Actor and theater director Charles Nelson Reilly, who was 13 years old at the time, survived the fire and dramatized it in the film of his stage show, "The Life of Reilly". In a 1997 interview, Reilly said that he rarely attended the theater, despite being a director, as the sound of a large audience in a theater reminded him of the large crowd at the circus before the disaster. He also said during his latter show that his mother, whom he had disobeyed after she had told him not to go to the circus that day with his friend, caught them sneaking out of her sight and scolded them, saying "I hope it burns to the ground!"