1929 – Dec 10, Fire (lamp), Pathe Film Studio, Manhattan, NYC, NY — 10
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 2-5-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/-
–9-10 Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Pathe Studio Burns – 9 Lives Lost…” 12-10-1929, p. 1.
— 10 Dunkirk Evng. Observer. “Lives Could Have Been Saved by Sprinkler…” 12-11-1929, 18.
— 10 Findadeath.com “Four Dancers Perish – 1929 Pathe Fire.” 8-12-2009.
— 10 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).
— 10 NFPA. “The Pathe’ Studio Fire.: Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 3, January 1930, p. 220.
— 10 Thompson, Emily. The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics… 2002, p.409.
Narrative Information
National Fire Protection Association. “The Pathe’ Studio Fire.” Quarterly, 23/3, Jan 1930:
“The Pathe Sound Studio lire in New York on December 10, 1929, in which ten lives were lost, occurred in a building of fire-resistive construction with an ample number of exits. A quantity of motion picture film was stored in the building, but this did not contribute in any way to the loss of life. The primary cause of the casualties was the extremely rapid spread of fire in flammable scenery used in connection with the production. This building presented all the fire hazards typical of a theatre stage. On a theatre stage the law would have required the fireproofing of scenery, automatic vents above to carry the smoke and flame upwards, thus retarding the lateral spread of fire, and, most important of all, automatic sprinkler protection. If this building had been equipped with a standard system of automatic sprinklers it is believed that these ten lives would not have been lost.
“The Pathe Sound Studio is located on the southwest corner of Park Avenue at 134th Street, New York City. The building was known as The Manhattan Studios and sub-leased by that concern to Pathe Sound Studios, Inc., for use in making sound motion picture productions. The studio was equipped with the usual paraphernalia for such work.
“The building was built in 1910 and was in good repair. The accompanying diagram shows the general arrangement. It is a high one story and basement building of fire-resistive construction, with a 20 ft. wide mezzanine on three sides of similar construction. The building covers an area of 11,250 square feet. It has brick walls and concrete floors with wooden surface in part. Partitions consisted principally of wood and composition board on wood framing, except offices on balcony and rewinding room, which were enclosed in fire-resistive partitions.
“The occupancy of the building was that of a typical “sound studio.” The contents of the ground floor included film cutting room, projection booth, screening room, stage, props, flood lights, scenery, sound recording apparatus, spot lights, stage settings, curtains and draperies, and sound deadening materials. Sound picture studios use more draperies, and use sound deadening materials and special lighting arrangements not formerly found in studios used for taking silent pictures.
“All dressing rooms were on the mezzanine floor, which extended along the north wall of the building. There were two rows of such rooms, with a corridor between. This corridor was approximately 5 feet in width. One end of the corridor led to a stairway, which was a means of exit from the mezzanine to the main floor. The other end of the corridor led to a fire escape from the west wall of the building. There were several business offices on the mezzanine floor; also a projection booth and screening room on the mezzanine on the south side of the building. From the stage floor to the ceiling was approximately 33 feet. The ceiling was covered with sound deadening material with no air chamber between this and the roof. The film storage vault was located in the basement.
“An ample number of exits is shown by the accompanying diagram [WE OMIT]. Every exit was equipped with an illuminated exit sign. It seems quite evident that these exits were not known or thought of by the majority of those at work in the studio, as the main entrance was the one resorted to by the majority for escape. This main entrance was located at the corner of Park Avenue and East 134th Street. At this point there were two large doors opening outward; however, these doors were not in general use and a draft and sound partition was erected around a third door, also opening outward. A single door, opening inward and provided with a door check was located in the partitioning. It was necessary to pass through the doorway in the partitioning first and then through the second doorway before gaining exit to the street from the studio floor. To reach this exit from the balcony it was necessary to descend the open five feet wide stairs, which had a platform with a right angle bend at the studio floor level, then across the studio floor a distance of approximately 15 feet before reaching the door in the partitioning. It was on the platform at the foot of the stairs leading from the balcony toward this exit that the bodies of those that lost their lives were found.
