(Above) On the Riverwalk Saturday between Clark and LaSalle Streets, cast members from the Lookingglass Theater production of Eastland perform a song from the new musical based on the Chicago River’s 1915 disaster. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

July 22, 2012 – “You might close your eyes and try to imagine the scenes but you cannot stretch your imagination far enough to cover it as it really was. To be in it is the only way one can realize the enormity of it.”

Thus begins a letter written 97 years ago on the day after the S.S. Eastland – docked on the Chicago River west of Clark Street with more than 2,500 passengers – rolled over, killing 844 people including 22 entire families. The letter, a chilling first-hand account by a man who survived the accident on July 24, 1915, was read aloud at this year’s commemoration, an annual event since 2000 organized by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.

Ensemble members from Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company illustrated this year’s observance. Through August 19, they are performing a new musical based on the disaster. Andrew White wrote Eastland with music by Ben Sussman and Andre Pluess.

The letter, read by Ted Wachholz, the historical society’s executive director, was written by Charles Kelly, who boarded the Eastland with his wife and two children, Jenny and Charles Jr., and another family, the Thyers, also with two children, Helen, age 8, and Harry Jr., age 7.

“Mr. Thyer sat next to me on the boat and his daughter Helen was holding Jenny’s hand when the boat turned over,” wrote Kelly. “They let go of hands. Poor Helen and her father were both drowned. The boy and mother were saved. Do you see how close it was for us?”

A U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat circled around to the center of the river between the Clark and LaSalle Street Bridges early Saturday afternoon. There, a bouquet of flowers was tossed into the river. Three Coast Guard members then stood facing the bouquet, which floated on the surface, and saluted.

(Left) A member of the U.S. Coast Guard carries flowers that will be tossed into the Chicago River to commemorate the 97th anniversary of the Eastland disaster.

Listen to the ceremony…

 Website: Lookingglass Theatre Company 2011-2012 Season