At age 13, he was in the audience during the Ringling Bros. Circus tent
fire in Hartford, Connecticut on July 6, 1944, which claimed the lives
of 168 people. The mother of his neighbor friend had taken the two boys
to the show and the three managed to escape physically unharmed.
Charles was saved by an older sister also in attendance, who lowered
him from the side of the bleachers because the bottleneck below made it
practically impossible to get out any other way. For the rest of his life, he had a fear of sitting in a large audience despite being a theater actor and director.
