The upcoming 40th season of Sesame Street will feature appearances by Adam Sandler, Ricky Gervais, both Gyllenhaals, Paul Rudd and Michelle Obama. Here are a few memorable guest spots from the first 39 years.]]> Over 400 celebrities have guest starred on Sesame Street, including actors, musicians, writers, politicians and athletes. The upcoming 40th season will feature appearances by Adam Sandler, Matthew Fox, Ricky Gervais, Judah Friedlander, both Gyllenhaals, Paul Rudd and Michelle Obama. Here are a few memorable guest spots from the first 39 years.

1. James Earl Jones Scares Your Children

In Sesame Street’s second episode, James Earl Jones became the first celebrity guest (which was no surprise, since he was a student of Will Lee, Sesame’s Mr. Hooper). Although having a big star like Jones is no shocker, what’s strange is how he appeared. In a close-up of Jones’ shiny, bald head, he counted to 10 and recited the alphabet in an intense, booming voice. The appeal, of course, was that a big star was participating in some basic preschool education, but the result was something truly terrifying to the toddlers in the audience (or at least to me, right now).

That didn’t stop Sesame Street from bringing Jones back to host their 10th anniversary special, which featured less terror and more hair.

2. Ralph Nader: Consumer Advocate/Grammar Snob

Perhaps my favorite strange celebrity appearance is from a Sesame Street PBS pledge drive special from 1988 featuring Ralph Nader. He joined Bob for a chorus of “The People in Your Neighborhood,” singing, “A Consumer Advocate is a person in your neighborhood.” When asked what a Consumer Advocate is, Nader explained by inspecting Bob’s sweater, pointing out the shoddy workmanship, and destroying it in the process. While on the set, Nader initially refused to sing the song unless the lyrics were changed from “the people that you meet” to the more grammatically correct “the people whom you meet.” Of course, they relented.

Ten years later, Nader attacked Sesame Street and PBS for including commercial sponsorship spots before and after each show.

3. Mr. Donahue Meets Mr. Snuffleupagus

In 1985, Phil Donahue appeared in one of the most famous Sesame Street episodes—the one where Mr. Snuffleupagus is revealed to the world. Donahue interviewed the people on Sesame Street to find out if they thought Snuffy—who had been on the show since the early 1970s, but perceived by the adults as an imaginary friend of Big Bird—was real. After the adults met Snuffy for the first time, Donahue had the pleasure of giving him a big ol’ bear hug.

4. The Second Guy on the Moon

In 2005, Cookie Monster had it in his head that the moon is a giant cookie, which he plans on eating, thus altering the earth’s tides forever. Luckily, Gordon was paid a visit by his close friend, “Second Guy on the Moon” Buzz Aldrin, who rained on Cookie Monster’s parade by telling him the moon is just a big old rock. Though I didn’t learn much about the moon, I did learn that it’s very convenient to have famous friends.

5. The Micro Machines Guy

John Moschitta, Jr.—better known as either the fast-talking “FedEx Guy” or “Micro Machines Guy,” depending on when you were born—appeared in several Sesame Street sketches. In this clip, he introduces his children, who each have extremely long names, one for every letter of the alphabet. It’s unclear what lesson was being taught here.

6. Mayor Dinkins

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch made a cameo in The Muppets Take Manhattan, and current Mayor Mike Bloomberg appeared in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. But only one former Mayor appeared on Sesame Street. David Dinkins holds that honor, having appeared in 1992 to give Gordon the “Good Citizen Award.” Congratulations, Gordon! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer (or balder) guy.

7. Real Estate Tycoon Ronald Grump

It’s rare for Sesame Street plots to involve an actual villain. Oscar fills that position most often, though he’s more of a jerk than inherently evil. And we had the villainous Miss Finch and Huxley from Follow that Bird and Elmo in Grouchland, respectively. But one odd villain came to us by way of Joe Pesci, who portrayed the evil real estate tycoon Ronald Grump in the special, Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! Pesci, donning the overblown Donald Trump toupee, decides to buy Sesame Street and replace it with high-rise condos. Naturally, his plans are foiled (by none other than Oscar the Grouch), and Sesame Street is safe from becoming a location on The Apprentice.

8. Neil Patrick Harris, Shoe Fairy

And no list of celebrity guests would be complete without Neil Patrick Harris’ 2008 appearance as the Shoe Fairy.

