Episode 22: Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire

Part two of our Fire Series. 492 people perished in a fire that was 1000% preventable.

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome back to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept secret or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing the Coconut Grove Nightclub Fire. Let's get into it. Okay, so this is our second episode in our fire series. We started out in Boston. Er, no, where were we? Brockton. We were in Brockton, Massachusetts. That's where we were. Now we're scooting over to Boston. So we're just gonna get into it. The Coconut Grove Nightclub. It was at 17 Piedmont Street and Bay Village in Boston. And it ran from Piedmont Street to Shawmont Street, but I don't want to get too caught up with where the building sat because all of the streets have been rearranged since this happened. So the club consisted of two separate venues. There was the Broadway Lounge, which held a large dining room, a ballroom, with a bandstand, and several bar areas. This area also had a retractable roof, which was used during the warmer months. The Melody Lounge was in the basement. This area consisted of a bar, tables and chairs, and a small performance stage. The basement also housed uh the kitchen, freezer, and storage areas for the entire building. There was a revolving door as the main entrance to the building on the first floor. All right. The building was originally a garage and warehouse. It was purchased by orchestra band leaders Mickey Alpert and Jacques Renard and converted into a one and a half story nightclub with dining rooms, bars, and lounges. It was officially opened as a nightclub during prohibition in 1927 and it became a speakeasy. To those of you that don't know, um, a speakeasy was a secret bar that sold alcohol, which was illegal during prohibition in the United States in the 1920s. The club owners' financiers were connected with the mafia, who soon gained control of the club and it became a hangout for gangsters. In 1931, the club was owned by Charles King Solomon, also known as Boston Charlie. Charlie was a Russian-born mob boss who controlled Boston's bootlegging, narcotics, and illegal gambling. Charlie was born in 1884, and he and his family immigrated from Russia when Charlie was young and they settled in Boston's West End. Charlie worked in his uncle's restaurant as a teenager, but by his early 20s, he got involved in prostitution, bail bonding, and fencing. Now, I only knew fencing to be a sport played with small swords. However, in the organized crime world, a fence is known as, quote, an individual who knowingly buys stolen goods in order to resell them for profit. By the early 1920s, Charlie controlled the majority of illegal gambling, narcotics, and bootlegging and owned most of the city's most prominent speakeasies, including Coconut Grove. Boston Charlie had ties to other gangsters in New York, Chicago, and Canada. Charlie's story came to an end, though, when he was killed in the men's room of Boston's Cotton Club by rival gang members. While his territories were divided up between his lieutenants, the ownership of the Coconut Grove Nightclub went to Charlie's attorney, Barnett Barney Welanski. Barnett was a tough boss who loved to brag about his mafia ties. Barnett would hire street thugs as waiters and bouncers and use teenagers to act as busboys. Barnett also made the decision to lock all the exits and conceal others with curtains, even bricking over an emergency exit in an effort to prevent guests from leaving without paying. He also thought locking the doors would prevent anyone from sneaking in. So let's get back to the Coconut Grove nightclub as it was in 1942. The club had a tropical theme. Leatherette, rattan, and bamboo were used to cover the walls, while heavy draperies and dark blue satin covered the ceiling. Support columns were made to look like palm trees with the light fixtures acting as coconuts. Being a basement, there wasn't any natural light from windows in the melody lounge, so all light was provided by the light from these faux coconut trees. The club was a popular spot where movie stars and singers would almost always be in attendance. One of the bars was even called the Caricature Bar because it featured drawings of the most prominent guests. On Saturday, November 28, 1942, Boston College football team played Holy Cross College at Fenway Park. Holy Cross beat Boston, and the celebration party for Boston College that had been scheduled to take place at Coconut Grove was canceled. The club still ended up having around a thousand patrons that night. The most notable was an actor named Buck Jones, real name Charles Gebhart, who was traveling the U.S. on a war bonds campaign. I have to be honest, I still don't understand war bonds. From what I gather, uh the US government sold bonds to raise money for the efforts of World War II. You could then cash in your bonds later to help you pay for schooling or purchasing