed more than 2,000. So full was the venue
03:27that many patrons had to make do with a seat in the aisle, even if it did block access for others.
03:34The afternoon's show was a performance of the musical Mr Bluebeard. This was a family-friendly
03:41production based on a French fairy tale, and had received rave reviews from critics.
03:48With school out many of the patrons packing the Iroquois beyond capacity were children and their
03:54mothers. At around 3.15pm, as the stage lights were dimmed for a night scene, a spotlight arced
04:04and set fire to the top portion of a stage curtain. This tiny flame was visible to the audience, but
04:12innocuous enough for most people to write it off as an intentional special effect, just another bit
04:18of theater. Behind the scenes, however, ushers were frantically trying to extinguish the flame.
04:27They attempted to do this using the only firefighting equipment in the building
04:32a few small cans of kill fire, a fire extinguishing powder that was really only
04:38intended for damping down domestic fireplaces. The powder just floated down to the stage,
04:45achieving nothing. Similarly, when they tried to beat the flames out with poles,
04:51they only succeeded in showering the stage with flaming debris.
04:57The stage manager tried to lower the fire curtain, which would separate the fire on
05:02stage from the audience and buy time for an orderly evacuation.
05:07Halfway down, the curtain hit a light reflector and jammed. No good. The flames climbed up into
05:15the area above the stage, took hold of the highly flammable oil paint and canvas backdrops that
05:21were suspended there, and bloomed. Smoke billowed into the auditorium and a panic began. At this
05:31point comic actor Eddie Foy, who was backstage, sensed impending disaster. His own child was in
05:39the audience, and he quickly ordered a stagehand to grab the boy and get out. He then ran out onto
05:47the stage. There, even as flaming bits of canvas fell all around him, he appealed for calm. He
05:55encouraged the orchestra to play to reassure the crowd, and reminded them that the theatre was,
06:01as the marketing materials claimed, absolutely fireproof. No sooner had he said this than a
06:08blazing swath of scenery crashed down onto the stage, sending the other actors fleeing in panic,
06:15some of them with their costumes aflame. The brief moment of calm was over. Chaos ensued.
06:22Crushes quickly formed around exit doors, some of which the audience simply couldn't open because
06:28of unfamiliar mechanisms. Escape was blocked in the gallery by those iron gates designed to stop
06:35patrons sneaking more expensive seats. Elsewhere people crowded around ornamental windows that
06:42looked like doors, but which couldn't be opened. Patrons from the upper levels poured out onto
06:49patrons from the upper levels poured out onto fire escapes,
06:53only to find them narrow, icy, and in some cases unfinished. Many fell to their deaths while trying
07:02to descend, with those who fell later standing a greater chance of survival, as the bodies below
07:09would break their fall. Witnessing the developing crushes, and believing the claims that the
07:16theater was fireproof, many chose to stay seated rather than risk being trampled to death.
07:23Within minutes, however, the flames on the stage had built to an inferno.
07:28As exit doors elsewhere in the building were opened, air flooded in, feeding the flames.
07:35A fireball rippled through the auditorium, destroying everything and everyone in its path.
07:42The lack of a working alarm system in the building, and the lack of emergency telephones,
07:47meant that the fire service was only alerted when an usher ran from the Iroquois to a fire alarm box
07:54on the next street. By the time fire crews were in attendance it was too late for many of the victims.
08:03For some others, though, luck was on their side. Passers-by outside the building were miraculously
08:10well-equipped to help. One door, for example, became almost instantly jammed until a passing
08:18railway worker, who happened to have his tools with him at the time, was able to remove the hinges
08:25and allow dozens of victims to escape. Elsewhere builders scrambled up scaffolding and extended
08:32ladders across to the people trapped on the fire escapes, allowing several to crawl across to safety.
08:40Rescue efforts were, in the end, grimly brief. The building was so well sealed that the fire
08:47had practically burned itself out by the time firefighters were able to gain access through
08:52doors blocked by piles of bodies. All in all, 573 people lost their lives in the fire,
09:02with a further 30 perishing from injuries sustained during the blaze.
09:10The appalling news of the fire filled the front pages for months, fueled by a number of maddening
09:16revelations. The fire curtain, it turned out, was made of wood pulp. Even if it had been successfully
09:24lowered it wouldn't have helped. No fire drill had ever been conducted, and there were allegations
09:31that fire safety officials had been bribed with the promise of free tickets if they let all this
09:36slide. Vents in the roof, which should have prevented a fireball by acting as a chimney for
09:43the fire, were found to have been wired or nailed shut. Although reports were clear that theater
09:51owners, managers, and floor staff were culpable, nobody involved ever faced any penalties.
09:59Defendants dragged out proceedings for year after year until the case finally collapsed.
10:07Public outrage, however, and a genuine desire to avoid another catastrophe like the Iroquois
10:13Theater fire led to several swift changes. The practice of overselling theaters was cracked down
10:20on, and the disaster also saw the adoption of outward opening panic bar doors in most theaters.
10:27The panic bar was something that had been invented many years before following the
10:32Victoria Hall disaster in England, but which hadn't at the time been widely adopted in America.
10:41Eddie Foy, who had escaped the fire along with his son, was hailed as a hero, even though his
10:47appeal for calm hadn't entirely succeeded. He went on to have a long and successful career.
10:55The Iroquois Theater, on the other hand, had been gutted by the fire.
11:00The exterior remained relatively intact, and so after much interior reconstruction it was opened
11:07as the Colonial Theater, which operated without incident until 1925 when it was demolished and
11:14replaced by the Oriental, known today as the James M. Nederlander Theater. Though the Iroquois Theater
11:22existed for just a few short weeks before it was destroyed, its legacy is visible to this day
11:29in the Nederlander and in every theater across the country. Exit signs, fire doors, safety curtains...
11:37these things, now just an ordinary part of the everyday world, were not always so commonplace.
11:59you