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You've definitely seen them: commemorative state plates featuring landmarks and slogans from a particular state. They're often displayed in kitchens, and the designs range from kitschy to classy to impossibly bizarre. Here's one from each state.]]> You’ve definitely seen them: commemorative state plates featuring landmarks and slogans from a particular state. I call them “state plates,” but the official term among collectors is “souvenir state plates.” They’re often displayed in kitchens, and the designs range from kitschy to classy to impossibly bizarre — see below for examples of each. According to CountryHome (in their “What’s Hot Now” feature!), state plates have been around since the 1870s:

Souvenir state plates date back to the 1870s. When travel became more accessible thanks to cars, they became increasingly popular with jet-setting travelers. There are tons of unsigned, flea-market-type plates out there, but keep your eyes open for some big-name manufacturers, including Vernon Kilns, Homer Laughlin, Salem China Company, and even Wedgwood.

In the post below, I (with the able assistance of Sadie Eck, standing in as Mental_Floss State Plate Research Assistant for this post) have collected plates for ALL FIFTY STATES. I’ve picked out some favorites first, then the rest are in alphabetical order. Fun things to do while looking through them: count the states you’ve visited, count the states you’ve lived in, spot the craziest designs.

South Carolina

New Mexico

Ohio

West Virginia

Oregon

South Dakota

Alaska

Click the little numbers below to see the rest!

Here are the stories of five famous folks who—to grave robbers, anyway—were worth more dead than alive.]]> After Michael Jackson passed away, his family decided to bury him inside Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a private, gated cemetery where many musicians, actors, and other celebrities are buried. As odd as it might sound, one of the main reasons the family chose the private cemetery was to ensure that Michael’s body could not be stolen and held for ransom. If you think they’re being paranoid, you should read these five stories of famous folks who—to grave robbers, anyway—were worth more dead than alive.

1. Stealing the Tramp

Silent-era funnyman Charlie Chaplin, best-known for his “Little Tramp” character, died on Christmas day in 1977 and was buried soon after in a 300-pound oak coffin in the village of Corsier, Switzerland. But in March 1978, his grave was disturbed and his body stolen, with a demand for £400,000 received by phone a few days later. The grave robbers’ plan seemed so perfect until Chaplin’s widow, Lady Oona Chaplin, refused to pay the sum, saying, “Charlie would have thought it rather ridiculous.”

In an attempt to nab the crooks, the local police set up false pay-off meetings, but these proved fruitless when the robbers chickened out and didn’t show. However, both the police and the suspects were persistent, so the two parties continued to communicate in the hopes of resolving the standoff.

In May, the police were expecting another call from the robbers, so they tapped the Chaplins’ phone. In an extraordinary display of coordination, they also assigned officers to watch as many as 200 phone booths throughout the area. When the call from the robbers came in, it was traced back to the originating booth, and two men, Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev, both auto mechanics, were arrested. The men led police to Chaplin’s remains, buried in a cornfield about 10 miles from the graveyard.

For his crime, Wardas received a four-year stint for masterminding the scam, while Ganev, seen only as a muscle man, got off easy with an 18-month suspended sentence. As for Chaplin, he was re-buried in the same burial plot, but this time his coffin was surrounded by thick concrete to prevent anyone else from disturbing his slumber.

2. Stay On the Line. Police Will Be With You Shortly.

Soon after his death in 2001, the body of Enrico Cuccia, a powerful bank president often considered the father of Italian capitalism, was removed from its vault. The foul play was discovered by a loyal housekeeper who visited the grave on a weekly basis to clean up around the tomb.

A ransom demand was received by the family a few days later, asking for the equivalent of $3.5 million to be deposited by Mediobanca—the bank Cuccia had controlled for more than 50 years—into a numbered Swiss account. When the ransom was not immediately paid, a man called Mediobanca to set up the transfer of funds, but was placed on hold under the pretense that the bank president was on the other line. This gave the police time to trace the call back to a small village near Turin, Italy, and found Giampaolo Pesce, a steelworker, still holding the phone.

Caught red-handed, Pesce led authorities to a barn where Cuccia’s coffin had been hidden under some straw.

3. Seeking: SWM, Rich, Deceased

Alexander T. Stewart made his fortune selling high-quality fabrics, European fashions, and popular household items inside giant, lavish buildings that became the model for modern day department stores. By the time of his death in 1876, his wealth was estimated at $40 million, making him one of the richest men in New York City.

A few weeks after he was buried in a vault at St. Mark’s Church, thieves broke in and made off with Stewart’s remains. As part of their plan, the culprits also removed the nameplate from the coffin and cut out a small piece of the coffin’s interior fabric.

