What They Ate and Drank on the Titanic's Last Night-- Part 4: A Chicago Connection

Adolphe Saalfeld had boarded in Southampton and his letter was mailed before the Titanic headed across the Atlantic Ocean,  "It was pure joy for me to stitch together the tales told in letters home, to tell the story of these amazing people through the lens of drinking and dining," Veronica Hinke said.

Hinke's culinary narrative tells the stories behind the dishes, desserts and drinks that appeared, or likely appeared on Titanic menus, based on contemporary Edwardian dining trends no doubt embraced on board.  She also includes recipes, many of which were adapted to modern tastes by Chicago-area chefs.

Hinke now lives in the Chicago area, notes that there were many Chicago connections to the Titanic.  One of them was Anne Isham, one of only five female first-class passengers who did not survive. She refused to leave without her Great Dane.

First-class passengers Ida Hippach and her daughter Jean, of Evanston were survivors of both the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago (at least 602 deaths) and the Titanic sinking.

--Cooter

Chicago's Devastating Fires-- Part 2: The Iroquois Theatre Fire

In one of the most famous fires in Chicago's history, a packed house waited to see America's favorite comedian, Eddie Foy, star in the comedy "Mr. Bluebeard" at the Iroquois Theatre on December 30, 1903.

Touted as being "completely fireproof," the Iroquois had opened earlier that year and a crowd estimated at 1,700 was there for a Christmas week matinee.  The audience watched the second act curtain rise and, as an arc light shorted, ignite.

In minutes, the scenery was aflame, even as Foy ordered the orchestra to strike up a tune and shouted to the crowd, "Please be quiet.  There is no danger."

But soon the theater was roaring with flames.  Men, women and children howled as they rushed to the exits, many of which were locked.

Some people died from the fire itself, others were trampled and smothered to death.  More than 600 were killed, hundreds more injured.

The exterior of the Iroquois was largely intact and later reopened as the Colonial Theater, which was demolished in 1925 to make way for the Oriental Theater.  The Iroquois Theatre  fire was and remains the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history.

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Chicago Taverns-- Part 4: Of Bad Behavior and Hats

7.  Plenty of BAD BEHAVIOR has taken place at Chicago bars.  Al Capone shot and killed rival "Ragtime Joe" Howard at Hymie Jacobs' bar on South Wabash in 1924.  Attorney W.W. O'Brien, who helped inspire the character Billy Flynn in the play and movie "Chicago," was shot in 1921 at Ryan & Novak's saloon on South State but refused to name his attacker.  He won plenty of business from mobsters after that.

In 1903, a saloon owner allowed his establishment at Dearborn and Randolph streets to be used as a temporary morgue after the Iroquois Theater fire.  The barkeep was caught stealing about $200 from a body.

8.  In 1941, the Ratcliffe family threw a party at its Rogers Park bar, the Ranger Inn, for a relative who was going into the Army.  That GI left his civilian HAT at the bar, saying he would reclaim it when he was out of the service.

For the next four years, more than 400 people hung their hats there as they went off to war.  When peace came, the bar held a hat-reclaiming party.  Those that went unclaimed were disposed of at a bonfire.  The American Legion held a memorial service for three hat owners who never returned from the fighting.

--DaCooy

Chicago's Eastland Disaster-- Part 3: Comparing the Disasters

It was July 15, 1915, and the time for the fifth annual employee picnic for the workers at Chicago's huge Western Electric plant.

Five ships had been hired to take the people to Michigan City.    One of the five was the ship heralded as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes," the SS Eastland.

Twenty-two entire families died in the tragedy.

And now, that tragedy has been largely forgotten.  Not all tragedies in Chicago have been though.  Most everyone knows about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, you know, the one supposedly started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow.  Somewhere between 300-400 died in it.

Then there was the Chicago Iroquois Theater fire in 1903, which killed 606.  People remember that.

Another disaster most people know is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, especially thanks to Gordon Lightfoot's song about it.  Twenty-nine died in that one.

Somewhat forgotten, though, is the wreck of the ship Lady Elgin in Lake Michigan in which 279 perished.