Volume II: Filmography

A SEMINARY CONSUMED BY FLAMES

(Mutual Weekly No. 62)

March 4, 1914 (Wednesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Documentary

Director: Carroll Fleming

Assistant director: Carl Louis Gregory

Cameramen: Henry Cronjager, Roswell J. Johnson

Cast: William Noel, Ed Brady, Perry Horton, Oaksmere School students

Location: The Oaksmere School, New Rochelle

Notes: 1. This film, a documentary of a fire filmed in New Rochelle on February 18, 1914, was exhibited locally and also, in edited form, as part of Mutual Weekly No. 62, Mutual's weekly newsreel, released on March 4, 1914. This film was billed as: "New Rochelle, N.Y. private school is wiped out by fire." 2. The correct name of the school was Oaksmere. The Oaksmere School was located on Davenport Neck, New Rochelle, and had as its principal Mrs. Winifred E. Merrill. The use of the designation "Ellsmere" in an article in Reel Life, quoted below, is an error. 3. Footage employed in this film was subsequently used to create another Thanhouser film, From the Flames, released April 28, 1914. On the day of the fire, the Thanhouser crew was enroute to filming An Hour of Youth (released April 12, 1914).

BACKGROUND OF THE SCENARIO. Articles contemporary with the fire and one of more recent times tell of the conflagration and Thanhouser's involvement:

ARTICLE, The Evening Standard (New Rochelle), February 19, 1914:

"Oaksmere Gymnasium Destroyed by Fire.... The school and gymnasium building of Oaksmere School, Davenport Neck, is nothing but a steaming mass of ruins, where once students studied and recited their lessons, and did gymnastic 'stunts.' It is said the fire started in the boiler room, which was an extension, on the ground level, at one side of the building. What the cause was, no one seems to know. The school was called up by telephone, yesterday afternoon, but the only answer to the question as to 'What caused the fire?' was 'We have nothing to say.' Fire Chief James Ross places the loss on building and contests at $8,000. It is said the building was fully insured.

"This was the building in which Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan delivered an address to the graduates last June. It was about 11:15 o'clock yesterday morning when the fire was discovered. It is said there were six students in the building at the time. While a telephone alarm was being sent to Fire headquarters, they dropped their books, obtained fire extinguishers and buckets and attacked the fire. Other students, hearing their cries, ran out of the other buildings and assisted. Though they fought valiantly, the flames reached the big room, which was decorated with flimsy stuff in honor of some holiday. It was a slow fire and took about half an hour to reach this point. When it reached the draperies, the flames shot in all directions, mounting the walls and crackling along the high ceiling.

"About this time, the crew from Relief Engine Company arrived with their automobile pumping engine. They had made good time all the way to the Thorne property on Davenport Avenue, and there they ran into a deep bank of snow blocking the roadway. It took half an hour to dig through it. When the firemen arrived, they had difficulty in navigating the narrow road approaching Oaksmere. Inside the grounds, they coupled on to a hydrant and ran out more than 800 feet of hose. They could get but one stream on the fire. By this time, the blaze had burst through the roof, and the whole interior was a mass of leaping flames and sparks. Desks, chairs, books, blackboards and other school paraphernalia, as well as pictures, drawings, and the expensive platform furniture, were consumed, while the girls stood about in coats or sweaters, watching the firemen work. The firemen had driven the feminine bucket brigade from the building, and had taken their places. The single stream of water made no impression except to increase the volume of smoke and steam. the best the firemen could do was to make a bluff of trying to fight the flames and wait until the walls fell, which occurred not long after their arrival. Then they poured water on the 'ruins until the smouldering timbers were soaked and black.' When the alarm began ringing in the Huguenot fire house, the drivers did not wait for the last taps. Hearing '14,' and thinking it was the New Rochelle Hospital, they did not wait for the '7' to sound (for the alarm was '147'), but dashed with their big motor truck to the hospital. There they discovered there was no fire. They had difficulty in returning through Burling Lane, for the snow was deep and clogged the wheels.