Soon after, New York City lawyer and Civil War veteran General Patrick Jones was surprised to receive a letter from a man calling himself “Romaine,” asking Jones to serve as mediator with the Stewart family to help facilitate the return of Alexander’s body. Jones agreed and wound up communicating with Romaine for the next two years through a series of cryptic messages disguised as personal ads in the New York Herald.

To send a message, Jones would place a personal ad addressed to Romaine and sign it “Counsel” (or simply “C”). Romaine would then respond with a written letter to Jones’ office with further instructions. It was through this complicated system that Jones received a $250,000 ransom demand, as well as pieces of evidence to prove Romaine had the body—the screws from the nameplate, the nameplate itself, and a piece of paper cut in the shape of the fabric missing from inside the coffin.

Communication was tedious, but it got the job done when, finally, the two parties agreed to a reduced ransom payment of $20,000. In a scene straight out of a 1930s detective movie, Jones met Romaine alone on a deserted country lane in what is now Westchester County, New York. Money exchanged hands and the body of Alexander Stewart was returned. However, Romaine was never apprehended.

4. Honest Abe Worth a Pretty Penny

In the early hours of November 7, 1876, a group of four counterfeiters broke into Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, with the intention of stealing Abraham Lincoln’s body from his sarcophagus. They planned to take the body, hide it in the sand dunes of northern Indiana, and hold it for $200,000 ransom, plus demand the release of one of their gang from prison.

The plot was foiled, though, by a paid police informant who had infiltrated the crew. When the men broke into the cemetery that night, police and Secret Service agents (who were only charged with investigating counterfeiters at the time, not guarding the body of the President) were waiting for them. Due to an errant gunshot going off before the trap was sprung, the crooks got away, but were arrested a few days later.

After the attempted robbery, Lincoln’s remains were re-buried in the same mausoleum at Oak Ridge, but instead of being inside the sarcophagus, they were secretly hidden in a shallow grave in the basement of the tomb—a fact that was known only to a handful of people for decades. There the body stayed until 1901, when eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln had his father’s remains placed inside a steel cage, lowered 10 feet into the ground, and covered in concrete for safe keeping

5. Elvis Almost Left the Building

In August 1977, just two weeks after The King’s death, police were told by informant Ronnie Adkins that he had infiltrated a group that planned to steal Elvis Presley’s 900-pound, steel-lined, copper-plated coffin and hold his remains for ransom.

With this information, a police task force was assigned to watch the grave at Forest Hills Cemetery in suburban Memphis and successfully caught three men—Raymond Green, Eugene Nelson, and Ronnie Adkins—snooping around Presley’s mausoleum. Just how the men were going to get through the two concrete slabs and solid sheet of marble that covered the coffin is unknown, since no tools or explosives were ever found. That doesn’t even take into account how they planned to remove the coffin without a forklift. The Memphis police felt like something about the situation didn’t add up, so until further evidence about the plot could be uncovered, they charged the men with criminal trespassing and kept them in jail.

As the investigation continued, it became apparent that the story Adkins told police was full of holes. He said the men were going to be paid $40,000 each by a mysterious criminal mastermind who planned to ransom the body for $10 million. But he couldn’t tell police how the men intended to get their reward or how to contact this shadowy kingpin once the deed had been done. With no actual crime being committed (other than the men being in the cemetery after dark), and the evidence against the men being so weak, all charges were eventually dropped.

As a result of the almost, kinda, sorta attempted grave robbery, the Presley estate requested permission to move the bodies of Elvis and his mother to Graceland where they could be monitored 24-hours a day by staff security and closed-circuit TV cameras. Of course they’re still at Graceland and have become one of the main attractions to the site.

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Disneyland may be the Happiest Place on Earth, but don’t think that means you can just waltz in and do whatever you want. Here are just a few of the things on which Mickey Mouse has dropped his hammer over the years.]]>
by Alvin Ward

Disneyland may be the Happiest Place on Earth, but don’t think that means you can just waltz in and do whatever you want. In fact, Mickey Mouse’s theme parks have banned quite a few things over the years. Here are just a few of the things on which the Mouse has dropped his hammer.

1. Long Hair

Until the late 1960s, men could either have flowing locks or enjoy Adventureland, but they definitely couldn’t do both. According to Snopes, if a long-haired fellow tried to buy a ticket, a cast member would discreetly and politely inform the man that his hairdo didn’t jive with the park’s unwritten dress code before escorting him from the park.

