THE MUSIC-HALL FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1162, 24 June 1911, Page 6

THE MUSIC-HALL FIRE.

DEATH OF THE GREAT LAFAYETTE. SPLENDID HEROISM. I'ULL PARTICULARS BY MAIL. Xino persons perished in a firo which broke out on Tues'day night, May 0, at (he Empire Music Hall, Edinburgh. Chief among the dead is tho stage magician known as the Great Lafayette. The management of the theatre—whero a Royal command performance was to have, been held in July—on Wednesday received (he following'telegram from the King;-

The King lias learned from tho newspapers with much concern of the calamitous fire which occurred at your theatre lost night, resulting in the loss of life. His Majesty is anxious to have full particulars, and would bo glad if (lie expression of. his true sympathy and thr.t of tbo Queen could bo conveyed to tho families of ■those who have lost their lives and to those who have been injured.

A. BIGGE, Private Secretary. The tragedy of the fire (says the "Daily Mail") is relieved by the accounts of the cool courage of the audience and tbo heroism of tbo orchestra and of Lafayette himself. When the domes shot forward from the stage towards the auditorium the 3000 people in the theatre filed steadily out to cries of "Women first!" The'orchestra, with flames above their heads, played tho'National Anthem to restore confidence, and one musician, John Whelau, perished in tho flames. Lafayette, after escaping from tho theatre, ran back into tho flames to try to savo his performing horse, and so perished. ■ Alice Dale, a girl ■of seventeen, known as the "Human Teddy Bear," and a boy named Conies, called "The Midget," also lost their lives. The roaring of Lafayette's caged'' lion on the stage added to the din and confusion behind the scenes after the outbreak of the fire. How Lafayetto Died. The outbreak of tho fire was a thing of startling suddenness. Lafayette tad gene' through th epart of his stage illusion ("The Lion's Bride"), in which, dressed in a. lion's skin, ho suddenly takes the place of tho real lion in a cage and rescues a girl from tho animal's i clutches. Having done this, he had shaken off his lion's mask, disclosed, his face, and was standing in the middle of -tha stage to receive (ho applause of the house,, .when a burning thing fell from the scenery in the-roof to his feet.

He put his foot on it and went on bowin*. But the blaze was not to be put out. It was a celluloid lamp-shade, which had caught fire through tho fusing of the wire to the lamp it. contained, and as it fell it blazed and set fire to all the fiims-r scenery it passed. Miss R.hoda Paul, a variety artiste, who hail finished her own "turn-' and was sitting in the stalls with her mother, said it was like a ball of fire falling from tho roof to the stage. What happened next so far as the audience could, see may be told in her own words.

"I saw Lafayette put his foot on it," she said. "Then he stamped with both feet. Then he moved aside and looked up at tho overhanging draperies. I looked,, too, and, believe me, the fire seemed to bo running along them as though they were dry slicks.

Choking Smoke, "Sparks were spurting into the theatre too. I tugged at mother's sleeve and said, 'Mother, co-mo. on, the show is over.' I did not want to frighten her, you sec. Tli?n the iron cuiiaiucame down with a run as though.'it had'been let loose, but it stuck a little- way from tho floor. Tho draught was blowing the curtains out over the orchestra-and blocking tic iron 'curtaiiiVfair. Then fliere'eaiue through the opening.!!! ..blast .of smoko. that filled iUib' thratre am™ .-.nlhitite.'-i.i I thought there : would be a rush, but there was none to speak of. The people behaved finely, and we. were ..out. in very quick time'." ■ In point of : fact the audience got out in four minutes...

The .'scene's-'• behind the iron curtain were different, Mr.''Harold J.'Bate and other members, of the company who were on the stage'-at the liuio state that the rush with'which the flames .spread, was extraordinary. "I saw one of our 'rigger?,'" said one of the group, "rush .bodilv at a group. of properties that had caught' fire, hut he. could not put it out, stamp and beat as, he would. Then some sudden .disturbance of tho draught—perhaps the. stopping,of the. iron curtain— caused';i thick', cloud of. smoke to roll down:from, the".robf" upon' us, and in a minute it was choking us."' Mr. Bate made'a way out through-the '■'sides" and into the auditorium, but .was well-nigh unconscious before he got up the stairs. "1 went on all fours for the last stretch of it," ho said, "and thought I should never manage it." : One'thing-the members of the company seem -agreed upon—namely, that Lafayette himself stood at one time, safe and sound at the back door of die theatre. Charles Munro, a stage hand, says that he saw Lafayette near tho stage d;or. The "magician" was 'dressed' in his stage dress, and when Munro came up to him ho turned and said, "I'll have to go in and got. my.horse out somehow." Theso are believed to hove been his last words. The horse was, of course, the ono used in his sketch. He had also a dog in the theatre. Lafayette and His Horse. Lafayette, says Muuro, then went to tho stage door and, notwithstanding the smoke that was.coming out, went inside. Judging from tho' position where the bodies, were found, ho'had'to mako his way right across the length of tho stage, for the door is a! the right hand at the back, and the horse at that timo was in the left wings.. He would have to pass tho lion in his .cage, and Mr. Bate stated ' that soon after the outbreak he heard the lion making a perfect pandemonium of noises with his howls and his terrible onslaughts on his cage bars. Past theso thiiigs and over burning hraps Lafayette wnit until the smoke overcame- 'him'. When the horse's body was discovered alter the .lire had bfon conquered, its forefeet wore stretched out as though in a gallop. On the other side of (he stage was the lion, a shrivelled, almost unrecognisable thing, manelcss and tailless. The bars of its cage had fallen, leaving the brute a harmless hulk on the charred cinders of -the stag?. It is suggested that Lafayette ran info a veritable death-trap, all the exits from the stage to the auditorium having b:en locked to prevent the lion's possible escape. • In connection with this suggestion- tho evidence of Jlr. Dunbar, an undertaker, is interesting. . Veritable Death-Trap. He was standing waiting for the performance to finish in order la consult with Lafayette about the funeral of Beauty, the magician's favourite dog, which had died last week, when the alarm was given, and with an attendant ho got out a fire hose and tried to get as near the stage as possible. Then, hearing someone hammering at a door on the stc.r? level giving access to the stair leading from tho dress-circle promenade to the orchestra stalls, Mr. Dunbar and his companion tried to get the door open, but. failed. The heat was becoming intolerable, but. coupling on a longer pine, an nf'ciunt was mode In reduce the licit I li'fcMhe iron d"or. When.this had l jr .= n d.jflo, Mr. Dunbar made several attempts to f.-.veo a u'-iv in, hut Die deor resisted all efi'.-M-fs. It wa« behind this door that the bodies of I.afayfltc and (he musician Scott were afterwards found. There they had met their death. .As to (he other struggles for life that took plarc in the theatre, the position and eoi'd'lion in which the Ivvlics were found tell much. Two children—Mice Dale, seventeen years eld, and .To<enh Coat;?. aged fourteen—died merely Ihro-mrh the smoke. They were found in llie dressing-rooms that run at right ancles to the stage behind the right-hand wall ef (he auditorium. Alice Dale was the "Teddy Bear" whose clever antics puwlcd everyone as to whether the hear was human or a machine.

