Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-15
SIX CHILDREN DIE
IN MOVIE PANIC
Audience in New York East
Side Fire-Trap Starts
Wild Panic
PRoPRlET0RS ARRESTED

New York. Nov. 1i.--A slow moving
cloud Of white steam oozed from q
leaky heating radiator in the New Cath
! crime moving picture theatre--a dingy,
smelly little cinema house at rs Cath
crime street--at 4 AS o'clock yesterday
afternoon.
Then faint trace Of something burn.
ing reached the nostrils of some 200
people who were crowding the place
beyond Its seating capacity watching
one Of those film thrilers Of guns and
dsgeers and villsiny and virtue.
Six children were crushed or tramplcd
! to death and many others we're injured
Ia the panic that followed a cry Of
Fire ="
Audience In Pane
The 300 men, women and children
who were in the theatre leaped to their
feet and rushed blfudly for the exits,
blunging, striking and kicking
In less than fifteen minutes the
ground floor had been emptied, but
when the firemen reached the scene they
found between thirty and forty women
and children piled in a tangled heap
on the stairway leading to the gallery,
Underneath the pile were seventeen chill
dren between the ages of two and twelve.
all of them trampled and beaten and
unconscious. Six Of them died a few
minutes later in nearby drug stores,
and the remaining eleven were taken
TO Bellevue Hospital. Several of these
may die.
There never was at any time anv
fire in the theatre, or any danger from
fre. The smoke that curied up through
the cracks and holes in the flooring came
from q choked tiue pine of the furnace
Woman Reseues Forty
Mrs. Joseph De Rosa. Of 118 Cherry
street. who sat downstairs. and who
said she rescued at least forty persons
from the theatre: said that she noticed
smoke several minutes before the panic
began.
II kept noticing smoke" said Mrs.
DE Rosa. II was there with my
seven year old boy and neighbor.
Finally / asked one Of the theatre peo-
pie about 1t. He said it was just smoke
from fire that was being built in the
furnace in the basement I remained q
few minutes longer, and then. when the
smoke became quite dense, said we
had better go.
As We stood up some one shouted
Fire" and the rush began. Mem
women and children Joined the rush
for the doors. ! saw big children and
little children falling on all sides Of
me. They weretrsmpled on by others
from the rear OF the theatre. I man
aged to get my little boy between my
knees and we worked toward the door
some way.
II put my little boy outside and went
back into the theatre. I must have
picked up forty persons, all children,
from the floor, and handed them to
others or carried them out myself. Then
! saw the police had arrived. and /
tainted"
Youthful cries attracted manv resi-
dents Of the italian neighborhood.
Camille Bruillo, who sells bananas
from a pushcart on the Bowery. rushed
to the scene. He darted into the thea
tre, attempted to shout down the cries.
Failing. he saved those he could. Ca
milo carried more than fifteen little
! tots to safety. then collapsed, over
! come by smoke.
Boy q Shield for Little Bryth9
The most remarkable story Of the oc-
currence was related by Camille Alviro.
fourteen year old lad. Camille was
found huddled beside stove In fourth
floor back room in Oliver street. His
face was SCARED where heavy shoes had
stepped and his little back was q mass
Of welts.
"Oh, I'm all right now," he said.
But, gee, I was scared. took my
little brother Salvatore to the show. We
were sitting there about the middle
when smoke came in. Then somebody
hollered Fire" and We jumped. I
snatched Salvatore and got outn the
seat. Then a big man with q black
moustache came down and told us to sit
he
everybody was crazy. A big feller
knocked me down In the aisle. I pushed
Salvatore underneath me, and then I
don't remember nothing till my ma
kissed me and said, Bella mio.'"
Josephine Matzio, fourteen, had taken
her little brother and sister Anna and
Michael to the show.
1--WE left" she said, "just when the
smoke started coming in. Our little dog,
Freda, was with us. and Rhe barked and
barked, and then I couldn't hold her
any longer. She ran out and ran after
her. cause, my pa would wallop me II
I lost her."
A crusade for stricted enforcement OF
the city ordinance forbidding motion
picture proprietors 70 sell tickets to
minors unless accompanied by parents
or guardians, was started by the police
today.
Professional Guardians for Children
A grand jury will investigate the
panic. This announcement was made
today by District Attorney Swami. who
asserted he had learned certain theatres
employed professional guardians" to
get around a city ordinance which pre-
hibits children under age attending per
formancPs alone. Mr.. Swami said he
had learned these guardians" bought
tickets for children and escorted them
the theatres for further duty.
The Society for the Prevention Of
Cruelty to Children today took up the
disaster when Ernest h. Coulter, gen
eral manager of the organization, called
on the district attorney and asked him
TO bring those responsible for the
deaths Of the children, II any were re-
sponsble to justice. He asserted that
the law requiring the presence OF
parents or guardians in places Of
amusement with minors less than six
teen years Of age had been enacted at
the request OF the society he represented
and that, in the last year, at least l15
requests had been made by the society
for the revocation OF licenses where the
law had been broken.
Max Schwartz and Barnett Vein
berg, proprietOrs of the theatre, and
oscnh polani. the janitOr. were ar
raigned today in Tombs Court.
II was charged that they caused the
death OF several human beings through
culpable neglect in having an exit door
leading from the theatre locked, and In
failin gto take proper precautions to
aafaguard their DRtrOnS.