2. Facial Hair

It’s tough to find a picture of Walt Disney without a mustache, but for decades it was even tougher to find a Disney employee who had a ‘stache of his own. Starting in 1957, workers at Disney parks were not allowed to have long hair, grow beards, or wear mustaches. (The underlying logic was that park patrons wouldn’t want to buy a $9 soda from some filthy bearded hippie or mustachioed Snidely Whiplash type.)

In 2000, Disney was having trouble drumming up enough manpower to staff its parks, so it relaxed the facial hair ban. Employees were finally allowed to grow mustaches, provided they kept them trimmed and groomed. Beards didn’t fare so well, though; they stayed on the forbidden list.

3. Blake Lively

How could anyone not like the cute-as-a-button star of Gossip Girl? Disneyland apparently wasn’t always amused with Lively’s pre-fame antics. According to Lively, when she was six, she and her older brother used the old put-hairspray-on-a-friend’s-readmission-hand-stamp-to-transfer-the-stamp-to-their-own-skin trick. It would have been the perfect crime, except security nabbed the Lively kids right as they went through the park’s turnstiles and slapped the pair with a one-year ban.

4. Florida State Football Recruits

In June 2007, four Florida State football recruits met up for a little bit of fun. Instead of engaging in any of the myriad nefarious acts a group of 18-year-old males are known to favor, the players decided to go to Disney World, which seemed like the very last place in the world they could get into any trouble. Wrong. Park officials approached the men, all of whom were African-American, while they hung out in Downtown Disney and ejected them from the park for violating its anti-loitering rules. Security also hit the players with a lifetime ban from the park in a move that many Disney critics claimed smacked of racial profiling.

5. Costumes

You may want to dress up like Jack Sparrow for a day of riding Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you’re older than nine, forget it. Disney bans any costumes and masks on anyone who’s ten or older. Also listed on Disney’s park dress code: “Makeup that could be construed as part of a costume.” So go easy on the eye shadow—the fashion police might decide you’re shooting for a 19th-century harlot look and give you the heave-ho.

Similarly, the dress code bans “clothing that accentuates or draws attention to private areas,” a well meaning, if oddly phrased, choice. Here’s hoping Disney starts handing out unisex burlap smocks at the park gates to avoid any potentially accentuated private areas. [Image courtesy of reader Christopher Schwarz.]

6. Gallows

In early 2008, upstart English punk band Gallows was all set to open for Social Distortion at a gig at the House of Blues at Disneyland. The bill seemed like a good way to get exposure for a band that was starting to catch on stateside—or it did until Disney officials actually stopped to listen to Gallows’ debut record, Orchestra of Wolves. Once Disney brass heard Gallows’ tunes, they nixed the show due to the band’s occasionally offensive lyrical content.

While it seems odd to get upset at a punk band for being abrasive, Disney’s move wasn’t unprecedented. Just a few months earlier, the company had banned the metal band Machine Head from performing at the House of Blues for similar reasons.

7. Kids

Kids banned by Disney? You bet. In January 2008, Disney announced that children under the age of 10 would no longer be allowed to dine at Victoria & Albert’s, the ritziest restaurant at Disney World’s Grand Floridian Spa and Resort. The move made news, but Disney officials claimed that the AAA five-diamond-rated restaurant didn’t attract that many children in the first place. In addition to being pricey, Victoria & Albert’s only offered a fixed-price menu with kid-unfriendly offerings like caviar, so the restaurant only catered to a handful of young diners each year.

8. Segways

GOB Bluth is going to be in quite a bind if he ever tries to ride his Segway into Disneyland. The company bans Segways from its parks, ostensibly because it’s tough to balance safety issues with the potential for having a fleet of two-wheeled vehicles rolling around the grounds.

The trouble here, though, is that a lot of disabled people use Segways in lieu of wheelchairs. These folks were understandably peeved that they couldn’t visit the parks using their preferred mode of transportation, and several of them filed lawsuits. So far it’s been tough for the Segway riders to get Disney to budge; earlier this fall, a federal judge threw out a class action lawsuit brought against Disney by Segway devotees. The ruling left an opening for further legal action, though, so this court battle may not be over yet.

Readers have brought up two other things that might not be welcome in Disney parks: Nikita Khrushchev and bubble gum. Alvin has added those stories…

Nikita Khrushchev?

Disneyland as a battleground for the Cold War? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what it became in 1959. That year, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev spent 11 days visiting the United States. He spent one day of the trip in Los Angeles, and the fierce orator wanted to see Disneyland. However, the LAPD and the rest of Khrushchev’s security detail were worried about his safety during such a trip, so they nixed the idea.

Khrushchev accepted the news with characteristic poise, which is to say he exploded. He ranted, “And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?”