Two of (lie musicians apparently died within a few inches of safely. The firemen found llipm together at (ho furthermost end of the dressing-room passage. Their head? lay on the stops lending to the door which gives an exit on the right-

hand side of the theatre, and in another second they should have been sale. A third man was found in the dressingI'ooru in which Iho children were. Fato of the "Flymen." The other bodies were not found till •■ho flames had been extinguished and search could bo made among the debris. They were in tho neighbourhood of tiio stage, and in some ca.ses covered with fallen debris. There was sonio mystery for n time as to. the fate of the "flymen, whose duty it is lo work on a platform in the wings above (ho scenery, lowering and raising scenery when required. Their bodies were found later in tho debris on tho stage. They had apparently been overcome by (ho flames'and smoke, and had then fallen from their places. It seems that after tho scene for tho "Lion's Bride" had been "sot," Lafayctto would have no one on tho stage but his own men. He used all the stage, and the theatro men had lo find a hidingplacp whore (hey could. Often they would go below tho stage.

List of tho Dead. Tho Great Lafayctto. John W'helan (40), trombone player in Lafayette's company, a native of London, married.

James Barnes (15), double-bass player in Lafayette's company, of Hackney, married. ■

Alico Dale (17), New-inn, Hammond Street, Sheffield, played as "Teddy Bear" in Lafayette's company. Joseph Coates (14), Sheffield, played as fc "Midget" I'll Lafayette's company. S. Richards, a member of Lafayette's company. \Va,tcr E. Scott, cornet player. • Alexander Joss (49), 1, Advocato's-eloso; Temporary Flyman James Watt (03), 15 Arthur Street, scone"-shifler. Actor's Narrow Escape, Many of the peoplo who were in the theatro at the time of thp outbreak have interesting narratives lo give of their escape. Mr. Frank Benson said h« saw lrom tho paper that he had been burnt to death, but he was glad to bo alive to contradict it. Tho first-thing he noticed amiss was a girl on tho stage shouting "Fire!" Laioyetto turned and told her to bo quiet, and then called quietly for the fire-curtain. The smoke soon bocaino so thick 'jp in tho wiuga where Mr. Benson was standing ,tkat he lost his bearings, and was rushing probably towards the flames when a stage hand seized his arm and put him in a safe place. Sir. Arthur Jewitt, who plays the Rajah In the "Lion's Bride," says that, on hearing the cry of firo ho mado his way to his dressing-room, which was high up beside tho flies. Hb found Alice Dale, who cried distractedly, "Save me, save . me, Mr. Jewitt." "I said, 'Right you are,'" Mr. Jewitt wenton, "but at that minute big Jim Baiucs, Iho biggest man of the company, snatched up tho girl in the crook of his arm and mado off with her cb though she were a feather. That was the last oi them." , The probability is that the big man thought to get out 'by the dressing-room corridor, as did two of tho musicians. Finding tho smoke too strong for him (or. possiblv' through mistaking tho door) ho turned'with the girl into a dressing-room. The gap between this and the finding of the two bodies and that of tho boy Coate3 can never bo filled in. As for Mr. Jewitt he saved himself. First he dashed down the stairs to tho stage level, then upstairs again and into a strange dressingroom. Then someone ho could not sea grabbed his arm and gasped "This way." In another moment—how ho does not know—he had fallen down a flight of stairs aud was in the open air. He be lioved he might have saved Alice Dale had he been given the chance. .

Heroic Orchestra. Everyono who cscnpoel from tlio fire pays a high tribute to the theatre orchestra for the part they played in giving tlio startled audience assurance. Notwithstanding flames that issued from the curtain across their very heads, the musicians played tho ' National Anthem through. ... "It was the longest 'King' (bandsmen s slang for tho National Anthem) I over romember,"'snid'.Mr. M'Kenzio, a violinist. "It was getting terribly hot towards tho finish." The store rooms through which they niado their way out woro full of smoke by the time they Tcacked them, and tho number of instruments, handparts, and so on now lymg soaked in tho 'orchestra shows how anxious wero I'ho men to get out.