Ambassador Theatre

EXCESSIVE SNOW CAUSES COLLAPSE OF WASHINGTON - Crash Comes Without Warning, Burying Scores In Wreckage - Police UnableTo Estimate Number of Victims - Give First Aid To Injured In Emergency Hospital (By Associated Press) WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. Seventeen persons at least are believed to have.been killed and scores injured tonight in the collapse under the weight of two feet of snow of the roof of the Knickerbocker theater, a motion picture house, located in the heart of Washington’s fashionable northwest section. Two hours and a half after the crash, which occurred about 9 o'clock, definite information as to the number of dead and injured was wholly lacking as well as estimates of the number of those in the theater at the time, these estimates ranging from 150 to 500, although the theater, one of the finest motion picture houses in the city, had accommodations for more than 2,000 spectators. All was confusion for hours after the crash while police, firemen, marines from the nearby barracks and soldiers from Walter Reed Military Hospital strove to burrow beneath the mass of debris and bring forth those buried thereunder. Scores had been removed from the edges of the debris and hurried to hospitals but police engaged for hours in battling the worst snow storm to visit Washington in a decade were unable to check up on the number of those taken to hospitals or on whether, or how many, had died after reaching the hospitals. Every fire station in the city was called upon to send Its crew to the scene. With the arrival of the marines, however, order began to be restored. Emergency hospitals were set up in the neighborhood; some in the home of high officials of the government. Finding the tons of concrete and steel of the roof were almost immovable and impenetrable, the street railway company of the city and the Washington navy .yard was called upon to supply acetylene-torches; with these more rapid progress was made and it was hoped that within a few hours it might be possible to reach those buried beneath the debris. Among the injured were Representative Smithwyck of Florida, who was painfully cut about the head and chest but not seriously hurt; and Nobile Toniasso Asserto, third secretary of the Italian embassy. The management of the theater, which was owned add operated by the Harry M. Crandali company; owner of a number of theaters in the city, declared that the building only recently had' been Inspected and approved and that the collapse of the roof only could have been caused by the tremendous weight imposed upon it by the heaviest snowfall that has visited Washington since 1889. The roof fell with such force as to drive three pillars through the orchestra floor. Near the stage, however, its force was arrested, so that the platform successfully acted as a buffer. For this reason, it was said, several of the musicians escaped. One case was-observed of a small boy crawling through a small aperture in the tangled mass of concrete, steel and wood to a man, woman and child who were “pinned” down and giving them water. As the night wore on the work of rescue continued feverishly, but some officials expressed doubt that the debris could be completely removed for several days. No warning was given as the walls crashed, the roof breaking in on the heads of the audience with a noise like thunder and crashing seats and occupants as it fell. It was more than an hour before the rescuers, using gas torches to cut through the accumulated mass of steel and concrete, reached the section where it was believed most of the dead and injured were. The theater, situated in the center of Washington’s fashionable northwest section, presented a scene of horror an hour after the roof fell neath a weight of snow heavier than to which it had been subjected since. The roof, to those able to .push through police lines, seemed to rest on the floor, scarcely a foot and a half separating the lowermost debris and the floor level. Standing up through the debris, however, stark and ragged, were the pillars that had supported the balconies and the roof. The same snowfall which caused the collapse of the theater’s roof also worked to lessen the number of those in the crash, for the theater, being the only one in that section, usually is filled even to standing room on week-nights.

Another article about the collapse.

https://kaloramahistory.blogspot.com/2014/09/knickbocker-theater-death-trap-of-1922.html?fbclid=IwAR3qTJNFFKa7CgfctUy2q25CyqGLmMi1oESSSfcYvd_SFl1yqPek-5dHepk

I uploaded the 1-29-22 roof collapse photo from the below Shorpy link.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/16914

FYI. The Shorpy Higginbotham Facebook page and website has a detailed photo that will enlarge, of the aftermath of the collapse.

The Ambassador was one of two theaters in Washington to play Alfred Hitchcock’s DIAL M FOR MURDER in 2-D, without glasses. I’ve posted an ad for opening day, May 27, 1954.

More information can be found in this article: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/dial-m-blu-ray-review

Are you sure?

http://dckaleidoscope.wordpress.com/tag/theaters/

Scroll about 20% down.

While the Ambassador played BECAUSE THEY’RE YOUNG between June 15-June 24 of 1961, the Metropolitan played THE RAT RACE.

The Metropolitan was closed between September 6 and October 4 of 1961. The Ambassador played COME SEPTEMBER.

While the Ambassador played WEST SIDE STORY between June 12-July 2 of 1963, the Metropolitan played THE WONDERUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM.

While the Ambassador played a series of second-run features between May 20-July 7 of 1964, the Metropolitan played the first run of WHAT A WAY TO GO.

While the Ambassador played a series of second-run features between November 18-December 22 of 1964, the Metropolitan played the first run of GOODBYE CHARLIE.

While the Ambassador played the first run of JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOMEY between April 14-May 11 of 1963, the played the Metropolitan played the first run of CHEYENNE AUTUMN.

Opening view of the Knickerbocker on 13 October 1917:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/5701?size=_original

Check all the major newspapers of January 29, 1922 and the not so major ones. They all ran headline stories about the crash that occured the day before. NOAA, other weather information websites, and some eyewitness accounts on the web also have the correct date. Only the Army Quartermaster’s website is incorect.

I have not been on this site lately and am pleased that there are some relatives of survivors of the Knickerbocker disaster. My grandfather (Oreste Natiello) was in the orchestra (french horn). His brother was the conductor: Ernesto Natiello. If you have not already contacted Debbie Chambers, do so. She is writing a book about the disaster and has many resources to share. She can be found on Ancestry.com or Genealogy.com. Just search for her postings or for information on the Knickerbocker Theater. She lined me up with a Canadian Company that did a documentory on the Knickerbocker. You can get a copy of it from Disasters of the
Twentieth Century website. Go to their store. The documentary is good and I enjoyed being in it but some of the information is not
true, even some of what I said. I had no opportunity to review
questions ahead of time or to edit what I said. I was probably
nervous or my memory was not that good that day. I was surprised at some of what I said. I never knew my grandfather but have done a
lot of reading on the theater – mostly old newspapers and some
websites. Debbie sent me picures.

“Mary Poppins” played first-run at the Ontario Theater, located in the same neighborhood as the Ambassador. The film opened there in October 1964 and played until the next spring when “The Sound of Music” replaced it.