a home, but that's that's the best I got. Uh anyway, Buck Jones had attended the football game and was going to go to his hotel and sleep since he was sick, but his agent pressured him to go have dinner at the Grove. Another patron was Christian Murray Allen, an 18-year-old graduate of Northampton School for Girls. Christian was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and lived in Switzerland for nine years. When her father died in 1938, Christian's mother moved her and her two sisters to England. The family left England once the war broke out in August 1939 and arrived in New York in September 1939. Christian was at the Grove Nightclub with friends In Sing Arthur Lee, Insing Alonzo Hearn, and classmate Ridney McKenna. The group was seated in the northwest corner of the Melody Lounge near an artificial tree. They had ordered drinks, but they were never served due to the large crowd, and Christian and Insing Lee went upstairs to the main dining room to dance. Joyce Spector was another patron that fateful night. Joyce was born in Boston in April 1924 to Ukrainian immigrants. Joyce was born Goldie Rose Spector, but in elementary school her teacher said that it wasn't suitable enough to be an American name. So Goldie and her brother sat down with a dictionary and came up with the name Joyce Rosalind instead. 18-year-old Joyce went to the Melody Lounge with Justin Morgan around 9.45 p.m. Justin Morgan had proposed to Joyce, who was wearing the ring, but she still hasn't officially accepted at this time. After the events of November 28th, though, she said that she thought of him as her fiance and was very much in love. Robert Bob Shumwe had graduated high school in June 1942 and was spending the weekend with his classmate Richard Moulton. They both attended the Boston College Holy Cross football game and found their way over to the Coconut Grove nightclub. They'd stepped outside for a bit just to catch some air and mingle. Due to the lack of light in that spot, Stanley lit a match in order to locate the socket for the bulb. When Christian Murray Allen returned from the upstairs dining room, she noted, quote, I saw a boy stand up in the corner and strike a match. Immediately a large flame started in the palm tree in the corner. It spread across the ceiling. Joyce Spector remarked that, quote, right away the dried grass decorations crackled into flame right over our heads. Now remember, the walls and the ceilings were covered in decorations and fabric, which are highly flammable items. The patrons ran to the only exit they knew, which was the four-foot-wide staircase leading to the upstairs foyer. The emergency exit at the top of the stairs on the left side wouldn't open. A fireball had now formed and was traveling along the ceiling of the Melody Lounge, up the staircase and into the foyer, where the bathrooms, coat rooms, and main entrance was located. The only entrance known to patrons was the revolving door that they had entered through. After a small number of people were able to exit through this door, it became jammed. Observer outside could do nothing as they saw people being crushed by the weight of the crowd surge. Some people were able to escape the blaze. Patrons followed employees through dark back corridors to unknown exits. Five people hid in the refrigerators and meat lockers. Some were able to open concealed doors in the dining room. Most of the band members escaped backstage through a service door that they had forced open. Mickey Alpert, former owner of the club, escaped out of the basement window and led several people to safety that way. Cashier Jeanette Lazzoni, entertainer Goody Goodell, three bartenders, and other employees and patrons of the Melody Lounge escaped through the kitchen. In the kitchen, these people got out through a window above a service bar and up a stairway to another window and through a service door that was eventually forced open. There was an exit door in a newly opened part of the building, but it was an inward-facing door. So the rush and the weight of these people fleeing the fire made it so that they couldn't even open the door, which made it an ineffective escape route. When Christian had returned to her table and saw the fire start, she headed back up the stairs with her friend and Sing Lee. She stated, quote, We were the first people up the stairs from the lounge and we hurried right for the revolving door. Joyce Spectre was ordered by her fiancé Justin Morgan to go up the stairs while he stayed behind to help others. As she was making her way to the stairs, Joyce was shoved down to the floor by other escapees. She tried to offer assistance to another woman who had fallen, but a man pushed her in the back and knocked her down again. She was able to see the fire course through the Melody lounge and said, quote, I felt those flames licking at me, and I crawled under the tables on my hands and knees. All I can remember is people stepping on me, on my head and back. Finally, in the upstairs dining room, Joyce