Did the drapes in old theatres actually say "ASBESTOS" on them?

Upvote:12

My brother and I both received one of these in the early 1960's, complete with asbestos sample as shown - except the sample we had looked nothing like the one here, but rather was a sample of fibrous (tremolite asbestos, as seen at bottom).

enter image description here

My point here is that the dangers of asbestos have been realized only in the latter half of my lifetime - which is nowhere near over yet. Prior to that, advertising the use of asbestos was seen as a safety feature - not as a hazard - due to the extreme flame and fire resistance of asbestos and the ability to weave textiles from it. In the early 1960's, it was seen as completely acceptable to distribute fibrous tremolite asbestos to children to foster their interest in geology.

Image of tremolite asbestos (from Wikiepedia):

enter image description here

Upvote:25

Yes, you can find images of such safety curtains in several places.

Here is one concerning an old theatre in Detroit. (copyrighted images so links only).

Another image here concerning the Hawaii Theatre.

Yet another appears here in a reddit thread.

This Wikipedia article goes into detail on the reasons for fireproof safety curtains (emphasis mine).

It is usually a heavy fabric curtain located immediately behind the proscenium arch. Asbestos-based materials were originally used to manufacture the curtain, before the dangers of asbestos were widely known. The safety curtain is sometimes referred to as an iron in British theatres, regardless of the actual construction material.

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