A theater in downtown Chicago has been named one of the most haunted places in the world, according to Condé Nast Traveler.
The James M. Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., formerly known as the Oriental Theatre, was chosen for its tragic history.
Five weeks after the theater opened as the Iroquois Theatre in 1903, a fire broke out during a performance of the musical “Mr. Bluebeard.” It killed 602 people, mostly women and children, and hundreds more were burned. The Iroquois Theatre fire was “a disaster unmatched even by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which killed 250,” according to the Chicago Daily News.
“It’s one of the biggest tragedies in Chicago history,” said Tony Szabelski, tour guide and researcher for the American Ghost Walks.
A cast member had just walked onstage when an overhead light shorted and sparked, “splashing rivulets of fire onto a velvet curtain and flammable props. Quickly, silently, the flames swelled,” the archives said. The cast ran through a stage door, creating a “whoosh of air” that fed the fire.
“Lush upholstery had ignited tall curtains and two gas tanks erupted, spewing hellfire and poisonous gases into the faces of the audience. In darkness, the living clawed over bodies piled 10 high around doors and windows,” the Sun-Times archives said.
The fire was seen as a failure of regulation. City inspectors were given free tickets, which led them to ignore the fire code, Sun-Times archives said. The fire code was changed to require theater doors to open outwards and fire curtains of steel.
Criminal charges were brought and civil lawsuits filed, but no one was ever punished for the disaster. All civil litigation failed except for a $29,750 settlement that awarded each claimant $750.
In 1926, the theater was renamed the Oriental Theatre. After years of decay and a decade as a shuttered venue, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced in 1996 the venue would be restored to “its original grandeur for the presentation of live stage musicals,” according to Broadway in Chicago’s website.
“Even though the theater was completely rebuilt and rebranded, spirits of the dead remained: Apparitions have been seen in ‘Death Alley,’ the street behind the theater where bodies were stacked after the disaster,” Condé Nast Traveler said.
Attendees attempted to jump off the balcony in an effort to escape, Szabelski said, leading to 120 bodies piling up in the alley behind the theater. Szabelski said people on the tours have taken pictures of glowing orbs, which some have theorized are the spirits of dead people.
The theater is now called the James M. Nederlander Theatre in honor of the founder of Broadway in Chicago and is currently showing “Hamilton.”
Despite the theater’s ranking, Szabelski said he still believes the Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, also known as the Congress Hotel, is the most haunted spot in Chicago. He said the space is believed to be occupied by ghosts, many of whom have died by suicide.
