The Knickerbocker Theater Disaster: The Douglasville Connection

No, this isn’t Douglasville.

This video is from the Knickerbocker Theater disaster from 1922.  The theater was located in Washington D.C.

The video is silent…..it’s hand cranked footage, but it’s still interesting to see, isn’t it?

The date was January 28, 1922, and just after 9:00 p.m. the theater was packed with folks trying to forget the blizzard outside that had dumped several feet of snow on the city over a two day period.

Unfortunately, snow had accumulated on the flat roof of the theater and the structure gave way and caved in under the weight.

98 people were killed and 133 were injured…..  

Carolyn Upshaw was sixteen at the time and had been watching Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford….the movie showing that night.    Ms. Upshaw was the niece of Congressman William D. Upshaw I’ve written about before.

Newspaper accounts mention the Congressman’s niece having survived at first, but her leg had to be amputated.  Sadly, she later passed due to her injuries.   Carolyn’s father was Lucius Upshaw, a former mayor of Douglasville. 

Carolyn’s body laid to rest here at Douglasville City Cemetery next to her father who had passed the year before.     The quotation on Carolyn’s grave says, “The nation’s heroine, beautiful in life, beautiful in death, beautiful in eternity.”

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