About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

A fire burns in Boston
Author: TriSec    Date: 11/28/2009 14:15:41

I've always been a bit of a disasterphile. I don't know what it is, but I'm endlessly fascinated by historical tragedies.

Perhaps it started when I was much younger. I vaguely remember Delta flight 723 piling it in at Logan Airport. (Logan's last major crash, btw...although there have been minor ones.)

I'm also endlessly fascinated by PSA Flight 182, perhaps because it's one of the very few photos that exist of an airliner in the actual act of crashing.

Of course, the grandaddy of them all is the RMS Titanic...and I've actually been to Halifax, NS several times and stood in the museum gaping at the artifacts, including one of 7 known surviving deck chairs.

But I also have an unhealthy obsession with fire. I know I can thank the Boy Scouts for much of that; I'm the troop's acclaimed expert on setting things alight. In fact, I proudly claim that "If I can't burn it, it's fireproof." I won't bore you with some of my exploits, but I will go back in time now. I have blogged about this before, but the story is so astonishing, and today is the actual anniversary, so I can't resist.



In July of 1942, a wee baby girl was born via C-section to a young couple from East Boston at the Women's Lying-in hospital. (now defunct.) The father was an up-and-coming trumpeter of the Big-Band era, just off a stint with the Vaughn Monroe Big Band.

Alas, Vaughn had just taken the band to the West Coast for a lengthy tour, and the trumpeter decided to stay behind and tend to his pregnant wife. He was fortunate to land a gig with the house band at the prestigious Cocoanut Grove nightclub in the fashionable Bay Village.

Unfortunately, into the fall of 1942, his wife was having a difficult post-partum recovery, and needed much family support with the new baby. The music business being what it was in those days, the trumpeter begged for additional time off to take care of his wife, especially with the holidays coming up.

The club management refused.

So, sometime around Veteran's Day, 1942....the trumpeter quit and left the club.

On Saturday, November 28, the undefeated and #1 ranked Boston College Eagles were set to play a minor game against their cross-state rivals, the Holy Cross Crusaders. In anticipation of an undefeated season and a national title, they had booked the Cocoanut Grove that evening for a victory celebration.

They lost, 44-12, and wound up cancelling. It's a good thing they did, too.


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. 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 settling 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.


I'll quote this again: "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."

That young trumpeter who quit was Dino Digiano; his wife was Jenny, and that little baby girl was my mother.

Over the years, my mother claimed that she saved granpa's life. If she wasn't born when she was, or if grandma had had an easy recovery, grandpa would have been standing on that stage right when the fireball came up. As it turns out, there were two bands in the club that evening, one downstairs in the Melody Lounge where the fire started, and the band on the house floor. Out of all of the musicians working that night, only the bass player survived.

There are few photos of the aftermath, but just to give you some idea of the carnage, here's one:

http://graphics.boston.com/photo_gallery/ri_fire/c7.jpg


After the fire, much was changed in public spaces. Next time you're out and about, take a look around. See those lighted "Exit" signs? Look over a revolving door the next time you're through one; see those doors on either side? And you won't see it, but the revolving door itself is collapsible; push on the panels hard enough and it folds up leaving an exit. All of this came from the Cocoanut Grove fire.

Curiously, in this day and age of memorializing everything, the fire is strangely unknown in this city. People know of it, but know very little about it. At the time, it was a gigantic national tragedy, and even replaced the WWII headlines of the day. (Which was big; in November of 1942, we had just invaded North Africa and were busy tangling with Rommel, which wasn't going so well at that time.)

All that Boston has to remember the fire is a modest bronze plaque placed in the sidewalk near the old front doors to the club.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2002/180/6532185_1025478010.jpg

 

7 comments (Latest Comment: 11/29/2009 02:54:42 by Mondobubba)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati

Add a Comment

Please login to add a comment...


Comments:

Order comments Newest to Oldest  Refresh Comments

Comment by livingonli on 11/28/2009 17:04:24
Fristy pants. I don't get to say that very often.



Another Saturday at work for me: SEC Football on MSG2 and some outher market blackout zones that can't see the Devils right now and then the Rangers and Hockey Night today. I just hope I don't get drowned in confederate crap since it's Mississippi State vs. Mississippi.

Comment by Mondobubba on 11/28/2009 21:21:03
Tri: See Chuck D's contribution to Weird Nightmare which is Mingus tribute album, "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger There Would be a Lot of Dead Copy Cats."

Comment by Mondobubba on 11/28/2009 22:15:25
Comment by BobR on 11/29/2009 02:02:55
Back home after a nightmare drive to and from upstate NY. Watching Tech and UGA...

Comment by Raine on 11/29/2009 02:04:56
Hola everyone! Georgia....

Comment by Mondobubba on 11/29/2009 02:54:42
Quote by BobR:

Back home after a nightmare drive to and from upstate NY. Watching Tech and UGA...




Ugh. Nothing like holiday traffic.