The first notes of “Home, Sweet Home” usually signaled that a dance was coming to an end. At a fraternity gathering inside Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in January 1930, however, the familiar tune apparently served as the starting signal for several hundred college men to charge toward the cloakroom.
Approximately 1,000 people had attended the dance in the hotel’s main ballroom. Anticipating possible disorder when the evening ended, a house detective asked Policeman Patrick O’Brien of the Third Precinct to help manage the departing crowd. O’Brien and two hotel employees stationed themselves near the narrow stairway leading down to the men’s cloakroom.
Then the orchestra began playing the final song.
Several hundred young men broke away from the dancers and rushed for their hats and coats. The passage could not hold them all, and O’Brien attempted to organize the crowd into a line. Instead, the pressure pushed him backward and sent him tumbling down six steps to a landing.
Momentarily dazed and unable to stand, the officer was trampled as the young men at the front were forced across his body by those pressing from behind. The two hotel detectives were also overwhelmed. All three eventually flattened themselves against a wall and waited for the rush to pass.
O’Brien suffered sprains and bruising around his neck and shoulders. After receiving medical treatment, he reported sick to his precinct, although he was expected to return to duty later that same day.
No arrests were made.
Policeman Injured as College Boys Rush to Hotel Cloak Room
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Policeman Patrick O’Brien of No. 3 precinct was bruised and trampled early Sunday by college boys who are said to have toppled him down a flight of steps at the Mayflower Hotel in their haste to get their hats and coats following a fraternity dance.
Two house detectives also were overwhelmed by the rush.
Once released from the press of collegians, Policeman O’Brien reported sick to his precinct and was treated by Dr. Julian Ruffin for sprains and bruises about the neck and shoulders. He was to report for duty this afternoon, however, following additional treatment at the police clinic.
Mayflower Hotel Ballroom
Shortly before the dance broke up in the main ball room a house detective requested the policeman to come in and help handle the crowd in the event there was disorder. The policeman complied and, with two employees of the hotel, took up his stand before a stairway leading downward to the men’s cloak room.
At the first strains of “Home, Sweet Home,” several hundred young men detached themselves from the 1,000 dancers and dashed for the cloak room, the detectives said. The passageway was too narrow to accommodate them all, and the officer was seeking to get a line formed when the pressure threw him backward down six steps to the landing.
Dazed for the moment, he was unable to rise, and the young men in front, pushed on by those behind, were forced across his body.
Meanwhile the hotel attendants fared no better, and the three officers flattened themselves against the wall until the rush subsided.
The girls at the dance obtained their cloaks from another room in an orderly manner, the officer said.
No arrests were made.
Source: Evening Star. Washington, D.C. January 13, 1930.
