Iroquois Theater ushers and porters

According to testimony by Iroquois business manager Thomas Noonan there were fifteen ushers employed at the Iroquois Theater. If he testified how many were on duty at the December 30, 1903 matinee, it wasn't reported. Fourteen testified at the coroner and grand jury inquests, as well as one former Iroquois usher.

The ushers were under the supervision of George Dusenberry, who was responsible for hiring and training. According to testimony by Dusenberry, he was instructed by unspecified managers ( Will J. Davis, Harry Powers or Noonan) to hire medium-sized men nineteen to twenty-two years old. According to testimony by many, his instructions to the ushers was non-existent to minimal, and on at least one occasion, his directives to an usher were overridden by Will J. Davis.

Newspaper headlines proclaimed the ushers were 14 and that they ran at the first sign of fire. That misleading characterization has stood for over a century. Information about them is skimpy, so I haven't a good guess as to how many descendants there might be alive today, but it seems like the right thing to do to set the record straight, even if there are none.

The age of three Iroquois ushers is not known. Five were sixteen and under; six were seventeen to twenty-two. As to their actions during the fire:

Two probably did flee. (VonLukowitz and Ohle)

Three stayed to help audience members escape and were later hospitalized, one dying. (Jones, Kirwan and fatality Seymour)

Two ran to sound the alarm, one at a fire alarm box and one calling police and fire departments from a telephone at the cigar store next door. (Lovett and Norland)

Five testified that they opened doors to help audience members escape. (Gibbons, Guerin, Meyer/Heyer, Treat and Quigley)

The conduct of two was not reported. (Boynton and Rattray)

Reading between the lines of newspaper reports, I suspect that in two to three incidents, ushers' action at doors was misunderstood by audience members. The best example of this was Edward Lovett's testimony that when he tried to release a bolt so as to open all three sections of a doorway in the front lobby, thus making it wider so more people could pass through more quickly, but in the process, of necessity, putting himself temporarily in the path of fleeing people, they told him he was crazy. Many of the doors at the Iroquois had multiple sections that to open required loosening levers and bolts. Not understanding the fasteners, audience members frantically broke through glass panels by kicking and poking with umbrellas. Their desperate fear and shouting outweighed the voices of those ushers who attempted to help.

"I don't know whether he said he could not or would not."

Another example happened at one of the frozen fire escape doors.^▼1 During the coroner's inquest in January 1904, a bold newspaper subhead proclaimed: "Usher's Refusal to Open Door." The story quoted portions of Elviro Penedo's testimony. She had been seated on the ground floor (that produced a half dozen fatalities) and was one of the first to line up to exit from a fire escape exit on the north side of the auditorium, out into Couch Place alley. In her testimony, she first said, "I heard this man ask the usher to please unlock the door, and he refused." Minutes later, she was asked, "Do you recall the conversation that was carried on with the usher relative to the opening of the door, as to whether he answered he could not or he would not?" Pinedo then altered her testimony to answer, "I don't know whether he said he could not or would not." Too late. Hundreds of newspapers around the world picked up the subhead and reported that ushers refused to open doors. The usher in this instance was probably Edward Quigley.

Name

Age

Position

Floor assignment
if known

Ray S. Boynton (1883–1951)

356-1/2 E. Ohio

Student Art Institute of Chicago. Became a noted artist, working in oil, pastels and fresco,gaining the most attention for his murals. Later served in WWI.

20

Usher

1st
Assigned to door no. 8.

William M. Claybrook   (1869–1925)

5520 Ingleside Avenue

By the time the fire broke out in the second act, the house was full so Lovett's and Claybrooks position at the front doors would have been more about guarding to prevent street thieves from slipping in and reaching the coat check rooms. As demonstrated by police reports and robbery of victim corpses, pick-pockets and thieves were a problem in the area of the Iroquois.
Claybrook was from Camesburg, Canada, In the 1910 U.S. Census he was described as Mulatto; in 1920 as Black. His parents were Joseph and Sarah Claybrook of Kentucky and Ohio. He married Harriet "Hattie" S. Collipo in 1890 and they had one child, George W. Claybrook. William worked as a porter in 1903 and by 1910 as a waiter on the railroad. He and Hattie purchased their home at 5520 Ingleside Avenue in Chicago in 1899 for $2,600; around 1920 they moved to a duplex at 4820 Langley. He was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Cook County, a historically African American cemetery in Blue Island, IL. founded in 1911 by Black business leaders of Chicago.

