Author Biography: Anthony P. Hatch, a native New Yorker raised in Chicago, is a former print, wire service and broadcast newsman. He began investigating the Iroquois disaster in 1961 while he was with CBS News. He was interested in the similarities between the Iroquois and the Titanic disaster which occured nine years later. He was able to get eyewitness details from five elderly men directly involved in the Iroquois horror: a cub reporter for a Chicago newspaper who covered the theater's opening night and returned five weeks later to report on the disaster; a fireman who fought the blaze and later became Chicago fire commissioner; a wire service reporter called in from his beat at the stock yards; a Northwestern student who helped carry out the living and dead and a child who escaped from the theater by being passed, hand over hand, above the heads of fleeing adults. Hatch currently is general manager of public radio station KSFR in Santa Fe and teaches broadcast news at the University of New Mexico's School of Communications and Journalism. His written articles have appeared in The Nation, TV Guide, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and the Santa Fe New Mexican. This is his first book.
Anonymous
Posted April 24, 2004
I found this book quite by accident here online, and, as a history buff could not believe I had not read about this tragedy. As a professional musician who often works in the pit and attends the theatre often, I could not put this book down. The author places you at the scene and his years of research place him at the top. The people came to life, and their lives had meaning. The parallels to theatre today cannot be ignored. There is still no training done in theatres. I want to thank the author for writing this book. He also sets rumors straight, and other recent books on the matter do not compare in detail or readability( for I read them afterwards)... Don't miss this one! It should be made into a film if possible...
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Posted January 3, 2004
This is a very disturbing account of what can happen if fire breaks out in a theater or any other entertainment venue. As a theater director of very old building it has made me really think about our own prevention measures. The author decribes the patrons who attended ,or did not attend, the matinee of that fateful day and personalizes the story. I read this in one night.
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Posted October 25, 2008
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