8mm Forum: Liberace & Carbon Tetrachoride

This is topic Liberace & Carbon Tetrachoride in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 02, 2016, 04:08 AM:

Just been watching "Behind The Candelabra", the 2013 HBO film about Liberace's relationship with his young lover, Scott Thorson. The film includes a sequence where Liberace has been using Carbon Tetrachloride and is taken to hospital with kidney failure after inhaling the toxic fumes. He was given a 20% chance of survival. But he did.

I started work 1n 1952 as a trainee projectionist where we used carbon tet for cleaning our wood-block floor in the projection room once a month (before applying red Ronuk floor polish.) Fortunately we were all aware of its dangerous fumes and worked early in the morning before shows commenced with all doors and windows open.

For many years in the various cinemas in which I worked we always had a gallon can of Carbon Tetrachloride on hand for the odd cleaning job. Even the hand-held Pyrene fire extinguishers were filled with the liquid, although it was tinted red to avoid it being used for other purposes!

Click below to read of Liberace's story and his vision of the nun in white.

http://hauntsandhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/liberaces-midnight-visitor.html

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 02, 2016, 05:14 AM:

I saw that in the movie Maurice. It was the dry cleaning process for his costumes that brought him into contact with it. I'm amazed how any of us who lived through 50s to 70s survived between the chemicals, plastics, abestos even lead in petrol we were expose to in our daily lives.

Mike

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 02, 2016, 05:38 AM:

Mike
I thought it odd that any chemical would still remain on clothes after professional dry cleaning.
If you read my attachment it says that Lee was doing the cleaning himself.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 05, 2016, 06:50 AM:

I missed this link Maurice. I thought the film implied it was the dry cleaners but it was obviously his own work that nearly made him leave the stage early!!

Posted by Lindsay Morris (Member # 3812) on January 06, 2016, 02:24 AM:

Pretty toxic stuff overall & worse when applied to a fire.

In my early days as a telephone tech gallons of the stuff was readily dished out to staff to clean the Step by step switch gear.
We were at least warned to keep the area well ventilated.
The Pyrene extinguishers used in Australia just had plain carbon tet in them as we had to check & refill any site Pyrene units. We simply refilled from the exchange stocks of the bulk supply for switch cleaning.

However spray on a fire and get to hell outa there as the flames turned the Carbon tet into Phosgene gas (spelling???) which ate up the oxygen about & smothered the fire but absolutely deadly to human lungs.

A couple of fire fighters I know of here died of a nasty cancer attributed to the use of carbon tet in refilling and use of extinguishers.
Lindsay

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