Episode 122: The Cocoanut Grove Fire
280 of the 490 victims of the fire
“The Cocoanut Grove” opened initially in 1927 as a partnership between two orchestra leaders, Mickey Alpert and Jacques Renard, in the Bay Village area of Boston, Massachusetts. This quickly evolved into a Prohibition-era speakeasy, and just as quickly gained attention from the mob. Mickey and Jacques gave the mob control over the business side of things as this allowed them to perform music with the house band. Mobster Charles “King” Solomon owned the club until 1933, and after his death his lawyer Barnet “Barney” Welansky took over as owner.
Barney turned the club into a space with a classy, jazzy lounge feel, decorating the rooms with decadent satin drapery, curtains, canopies, bamboo walls and fake palm fronds for a tropical theme. The Grove had it’s own restaurant, bars, dance floors with a roof that opened up to the night sky, and a separate basement space called the Melody Lounge with a revolving stage. Barney ran a tight ship, hiring underage boys to be servers, bus boys and security. He also concealed, locked and even built brick walls around emergency exits to prevent people from sneaking out without paying. This became a massive safety issue.
On November 28th, 1942, over 1,000 people crammed into the club, which had a legal capacity of 460 people. In the basement Melody Lounge a young sailor had unscrewed a lightbulb that was quickly fixed by an employee, 16-year-old Stanley Tomaszewski, by the light of a match. Within seconds fire appeared on one of the fake palm fronds and spread to the other fronds around the stage. Staff desperately began trying to put the fire out before it spread to the satin draped ceilings, but they were unsuccessful.
As the crowd fled up the stairs the fire followed, with a massive fireball erupting into the main building upstairs. Within five minutes the entire building was engulfed in flames. The main door was a revolving door that jammed with the sheer amount of people pushing against it, creating a crowd crush situation that trapped hundreds inside the burning building. Others died of smoke inhalation still holding drinks at the bar.
Surrounding hospitals received hundreds of victims with Boston City Hospital receiving a patient every eleven seconds. Due to a bomb drill practiced just the week before to prepare for an event from WWII, hospitals were shockingly well equipped. Unfortunately due to the severity of the burns and smoke inhalation the majority of the victims arrived at the hospital too late or did not make it through the night. Some of the burn treatments still used today were developed in response to this event, including the use of penicillin for the treatment of burn-related infections.
Investigation revealed that the club had no food safety permits, no liquor license and remodeling was done illegally. Barney was very good friends with Mayor Tobin and likely got away with illegal and shady business practices because of this. Barney’s practice of locking and hiding exit doors, as well as the remaining doors opening inwards rather than outwards, resulted in many more lives lost.
In response to this tragedy multiple states passed legislation to prevent the use of inward-opening doors and require visible exit signs above every exit. Legislation also was passed that prevented revolving doors being the only way in and out and required revolving doors to have a regular door next to it and collapse under pressure to prevent crowd crush situations. Barney was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison in 1943 but was pardoned by the mayor, who had become the governor. At his release Barney stated “I wish I’d died with the others in the fire.” He passed away from cancer nine weeks after his release from prison.
490 people in total died as a result of the fire, making this the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S history and the deadliest event in Boston’s history. Despite intensive investigation, the cause of the fire was never officially determined.
Image sources:
boston.com - “The deadliest disaster in Boston’s history happened 75 years ago. Some worry the city is forgetting.”
waylandlibrary.org - “Six Locked Doors: The Legacy of Cocoanut Grove”