The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1922-02-03
SO KILLED IN MOVIE
THEATRE
ROOF COLLAPSED FROM HEAVY SNOW
SLEEPING CHILDREN FOUND AMONG
DEAD.

have lost their lives in the collapse
last night of the snow-laden roof OF
the. knickerbocker Motion Picture
j Theatre. Rescue workers, fighting a
desperate battle through dark and
daylight. had recovered that number.
More than 100 others are known to
have been injured.
OF the dead, nearly all has been
identified The large majority Of the
victims. both killed and injured, were
residents of this city, although many
came recently from other places.
Without regard to their own risk, sol
diers, marines, sailors, police, fire
men and citizen volunteers fought their
way beneath the wreckage over prac-
tically the whole fioor space of the
auditorium.
Normally the theatre has had every
seat filled at that hour and nearly
1000 was its capacity. The same un-
precedented snowfall which brought
death to the venturesome few kept
the many at home. Street car traffic
had been abandoned and streets and
sidewalks were all but impossible
with drifts.
The front rows of the balcony were
ground to a twisted mass or ruin in
the fall. There was no wood in the
structure. 1t was all steel and con-
crete. but the enormous weight of the
balcony, was itself sufficient to wind
the tortured beams into fantastic
shapes
This whole space stood roofleSs 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 DOW
! derry handful of snow sift down over
/ the head of the orchestra leader in
! time to make his escape. From his
seat, we'll forward on the main floor
! he raced for the doors at the back. i
great blast of air, expelled as the root
came down, hurled him out through
( the doorway to safety.
/ All that remains of a happy family
! of five that attended the Theatre is
( little Syear-old Grant KanstOn. His
( father, Oscar G. Ransom his mother
and two sisters are among the identi-
fled dead. The Kanstons, who lived a
block away from the theatre, recent
I ly came to Washington from Chicago.
Mr.. Kanston was employed at the
Bureau OF Valuation of the War De-
partment.
Sleeping peacefully beneath the de-
briS in the wreck, two little girls,
aged about four and six. were found
by rescuerS, ten hours after the play
house roof had fallen in. Apparently
neither OF the children was badly
hurt. They were taken to hospital
without Identification.
A five-year-old girl was found ur
hurt. seated between the bodies of
two women. Her life evidently had
been saved by her falling be-
lection given her by the bodies of the
two women who were killed beside
her.
DIR. Scott Montgomery. of Washing
ton. was rescued Y hours after the
roof collapsed. He was pinned by his
legs underneath beam which killed
the young woman whom he had es-
corted to the theatre. The beam was
part of the structure of the balcony
and was literally KEY Jog IN the jam
above him. 1t took hours to assemble
the hydraulic jacks from the Navy
Yard which were the only things ade-
quate to lift the heavy weight the nee
essary distance to free hIm.
Senator Weller would have probab-
ly been in the theatre if he would
not have accepted another invitation.
The disaster, which occurred about
$50 o'clock last night, just as the
title of the main picture, Get Rich
Quick Wallingford,' was thrown on
the screen for the second show, is
comparable only to the great Iroquois
fire. which occurred in Chicago on
December so, 1908, and in which near
ly GOO persons lost their lives. Had
the tragedy of last night occurred
thirty minutes earlier nearly 1000
men and women and hundreds of chill
dren might have been crushed.
According to the cashier of the
theatre. more than 800 tickets were
sold for the second show. Many, how
ever, who came in late for the first
show remained to see the main pic
ture of the second show, and Harry
NJ. Crandall, owner, testified that
there were at least 500 persons in the
audience when, without preliminary
warning of any kind, the great convex
roof. weighing hundreds of tons, with
an additional weight of tons of snow,
crashed down upon the audience, car
rying with it the balcony.
The scenes inside and outside the
theatre directly after the collapse
were heartrending. AS the first of the
injured reached the streets they fran
tically pleaded with police and friends
to save friends and relatives from
whom they had become separated.
Residents of the immediate vicinity
who had relatives and friends inside
touFht madly with police and soldiers
to get through the lines that were
quickly established and had to be for
cibly restained from recklessly dash
ing into the building.
The theatre is located in the heart
of the fashionable northwest residen-
tial section, and has an exclusive