Keyword search
(Iroquois-specific results
will appear at bottom of
search list):
Note: If this tab has been open in your browser for hours
or days, a new search may bring an access error or unproductive results. When that happens, position the cursor in the
"Enhanced by Google" search box above, then refresh your screen
(F5 on PC, Cmd-R on Apple, 3-button symbol at top right of screen on Android or iphone) and
re-enter your search words.
"Out of a total of 252 theatres, 70, or more than one
fourth of them, are destroyed before they reach an age of 5 years
... This may be explained, first, by the fact that in a new
theatre the safety appliances, the arrangements for lighting, the
scene-hoisting devices, the fire-protection appliances, are rarely in perfect
working order, and the theatre employees have not as yet become
accustomed to handling them, and are likewise
unfamiliar with the rules of management."
"The majority of fires during
performances break out on the stage, and are due to
open and unprotected or to deficiently protected,
lights in too close proximity to, or amidst a mass
of, unprotected and highly inflammable scenery,
draperies, gauze, ropes and woodwork."
W. P. Gerhard, 1896, six years before Iroquois Theater disaster
The perfect storm that resulted in the deaths of nearly six hundred people at the Iroquois Theater began with a young designer, old theater managers and over-reliance on new construction
After the fire, Iroquois Theater Benjamin Marshall claimed to have studied theater
fire safety. He must have skipped over the passages that warned against
the danger of complex and winding stairways.
In fairness, however, Ben was surrounded by men with formidable chops in building and managing theaters.
Between them, managers Will J. Davis and Harry Powers, and co-owners
Klaw, Erlanger, Zimmerman, Frohman and Nixon had over a hundred combined years of experience in
theater management. Syndicate partners were important clients in those early days of Ben's
professional career. Even if Marshall had read the works cited below, he might have dismissed
some remarks as not applicable at the Iroquois where Will J. Davis had been managing theaters since
before Ben was born. Marshall may have been one many who gave more credit to Davis' grey hair
than it deserved.
Expertise and history seemingly ignored by theater syndicate and its favorite architect
Fire prevention in theaters was not a new concept in 1903.
Books about theater design for twenty years leading
up to the Iroquois fire commonly
incorporated fire-prevention recommendations.
The advice therein was either not seen or was
ignored by Iroquois manager
Will J. Davis and architect
Benjamin Marshall.
Theatre Fires and Panics: their Causes and Prevention
One such book about theater fires, published seven years before
the Iroquois fire, was authored by engineer William P. Gerhard.
In Theatre Fires and Panics: their Causes and Prevention
(
download searchable pdf file) Gerhard laid out a sobering
worldwide history of theater fires dating to
the mid 1700s. He followed with an
extraordinarily detailed and comprehensive outline
of procedures, fire fighting equipment and design
features necessary to reduce the possibility of a
theater fire causing loss of life. He
backed up his discourse with a bibliography citing other books and
magazines that discussed fire safety in theaters.
Based on a paper delivered to fire engineers in
1894, the book was first published in 1896, again
in 1900 and excerpts were published in several
magazines and reviewed in multiple newspapers, including
the Chicago Tribune in 1896. As a book collector,
presumably Davis was a reader. Had he read just one
of the books about fire safety in theaters, the Iroquois
disaster might not have happened.
From Theatre
Fires and Panics: their Causes and Prevention
Biography of William Paul Gerhard (1854–1927)
Author Gerhard was a civil engineer who
consulted on hydraulic and sanitary
projects, authoring thirteen books and
seventy magazine articles about waste
disposal, gas lighting, fire prevention
in theaters and water supply.
Born in Hamburg, Germany, he graduated from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in
Baden-Wurttemberg in 1875, emigrated to the
United States, married Selma Weiskirch of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1881 and in 1893 became
a naturalized U.S. citizen. He first settled
in St. Louis, later relocating to
Newport, RI and then to Brooklyn. He and
Selma had two sons, both of whom followed their
father's footsteps into the field of
engineering.
His passport reported he was short in stature with
blonde hair. William died of heart
failure at age seventy-five.
The article below originated as a paper written in 1878 by August Folsch (1825 –
1894) (see biography below from Jan–Jun 1894 issue of The Builder magazine),
an engineer in Hamburg, Germany that in November 1880 was read to the Insurance
Institute of Manchester in England by Henry F. Warden. Henry Warden was
partners with Benjamin Miller for seventeen years then in 1883 became secretary
of the Insurance Institute's newly created Manchester branch of Yorkshire Fire
and Life Insurance (1824–1985).
Biography of August Folsch, Hamburg engineer and theater fire scholar.
Discrepancies and addendum
* Reviewed and referenced in two issues of American Architect and Building News magazine in 1897.
Stagehands at 1903
Iroquois Theater
Chicago aldermen on fire
Englewood High School
sorority 8 teenage girls
Other discussions you might find interesting
Story 2888
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
