Amarillo Olympic Theater blaze of 1919

Large icicles, some more than two-feet long, created an eerie scene for spectators after an evening fire completely gutting the Olympic Theater, at the corner of 7th and Polk Street, formerly known as the Amarillo Opera House, in 1919. It was November 27, 1919, Thanksgiving night, more than 1,800 were in the theater watching the film “Mickey” starring Mabel Normand when the fire broke out.

Theater manager Ross Rogers thought the fire was manageable but still went on stage to inform patrons of the situation, letting the audience know the fire was not serious. However, within minutes, around 8 p.m. the theater’s organist, Eddie Reardon, noticed flames beginning to come up from the basement near the organ he was playing. He quickly turned over organ duties to his assistant, J.H. Wise and rushed up on stage, admonishing members of the audience to leave the theater at once but remain calm.

Manager Rogers took over and continued encouraging the audience to make for the exits calmly and quietly. Theatergoers left the building quickly and in an orderly fashion thanks to the efforts of Rogers, Reardon, Wise and projectionist Terry Lomax who continued to run the movie projector until the theater screen actually caught fire. Starting as manager in 1917, Ross Rogers, who latter served as Mayor of Amarillo from 1932 to 1941, recalled in his account of that night for the Amarillo Daily News:

“When I found the fire was out of control about 8 o’clock, I went on stage as calmly as possible and told the audience to start moving to the doors. My motion picture operator and organist had instruction to continue their operational duties as people were leaving. When nearly everyone was out of the building I noticed a woman with a baby in her arms in the balcony. The baby was nursing and the woman was sound asleep. I rushed over, grabbed the baby and ran for the exit. The woman followed screaming and less than a minute after reaching the front door, the entire front portion of the the theater collapsed.”

The severity of the weather that night was evident the next morning by the icicles that hung from nearby power lines. Fire Chief Earl J. Curry and his entire department battled the fire in temperatures that dipped below zero, and they struggled against a howling north wind that threatened to spread the blaze to nearby buildings. There were several inches of snow on the ground. It was so cold that water from the fire hoses turned to ice as it hit the building, despite the heat of the fire.

Curry just had been appointed fire chief in May 1919, and this was his first big fire.

“We were just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner when the fire alarm came,” he said. “Our ladders were iced over so much we could hardly use them. Several men almost froze to death.”

Members of the Salvation Army brought hot coffee to the firefighters as they battled the blaze and the freezing cold.

In the Nov. 28 issue of the Amarillo Daily News, Rogers placed a large notice that read, “Hot Dog! ‘Mickey!’ – They told us you were a hot sketch, but we didn’t expect you to set the house on fire.”

Four months later, on March 27, 1920, a three-story brick wall on the theater’s north side collapsed, falling on the Green Brothers building next door. Several people were in Green’s store at the time.

Owner Charles L. Green and store manager C.R. McAfee escaped without serious injury because of a large safe in the store’s office that protected them from falling debris. Miss Frankie “Fay” Gober received serious burns from a hot stove that fell and trapped her under the debris until help arrived.

The men who fought the fire in the basement before the fire department arrived thought the fire was sparked by electrical wiring used to run the electric pipe organ. The organ wiring was under the front part of the theater where the organist sat.

The fire caused more than $100,000 in damage. The Olympic Theater was a complete loss.
By Michael Schumacher in The Amarillo Globe-News
Photo from the files of The Amarillo Globe-News