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Arthur Curry Brown (c1861-1937) was a double-base/bass viol musician in the
Iroquois Theater orchestra
on December 30, 1903. He escaped from the theater and pits.
As a member of the Federation of Musicians, Arthur was tapped to describe conditions at the Iroquois
that affected musicians in the orchestra pit. The Federation hoped to be granted a hearing by
city council members drafting a new theater ordinance. The gist of Arthur's testimony appears in the accompanying clipping.
What comes to mind first in reading his description of the orchestra pit at the Iroquois is that for all the self-congratulation done by owners when the
theater opened, some of the structure's elementary design mistakes impacted performers as well as the audience.
Just as the rake of the third-floor balcony was as much as 40% steeper than balconies in other Chicago theaters, making escape treacherous, when the floor height of the orchestra pit was discovered to have been installed too low for balcony occupants to hear music, the resulting correction required compromises to pit exits.
Who was responsible?
In seven years of newspaper coverage about the disaster it was never made clear who was responsible for these mistakes and unsafe corrections. Not
like this was the first rodeo for any of the players. Owner-manager
Will J. Davis had overseen new construction or heavy remodeling of three prior theaters. Architect Benjamin
Marshall had designed three or more prior theaters for Klaw & Erlanger. Fuller Construction was one of the most prominent builders of the day.
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Everybody had a dog in the fight
Brown and the musician union thrusting
their occupational interests forward less than a
week after nearly six hundred fatalities--as in a similar
move by the electrician's and livery drivers
unions--stands out in newspaper coverage as
extraordinarily opportunistic.
Electricians tried to blame the disaster on non-union electricians working at the Iroquois. Couldn't let families bury their dead before grinding an axe.
Despite efforts from the musician's union, in weeks of wrestling over a
new theater ordinance, the city council did not address access requirements for orchestra pits. They were very busy coddling theater owners.
Arthur's bio
Arthur was the son of George and Kitty Brown and had
been born in Salem, Indiana. He had a brother named
George English Brown.
In 1910 Arthur was vice president of the musicians'
trade union. By the 1920, Arthur, like many
musicians, during the transition to film, was out of
work, feeling the effects of the cinema that every
year further reduced traffic at live theaters thus
the demand for musicians. By 1930 he worked as a
salesman in the apparel industry.
Arthur spent his last years at the Illinois Masonic
Home in Sullivan, Illinois (today's Mason Point) and
was buried in Chicago's Mt. Greenwood cemetery.
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