DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.
Heroes and heroines--every one of them--the members of the octette told
the coroner how they sang and danced to reassure the vast audience of
women and children while death lowered overhead and swept through the
scene loft, a chariot of flame. Modestly they revealed the part they
played in the catastrophe while billows of flame, death's red banners,
menaced their lives.
Madeline Dupont, 145 Franklin avenue, New York:
"I first saw just a little bit of flame, which was on the right hand side
of the first entrance on the west, the first drop of the curtain. It was
just above the lamp that was reflecting on the moonlight girls. It was a
calcium light. I went back and got in my place with the pale moonlight
girls and the boys came out and sang their lines. Then we eight girls went
on the stage--as we always did--went down to the front of the stage--and
going down stage I saw the flame getting larger. Mr. Plunkett, the
assistant stage manager, was in the entrance, ringing for the asbestos
curtain to come down. He rang the bell until we reached the front of the
stage, where we went on singing. We sang one verse of 'The Pale Moonlight'
song, and then Mr. Foy came out and spoke to the audience. What he said I
don't know, and then Miss Williams fainted. She was one of the 'pale
moonlight' girls, and stood alongside of me. She was taken out, and then
Miss Lawrence and myself were the last girls to leave the stage. I went
downstairs to notify the girls down in the basement in the dressing
rooms. I called to them that there was a fire, and advised them to run for
their lives. Nobody was coming up then. Then I went out of the regular
stage door entrance."
Ethel Wynne, New York City:
"When I was about to make my exit I noticed a very small flame to the
right of the stage at the first entrance. It was really above the short
fellow--a little gentleman, rather--who stands on the bridge. This flame
was above his head. When he noticed it he put both hands up to get the
burning material--just grabbed up to get the material that was burning.
But the flame was away beyond his reach.
"The calcium light is below that, and it appeared to me as though it was
the side of the curtain where the curtains are drawn up, or something. The
flames spread very rapidly. I remember seeing Mr. Plunkett very plainly in
the first entrance and hearing bells ringing for the curtain to fall. I
said to Miss Dupont and Miss Williams, 'The curtain will fall in the
meantime, the bells have rung.' We went to the back to make our entrance
and the bell still continued to ring. I remember very plainly that I heard
some one yell, 'Drop the curtain.'
"I noticed clearly that the curtain was caught, and it must have been on
our left. It came down on the right hand side. The flames were going up
very rapidly. I very foolishly lost my reason and walked back to the back
steps, where I had made my entrance. From there I unfortunately had to
watch the awful sights that we know of. I don't know to this hour how I
got out of the burning theater."
Gertrude Lawrence, 5 West 125th street, New York:
"I was the leader of the octet, and I was on the platform going to meet my
partner when I first saw the flame. I went on working as usual, down to
the front, and paid no more attention to it because I thought it would
soon be out. It was on the right hand side of the stage, above the stage.
I noticed there was quite an excitement on the other side, but I went on
working. I thought if there was an awful fire there would be a panic, and
I thought by working I would quiet the people. Then I turned and saw the
flames and went up the steps, there looking back and seeing the audience
in the awful panic. Then I went out the usual stage door."
Daisy Beaute, 178 West 94th street, New York:
"I was standing in the third wing ready to go on, and I saw a flame on the
left hand side, facing the audience, from the draperies above the first
entrance on my right hand side. It was in the draperies clear at the top
of the arch in the stage opening. We kept on dancing, but Miss Williams
fainted. I ran for my life without waiting to see anything more."
Miss Edith Williams, the member of the octet who fainted on the stage,
swooned again soon after she took the witness stand. Deputy Coroner
Buckley had just administered the oath and asked the young woman to be
seated, when she fell backwards. The fall was broken by a stenographer,
and the woman saved from serious injury. She was assisted to the witness
room and revived. Another witness was called.
Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts
similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence,
Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members
testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear
stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the
cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.
"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:
"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight,
bringing the members to the center of the stage, when I discovered the
fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene,
a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however,
did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the
curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed
nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to
carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at
the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley.
The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a partition behind me, I
think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she
revived."
Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):
"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued
with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading
and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we
kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to
get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and
move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again
and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos
curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet.
Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the
stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I
merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered--I could not
say exactly which entrance--and then out of the stage door, which was wide
open."
Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:
"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came
up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights,
when Miss Williams fainted, which attracted my attention to some flames
up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned
around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had
left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going
to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went
over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the
middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what
happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I
don't know how I got there."
John J. Russell, Boston, Mass.:
"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the
fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above
the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.
"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the
business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went
down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for
about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams
fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning
material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people
in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.
"I told them to be seated, that everything would be all right, and to
quiet down, and quite a number did. After Miss Williams fainted it
attracted my attention, of course, to what was going on on the stage. I
saw one of the moonlight boys pick Miss Williams up in his arms and go
toward the stage entrance, other members of the octet following, except
myself. I staid until they were out of sight. I left the stage by the
second entrance on the prompt side. I went down stairs by the stairway
beside the stage elevator.
"I came back on the stage again, made one more trip down stairs, and then
I came to the stage once more. I went partly up stage, toward the stage
entrance, that was all in flames. I looked to the other side of the stage
and that was all in flames. I went down to the footlights, crossing again
across the stage, and jumped over the footlights into the auditorium and
made my way out to the first exit on my left, looking into the auditorium
from the stage, into the alley. The panic was on at that time and it was a
dreadful sight."
The statements of the remaining members were almost identical with those
quoted.