November 1974 Mount Vernon fire ~

Chris Dewey and I had walked the nine blocks downtown from our dorm, Rorem.  There were some treats that weren’t available at the commons or were less expensive at the grocery store downtown.  

On the walk back we noticed smoke rising from a set of downtown buildings and the general commotion of others also noticing the fire.  I had my camera with me, as always, but I had only the 36-exposure roll of film that was inside.  Chris generously offered to run back to my dorm room and get the film I had stored there.

I shot the photos of what I saw.  A fire spreading across several buildings, but centered in the town’s movie theater.  More and more people arriving to watch.  The volunteer fire department arriving and deploying.  More service personnel from across the county.  Hoses, water, smoke.

Chris returned with film.  I think I shot three or four rolls of film.

A week later I got a phone call from the fire inspector.  He verified that I was among the first at the scene with a camera.  He wanted photos from the beginning.  I asked him what he was looking for in the photographs.  He said the color of the smoke might reveal the fuel that first spawned the fire.  I asked him what color he wanted it - I could make it light or dark as he chose.  He wanted it as it was.

Whatever that is.  

I did the photographs as unedited as I could.

When the smoke cleared, Mount Vernon had lost a few of its old downtown buildings.  The theater was a major social hub.  It was the longest, narrowest movie theater I’d seen - more like the interior of a 747 than an auditorium.  It would be another few years before someone else in town would build and operate a theater.  They had a classical background so they named it the Odeum, the Greek word for a small musical theater.  To the common ear it sounded too close to odium and odious.