“The fire protection within the building consisted mainly of four two-inch standpipes, one near each corner of the building, supplied with water from city main connection only. Each standpipe had one outlet on the first floor and on the mezzanine, with 25 ft. of two-inch hose attached. A number of hand extinguishers were distributed throughout the building.
Story of the Fire.
“On the morning of the fire there were 35 girls in the building, 12 members of an orchestra, three male actors and approximately 70 employees, including 34 electricians who were on the set and eight men in the property department. The girls in the dancing chorus of the “Black and White Revue,” which was being filmed at the time, were in flimsy costume.
“At approximately 9:38 A.M. fire started in a velvet drop curtain. (See diagram.) There are several causes to which the fire can be attributed, among them being a cigarette surreptitiously thrown into a fold in the black velvet curtain, an unknown electrical defect, or a fragment of carbon from an arc lamp. Another probable cause could have been an electric curling iron which might have been used and the current left on. The fire was first noticed in this curtain about “waist high” from the stage. This velvet drop curtain had been rented two days before the fire and placed in position the day previous.
“Others, in different portions of the balcony, unable even to reach the stairs, were rescued through window openings. The men killed presumably perished in attempts to rescue the girls. All of the bodies were found near the foot of the stairs leading to the balcony dressing rooms. The report of the medical examiner indicates that the deaths were caused by suffocation from the inhalation of carbon monoxide, such gas being formed by the incomplete combustion of any carbonaceous material.
“There is no evidence of any fire drill discipline, which might have resulted in the use of other available exits.
“An official of the Pathe Sound Studios, Inc., states that since the fire he has interrogated most of the people who were in the building at the time of the fire, and it is his belief that nine of the persons who lost their lives were either at one time out of the building or were in a zone of safety and could have gotten out had they not returned.
“At the time of the fire there were 369 reels of nitrocellulose motion picture film in the building; of these 209 were in a vault in the basement. It is definitely established that 11 reels of motion picture film were burned in the fire, although in no way was this film a contributary cause to the spreading of the fire, and the indications are that the entire interior of the building was in flames before the 11 reels of film took fire. There were eight reels of film in the balcony projection booth, which burned, and three reels of film in the camera darkroom. The films in the cutting rooms and in the vault did not ignite and were uninjured except by water….
“There is no evidence to indicate that this was an exceptionally hot fire, but rather that the temperatures reached were comparable with that of burning wood. The duration of the fire was about two hours; it was under control in one hour according to fire department records….”
Thompson: “…on 10 December 1929…an incandescent lamp ignited a fire during the filming of a musical at the Pathé Manhattan Studios in New York. Ten people died, and the subsequent report of the new York Board of Fire Underwriters noted that ‘the production of sound pictures has developed an additional hazard in the use of considerable quantities of draperies, property and sound-deadening material.’ ‘Finds Pathe Fire Was Preventable,’ NYT (21 December 1929): 40. See also “10 Die, 18 Hurt in Film Studio Blaze: Panic Costs Lives of Four Chorus Girls as Quick Fire Cuts Off All but One Exit,’ NYT (11 December 1929): 1-2; and ’10 Dead, 20 Hurt in Pathe Studio Fire,’ Film Daily 50 (11 December 1929): 1, 9.” (Thompson, Emily Ann. The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002, p. 409.)
Contemporary Newspapers, Chronological:
Dec 10: “New York, Dec. 10. – (UP) – The girls of the pony ballet, bare-legged and smiling, were chattering on the stage at the Pathe company’s sound-film studios this morning, waiting for the orchestra, already on the set to strike up the music. It was to be a gala day. They were to record and film a feature number for “Harry Delmar’s Miniature Review.” But the music never started for just at that moment a girl of the chorus saw flames leaping at her from the big black velvet back drop and she shouted “fire.”
“Three hours later when the firemen got through poking among the ruins, the morgue record showed nine dead and at the hospitals the registers carried the names of 16 injured. Of the dead four were unidentified girls, who burned to death in their scanty, little silken trunks. Four were motion picture operators trapped at their cameras. One was a body so horribly burned that no one
could say whether it was man or woman. The medical examiner said he believed one more had died at a hospital, bringing the death toll to 10, but the report of the tenth death was unconfirmed.
