FROM AMERICAN HAUNTINGS INK
ONE AFTERNOON AT THE IROQUOIS
HISTORY AND HAUNTINGS OF AMERICA’S DEADLIEST THEATER FIRE BY TROY TAYLOR (2021) $18
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On the cold afternoon of December 30, 1903, a fire broke out in Chicago’s Iroquois Theater during a sold-out performance. The theater had been advertised as “absolutely fireproof” when it had opened ahead of schedule to take advantage of holiday crowds. But the theater wasn’t fireproof – it wasn’t even safe. In less than 20 minutes, more than 600 people – mostly women and children – were burned, smothered, and trampled to death as the panicked audience tried to flee the theater. They soon discovered locked stairways, missing fire escapes, and jammed doors, leading to scores of deaths.
In this chilling book, author Troy Taylor delves into the true story of this horrific holiday tragedy, detailing not only the disaster itself but the lives that were lost, changed, and utterly destroyed on that fateful afternoon. He takes readers inside the walls of the theater in a search for the missing and the dead and behind the doors of Chicago’s City Hall, where the corruption occurred that allowed the dangerous theater to open just five weeks before the fire.
Follow the victims taken to makeshift morgues in stores, restaurants, and saloons and then hunt for the lingering spirits who refuse to rest in peace after more than a century. Discover first-hand accounts of hauntings in the theater that now stands at the site, in a nearby department store, and, of course, in the narrow passage behind the theater where more than 100 people were killed – a passage that the press in 1903 dubbed “Death Alley.”
One Afternoon at the Iroquois is the perfect book for a cold winter’s night during the holiday season -- when what should have been the perfect time of year turned into a nightmare.