“A rosy gloom shot up behind the picture screen. “About a reel had been projected and the scene which the audience was watching was that of an Arab’s tent during a desert sand storm when a crackling sound was distinguished behind the screen,” the Register reported.
“Many young men in the audience hissed and cat calls came from all parts of the house,” according to the Register.Īnd it was the incense that turned the entertainment to tragedy for the audience watching the silent film. 27, 1921, the silent picture “The Sheik,” starring Valentino and Agnes Ayers, was preceded by an act in which a couple sang in exotic dress, with burning incense to provide aromatic special effects. None of those precautions was in use at the Rialto, though, when 500 people came to see Rudolph Valentino’s latest movie, setting the stage for tragedy. Asbestos curtains had been in use years before that. The Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago in 1903 that killed 602 people was one of several at the time and was the blaze that inspired the use of panic bars on exit doors, according to Smithsonian Magazine. “I know in that time the country was dealing with a number of major fires in public assemblies,” Kiley said. “That’s one of the things they mentioned contributed to the fire and loss of life.” People stood in the aisles and in the rear, violating standing-room-only ordinances. “In the Rialto, they didn’t even have that curtain,” Kiley said. Asbestos curtains had been devised years earlier to protect the audience from flames onstage. The Rialto Theatre fire was tragic because of the lack of fire safety precautions, said Flynn and Kiley.
In addition to stories about the fire, its victims and the coroner’s inquiry was one proclaiming, “Yale Men Did Heroic Work During Blaze.” An inside story told how the Register, then located on nearby Crown Street, had published two extra editions the night before. 28 edition of the Register, which cost 2 cents, had 13 stories and four photos on its front page alone. Perrigo burning to death on a fire escape in view of spectators below would not be publishable today. The newspaper accounts were much more graphic back then.
#RIALTO 8 STORM BOY MOVIE#
Source: New Haven Evening Register See More CollapseĪt the Rialto, which stood on the site of the College Street Music Hall (formerly the Roger Sherman and Palace theaters) and began its life as a church, it was jars of burning incense that caught a movie screen and cloth curtains on fire. Hanlon, fell over hose at fire and died from injuries Perrigo, 48, 1610 Boulevard (his son, Howard Perrigo, 22, suffered serious burns) The Jay T.Allen Keith, Yale sophomore, 20, of Southport
Last Collection of Lithographic and Social History Los Angeles"-text, lower right margin.Įxtent 1 lithograph : color printed overall 25.08 x 27.62 cm (9 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.)įruit crate labels-Color-1900-1925. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social Historyįor information on using Huntington Library materials, please see Reproductions of Huntington Library Holdings: ĭescription Image of a boy in overalls carrying a basket of oranges and a fishing pole as he walks through an orange grove. Title Rialto Boy Brand Creator Western Litho.
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