December 30, 1903. Christmas has come and gone, and Chicago is ready to ring in 1904. On that day before New Year's Eve, perhaps the society ladies are out shopping at Marshall Field. Perhaps they have their kids in tow and want to see a show on the stage. Perhaps they decide to go see Mr. Bluebeard at the new Iroquois Theatre. Perhaps they have just made a fatal mistake.
The Iroquois Theatre opened in November of 1903 to rave reviews. One such critic even went as far as to say that the Iroquois was "the most beautiful [theater] in Chicago" The Theater was purposely built at 24 W. Randolph in order to take advantage of the crowds that would stream in from the Loop Shopping District(which was a big deal even at the beginning of the 20th Century). At its opening, the theater branded itself as "Absolutely Fireproof", even though there were some pretty big holes in that declaration, like the fact that the editor of a prominent fire magazine had toured the theater and noted the lack of proper ventilation, exposed woodwork, and lack of exits; or the fact that a CFD captain had made an unofficial visit, made his concerns(that the only piece of fire-fighting equipment at the theater were 6 boxes of a bicarbonate-based compound called Kilfyre) known, and was promptly swept under the rug. Not just that, but the theater had several architectural hazards, such as gates that blocked off the stairways during shows, confusing exits, a faulty fire curtain, and other hazards. So let's see, we've got a theatre that could also double as a fire trap, which is chock full of women and children. Nothing bad is going to happen here, right?
Back to December 30. The performance of Mr. Bluebeard is going as planned, and the second act is just underway. The time is 3:15 PM. All of a sudden, a light shorts out and sparks a fire. Attempts to extinguish the blaze with Kilfyre are in vain when the flames shoot up into the fly gallery and ignite a large amount of stored props. The fire curtain is then attempted to be lowered, but that process fails. At this point, an actor by the name of Eddie Foy rushes out onstage and tries to calm the throngs of people there. While Foy is being a hero, multitudes of panicked theatre-goers are desperately trying to flee the conflagration. Those who found the fire exits were stymied, since the exits were secured by a bascule lock(and if you're saying to yourself "what the hell is a bascule lock?", well that's exactly the point. Not many people knew how to operate it, which made it a despicable choice for an emergency door.) Some of the doors were opened regardless, but the vast majority of patrons were trapped. The actors on stage initially were doing just as bad, until somebody found the west stage door. After the door opened, all of the stage crew and actors were able to escape(as a consequence, there was only 1 fatality amongst that group out of more than 300 performers), but the escape also let in a blast of cold air, which generated an immense fireball. As all vents were closed, the fireball was pushed out into the house, where it incinerated everything and everyone in the upper two tiers of the audience. Those who escaped the fireball had to contend with the inconvenient fire escape doors. Those who managed to get out the doors faced one final hurdle, the Theater's unfinished fire escape ladders. Patrons were forced to jump from the unfinished escapes, which cost several people their lives.
When the smoke cleared and all the bodies were accounted for, 605 people were officially listed as dead(that number could be even higher, as some bodies were removed from the scene before they were counted). Think about that for a second: 605 people. That's more than DOUBLE the amount of people who died in the Chicago Fire.(of course, that's still more than 200 fewer people than can drown in 18 feet of water, so I guess its all relative). In the aftermath, there was a public uproar, fielded by such men as Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. The site of the Iroquois was razed to make way for a new theater, which came down in 1926 to make way for the Oriental Theatre.
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