“The building is situated at 130th street and Park avenue, at a point beyond which Park avenue, the homes of the rich, has changed its character to black face and the colored people of Harlem take it over. Nearby on one side runs the Harlem ship canal. On another are the tracks of the New York Central railway. The structure is of brick with two stories and a basement. Across the front of it was a great sign reading ‘Pathe comedies make the whole world laugh.’
“About 100 people had gathered in the building this morning. There were four squads of actors and musicians, about 18 members in each squad. Then there were directors, technicians, cameramen, and officials, all intent upon the business of making fun for other people to enjoy.
“The days work was to open with the recording of the number by the pony ballet. Its 18 members were on the stage. They were little, laughing girls, chosen carefully from the ballets of such shows as ‘Hold Everything,’ the ‘Music Box Revue’ and ‘Sons of Guns’ which had gained fame for the beauty and skill of their choruses. They wore their scanty costumes, all of lace and tinsel.
‘When the pony ballet was through with its work, a second chorus was to come on and its members were gathered in the dressing rooms upstairs. Eddie Elkins and his dozen musicians were busy blowing on flutes and saxophones, clearing up their tunes so that all would be perfect. In offices, the cutting room, the projection room, and down in the store room, other people were about their work.
“In the basement a quantity of film was stored. In technical rooms were other films and all around the place was the flimsy, paper mache and light wood and cloth scenery which, when put together will make anything from a frontier dance hall to Buckingham palace for a movie. It was into such a place as this that fire had to come.
“When the shout of ‘fire’ was heard the chorus stopped its chatter. Then, almost all at once, they saw first just a few tongues of flames and then, with a sudden burst, the whole curtain seemed ablaze.
Whole Place a Seething Furnace.
“Girls screamed, but the men raised a shout and the studio crew turned in with fire extinguishers believing they could stop the fire. But it was too much. In less than two minutes time the whole place was seething. Girls, with their little trunks and spangles burning, fled wildly towards the exits. Men scrambled for hoses, only to be turned back. Whole scenes went up in a sheet of flame and a puff of smoke. Flames leaped 50 feet into the air.
“Bernard Mahoney, assistant director, rushed into the upstairs dressing rooms. ‘Step out,’ he cried to the girls awaiting their call to the stage, ‘Step out, and make it lively,’ he shouted, ‘Get right busy.’ A murmur went around the room and hard looks were cast at him. It was pretty early in the morning for a director to get ‘hard-boiled,’ the girls thought, for they all believed it was just their call to the set. But just then there was a rush of smoke up the stairway and panic followed.
“Ernest Flisser, an official of the company, met Charles Korbel in a hallway. They ran for a fire hose and standpipe connection. Just as they were about to open the hose a screaming, panic-stricken group of girls came charging, still in the scant costume, down the hallway and swept both Flisser, who weighs 200 pounds and Korbel, through the door, down the stairs and almost to the street….
“Saul Gusikass [unclear], who plays the cello in the orchestra, saw a girl trampled, he believes to death, in a frantic stampede to one of the exits. ‘I tried to get to her,’ he said, ‘but I couldn’t. The mob just fought and pulled me away.’….
“Two women and one man were found jammed in a doorway, their bodies burned almost beyond recognition….Others had fallen on the stairways….
“Call after call was being sent to police headquarters for ambulances and for fire apparatus. Seven ambulances from three hospitals, and the apparatus of 25 fire stations came roaring through the streets. Crowds flocked after them. But so rapidly did the fire burn and so fast did death come to the victims, that almost before the crowd arrived it was over excepting for the leaping flames and the intense heat. Sixty police drew lines around the building. Firemen fought their way into the building. Before noon the fire was out and the last corner of the structure had been searched.” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Pathe Studio Burns – 9 Lives Lost. Roaring Furnace in Few Seconds the Rescued Say.” 12-10-1929, p. 1.)
