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Antonio Frosolono
(1875-1974) of Italy was the music director and
first violinist at the
Iroquois theater orchestra. On Dec 30,
1903, he was playing the violin in the Mr. Bluebeard matinee,
led by company baton director,
Herbert Dillea.
Frosolono said he remained in the orchestra pit
until the instruments began catching fire: " told the men to
play, and they did play, until the flames came down
and drove us out. I thought it was
time to get out when the bass fiddle and the
cello got to burning." (Dillea and
Eddie Foy also told of having urged the
musicians to play.)
Frosolono grabbed his
violin and the bassoon and escaped from the
orchestra pit through a narrow opening into the
hallway beneath the stage. There he met up
with and assisted one of the German rope handlers
from the Grigolatis ballet company who had injured
his leg. The pair made it to the men's
washroom at the front of the theater. Joined
there by cast members, the group broke a window and
escaped out onto the street in front of the
Iroquois.
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A bit of a self aggrandizer, Frosolono's account featured him urging the
orchestra to keep playing, helping the limping rope
handler, discovering the window in the washroom and
directing the others to break it.
Frosolono stayed outside after escaping, carrying his violin, looking for his fellow
musicians. "It's my men. If I only were sure they
were all safe," he told a reporter, who did not
report on what happened to the bassoon. The bassoonist had reportedly gone
immediately home from the fire so Frosolono must
have found a safe place to store it while he
wandered around outside the theater.
He later described the removal of the dead,
"In an endless
line they carried the poor mutilated men and women
and little children. They grew so common they ceased
to handle them tenderly, but dumped them down on the
sidewalks as best they could."
Frosolono later married May Turner from Clinton, Indiana,
a vocal performer. He spent a few years
in Europe then went to work for
Will J. Davis, former Iroquois Theater manager,
at the
Illinois Theater, another Klaw & Erlanger
theater.
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