Gum?

Want to chomp on some gum while you’re standing in line at a Disney park? You’ll have to bring it with you from home. In an effort to keep chewed gum from being stuck all over the parks, none of the shops in any Disney theme park sells gum. Supposedly this innovation came from Walt Disney himself, who wanted to make sure that his guests could enjoy their visits without getting gum stuck to their shoes.

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You can’t set foot in a mall without seeing one of their names. Here are the stories of Richard W. Sears, James Cash Penney and some of the other people behind the anchor stores.]]> You can’t set foot in a mall without hearing one of their names, but the stories behind the men and women who founded department stores aren’t often part of our food court conversations. Here’s a look back at Richard W. Sears, James Cash Penney and some of the other people behind the anchor stores.

1. Sears & Roebuck

Richard W. Sears inadvertently got his start from a botched delivery. When Sears was in his early 20s, he worked as a railroad station agent in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, and he was on duty when a shipment of watches came in for the town’s jeweler. The jeweler hadn’t ordered the watches and refused to accept delivery, so Sears talked to the watch wholesaler and worked out an arrangement—Sears would buy the watches for $12 apiece and then sell them for whatever he could get.

Sears had such great luck peddling the watches to his coworkers and local farmers that he quickly gave up the railroad business and moved to Minneapolis to start the R.W. Sears Watch Company at the tender age of 22.

Alvah Roebuck entered the story after Sears established his watch company. Roebuck, a young watchmaker from Indiana, was searching for a job when he found an opening doing repairs for Sears’ upstart company. Roebuck went to work for Sears in 1887, and by 1893 their friendship had grown to the point where they incorporated a new business together: Sears, Roebuck, and Company.

So Roebuck got fabulously wealthy as a result of his first watchmaking job, then? Not quite. In 1895, Roebuck talked Sears into buying out his share of their company for just $20,000. Although Roebuck stayed with the company as an employee of its watch division, he never saw the big money Sears made. After Sears’ death, though, Roebuck had a great quip when people asked him if he regretted not having as much cash as his late partner: “He’s dead. Me, I never felt better.”

2. Macy’s

Rowland Hussey Macy played more of an active role in designing his company’s logo than most founders do. Before Macy, a Nantucket native, got into the dry goods business, he worked on a whaling ship that sailed off of the island. At some point during his whaling days, Macy got a red star tattooed on his hand, and the star later became his store’s logo when he opened his first New York shop in 1858.

The famous store was actually Macy’s fifth attempt at opening a shop after four failed tries near his Massachusetts home, and Macy’s shop only took in $11.06 on the day it opened its doors. However, by the end of his first year, Macy had pulled in over $90,000 and was firmly established as a popular New York shopping destination.

3. Nordstrom

John W. Nordstrom began his life in Sweden as Johan Nordstrom. In 1887, a 16-year-old Nordstrom arrived in the United States with five bucks and no command of the English language. He spent 10 years working as a logger and miner in the Northwest before deciding to head to Alaska to look for gold in the Klondike. After two years of searching, Nordstrom finally made a strike.

Nordstrom sold his claim for $13,000 and returned to Seattle to invest his newfound loot. One of Nordstrom’s buddies in Alaska had been Carl Wallin, who owned a shoe repair shop in Seattle, and in 1901 the two friends opened the shoe store Wallin & Nordstrom. Over the next two decades, the pair built up a devoted following in Seattle, and the firm gradually expanded into the largest independent chain of shoe stores in the country. In 1963, the company started selling apparel as well, and the modern Nordstrom’s took off.

4. Neiman Marcus

Herbert Marcus, Carrie Marcus Neiman, and A.L. Neiman might be the only people ever to lose money by founding a giant, successful department store. In 1907, Marcus, his sister, and his brother-in-law were business partners in a sales promotion business in Atlanta. Their firm was so successful that offers to buy it started rolling in, but there were only two deals the partners took seriously: an offer for $25,000 in cash, and a stake in an up-and-coming local soft-drink company.

The three partners conferred and decided they didn’t trust the “sugary soda pop business” and took the cash, which they then used to open their department store. The soda maker they snubbed, Coca-Cola, ended up doing pretty well for itself. Decades later, Herbert Marcus’ son Stanley became the CEO of Neiman-Marcus, and he often joked that the company was “founded on bad business judgment.”

