Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1972 - 10

A motion to quash the indictment against Davis
was denied by Judge Marcus A. Kavanagh on January 23, 1906:
So it seems to me that under the charges of the
indictments all of which are admitted to be true,
that in the view most favorable to the defendant
there is a question for a jury to pass upon, and
that it is conclusively established that it is for a
jury to determine whether his omission to provide
the equipment constituted a lack of due caution
and circumspection within the meaning of the
statute.36

After a change of venue had been granted,
Davis' case was finally heard in Danville, Illinois,
by Judge E.R.E. Kimbrough, in the circuit court of
Vermillion County. A decision in favor of Davis
was reached on March 9, 1907. Judge Kimbrough
made it plain that his court did not concern itself
with questions of moral guilt; the question of legal
guilt he dismissed on a technicality. 37 The decision
was not widely approved. Dean John H. Wigmore,
of the Northwestern University Law School, made
the proceedings in the case the text for his comment on shortcomings of the American judicial system. He attacked it as "a system of antiquated
pedantry, unfitted to do the work ,hat is required
of it." 38
As late as 1909, settlement was made out of
court in thirty cases against the firm responsible
for the construction of the Iroquois Theatre. The
settlements in these cases, brought by survivors of
people who had died in the fire, were reported to
be $ 7 50 each. At the time, more than four hundred cases remained unsettled. 39
The curtain came down on theatre fires in the
United States in the years following the turn of
the century. The frequency with which theatres
burned and the terrifying rate at which they were
consumed were both notorious facts of the 1800's.
Too often theatres burned with a ghastly loss of
life. A sluggish public was at last aroused by the
disasters at Conway's Theatre in Brooklyn in
1876, as well as at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago in 1 903, to demand better fi re and safety
ordinances and to insist on proper enforcement.
The headlong plunge of westering settlers across
the continent had slowed to a trickle by the last
decade of the nineteenth century. As communities
began to look more closely at problems to which a
complete lack of planning had left them prey, fire
losses in life and property which had been a national tragedy and a national disgrace were gradually reduced to tolerable proportions. At the same
time, new building materials were developed and
better methods of construction were explored, so

10

that, by the middle of the twentieth century, the
number of fatal theatre fires in the United States
had been reduced almost to zero.

1 Joseph K. Freitag, Fire Prevention and Fire Protection
(New York, 1912), p. 5.
2" A Group of Theatre Fires," American Architect, XXII
(October 1867,) p. 199.
3 Percy H. Fitzgerald, The World Behind the Scenes
(London, 1881), pp. 249-250.
4 William Paul Gerhard, "Theatre Fire Statistics," American Architect, XLVI (December 1894), p. 115.
5 A Collection of Facts and Statements Relative to the
Fatal Event Which Occurred at the Theatre in Richmond
onthe26thofDecember, 1811 (Richmond,1812),p. 31.
6 New York Times, January 1, 1877, p. 2.
7 A Collection of Facts, p. 32.
8 Ibid., pp. 34-35.
9 Ibid., p. 36.
10 Ibid., p. 38.
11 William B. Wood, Personal Recollections of the Stage
(Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 142-143.
12 Sol Smith, Theatrical Management in the West &
South for Thirty Years (New York, 1868), p. 60.
13 George C. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage
(New York, 192 7l. VIII, p. 151.
14 New York Times, December 6, 1876, p. 5.
15 Odell, Annals, X, p. 315.
16 New York Times, December 7,1876, p. 1.
17 Ibid., p. 2.
18 Odell, Annals, X, p. 315.
19 Percy MacKaye, Epoch (New York, 1927), I, p. 254.
20 Steele MacKaye, "Safety in Theatres," North American
Review, CXXXV (November 1882), p. 463.
21 Ibid .. pp. 465-466.
22 Ernest A.E. Woodrow, "Theatre Building Regulations,"
American Architect, XXXVII (1892), p. 120.
23 F.J.T. Stewart, "Report of Fire at Iroquois Theatre,"
submitted to H.H. Glidden, Manager, Chicago Underwriters'
Association, January 8, 1904, p. 4.
24 Edwin O. Sachs, The Fire at the Iroquois Theatre, Chicago, 30th December, 1903 (London, 1904),
p.8.
25 Ibid., p. 12.
26 Ibid., pp. 13-16.
27 Ibid., p. 17.
28 Francis E. Matthews and Hal Crumpton Bangs, eds.
Illinois Circuit Court Reports (Chicago, 1907), I, p.
221-222.
29 Sachs, Fire at the Iroquois, pp. 9-12.
30 Ibid., p. 37.
31 Louis Guenzel, Retrospects, the Iroquois Theatre Fire
(Chicago, 1945), p. 13.
32 John Ripley Freeman, On the Safeguarding of Life in
Theatres. A Study from the Viewpoint of an Engineer
(New York, 1906), pp. 50-53.
33 Ibid., p. i O.
34 Edward J. Brundage, ed. The Chicago Code of 1911
(Chicago, 1911), p. 108.
35 New York Times, March 5, 1905, p. 9.
36 Matthews and Bangs, Illinois Circuit Court Reports,
I, p. 288.
37 Ibid., II, p. 419.
38 "Technicalities and Justice and the Iroquois Theatre,"
New Outlook, LXXXV (April 1907), p. 915-916.
39 New York Times, January 18, 1909, p. 1. *

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THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY, 1972
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1972
