Galli-Curci Twice in Peril on Auto Trip; Just Misses Going Through Open Drawbridge

The New York Times
December 2, 1922

Mme. Amelita Galli-Curci had two narrow escapes from death last night while returning from a concert in the armory at Orange, N. J. According to Laurence Evans, her manager, the limousine in which Galli-Curci was riding with a party of five ran into a pile of building stones in the street and was thrown sidewise over the curbstone. The car righted itself and the chauffeur drove on, only narrowly to miss running into an open drawbridge.

"Mme. Galli-Curci was not injured, but she was badly shaken up," said Mr. Evans describing the accident. "She will be able to sing at the Hippodrome on Sunday. We were coming back from Orange and were going through Newark. I don't know what street we were on, but we were just passing a building under construction. The chauffeur said afterward that the pile of stones we hit looked like the shadow of the building.  At any rate, we ran head-on into those stones and were thrown upon the sidewalk.

"Luckily the car did not tip over, although every one of us was badly shaken and pretty much startled.  A policeman directed us down the street to a bridge where he said we could cross to get to the main highway to the ferry.  At the bridge, the chauffeur again became confused and stopped the limousine so suddenly as to jar us all.  When we got out, we found that it was only by the narrowest margin we had missed going to the river.  The drawbridge was open.

"There was a little shanty near the drawbridge and we got Galli-Curci to it where she waited while we decided what had best be done.  She was calm about it all.  The news had spread that it was Galli-Curci in the car and a great crowd gathered to find out if she had been hurt.

"A policeman who was near the bridge when our chauffeur stopped the car advised us to get another machine to continue the trip to New York.  It took us about fifteen minutes, but we finally located a car and came over, reaching the Ambassador shortly after midnight."

Mr. Evans was insistent that the opera star had not been injured in any way.

"Of course the shaking up after the strain of that concert was a shock," he said, "but her nerves are splendid and she will be all right tomorrow."