5. Bloomingdale’s

If you ever find yourself desperately needing a hoop skirt, it might be worth checking your local Bloomingdale’s. After all, the wildly popular 19th-century garment gave the department store its start. In 1860, brothers Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale began selling hoop skirts at their Ladies’ Notions Shop on New York’s Lower East Side, and when these skirts flew off the brothers’ racks, they eventually decided to expand their store’s offerings. In 1872, they opened a revamped store, the East Side Bazaar, that offered all sorts of European duds they bought through a purchasing office in Paris.

6. J.C. Penney

James Cash Penney got his start as regular clerk in a dry goods store. In 1898, he began working for a small Colorado chain called the Golden Rule. In 1902, his bosses offered him an ownership stake in the company if Penney would move to tiny Kemmerer, Wyoming, and start a Golden Rule store there. Penney jumped at the offer. His store was so successful that by 1907, he was able to buy out the other two stores in the Golden Rule chain. By 1912, Penney had over 30 stores in the region, and he incorporated them all under a new name—the J.C. Penney Company.

7. Barneys

Barney Pressman, founder of New York-based luxury chain Barneys, owed a lot of his success to his wife. When Pressman saw a small store in Manhattan going under in 1923, he wanted to buy it and open a clothing store of his own. There was a problem, though: he didn’t have the cash. When Pressman told his wife, Bertha, about this predicament, she slipped off her engagement ring and told him to pawn it. With the $500 Pressman got from hocking his wife’s diamond, he took over the failing store’s lease and bought 40 high-end suits, which were the original inventory when Barney’s Clothes opened its doors shortly thereafter.

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In honor of National Fire Safety Month, here are some stories of tragic fires, and the safety precautions and laws they inspired.]]> Fire safety is something many people take for granted until it’s too late. In honor of National Fire Safety Month, here are some stories of tragic fires, each of which contains typical “what went wrong” elements that could have lowered the death toll. Each disaster led to more stringent laws and/or safety precautions, to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

1. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, March 25, 1911

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory occupied the top three floors of a 10 story building at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in New York City. The garment factory, which specialized in manufacturing women’s blouses, would be called a “sweat shop” in today’s terminology. The workers were mainly immigrant women (some as young as 12 years old) from Italy, German and Eastern Europe, who worked 14-hour daily shifts for approximately $70 per week.

Accident Waiting to Happen
The factory had flammable textiles stored throughout the building, and scraps of fabric littered the floors and overflowed from bins. Designers smoked cigarettes at their desks and regularly tossed their butts into the scrap fabric bins instead of ashtrays. (Buckets of water were located throughout the factory to extinguish the bin fires that cropped up regularly.) Per company policy, several of the exit doors were locked during business hours; when employees left for the day, they had to line up by the few unlocked doors and leave single file under the careful gaze of a supervisor to make sure they weren’t stealing any fabric or other supplies.

The Fire
The quitting time bell rang at 4:45PM, and while the women were putting on their coats and gathering their belongings, someone on the eighth floor yelled “Fire!” Flames leapt up from discarded rags on the floor between the first and second row of cutting tables. One man grabbed a bucket of water and threw it on the fire, but the flames had already spread to the paper patterns hanging overhead. It seemed like only seconds after the first cry of “fire” that the tables, partitions and ceiling were ablaze. Terrified employees crammed themselves into the single, small elevator and onto the narrow fire escape.

The fire quickly spread to the ninth and 10th floors. Some women were able to make it to the roof, where a professor at the New York University Law School next door used ladders left by painters to form a “bridge” between the two buildings and helped 69 Triangle employees to safety. Other workers were not so fortunate; when the fire escape collapsed from the stampede of panicked people, women began jumping from the windows. Engine Company 72 was the first on the scene, but the firefighters were torn between extinguishing the flames and trying to catch the jumpers in a life net. Once other fire departments reached the scene, it took 18 minutes to bring the fire under control, but not before 146 employees had lost their lives.

The Aftermath
The public outrage and the lawsuits filed by relatives of the dead led to the owners of Triangle Shirtwaist being tried for manslaughter (they were subsequently acquitted). A Factory Investigating Commission was formed, which examined the working conditions of all factories in New York City. Thanks to the findings of this Commission, 36 new laws were enacted to reform the state labor code. In addition, a Fire Prevention division was added to the city’s fire department; its job was to inspect places of business and make sure they complied with the new laws, such as not locking doors during working hours and installing ceiling sprinklers.

2. The Hartford Circus, July 6, 1944

The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus set up camp on Barbour Street during their stay in Hartford, Connecticut. The matinee show they played on an oppressively hot Thursday afternoon was attended by approximately 6,800 people—primarily women and children, since the men were either at work or overseas fighting World War II.