"While the first part of these events were transpiring, William Noel, a member of the local United States Life Saving Corps, a 'Polar Bear,' who breaks the ice and swims every Sunday at Hudson Park, and a member of Relief Engine Company, was going to the life saving station to prepare for an ice swim before one of the Thanhouser cameras. He was in charge of Carl Gregory, a director, with the camera in the hands of Roswell Johnson. They saw the motor engine dash into Davenport Avenue, and, postponing the ice picture, the three hiked the mile through the snow to Oaksmere, arriving with the engine. Instead of taking an 'icy swim' picture, they made a real winter fire picture, whirling the camera a few times in order to take in groups of the girl students and the grounds. Noel got to work with the firemen. When it was found the building could not be saved, Noel and several other firemen began doing some heroics for the camera. Perry Horton went inside a portion of the building that was not yet ablaze, and a few seconds later 'Billy' Noel carried him out in his arms. Horton had become overcome by gas - pictorially speaking. The camera man exposed 400 feet of film.

"The Relief engine was called out about 6:20 o'clock, last evening, to handle a secondary fire that broke out in the ruins. The engine, on the second trip, plowed through the deep snow without stopping, while other vehicles found it nearly impossible to get near the school...."

ARTICLE, The New Rochelle Pioneer, February 19, 1914:

"Fire, which started from an overheated furnace, totally destroyed the large frame building used as a recitation hall and gymnasium at Mrs. Winifred E. Merrill's Oaksmere School on Davenport Neck, shortly before noon on Wednesday. The loss is placed at $10,000. Several classes of girls were in session at the time the fire was discovered, but instead of causing a panic they left the building quietly. An alarm from box 142 [sic; earlier-quoted article says 147] summoned the Huguenot and Relief Companies to the scene, but they were greatly hampered by the deep snow, getting stuck in the drifts several times. In speaking of the fire, Chief Ross said that had the apparatus been able to arrive sooner, the building would have been saved. The building stood about 300 feet from the main brick building at the western end of the Neck. A large crowd was attracted to the scene by the heavy clouds of smoke that were sent skyward. As soon as the firemen arrived tons of water were played on the flames, but to no avail. The building was a mass of ashes at 2:00. Despite the fact that the daily papers endeavor to make sensational stories out of nothing, which did more harm than good, the work of the fire department was indeed praiseworthy. Each man did his work and did it well. Not one of them left the scene in a dry condition, and when it considered that 'Pard' Kusche, of the Relief Company, worked with a broken collarbone, the spirit of our volunteers is clearly shown."

ARTICLE, Reel Life, February 28, 1914:

"The Elsmere [sic], an exclusive boarding school for girls, at New Rochelle, was destroyed by fire on February 18. William Noel, of the Thanhouser studio, was one of the first arrivals upon the scene. Mr. Noel, accompanied by a cameraman, was on his way to Long Island Sound, where he planned to take part in a scene which required him to break through the ice and rescue a 'drowning' young woman. [Billy Noel, referred to by his contemporaries as a "human polar bear," was fond of taking icy swims in New Rochelle's Hudson Park - Ed.] Mr. Noel dashed into the burning school and assisted many of the young women from the building. As a member of the Volunteer Fire Department of New Rochelle, Mr. Noel then called up Director Carroll Fleming of the Thanhouser studios and asked him to give the alarm. Mr. Fleming notified other members of the fire department, but by the time the members of the department arrived the school was in ruins. The motion-picture machine operator who accompanied Mr. Noel obtained some splendid photographs of the burning of the building and also filmed the actor as he carried the hysterical [sic; this is inconsistent with the article in the New Rochelle Pioneer] young women from the school. Needless to say, the films of the fire will play to crowded houses in New Rochelle where the burning of the Thanhouser plant is yet fresh in the memories of all."

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March 6, 1914 (Friday)

No Thanhouser release because of the two-reel film of the preceding Tuesday.

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