Word: darked
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Shortly after midnight, people in the La Salle Hotel's big, ornate lobby in Chicago's Loop noticed a strange yellow light reflecting from polished table tops, from marble and window glass. The wavering glare grew. They looked up and saw flames billowing gustily across the dark, varnished paneling above the elevator bank...
...chimneys formed by the elevator shafts and the stair wells of the 22-story building. Walls took fire on the first five floors. Superheated gases and choking smoke blew through corridors all the way to the roof. But for what seemed a long time the streets outside stayed as dark and quiet as if nothing had happened. Then, at last, glass shattered and tinkled and a woman screamed. Fire trucks raced up, sirens moaning...
After that, numbly or with blind desperation, they tried to stay alive. The lights went out on many floors after a while, but scores of people crept out into the hot, dark, smoke-filled corridors hunting for fire escapes. Gasping dozens suffocated, lay still after going a few feet. A few people shut themselves into bathrooms. Most stayed at their windows, screaming, waving sheets, tossing down lamps and bric-a-brac to attract attention...
...Heroes. But there was still heat, smoke and fearful confusion upstairs. Firemen worked until they dropped in dark, furniture-cluttered labyrinths. Nameless heroes appeared. A tall, well-dressed man knocked on scores of doors, chatted coolly and politely, led the terrified to safety. A sailor roamed the smoking corridors knocking out fear-maddened men, dragging them limply to fire escapes. And there were more furtive figures-looters moved in the confusion, rifling suitcases and running their hands carefully over the dead...
...latest protégé-playmate is little, dark-haired Don Perone, former New England featherweight champ, who has lived in Iturbi's Beverly Hills mansion for six months. Iturbi employs him as coffee-pourer and sparring partner, and rewards him with singing lessons. Although Perone was wounded at Salerno by a bayonet that pierced his stomach, Amateur Boxer Iturbi has persuaded Perone to return to the ring. Perone will make the great sacrifice next month against a local fighter selected by Iturbi. He would much rather sing...