The most frightening part of the evening, for Houseman and Welles, was just beginning. Even as the closing Tchaikovsky theme flooded the studio, police swarmed in, confiscating scripts and segregating the players. They were kept for a time in a back office, then were thrown to the press. The questions were hard and terrifying. How many deaths had they heard of? … implying, as Houseman later told it, "that they knew of thousands." Had they heard of the fatal stampede in the Jersey hall? Were they aware of the traffic deaths and suicides? The ditches must be choked with corpses, Houseman thought. Then they were released, taken out a back exit. Houseman found it "surprising to see life going on as usual in the midnight streets." In fact, there were no deaths. There were some bumps and scrapes, a broken
( John Dunning )
[ On the Air: The Encyclopedia ]
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