It’s Better Not to Know
I have done my share of traveling, and in the course of my journeys I have visited some infamous places, including the Place de la Concorde, Omaha Beach, Ford’s Theater, and so on. The Place de la Concorde has a bloody history, but today is a lovely square in the heart of Paris. The beaches at Normandy were horrible for a day, but today are a beautiful, if solemn, landscape. Ford’s Theater and the Petersen House probably wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for their tragic association with Lincoln. Everyone knows what those places are about.
On the south bank of the Chicago River there is a plaque describing the 1915 Eastland disaster. More than eight hundred people drowned right in the heart of the country’s second largest city, while people in skycrapers watched out their windows. But when I was watching a show at the Oriental Theater, which lies only a few blocks from the Chicago River, I saw no plaque commemorating the Iroquois Theater Fire. I had never heard of it. On this date in 1903, more than six hundred people burned to death in a terrible fire at 24 Randolf Street. The Oriental Theater now occupies that very spot. I suppose modern theatergoers would find it unsettling to imagine heaps of charred corpses while they tried to enjoy Wicked. Had I known that address’s tragic history, I would certainly have searched out all the emergency exits and fire extinguishers before the house lights dimmed.
We can visit Dealey Plaza or Whitechapel, understand their histories, and still not be too disturbed. But something about the Iroquois Theater Fire troubles me deeply.
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