New-York tribune., 1921-06-02
Back Stage Fire
RACES Unknown
To Big, Audience
Playe ers at New Amsterdam
Finish sally as Blaze
in Property Room Is
Fought Throughout Act
Water Pours Into Wings
Engines Silence Gongs TO
Prevent Alarm; Smoke Is
Kept Behind Foollights

4 The final scene of Sally" was played
| last night at the New Amsterdam The
ater, in West Forty-second Street,
while firemen were fighting a sudden
unexplained blaze in property room.
! The entire company stopped through
water a half inch deep to reach the
stage from their dressing rooms and
| before the curtain fell water was seep-
ing out onto the stage.
The audience, in utter Ignorance of
the tense reality of the drama enacted
before its eyes, sat through the scene
| in placid satisfaction, gathered its
wraps casually at the end and saun-
tered out to Times Square. mildly curl
GUS CONCERNING the throbbing Of fire
engine that sounded in Fortydrst
Street.
When the fire was discovered the
curtain was going down for the one
minute intermission that precedes the
| last act The fireman stationed in the
| theater saw smoke issuing from
property room to the left of the stage
Just as the members of the company
were Fastening to their dressing rooms.
Only Moment Left for Action
There were just sixty seconds in
which to size up the situation. Only
about two were necessary to reach the
| fire alarm box and send in an alarm.
| Ten more and the fireman had
swarmed up the iron ladder to the door
4 of the property room, which is on the
level of the second floor, with James
| Darling, stage manager, close behind
| him.
"Shall / get 'em out" inquired
/ Darling, as the firemen peered into the
strangling haze that drifted out of
! the room
"We'l have this out before you
could explain to the folks that there
wasn't any danger" said the firemen,
/ seizing an extinguisher, "Get those
/ stagehands up here with some CT these
/ cans"
Not more than half Of the sixty sec
] onds had passed, and the decision had
! been made to fight the fire without
J notifying the audience. 1t took another
/ half minute to explain the situation to
/ the members of the company, ali of
whom We're to be on the stage for the
1 finale. The curtain went up at the SIX
| tieth second, and no one in the audi
1 ence guessed that the men and women
1 talking gayly before them were wonder
| ing whether the tang of smoke had
reached the orchestra seats yet or
whether those in the balcony would no
| tice the trail of damp footprints which,
every actor and actress left as they
moved to their allotted positions.
| In order to reach the stage from
| their dressing rooms they had to cross
| the open space between the wings and
| the triple tier of property rooms and
| the floor already was soaked by the
| deluge from the automatic sprinklers,
although the engines had not yet ar
rived. Open windows and the venti-
! lating system took care Of the smoke
and nobody noticed the footprints.
Engines Silence Their Gongs
An employee of the house Intercepted
the three engine companies, two hook
! and ladder companies and Battalion
| Chief Kelly with warning that the
audience knew nothing of the fire and
the apparatus sped with silent gongs to
the rear entrance of the building on
Forty-first Street.
A line of hose was carried in, and
| the rubber-coated firemen. visible to
the performers through the wings, set
to work. Stage hands were stationed
| in semi-crcle back of the wings to
mark the line at which those in t!.e
extreme right of the house might catch
glimpse Ola fireman, and the latter
| kept we'll inside of this line.
: Drenched and smoldering furniture,
drapery and other props" were low
cred from the room by the block and
tackle provided for that purpose and
carried out into Forty Street.
The boast Of the first fireman to lay
eyes on the blaze was not quite full
| filled, probably, but when the audience
rustled slowly out, of the house at 1920
! o'clock, twenty minutes after the fire
was discovered, only a miniature food
and a smell Of smoke remained to tell
! OF the fire. The damage was slight.