Accident Waiting to Happen
The Big Top tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline. The wooden chairs had many layers of oil-based paint on them. The few entrances (which also served as exits) were narrow and funneled patrons into single file via metal railings to prevent non-ticket holders from sneaking inside.

The Fire
Approximately 20 minutes into the performance: the Great Wallendas were performing their high wire act while animal trainer May Kovar was leading her big cats out of the tent to their cages. The first flame was small—most would later say about the size of a 50 cent piece—on one of the sidewalls of the tent. The actual cause was never determined, but was rumored to be a carelessly tossed cigarette. Several patrons noticed it, but no one raised an alert or exited the tent—they presumed that circus personnel were aware of the situation and would handle it. (NOTE: Sociologists have found that this is a typical reaction when disaster strikes at a large venue; adult Americans are conditioned to think that someone in authority already knows what is going on and will take care of the problem.)

The flames fed on the gasoline-lined tent and the fire spread very quickly. Merle Evans, the circus’ band leader, spotted flames licking up the rear sidewall and immediately directed the band to play “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the universal circus distress signal. The performers heard the song and immediately abandoned their routines. Ushers began urging patrons to exit in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, the fire spread so fast that soon people were stampeding toward the few exits. The death toll reached 168.

The Aftermath
One thing the burn victims had in their favor was that local Hartford hospitals were well stocked with bandages and plasma due to World War II (most major U.S. hospitals were in Disaster Preparedness Mode after Pearl Harbor). Not long after the Hartford disaster, most major circuses abandoned the use of the Big Top altogether and staged their shows in existing arenas and coliseums instead.

3. Our Lady of the Angels, December 1, 1958

Located in the Humbolt Park area of Chicago’s west side, Our Lady of the Angels was a two-story Catholic school originally built in 1910 which taught classes from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Accident Waiting to Happen
Because it was a parochial—rather than public—school, OLA was not legally bound to retrofit their building to comply with 1958 fire codes. As a result, the school had no sprinkler system, the fire alarms rang only on school grounds and were not hooked up to the local fire station, and the fire extinguishers were stored in wall wells seven feet above the floor, out of the reach of most adults. In addition, the interior was made almost entirely of combustibles—the stairs, walls, floors, and doors were all constructed of wood. The floors had been coated and re-coated many times with flammable petroleum based waxes. The roof was coated with several layers of tar paper. Fire doors at the head of stairwells were propped open.

The Fire
The fire started (later believed to be the result of arson) in a barrel of oily rags in the basement of the school. It smoldered at the bottom of a stairway for some time before a window finally burst and gave it oxygen. Smoke seeped up the stairs and superheated gases caused the wooden staircase to burst into flames.

Luckily, the first floor had a heavy fire door which prevented the blaze from infiltrating. Instead, it followed the path of oxygen up to the second floor, where there was no fire door. The fire spread along the corridors of the second floor and also reached the attic. Classes were scheduled to be dismissed at 3:00PM; at about 2:25, two boys designated to haul wastebaskets to the basement saw the smoke and notified their teacher. The teacher pulled the fire alarm and classrooms on the first floor began exiting, thinking it was a fire drill.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, transoms over the classroom doors started spontaneously exploding, allowing thick black smoke to billow into the rooms. Some of the students were able to leave via the one fire escape, but most of the students and teachers gathered around the windows and gasped for air. When the fire department was finally summoned, they’d been given the wrong address. When the first trucks eventually arrived at the school, they found that their ladders didn’t reach to the second floor. Desperate students jumped from the windows as parents (who’d run to the school after seeing the smoke) watched helplessly from the ground. By the time the blaze was finally extinguished, 92 children and three nuns had perished.

The Aftermath
The OLA disaster sparked sweeping reforms in school fire safety, and the new rules applied to every school, whether public or private. Almost 17,000 schools across the country were ticketed and forced to be brought up to code. Mandatory fire drills were put in place, and all fire alarms in schools were required to be wired directly to a fire station.

4. Beverly Hills Supper Club, May 28, 1977

Located in Kentucky just six miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Beverly Hills Supper Club was a sprawling complex of banquet rooms and service areas that attracted the same entertainment acts one might find in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Accident Waiting to Happen
The owners of the club had added on to it in piecemeal fashion over the years with disregard to the current fire codes. The carpets and seat cushions they used were highly flammable and emitted toxic fumes when ignited. There were no fire doors at the tops of stairways. The architect who’d made most of the additions to the building was not licensed in the state of Kentucky. Much of the building utilized aluminum wiring, which, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is a fire hazard. Many of the exit signs were not illuminated.