34

Porter

Ticket taker

James E. Gibbon   (1888–1969)

434 Oakdale Ave

Iowa-born son of English immigrants, Robert and Rachel Elizabeth Dobson Gibbon. The family lived at 1901 W. Wolfram St in Chicago's Diversey street area for several decades. The 1896 structure still stands. As an adult James became a chauffeur for a time, and a mechanic. According to his WWI draft card the fingers on his left hand were deformed and he played the cornet. His brother Albert served in France. Married & divorced Jeanette Clark, no children. Spent his last years in Jacksonville, IL hospital for the insane and developmentally disabled.^▼3

15

Usher

1st

Response at Iroquois: Told audience to calm down. Testified that he opened non-specified front doors.

Archibald E. "Archie" Guerin (1887–1913)
655 West Harrison St

Lived with widowed mother and siblings. For Archie, more excitement began four years after fire.

16

Assistant chief usher

1st

Response at Iroquois: Opened one triple-door set in door nos. 10-16 and two fire escape exits in nos. 2-4. Testified that he saw another 1st floor usher opening an exit.

Archie Guerin's path from usher to lawyer

William H. Heyer - see Meyer

Oro B. Jones (1885–1938)

(miss reported as Oraa E. Jones, Ora Jones and Alfred Jones)

476 W. Madison
Canadian born son of bookkeeper William Barton Jones and Susan Johnson Jones
Married Ellen H. Hurst in September 1905 and had one child, daughter Violet, but marriage did not last. Worked as a finisher of pianos and automobiles. Spent most of his adult life in Florida. Died of heart failure at age fifty-three while operating a soda concession on Sea Island Beach resort on Georgia's Atlantic shoreline. He was a thin, blue-eyed fellow, of medium height, with brown hair.

19

Usher

3rd

Response at Iroquois:

See his testimony in news story below. Was badly injured and taken to Passavant hospital. On early victim lists it was reported that he was expected to die. He said that Dusenberry instructed him on opening day to open all fire escape doors in case of panic or fire. The "little girl" in news story below, who caught the painter's plank, was Carrie Anderson, daughter of an Iroquois scrub woman who was a fatality of the fire.

John G. Kirwan (1889–1950)

1731-1733 Wabash
Prior to Iroquois, worked at another of Will J. Davis theaters, the Illinois. In 1909 he brought a $10,000 suit against Fuller Construction and Iroquois management for injuries suffered at the Iroquois. Son of Irish immigrants, Thomas and Helen Hogan Kirwan, with one sibling. He served in WWI with the 54th infantry in France. After the war he became head waiter in the Ambassador Hotel restaurant in Chicago, married a Missouri girl named Mabel Gould and the pair had one child, a daughter named Irene.

14

Usher

?
probably 2 or 3

Response at Iroquois: Testified that he became frightened and awoke in St. Lukes hospital, remembering nothing.

Edward Lovett (sometimes reported as Ernest)

3206 Rhodes

?

Director of Ushers

All ?

Response at Iroquois: Was taking tickets when fire started. Testified that he ran to a nearby cigar store to call police and fire departments, then returned to theater where he opened one door in the three-door set at the front entrance ( door no.12 in set no. 10-12) and was trying to unfasten the bolt to open the other two doors in the set when the crowd pushed him aside and told him he was crazy — presumably for being in the way when he tried to release the bolt that would open the other two doors in the set.
As to training, Lovett testified that they were told to remain cool in case of fire or panic, keep people out of the aisles and remain in their position until the auditorium was emptied. This was contradicted by testimony from Willard Sayles (below), an Iroquois balcony usher, who said they were given no instructions regarding fire or panic.

William H. Meyer

Address unreported

(or William R. Heyer both names reported with same story, one likely a typographical error but which one?)

?

Usher

2nd

Response at Iroquois: Testified that he tried to calm audience to no avail and barely had time to open fire escape exits (door nos. 29-31). Newspaper reports of his testimony did not indicate that he was queried as to which doors he opened, interior and/or exterior.

Walter Norland (1886–1955)

182 Sedgwick

Son of Celia and the late John Norland. Married nine years after fire and had one child.

16

Usher

?

Response at Iroquois: In foyer when heard the cry of fire and immediately ran to fire alarm box in front of the Masonic Temple. Described as too frail to have been much help with rescuing people but he went on to live a long life.

Michael "Max" Ohle (1881–1940)

743 Irving Park Blvd

Lived with his parents, barbershop owner Julius and Sophia Koenig Ohle, and three siblings. Seven years earlier, at age fifteen, Max had become addicted to cocaine by drinking Birney's cough syrup, a catarrh formulated with 4% hydrochloride of cocaine, a strength used for local anesthesia. Many other catarrh's of the time contained half that strength. Max's situation was described in a lengthy newspaper story and elicited a response from Chicago's assistant commissioner of health, Dr. Reilly. It was not the first such report his offices had received, he wanted readers to know. Two years earlier a druggist had reported addictive behavior by other users of the remedy, including a relapse by a former Keeley Institute graduate. Reilly reported that he was powerless to do anything other than warn the public. Cocaine would not become federally regulated until 1914. In 1896, Max's fellow cocaine enthusiasts included Sigmund Freud.

