The Moving Picture World (1908)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 77 Boyertown-The Aftermath. The Boyertown disaster, although not caused by moving pic-' tnre films, has nevertheless done the business incalculable in- inry. The daily press of the country have falsified and garbled the reports and published editorials condemning moving picture shows without sense or reason. The only sane editorial which we have seen on the subject appeared in the Philadelphia Press. It is in part as follows: ■The Boyertown horror, indeed, reveals clearly enough that with the burning stage, the room filling with smoke and the products of combustion, and with a narrow stair- way, with the door but half open and a jam of people in the middle of the room, tangled up in benches and loose chairs, all the necessary factors to bring about death were present without drawing in conclusions based on an inexpert knowledge of the apparatus in use. "It must also be remembered that every night all over this land thousands and thousands of calcium lights are used without danger, and that it is an unfortunate thing to direct suspicion to an apparatus in itself harmless, but which, under given conditions of needless apprehension in an audience, may easily cause a panic. "Of course, everything connected with the action of the operator and the behavior of the mechanism should be looked into, but it must be dear to everyone that the main lesson of the Boyertown fire is that the little lecture halls and amusement places of the small towns should be made perfectly safe, both as to the matter of lighting ar- rangements and as to exits, and if the Berks County Coroner does his duty facts will be elicited which cannot but impress on the communities just what reforms are needed, which reforms should be secured immediately through the co-operation of the State factory inspectors and the local authorities." * * * SUCH THINGS HURT. The Baltimore News publishes a letter from a correspondent who takes the Boyertown disaster as his text, and states that about a year ago on the opening of a moving picture theater in that city he entered and it was noted by several in the audience that while the plaster front of the building was truly orna- mental, and the interior fittings comfortable and elaborate, yet the proper exits in the event of a fire panic had been entirely overlooked. "From the fourth floor—or what was originally such —constituting the gallery, down to the street, the public wound around a tortuous and jammed stairway. The plastered facade of this building, while truly ornamental, offers no means of escape, except from a couple of win- dows on the fourth floor, from which those inside would evidently have to leap. The writer observed no fire- escapes to this artistic 'temple,' and has not cared to en- ter since." There is no doubt that if the writer had again ventured in- side before he penned his letter at this late date, he would have found that adequate facilities for speedy and safe exit had been provided. We visited all the "temples" in Baltimore a few weeks ago and found no conditions such as described. INSPECTION OF AMUSEMENT PLACES. Although it would be heartless to expect the stricken sur- vivors of the terrible calamity at Boyertown to recognize the ways in which the good of the whole community is going to be served by their loss and sorrow, it is a fact that for a time at least all public assemblages, either for pleasure or for worship, will be made safer than before. The Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago, which claimed a far larger number of victims than the panic in the hall in Boyertown, had as an immediate and perma- nent result the reconstruction of practically every important place of public entertainment in the entire country and the establish- ment of a system of inspection which, where rigidly maintained, has made theater-going safe to most city dwellers. It is only in the smaller communities, which lack complete buildings especially designed for public entertainments, which do not support a thor- ough and well-equipped building inspection force, and which are without police supervision and protection, that it would be pos- sible to find oil lamps for footlights and the meager means of entrance and egress which turned the "opera house" at Boyer- town into a death trap. . It is not surprising, therefore, to find the authorities in this rity spurred to renewed activity to see that precautions are strictly maintained, and that newer places of amusement of every sort shall be made as safe as human foresight can devise. And the action of the State Factory Inspector in extending his powers of inspection to the smaller towns of the State is such an expan- sion of his authority as will be cordially indorsed by the people of Pennsylvania and confirmed, if need be, by the Legislature at its next sitting. If the present occasion shall be utilized for a thorough study of the whole subject, and for the preparation of such amendments to existing law as may be needed for the pro- tection of the public, its bitter lessons will not have been wholly in vain. In all this activity, however, there is no ground for increased alarm on the part of the amusement loving public The news has already created a feeling of nervous dread in some quarters, which, while not unnatural, is in the vast number of cases wholly unfounded. There are, happily, few places of amusement in this section of the world which are obliged to depend upon a single entrance and where oil lamps are used on the stage. And it would be wholly illogical to look with suspicion upon picture projection apparatus, merely because some trifling mishap to a lime-light jet started the alarm which led to the overturning of the lamp and the fire horror at Boyertown. It is idle to look for logic in a panic-stricken crowd, but the spread of definite information on the subject will help to lessen the tendency to panic. Any other trifling mishap or noise, not half so discon- certing as, the "popping" of a lime-light jet, might have pro- duced the same effect, the essential conditions for disaster in this case being the use of kerosene lamps and the total lack of ade- quate means of exit for the audience. The people could not get out. That was all there was about it, and the immediate duty of the hour is the investigation and regulation of places of amusement, especially in the smaller towns of the cotintry. If the moving picture places which have sprung up fin such numbers in all directions, in the cities as well as the villages, have neglected necessary precautions in this respect, they should be compelled to take them. The vast majority of the thea- ters and larger places of amusement have already conformed to the requirements of law and of prudence and have been made safe.— Philadelpha Leader. / * * * / THE DEADLY MOVING PICTURE SHOW. Such is the ill-advised heading which caps the editorial in the Lancaster, Pa., Era of January 16. Tjie writer refers to these shows as "death-traps all over the State." In making a howl for the strictest legislation, punctuated with "calamity," "tragedy," "terrible disasters," and such phrases, he concludes with: "The public can afford to do without these catch- penny affairs, which are by no means wholly desirable, but it cannot risk the possible loss of hundreds of valu- able lives under the most distressing circumstances." Proprietors and managers of legitimate and well-conducted theaters all over the country should bring their influence to bear on the local press to stop, if not retract, such unwarranted at- tacks. In publishing these reports in the World, we must not be classed with the calamity howlers. This paper is for the trade, and the trade should know and follow closely the trend of public opinion. These attacks in the public press sway the public—and it is the great public that furnish the nickels which is the mainstay of the business. * * * ■•■ IN NEW YORK CITY. Mayor McClellan has ordered an investigation of the 500 five- cent moving picture theaters in the city, with a view to discover- ing whether they are properly equipped with fire exits and other- wise planned in compliance with the law. Two hundred thou- sand people, three-quarters of them women and children, are said to visit these places every day—a number which is doubled on Sundays and holidays. Inquiry of the heads of the city departments which have juris- diction in the matter, John P. Corrigan. Commissioner of Licenses; Fire Commissioner Lantry, and Commissioner Murphy, of the Building Bureau, brought forth assertions that no one department had approved licenses for moving picture theaters un- less the other two departments had asserted their approval • * * * BROOKLYN, N. Y. With a view to making the five-cent moving picture theaters throughout the Borough of Brooklyn safer for women and chil- dren who frequent, them, the fire department has begun a re- inspection of every one of these establishments, and will rigidly enforce the laws and rules which provide that certain measures shall be taken for the safety of the public. These "nickelodeons" have sprung up like mushrooms within the last year, and many of them are the subjects of complaint, men and boys who have been in charge of the moving picture