New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-02-02
.DOWLINC'S SINCED;
VAUDEVILLE FLEES
HeadIiners and "ChaSerS'
Caught in $4,000 Blaze
at Lyric Hotel.
GIRLS OF CHORUS
BLUSH AT RESCUES
Broadway Hotel, Famous as Re-
sort of Actors, Badly DAM
aged and a Fireman Hurt.

Vaudeville. on the big, the medium
and small. even the Gus sun time, SUI
fered severe Jolt when the interior Of
the Lyric Hotel-better known as
"Dowling's. after its former proprietor
at Seventh avenue and 43d street,
vas destroyed by fire early yesterday
evening. Gustav Gebman. a fireman
attached to Engine Company No. 25.
received a broken wrist and ankle when
backdraft which blew out the sec
end floor window facing Broadway
hurled him from a scaling ladder Sew
eral thrilling rescues by the fremen
kept the crowd that lined Longacre
Square in excitement.
Shortly after o'clock the motorman
OH a trolley car saw smoke Issuing
from the windows on the 43d street
side Of the building. An alarm was
turned in by n traffic policeman. The
flames spread rapidly. and when the
flremen arrived they found the upper
windows framing vaudeville actors
whose escape had been cut off by the
flames.
The Lyric had accommodation for
men only, and the majority Of the
dodgers were taking advantage OF the
day to even up on their sleeping sched-
ules. Hence it was that the chorus
girls whose heads dotted the windows
OF Wallick's Hotel and the Hotel
Claridge across the square blushed
when the manly forms Of several guests,
more or less clad only in the lightest
sleeping apparel. were carried down
from the upper floors of the building.
Max Kennedy. manager Of the Lyric,
was taken To Bellevue Hospital, suffer
ing from burns about the face, head
and body. DR.. Martin. who examined
him. said the manager had Inhaled
flames and was In precartous condl-
ton. Kennedy vas found in his room
while the fire was in progress.
At one time the fire threatened to
spread 10 the Times Square Hotel, at
No. 2O6 West 43d street, and to Coding-
toms restaurant, adjoining the Lyric on
Seventh avenue. Hammerstein's VIC
toria Theatre was also in danger. The
fire started in the kitchen In the base
ment and worked up a dumbwaiter
shaft to the second floor occupied as
billiard room. There 1t ran along the
ceiling 10 the front Of the building and
made it's way up two more floors TO the
roof. The ground floor. occupied by the
har. was damaged only slightly. Ihe
electric signs above the building were
not extinguished.
One of the guests who was signify
burned and was carried to the street IN
bis night clothes by the fremen was
Young Griffo," who, when he was not
hoxing. played the plano at the Lyric
cantein Cozine and Lieutenant Kelly
~ Engine Company "a, and several
other Aremen made many daring res
cues.
John y. Campbell, a patron or the
hotel BENJAMIN Benowictz, the night
clerk. and Richard F. Murray, another
guest we're carried to the street "hen
flames cut off their retreat in the rear
!, vas while attempting to get Murray
uho stood q feet inches in his bar"
feet. on a cornice overlooking BROAD
way. to safety, that Gebman was in
jured.
The fremen clung TO scaling ladder
uhen the flames in the billiard room
on the second floor were blown through
a nlate glass window by the accumu-
Iation ~ heated gases inside. Gebman
fell twenty-five feet to the pavement.
DIR. Cooley took him to Flower Hospl-
tai Murray was taken TO the roof or
the building and led in safety across
tho tops of the adjoining structures TO
Hammerstein's. where he remained in
dark corner until clothes were pre-
vided for him.
"Dowling's" was known as one OF the
best paying cafes in New York. and its
renutation was worldwide. Two years
ago Mike" Dowlng sold the goodwin
Of the business for sum reported TO
be $3.50 600, and leased the bar TO John
r. FITZGERALD at rental said 10 be in
the neighborhood Of $4,000 a year.
The business done at the cafe averaged
about $500 a day, Dowling's being an
all night licensed place.