22

Usher

2nd

Max's father, Julius, rebuffed doctors who were interested in studying how Max coped with abrupt withdrawal. Julius would deal with his son's drug fiend problem himself. Fiend was the label assigned to drug addicts then. He assured the newspaper that Max would not be let out of his sight until cured. Max even went to the barbershop with his father. Nothing more is known about Max and his addiction. He married and had a child, eventually moving to Utica, NY and becoming a restaurant manager.

Max's case helped increase public awareness in Chicago so that this anti-patent medicine poster appeared in a Chicago drugstore.

Max's response at Iroquois: Testified that there were only two ushers working on the second floor balcony. He hurried to non-specified exits to "clear the way" for people to get out, then went downstairs to see how serious the fire was and was swept outside by the crowd.  Max's profile suggests that he and Ray Boynton looked a lot alike but Max wore his sideburns longer.

William L. Quigley (1887–1936)

1432 Dunning
Oldest son of Eugene and Louise Brown Quigley

16

Usher

3rd

Response at Iroquois: He opened half of the middle door set (no. 38) leading from the third floor balcony out to the stairwell that went to the lobby. It did not occur to him to open the other half of the door set that was fastened by catches at top and bottom.

Testified about his training in his former ushering job at Powers Theater. There he was taught to open exits in case of fire and on how to use the fire hose. He was also required to open the outer iron fire-escape doors every night before the performance. None of these precautions were procedures at the Iroquois. He opened one of the fire escape doors out of curiosity the night before the fire, the first time he'd ever done so.

Said that he met usher Joseph Seymour (below) the Sunday before the fire, in front of the theater. Seymour asked if he wanted to go to work. Quigley said yes and was immediately taken to Dusenberry who told him to come to work the following day.

Harry Rattray

Nothing was reported other than that Harry testified at the coroner's inquest. I suspect he may have been absent from the theater the day of the fire and was subpoenaed only to learn if he had received fire training.

?

Usher

?

Response at Iroquois: None known

Willard Avery Sayles Jr (1887–1957)

382 North Avenue

16

Usher

2nd

Response at Iroquois: not present, a former employee

Sayles testified that he had been reprimanded by Iroquois manager Will J. Davis on opening night at the Iroquois for following instructions from his supervisor, Dusenberry, to open fire escape door (nos. 38 & 39) in response to an audience complaint that it was overly warm. He also said he received no instructions regarding what to do in an emergency.

Milwaukee native Willard was one of four children born to Willard Sayles Sr and Annette Seacott Sayles. Seven years after the fire he married Emma Deneve and the pair had two children. He went into sales and eventually became district manager over nineteen states then vice president at the Canada Dry Ginger Ale company.

Joseph Seymour (1881–1903)

758 W. Lake St

22

Usher

?

Response at Iroquois: Died after helping over a dozen from the theater.

James L. (or M.) Treat (1883–1966)

Note: birth/death date is iffy. If I have the right fellow, he remained in the theater industry, in 1918 managing a theater in Detroit.

20

Usher

2nd

Response at Iroquois: Testified that he was on the stairs outside the entrance into the 2nd floor balcony. He ran to a lower door ( no. 28 or 32) and called to the audience to come out that way but was ignored. He said they clambered over the backs of seats and swarmed to the door where most had entered the balcony (no. 33). What with the audience shouting and it being dark, have to wonder how many even heard/saw him.

Elmer VonLukowitz   (1886–1951)

8 Sedgwick Court

Was one of nine surviving of sixteen (!!!) children born to Eli and Isabella McLaughlin VonLukowitz. Thinking that to survive in such a large family might have required a hyperactive fleeing instinct. He married Amelia Larson four years after the fire; the pair had one child, a daughter named after Elmer's mother. He worked as a chauffeur and a clerk. He was of medium height and build with blue eyes and dark brown hair.

17

Usher

1st

Response at Iroquois: Testified that when he heard the cry of fire he ran out the front door and did not return.

Did Iroquois Theater ushers wear top hats to the grand opening the night of November 23, 1903? The absence of women in this photo suggests it was taken before the audience arrived, thus the men pictured might be ushers and other theater staff. The postures of some suggest youthfulness, so maybe. Presumably they would not have worn formal attire to an afternoon matinee, however, so were clad differently on Dec 30, 1903. In 1903, two p.m. was the starting time when more formal wear was expected from gentlemen. Top hats were viewed by some as an unfortunate import from London.

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