I've found no lists of members of the Iroquois Theater orchestra and varying estimates on the number of musicians, up to forty.  An interview with director Dilley reported twenty-six; a newspaper report in the Richmond, Indiana newspaper where lived the parents of cello player Eddo Kline, described their relief at learning their son was among the survivors in the thirty-three member orchestra.  Philip Carli,* (to whom I am much indebted for providing information about theater orchestras of the period), feels the actual number was twenty-six.

Those identified thus far are listed at right in blue panel.  Will update list as more information is found.  This story will be "in progress" for some time.

A Chicago musician who died at the Iroquois Theater, flutist Otto Helms, is thought to have been in the audience that day rather than in the orchestra.  Had he been performing it is certain there would have been newspaper note of it.

Clothing of some orchestra members was burned from falling embers.  Poking that in here for the time being until more is found on that subject.

Comedian Eddie Foy and both orchestra directors at the Iroquois Theater believed that music would calm the audience.   Since multiple audience survivors described being unable to hear Foy from the stage urging calm, it is likely they were also unable to hear the orchestra playing.  Nonetheless, a half dozen musicians kept playing until soon after the fireball shot into the auditorium.

According to testimony at the coroner's trial, Eddie Foy urged the orchestra to play an overture and director Herbert Dillea led the group in playing the Sleeping Beauty and the Beast Overture.  Sleeping Beauty was another Drury Lane Theater production that Klaw and Erlanger had imported and for which Frederick Solomon had composed much of the music, playing in August 1902 at the Illinois Theater in Chicago, also managed by Will J. Davis, probably by some of the same musicians that were performing Mr. Bluebeard at the Iroquois.  Second director and violinist Antonio Frosolono also described urging the musicians to keep playing.

On January 7, 1904 Frosolono testified before the grand jury about his experience at the Iroquois Theater.  He described the fire curtain lowering, sticking and bulging just prior to the fireball rolling out from beneath. He told of a fire hose beneath the stage. (Later witnesses would testify that water had not been plumbed to the fire hoses.)
Frosolono and a half dozen other musicians, including Dillea and Brown, continued performing until the bass and cello caught fire.  Brown testified that they had no more evacuated than the woodwork in the pit caught fire.  Eddie Foy was quoted as saying that by the time the last orchestra member, Herbert Dillea, left the orchestra pit, the ground floor of the auditorium was half emptied. 

Foy and Brown's remarks reveal that though there were few fatalities among audience members seated on the ground floor, the risk to them was greater than I've appreciated: the orchestra pit was in flames as the last of the audience on the ground floor moved into the lobby, putting flames around thirty feet away.

The musicians escaped from the pit into the basement via an 18" wide opening and stairwell that led to a hallway lined by dressing rooms, costume rooms and, at the south end, washrooms and smoking rooms used by theater patrons.  Musician Arthur C. Brown described the opening as difficult to use, requiring the musicians to "twist and wiggle" to pass through. 

The pit exit was compromised as a result of yet another Iroquois planning error.  The depth of the orchestra pit was originally seventy-eight inches, said to be in keeping with European standards at the time.  At the dress rehearsal it was decided that the music could not be heard sufficiently so a false wood floor was installed atop the concrete floor, raising the floor height.  Still unsatisfactory, a second wood floor addition was installed.  The measurements cited in the newspaper stories resulting from an interview with Arthur Brown are conflicting and the actual floor height in the orchestra pit is not known.  It is safe to conclude from Brown's remarks that the size and position of the opening between the pit and basement was too small and was poorly angled, probably because it was inadequately altered to accommodate the raised floor height.  Little wonder some musicians left their instruments behind. 

Tunes performed by the Iroquois Orchestra for Mr. Bluebeard:

Many of the tunes in Mr. Bluebeard were published as sheet music that can be downloaded as a pdf file here and/or viewed here.  They are marked below with SM.  Lyrics and additional Mr. Bluebeard music information.

Discrepancies and addendum

*  Musicologist, sound recording historian, film scholar, film accompanist, pianist, conductor and author

†  Some online biographies inaccurately cite Florence's date of birth as 1890.  Her marriage license, census reports and obituary cite 1881 and 1880.  Stilwell was sometimes spelled as Stillwell.  Later in life Florence went by her middle name, Louise.

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