NEWS & ANALYSIS

Our local Hollywood connections - Stan Laurel, Snow White and Quebec cinema laws

The flicker of images on the screen was the only source of light for an estimated crowd of 800 who were packed into the old Laurier Theatre, for a cold Sunday afternoon matinee on Jan. 9, 1927. The balcony itself was crammed with almost 300 children ranging in age from four to 18, as they stared on in wonderment at the images being projected. It was a silent picture; a comedy called Get'em Young. Their views were slightly blurred, as wafts of cigarette smoke formed linear clouds before the screen. As the smoke thickened and the air took on a different scent, the children in the balcony continued to focus on the on-screen action. Moments later, the action would become real, as a smoldering cigarette was slowly burning between the subfloor and the upper floorboards of the old theater. The first alert came at 2 p.m., as a boy in the balcony eyed a small flame coming from the projection room below and shouted "Fire!", sending people scrambling for the nearest of four exits. Within minutes, a choking, blinding smoke filled the theater. In the darkness of the aisles, the panic grew and swept across the rows of seats, almost at once. The 500 (or so) sitting in the orchestra section, were lucky enough to make it to the street. For the remaining 300, mostly chil- Quest for the best winner... dren, the theater would take on a more surreal view, as they rushed down the balcony stairs only to be ordered back up by a frantic ticket collector. Children returning up the stairs only crashed into those still forcing their way down in sheer panic. Only one of the balcony stairway exits was open, the other remained locked, causing a bottleneck of youngsters with only one way to go. When the first line finally reached the exit doors, they found themselves being crushed against them by the force of the rushing crowd behind, as the doors only open inwards. As wave after wave crashed forward, they trampled and pinned those in front, jamming the doors shut ever tighter. From just across the street, firefighters from station 13 quickly arrived, but could do nothing to clear the mounting surge of youngsters pushing against doors from within. Fireman Alphea Arpin was the first to enter, only to find his own son Gaston (six), amongst the dead. Of the 78 children that perished, 64 were asphyxiated, 12 were crushed, and ironically only two died from the actual fire itself. The funeral procession was watched by over 50,000 Montrealers and lasted only a day, yet the disaster itself changed our cinema laws, banning all Quebec children under 16 from going the movies for almost the next 40 years. Ironically, the silent movie being shown on that tragic day was Get 'Em Young, a silent comedy, written, directed and starring Stan Laurel himself as "Summers" the butler. It was a 1926 production made at the Hal Roach

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0D2 See GHANDHI, page 11 THE SUBURBAN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2010 * 7

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