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Constable: Newly found film shows Eastland horrors

Immersed in hundreds of chilling photographs and tragic stories as director of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society, Ted Wachholz of Arlington Heights still wasn't prepared for the lost 100-year-old film footage released Wednesday to the public.

“It literally took my breath away,” Wachholz says of the silent, black-and-white film that begins with rescue workers using a thick rope to hoist a young woman onto the deck of their boat. “It's almost like they are pulling an oversized rag doll out of the hull of the Eastland.”

The young woman's white dress with vertical stripes, no doubt her Sunday best, clings to her form. She appears to be sleeping peacefully until the workers pull a blanket to cover her face.

“She's a young woman and she no longer has a breath of life in her,” Wachholz says. The footage was discovered by Alex Revzan, a 39-year-old Glencoe native who recently received his master's degree in history from Northern Illinois University.

Until this month, no one knew film of the Eastland existed. The Eastland Disaster Historical Society's collection features autopsy reports, photographs and stories of the 844 people, including 22 entire families, who perished in minutes on the morning of July 24, 1915. The Eastland excursion boat was preparing to take employees of the Western Electric Company to a picnic in Michigan City, Ind., as part of a festive Saturday when it rolled onto its side in the Chicago River.

“This video clip actually took me to that scene,” Wachholz says. “It pushed me further than I thought I'd ever get.”

For most of the past century, the Eastland Disaster, while the deadliest day in Chicago history and responsible for more passenger deaths than the sinking of the Titanic, was an oft-forgotten tale. As the 100th anniversary nears, the Eastland is making news again. Earlier this month, another student found film footage of Eastland rescue workers.

University of Illinois at Chicago grad student Jeff Nichols appeared with Wachholz on WTTW's “Chicago Tonight” show to discuss the Eastland rescue footage Nichols found while poring through World War I footage from the EYE Film Instituut Nederland.

“Until I saw Ted and Jeff on TV, I had no idea any footage had been lost,” says Revzan, who lives with his mother, Carol, in Earlville. For his thesis on Irish history, Revzan had done extensive research in the British Pathé archives, a collection of 85,000 newsreel films from 1896 to 1976.

“I had some time the next day so I went to the British Pathé site and started looking around,” he says. After a couple of hours, he found the lost Eastland footage.

“They didn't have any location listed, but when I looked at it, I was 99-percent sure I was looking at the same scene. It took me a while to make sure,” says Revzan, who noticed a boat in the background that looked identical to one in the film found by Nichols. He emailed the link to Wachholz, who responded quickly.

“He confirmed that it absolutely was the Eastland,” says Revzan, who hopes his discovery will help him as he looks for a job with a museum. In addition to showing the young woman pulled from the water, the 1-minute, 5-second film includes footage of workers recovering the bodies of two men in the water.

“I was more interested in the historical value, but there are still relatives only a generation removed from it,” Revzan notes.

Wachholz, his wife, Barbara Decker Wachholz, her sister, Susan Decker, and the women's mother, Jean Decker, started the historical society in 1998. The women's grandmother, Borghild “Bobbie” Aanstad, who died at age 90, was almost 14 years old when she and other relatives swam to safety as the Eastland rolled while loaded with more than 2,500 passengers on board. The last Eastland survivor, Marion Eichholz, died in an Elk Grove Village nursing facility in December at age 102.

The grass-roots not-for-profit society has a host of activities planned for July 24-26, during the disaster's 100th anniversary. To see the recently found lost footage, learn about the Eastland, register for events or make donations, visit the society's website at EastlandDisaster.org.

“I can't help but think there probably is more somewhere,” Revzan says about lost footage of the Eastland Disaster.

A century later, the moving image of that young victim in her good dress being lifted from the water makes an impact on Wachholz.

“It's one person, and it's hitting me like a ton of bricks,” Wachholz says. “It's all part of getting people to understand Chicago's greatest loss-of-life tragedy.”

Rescue workers search the Chicago River in this image from recently discovered film footage released to the public Wednesday by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society of Arlington Heights. While docked in Chicago on July 24, 1915, the Eastland rolled on its side, killing 844 people. Courtesy of British Pathé
Film footage of the recovery of victims from the Eastland was released to the public Wednesday by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society of Arlington Heights. History researcher and Northern Illinois University graduate student Alex Revzan recently discovered the century-old footage from July 24, 1915. Courtesy of British Pathé
Often overlooked in the century since the boating accident killed 844 people on the Chicago River, the Eastland Disaster of 1915 is drawing renewed attention with the recent discoveries of two lost newsreel films. Courtesy of British Pathé
Chief historian and director of the Arlington Heights-based Eastland Disaster Historical Society, Ted Wachholz attends a ceremony last summer in Chicago to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the tragic boating accident that killed 844 people on the Chicago River. Courtesy of Eastland Disaster Historical Society
Photographs used to be the only visual evidence of rescue efforts following the 1915 Eastland Disaster that killed 844 people in Chicago. But this month, researchers have uncovered lost film footage of the tragedy. Courtesy of Eastland Disaster Historical Society
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