The mayor of Boston blamed the popular dance "The Charleston" for triggering the catastrophic collapse of the Pickwick night club on July 4, 1925.
Investigators determined otherwise, concluding chronic structural problems brought down the Pickwick and not the foot-kicking Charleston.
Box 1471 was transmitted at 3 a.m. summoning the Boston Fire Department.
A second alarm followed.
Firefighters, police and transit authority workers bore through furnishings, lumber, steel and concrete.
A contemporary newspaper account said:
"Without warning the fifth floor of the building collapsed, carrying with it the fourth and third floors.
"The tons of stone, plaster and bricks crashed through to the second floor on the 150 merry makers.
"With a roar that was heard for blocks, the second and third floors were carried down into the basement with their cargo of dead and dying."
When the rescue effort was over, 44 people were dead and many others were in hospital.
...
Rocco Carparto - a professional singer known as ``Teddy Williams'' - watched the disaster unfold, according to a newspaper account:
"Just as the plastering began to come down over our heads there was a rumble. Next was a sound like a muffled explosion. Then the beams began to fall. The whole building seemed to topple."
"Just how it happened I don't know and I guess nobody does. I made a jump for the stairway. But the stairway had dropped and I tumbled down."
"My leg was twisted and thought it was broken, but I managed to get out of the way before the mass of struggling men and women came falling down to the spot where I had landed."
"As I stumbled out of the ruins of the building I could hear the screams of the men and women behind me. I will carry that sound in my heart to the end of my days. I tried to go back and help out but my leg crumpled under me."
"There must have been between 100 and 200 men and women in the Pickwick club
"Most all of them were eating and dancing."
No comments:
Post a Comment