In those days (the 1920s/Early 1930s) many theaters were destroyed by fires, mostly due to bad wiring or in the early/mid 20s the heat of the early projectors some of which used arch lamps since incandescent lamps at the time weren’t powerful enough. There was a terrible one during a weekend matinee in Montreal around 1923 and since the stairs to the balcony were to narrow, and the theater was full of kids, much of the audience was trapped upstairs and many children and adults died in the fire. It turned out the theater skipped some of the existing fire rules of the time. It led to some laws regarding theatres, but it also led to a law banning children under 16 from going alone to Theatres.
In those days (the 1920s/Early 1930s) many theaters were destroyed by fires, mostly due to bad wiring or in the early/mid 20s the heat of the early projectors some of which used arch lamps since incandescent lamps at the time weren’t powerful enough. There was a terrible one during a weekend matinee in Montreal around 1923 and since the stairs to the balcony were to narrow, and the theater was full of kids, much of the audience was trapped upstairs and many children and adults died in the fire. It turned out the theater skipped some of the existing fire rules of the time. It led to some laws regarding theatres, but it also led to a law banning children under 16 from going alone to Theatres.