Cocoanut Grove fire
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The Cocoanut Grove was a nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. On November 28, 1942, the fashionable nightclub burned in what remains the deadliest nightclub fire in United States history, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. It is also the second-worst single-building fire in American history; only the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago in 1903 killed more (602). The tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced World War II news headlines. The fire led to a reform of fire codes and safety standards across the country and prompted a seminal study of grief. The club's owner, Barney Welansky, who had boasted of his ties to the Mafia and to Boston Mayor Maurice J. Tobin, was eventually found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
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[edit] The fire
The club, a former speakeasy located at 17 Piedmont Street in what is now Boston's Bay Village neighborhood, was filled with approximately 1,000 occupants that evening, more than twice its official capacity of 460. The club had recently been expanded with the addition of a lounge, which opened onto an adjacent street. Decorated in a Casablanca tropical style, the restaurant, bars, and lounges inside were fitted out with flammable paper palm trees, cloth draperies covering the ceiling, flammable furniture, and other flimsy decorations, some of which obscured exit signs.
Official reports state the fire started at about 10:15 p.m. in the dark, intimate Melody Lounge downstairs. A young pianist and singer, Goody Goodelle, was performing on a revolving stage, surrounded by artificial palm trees. It was believed that a young man, possibly a soldier, had removed a lightbulb in order to give himself privacy while kissing his date.[1] Stanley Tomaszewski, a 16-year-old busboy, was instructed to put the light back on by retightening the bulb. As he attempted to tighten the light bulb back into its socket, the bulb fell out in his hand. In the dimly-lit lounge, Tomaszewski, unable to see the socket, lit a match for a moment to illuminate the area, found the socket, blew out the match, and replaced the bulb. Almost immediately, patrons saw something ignite in the canopy of artificial palm fronds draped above the tables.
Despite waiters' efforts to douse the fire by throwing water on it, it quickly spread along the fronds of the palm tree, igniting nearby decorations on the walls and ceiling. Flames raced up the stairway to the main level, feeding on oxygen and burning the hair of patrons who were stumbling up the stairs. A fireball burst across the central dance floor just as the orchestra was beginning its evening show. Flames raced through the adjacent Caricature Bar, then down a corridor to the New Lounge. Within five minutes, flames had spread to the main clubroom and the entire nightclub was ablaze.
As is common in panic situations, many patrons attempted to exit through the main entrance, the same way they had come in. However, the building's main entrance was a single revolving door, immediately rendered useless as the panicked crowd scrambled for safety. Bodies piled up behind both sides of the revolving door, jamming it to the extent that firefighters had to dismantle it in order to get inside. Other avenues of escape were similarly useless: side doors had been welded shut to prevent people from leaving without paying their bills. A plate glass window, which could have been smashed for escape, was instead boarded up and unusable as an emergency exit. Other unlocked doors opened inwards, rendering them useless against the crush of people trying to escape. Bartender Daniel Weiss and entertainer Goody Goodelle both survived in the Melody Lounge; by dousing a cloth napkin with a pitcher of water, Weiss was able to escape by crawling through the kitchen and other subfloor areas, while Goodelle and several other employees were able to escape by crawling through a barred window in the kitchen. Five survived by taking refuge in a walk-in refrigerator. Fire officials later testified that, had the doors swung outwards, at least 300 lives could have been spared. Many young soldiers perished in the disaster, as well as a married couple whose wedding had taken place earlier that day.
[edit] The aftermath
Boston newspapers were filled with lists of the dead and stories of narrow escapes and deaths. It was erroneously reported that Hollywood movie star Buck Jones had made it safely outside but died two days later in the hospital. In fact, Jones had fallen where he sat in the prime Terrace area near the bandstand, which was behind a wrought-iron railing that acted as a trap. Stories claimed that Jones had gone back in to rescue people. In truth, he had been incapacitated at his seat and lingered in the hospital for some hours before dying.
Jack Lesberg, bass player for the Cocoanut Grove house band, was luckier; he escaped the fire and went on to play music with Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Leonard Bernstein, and many others until shortly before his death in 2005.[2] His escape was described by fellow bassist Charles Mingus in an unpublished section of Mingus' autobiography Beneath the Underdog; this passage was read by rapper Chuck D. on the Mingus tribute album Weird Nightmare. According to Mingus' telling, Lesberg used his double bass to "make a door" inside the club that aided in his escape.