The Fire
The actual cause and origin of the fire is still under dispute. What is known as fact, however, is that as guests exited a wedding reception being held in the Zebra Room they complained to management that the room seemed unusually warm. The doors to the Zebra Room remained closed after all the guests had left, and a little before 9PM two waitresses entered the room to begin clearing the tables. They noticed smoke hovering just below the ceiling and alerted management. The first fire engine arrived at 9:04PM, while employees haplessly tried to extinguish the flames that had suddenly burst into the Zebra Room.

Walter Bailey, a teenage busboy who’d seen the fire, ran down the long corridor toward the main stage, the Cabaret Room, poking his head in various rooms along the way and shouting warnings. When he arrived at the Cabaret Room, the comedy team of Teter and McDonald were onstage warming up the crowd for headliner John Davidson. Bailey strode onstage, grabbed the microphone and alerted the crowd of the emergency situation. He pointed out the exits in the room and asked them to evacuate quickly but calmly. Some patrons immediately followed his instructions, but the majority of the audience thought that Bailey was part of the comedy act and remained seated. Two minutes later a fireball exploded into the Cabaret Room and panic ensued. The room was enveloped with thick smoke, and the crowd tripped over the maze of tables and chairs as they scrambled in search of the poorly lit exits. The club had no emergency lighting, and the thick black smoke (filled with toxic fumes) made it almost impossible to find alternative exits. Firefighters had difficulty gaining entry into the building because bodies were “stacked like cordwood” in front of the main entrance doors. In the end, 165 people lost their lives in what is considered the third deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history.

The Aftermath
Richard Whitt of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé on the overcrowding and fire code violations of the Beverly Hills Supper Club. As a result of his writings, the Governor of Kentucky ordered a special investigation of the disaster. Several new state laws (which eventually were adopted nationwide) were enacted as a result, including the banning of aluminum wiring, mandatory emergency lighting in public venues as well as requiring non-toxic fabric coverings for seats and floors.

5. The Station, February 20, 2003

The Station was a West Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub that specialized in heavy metal music. On Thursday evening, February 20, 2003, the headlining band was Great White, who’d had a Top 5 hit in 1989 with their cover of the Mott the Hoople classic “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.” By some strange quirk of fate, a news team from WPRI happened to be in the house, filming a piece on nightclub safety.

Accident Waiting to Happen
The “egg crate” foam soundproofing material which lined the stage was flammable. The band’s manager reportedly did not get a pyrotechnics permit. The wooden structure was built prior to 1976, which “grandfathered” it out of the law that required ceiling sprinklers.

The Fire
Great White took the stage just moments after 11:00PM. They opened with “Desert Moon,” which was accompanied by three different “gerbs,” or controlled sprays of sparks. The sparks ignited the soundproofing behind the drummer and erupted into flames. Seconds after the flames first erupted (approximately 11:07) the band stopped playing and lead singer Jack Russell uttered “This ain’t good” into the microphone. The band dashed offstage at the same time the club’s fire alarm started blasting. The majority of the audience stood in place, thinking that this display was part of the show. Seconds later, when black smoke started billowing throughout the club, chaos erupted. Even though three other exits were open and marked with lit signs, the majority of the crowd stampeded to toward the entrance doors.

(NOTE: Another sociological phenomenon—studies have shown that in times of panic, when quick egress is necessary, people tend to instinctively not look for alternate means of escape but instead automatically flee to the place from whence they entered.) One hundred people died as a result of this disaster, and many more sustained life-altering injuries.

The Aftermath: Fire officials noted after the fact that a sprinkler system would have probably spared many lives, so the previous “grandfather” clause was negated and all public facilities over a certain capacity were required to install automatic sprinkler systems. Likewise, the regulations regarding pyrotechnic displays were similarly tightened and more strictly enforced.
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People who have survived a fire have several things in common. Whenever they go to a movie theater, concert hall or club, they always make note of where all the exits are. If they notice a person sneaking a cigarette in a no smoking area, they alert someone in authority. We’ll add a few precautions to that list: wherever you live, make sure you and your family are aware of the escape routes in case of emergency. Forget about your possessions; get the humans out first. A throw rug or carpet is ideal for wrapping up an infant or child in order to carry him through smoke-filled rooms or corridors (or, if need be, to toss him from a window to rescuers below). Feel free to add any additional fire safety tips that we haven’t mentioned. Above all, we urge you to stay fire-conscious and safe not only in October, but during every month of the year!