Dec 11: “New York, Dec. 11. – (UP) – A tragic combination of circumstances seemingly trivial when separated but fraught with horror in their entirety, emerged today as the background of the Pathe move studio fire….a tiny mishap – probably the spitting out by an arc light or a chip of incandescent carbon – proved the difference between life and death, between a day’s work at the studio and New York’s worst fire disaster of recent years….Whether the arc light was actually the cause of the fire may never be known definitively, for the electrician who had charge of it lost his life. It was certain, however, that a bit of glowing carbon did fall from the lamp – and a minute later a great velvet drape at the rear of the stage was ablaze.
Not Equipped With Sprinklers
“Fire officials were convinced that many lives might have been saved if automatic sprinkler equipment had been installed in the old studio at 134th street and Park avenue which dated back to the days when Pearl White made her thrillers. Sprinklers would have held back the flames long enough to permit the escape of many who were caught in the frantic jam at the door, in the belief of Fire Chief John Kenlow.
“An order for installation of sprinklers was issued by the fire department last spring. But there is no law to enforce such orders, so it amounted to little more than a suggestion – a suggestion which the owners of the structure did not heed.
“Richard Stradling, electrician, in a hospital with severe burns, told of seeing the glowing bit of carbon drop from the lamp. He was standing on the balcony on which the dressing rooms and studio offices were situated. ‘The lamp was high above the studio floor,’ he said. ‘I happened to be looking in that direction when I saw a piece of white hot carbon fly from the lamp. It dropped, a streak of light, to the studio floor, landing near a black velvet curtain. A moment later and the curtain burst into a puff of swirling flames. ‘Immediately some of the property men tore down the curtain, but it was no use. The stuff burned top of it and set fire to a lot of painted frames stocked near it. Other scenery caught fire – it seemed like no time at all before that whole end of the studio was blazing.’
“There were many windows, none of them more than 20 feet from the ground, but few thought to use them. Instead there was a mad rush down stairs to the door – a panicky flight in which some were crushed to death.
List of the Dead
“…At last all the dead were identified as follows:
Bishoff, Joseph, make-up man, 20 West 120th Street, trapped on stairway.
Buford, Anna, 20, chorus girl, of 206 West 99th Street, suffocated by smoke, died in hospital.
Burne, Norine 24, chorus girl, of…Brooklyn, knocked down in stairway, stampeded and burned.
Koerble, Charles, electrician, of 141 Halsey Lane, Leonia, N.J.; died of burns.
Kramer, Carl, electrician, of 1631 Grand Avenue, Bronx; burned to death.
Nussman, Robert, electrician, 617 East Fordham… Bronx; collapsed near door after fighting fire.
Porter, Catherine, 21, chorus girl, 50 West 65th Street, caught in stampede.
Quinn, Jack, property man, 56 Dean Street, Brooklyn, fought fire until too late to escape.
Sparks, Jola, 16, chorus girl, 1520 Sheridan Avenue, Bronx, trapped in stampede.
Wilson, Earnest, bookkeeper, Amsterdam Avenue and 113th street, caught in stampede.”
(Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Lives Could Have Been Saved by Sprinkler System. Pathe Studio in New York Was Not So Equipped Though Fire Officials Had Recommended It.” 12-11-1929, p. 18.)
Sources
Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Lives Could Have Been Saved by Sprinkler System. Pathe Studio in New York Was Not So Equipped Though Fire Officials Had Recommended It.” 12-11-1929, p. 18. http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35996642&sterm=pathe+fire
Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “Pathe Studio Burns – 9 Lives Lost.” 12-10-1929, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=38765710&sterm=pathe+fire
Findadeath.com. “Four Dancers Perish – 1929 Pathe Fire.” 8-12-2009. Accessed 3-23-2013 at: http://www.findadeath.com/forum/showthread.php?22570-Four-Dancers-Perish-1929-Pathe-Fire
National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)
National Fire Protection Association. “The Pathe’ Studio Fire.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 23, No. 3, January 1930, pp. 220-226.
Thompson, Emily Ann. The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=7jvtvGbatv4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false