Middletown transcript., 1922-02-04
.lO7 BODIES TAKEN
FROM WRECKAGE
Washington Theatre List Mounts
Higher
DEAD IN ORCHESTRA PIT
Actual Cause OF Accident Cannot Be
Determined Until Inquiry, Which
Has Been Ordered BY
Authorities.
DEAD IN ORCHESTRA PIT


seven lives were lost in the Knicker-
booker Theatre Saturday night when
the roof, weighted by more than two
feet Of snow, collapsed and buried pa
irons of the house under q crushing
blanket of concrete, plaster and steel,
according to unofficial but carefully
checked records.
Ninety-two of the victims had been
identified when the force Of volunteer
workers, "a hours after the disaster,
approached the end of their long
search of the debris. Nine additional
bodies of those who had succumbed
to. injuries after rescue, lay in city
hospitals.
The list of injured totalled 1874 and
of these IA were recorded as having
sustained serious hurts. Caught be.
meath the falling beams which had
been designed to act as traverse sup
ports for the roof, scores were taken
to hospitals suffering with broken
limbs or severe internal injuries. Many
were given immediate medical atten-
tion at improvised stations hastily
erected near the scene of the disaster.
The Knickerbocker, one of the new
est and largest of the capitals motion
picture houses, was rated as one of
the most exclusive, drawing its patron
age from the northwest residential Sec
tion in the vicinity of upper Connecti-
cut avenue.
Family groups predominated in the
audience which gathered Saturday
night to watch the showing
Of a rollicking comedy and it was upon
these that the roof backed by tons of
wet snow, descended with barely
whispered warning. In the entire au-
dience but one person was found who
had become aware of impending doom
in time to reach an exit. A number of
others worked their way to safety
through scant openings in the wreck
age.
The exact number in the theatre
when the steel and concrete span of
the roof buckled and fell under its
threefoot load of snow probably never
will be known. The stories of per-
haps hundred who got out have been
reported. These account for a few
more than 800 in the audience that
was roaring in laughter at filmed
comedy when the roof fell on them
like blankt carrying down the front
Of the wide balcony in it's crash.
Normally the theatre has had every
seat filled at that hour and nearly 1000
persons was its capacity. The same
unprecedented snowfall which brought
death to the venturesome few kept the
many at home Street car traffic had
been abandoned and streets and side
walks were all but impossible with
drifts.
There has been no time as yet for
official inquiry as to the cause of the
disaster. The ruins themselves dis
close, however, that the entire mass
of steel4held concrete that formed the
roof had come down. The crash swept
the supports out from under the bal
cony, apparently, and this hinged
down at an angle of 45-degrees, adding
to the tangled mass of wreckage on
the floor below.
The building stands in an acute
angled corner at Eighteenth street and
Columbia road, northwest, the heart of
the most favored residence section of
the city. The narrow niche of the
stage on which the screen was hung
was backed into the corner angle,
while to the left from the stage, the
line of the auditorium wall runs in a
straight line for some 200 feet down
Eighteenth street. To the right the
wall follows the slow curve of Colum.
bia road for about the same distance
and at the far end, paralleling the
stage front, the back wall completes
the auditorium proper also about 200
feet in length.
This whole space stood roofiess to
the sky moment after the first hiss
ing sound of the breaking roof gave
warning above the music of the or.
chestra. There Is only one survivor
thus far who has told of having heard
that warning and seen the first pow.
derry handful Of snow sift down over
the head of the orchestra leader in
time to make his escape. From his
seat well forward on the main floor,
he raced for the doors at the back. A
great blast Of air expelled as the roof
came down hurled him out through the