Coast Guardsman Clifford Johnson went back in no fewer than four times in search of his date who, unbeknownst to him, had safely escaped. Johnson suffered extensive third-degree burns over 50% of his body but survived the disaster, spending 10 months convalescing in Boston City Hospital. Years later he burned to death in a fiery automobile crash in his home state of Missouri.
The Boston College football team, undefeated and ranked number one in the nation, had made victory party reservations at the club for that evening but canceled after an upset 55–12 loss to unranked rival Holy Cross dampened their spirits.
Barney Welansky, whose connections had allowed the nightclub to operate while in violation of the loose standards of the day, was convicted on 19 counts of manslaughter (19 victims were randomly selected to represent the dead). Welansky was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. He served nearly four years before being quietly pardoned by Massachusetts Governor Maurice Tobin, who had been mayor of Boston at the time of the fire. In December 1946, ravaged with cancer, Welansky was released from Norfolk Prison, telling reporters, "I wish I'd died with the others in the fire." Nine weeks later, he was dead.[1]
Busboy Stanley Tomaszewski, who survived the fire and later testified at the inquiry, was exonerated, as he was not responsible for the flammable decorations or the life safety code violations.
In 1997, the case was reopened. New information and improved understanding of fire dynamics led to the determination that the flash fire was caused by extremely flammable methyl chloride leaking from a faulty refrigerator in a service area near the Melody Lounge.
According to rumor, the Boston Licensing Board ordered that no Boston establishment may again call itself the Cocoanut Grove. This was refuted by author John Esposito in his recent book concerning the fire; in fact, no such order or citation exists, although Esposito speculates that few businessmen would wish to use such an ill-omened name.
[edit] Safety regulations
In the year that followed the fire, Massachusetts and other states enacted laws for public establishments that banned flammable decorations and inward-swinging exit doors, required exit signs to be visible at all times, and stated that revolving doors used for egress must either be flanked by at least one normal, outward-swinging door, or retrofitted to permit the individual doors to fold flat to permit free-flowing traffic in a panic situation.
[edit] Burn treatment
Many of the burn victims were admitted to two hospitals: Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston City Hospital. Drs. Francis Daniels Moore and Oliver Cope treated them at Massachusetts General Hospital in a process involving gauze smeared with Vaseline. It was the first major use of the Hospital's new blood bank — one of the area's first — established by Dr. Lamar Soutter. The Cocoanut Grove victims were among the first patients to be treated with a new drug, penicillin.
[edit] Grief and bereavement
Dr. Eric Lindemann, a Boston psychiatrist, studied survivors and their relatives and published what has become a classic paper, Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief,[3] read at the Centenary Meeting of The American Psychiatric Association in May 1944 (published in September the same year) and widely considered[weasel words] to have laid the foundation for research in this area.
[edit] Post-traumatic stress
Alexandra Adler's detailed studies on 500 survivors of the fire are noted as some of the earliest research on posttraumatic stress disorder.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2009) |
- ^ a b Thomas, Jack. "The Cocoanut Grove inferno". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/daily/21/archives_cocoanut_112292.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
- ^ allaboutjazz.com
- ^ ajp.psychiatryonline.org
- ^ http://www.psych.yorku.ca/femhop/Adler.htm
- Benzaquin, Paul, Holocaust! The shocking story of the Boston Cocoanut Grove fire (1959) No ISBN available, but Library of Congress Control Number is 59014396.
- Schorow, Stephanie, The Cocoanut Grove Fire (2005) ISBN 1-889833-88-6.
- Keyes, Edward, Cocoanut Grove (1984) ISBN 0-689-11406-0.
- Esposito, John, Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy And Its Aftermath (2005) ISBN 0-306-81423-4.
- Am J Surg. 1993 Dec;166(6):581-91. The 1942 fire at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Saffle JR.
- Lidemann, Erich, Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief,[1] American Journal of Psychiatry 1944, 101 (2): 141-148
[edit] External links
- The Boston Globe archives, featuring coverage of the tragedy from 1942
- With the Command Historical Perspective: US Naval Academy Fire Dept - Cocoanut Grove Fire
- Article on Buck Jones and his role, if any, in rescuing victims from the fire
- Celebrate Boston: Disasters - Cocoanut Grove Fire
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Coordinates: 42°21′1″N 71°4′3″W / 42.35028°N 71.0675°W
