Posted death news elsewhere and couldn't find a topic for general Broadway death discussion so decided to create this one!   "Lit by gas and poorly ventilated, theaters in nineteenth-century New York were vexed by fire. At the beginning of the twentieth century, architects realized that the safer electric light bulb had enormous advertising potential. As early as 1910, Broadway signage dazzled visitors and the street soon became known throughout the world as the Great White Way. In 1927, the journalist Will Irwin vividly captured the district’s look and energy: “Mildly insane by day, the square goes divinely mad by night. For then on every wall, above every cornice, in every nook and cranny, blossom and dance the electric advertising signs . . . . All other American cities imitate them, but none gets this massed effect of tremendous jazz interpreted in light.”"   http://www.spotlightonbroadway.com/the-great-white-way-0