continued to crawl towards an exit. She doesn't remember how she made it out, but quote, all of a sudden I felt the air on my face and my head was sticking out of the door, and somebody grabbed me and pulled me out. More people were pulled out and tossed down beside me. Some of them were dead. After about an hour, Joyce was put in a taxi by two men and was taken home. Joyce sustained second-degree burns to her right hand and shoulders, burns to her legs, blisters on her face, and her hair had been singed. Bob Shumwey and his friend Richard Moulton were heading back into the building when they found it ablaze. The two men were able to escape, but were briefly stuck in the revolving door. Bob and Richard helped in pulling out a woman stuck in the entrance and spent all night carrying out bodies to be placed in ambulances. These two men also helped injured people into cars and taxis that were sent to bring victims to Boston City and Massachusetts General hospitals. And I wonder if it were these two men that had put Joyce in her taxi. Keep in mind, these two were just patrons. They're just 18-year-old kids that decided to go there that night. And here they are helping in all the recovery efforts. In the upstairs dining room, guests were waiting for the floor show to start at 10:15 when the fireball appeared and spread throughout the room. Guests tried to find an exit, but the exits they could find were either locked and covered and couldn't be seen. Around the same time, firefighters had been called to a car fire three blocks from the club. Once they put out that fire, one of the firefighters noticed smoke coming from the area of the Coconut Grove nightclub. As firefighters were making their way over, people were rushing up to them to direct them where to go. At 10:20 p.m., Boston Fire Alarm Office received an alarm that was pulled by a bystander. At 10.23 p.m., the fire chief at the scene ordered his aide to skip the second alarm and request a third alarm via the firebox 1521. This third alarm was called at 10.24 p.m. At 11.02 p.m., a final fire alarm was called, and within minutes of these last trucks arriving, the fire was put out. The Boston Fire Department report estimates that it took between two to four minutes for the fire to spread 40 feet and reach the staircase to the main floor. The staircase, they claim, acted like a chimney, and the fire was able to race up the stairs and into the bar and dining room. Stacks of bodies, both living and dead, were buried shoulder high at many of the exits. On the street, firefighters pulled out bodies and were later treated for burned hands. As it got colder out, the hoses froze onto the ground and the ice created another obstacle in rescue efforts. Along with ambulances and taxis, newspaper delivery trucks were approached and asked to be used to transport victims. Firefighters were directed to hose down the smoldering bodies, but keep in mind, the living and the dead were all commingled. Some living victims' throats were burned from the fumes of the fire, and when they inhaled the cold outdoor air, one firefighter said, quote, they dropped like stones. The Navy, Army, Coast Guard, and National Guard were all called in to help in the removal of victims. During this process, firefighters found several dead guests sitting in their seats with drinks in their hands. These people had become taken over so quickly by the fire and smoke that they didn't have time to even move. A temporary morgue was set up in a film distribution garage near the club. A lot of the presumed dead were sent directly to the northern or southern mortuaries. Several of the presumed dead that were dropped off were actually alive and were then shuttled to a hospital. At the morgues, staff and volunteers worked to identify the deceased. Identifying female victims was difficult because personal identification was usually kept in purses or handbags, which became separated from the owners in the panic andor burned. Men usually had their identification kept in their pockets, making it a little bit easier to identify the men. Boston City Hospital had been rehearsing emergency drills due to the war. They needed to practice what to do if the enemy hit too close to home and they needed to handle the casualties. The majority of the injured of the Coconut Grove fire were taken here, receiving 300 in one hour. 114 victims were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in two hours. Other area hospitals received some victims but weren't coordinated enough to handle the numbers that the other larger hospitals could. Off-duty staff were called in to help and volunteers also arrived. Interestingly enough, the owner of the grove, Barney Walansky, had suffered a heart attack 12 days before the fire and was resting in bed in Massachusetts General while victims were pouring into the lobby downstairs. Of the total 444 burn victims that were hospitalized after the fire, only 130 survived. Clifford Johnson was one of the burn victims. Clifford had escaped the fire but went back into the building to look for his date. Unbeknownst to him, she was already safe outside. Johnson suffered extensive third-degree burns over 55% of his body, becoming the most severely burned person to survive his injuries to date. After 21 months in a hospital and several hundred operations, he married his nurse and returned to his home state of Missouri. Now, there are good things that can come out of tragedies. Massachusetts General had recently established the area's first blood bank and had stocked over 200 units of dried plasma as part of their war preparations. A total of 147 of these units were used to treat 29 patients. The Office of Civilian Defense had stored 500 units of plasma for wartime at Boston City Hospital. Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, the U.S. Navy, and the Red Cross all donated plasma. 98 patients received this donated plasma, and 1,200 people donated over 3,800 units of blood to the blood bank after this event. This tragedy was also an opportunity to advance the treatment of burns. Medical personnel had to adopt newly developed methods of care to treat the hundreds of patients. The first recorded general use of penicillin to fight infection on burn victims occurred at Massachusetts General on December 2nd, 1942. A soft technique of treating burns was tried at Mass General under the leadership of Dr. Oliver Cope by treating the affected skin areas with a solution of boric petroleum, while skin grafts were used to treat in the healing process. Also, it was discovered that many victims succumbed to pulmonary edema, which is excessive fluid in the lungs. The edema was caused by breathing in toxic smoke and gases containing pyrolesis, which was caused by the burning of the furniture and furnishings inside the grove. In all, advances in burn treatment were made in four categories: fluid retention, prevention of infection, treating respiratory trauma, skin surface, and surgical management. In April 1943, the last victim was discharged from Massachusetts General and at Boston City in May of 1943. Hospitals that treated victims of the Grove Fire chose not to charge any of the patients for treatment. The Red Cross provided financial aid to both public and private hospitals to help with the costs. Once all the victims had been removed from the scene and the fire was extinguished, an investigation was launched. Fire Commissioner William Riley began his investigation on November 29th, the day after the incident. Most witnesses believed the fire to be the fault of the busboy since he was the one that lit the match. But those who worked at the club thought it was an electrical issue. An official report revealed that the Coconut Grove Nightclub had been inspected by a captain in the Boston Fire Department just 10 days before. The fire and declared it safe. Also, it was found that the Grove had not obtained any licenses for operations for several years. There were no food handlers permits and no liquor licenses, which, duh, it's a speakeasy. The busboy Stanley, who was instructed to replace that out bulb, was underage and should not have been working there. And the recent remodeling of the new Broadway lounge had been done without any building permits and used unlicensed contractors. The final death count of the Coconut Grove nightclub fire was 490, with an additional 166 injured. The number of the injured was pulled from only those who sought treatment at a hospital. There were others that didn't seek treatment, so we don't know what the actual number of injured patients is. Later, the death count rose to 492. New fire laws had been put in place. Legislators suggested new bills within 24 hours after the fire to increase laws around fire protection and building inspections. Regulations changed four days after the fire in cities such as St. Louis, Miami, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago. Now there would be a ban on flammable decorations. Emergency exits must be locked only from the outside and must be clearly marked. Revolving doors could no longer be the only exit, and emergency lighting and sprinklers must be installed. Barney Walanski was convicted on 19 counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. I guess it helps to know people because Barney only served three and a half years. He was released in December 1946, but died on January 27, 1947. The original site of Coconut Grove Nightclub was torn down in 1944, and like I said before, the streets were changed and renamed. The original address of the club became a parking lot. A lot of the original building's site is under the Revere Hotel on Stewart Street. In 1993, the Bay Village Neighborhood Association installed a memorial plaque by the Bostonian Society. The surviving section of Shawmut Street was renamed Coconut Grove Lane in 2013. In November 2023, there was a groundbreaking ceremony held for a new memorial for the victims of the tragedy. That's all for this story. Come back next time to see what else has been hidden.