129 20 2617 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/7253476c51e0848f6bdcd207def33278.jpg 2a615fd99a42c2803b63b76d2e00866c https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/bdae1db534e31ec381468bd0a1e18e91.jpg bb9afaf809e3946ae5a3ee56f1942f39 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. Mark’s U.M. Church in the French Quarter Description An account of the resource Interior & exterior of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church (shown in 2013). Community memorial service was held here on July 1, 1973. The Rev. Edward Kennedy was pastor at the time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. Mark’s UMC web site. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ad14ed7ecaab64d8fc7035cf37b6a9e9.png eb2c509d17fd5ba67ca9fba8cc3b308d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document memorial worship service in memory of the New Orleans fire victims Sunday, July 1 St. Mark’s United Methodist Church 1130 N. Rampart Street (corner of gov. nicholls) 2:00 p.m. for further information call: metropolitan community church of New Orleans 524-4425 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource July 1 Memorial Service Flyer Description An account of the resource Flyer that circulates in New Orleans announcing plans for July 1 memorial service at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Big Easy MCC, New Orleans https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/8ba80e9045413bf69bdd11a5c2006ca3.png deb81c385919ecb293f8ebec68d899af Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document June 28, 1973 AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT FROM THE RECTOR In view of the uproar caused by the Memorial Service at St. George’s on Monday night for the Rev. “Bill” Larsen and others who died in New Orleans worst fire Sunday night, I wish to point out the following: <ol><li>St. George’s is not a private club but the House of God.</li> <li>The Rector is given authority of the canons of the church to arrange services at all times.</li> <li> The group asked me for permission to hold their memorial service at St. George’s. In good conscience I could not turn them away. Do you think Jesus would have?</li> <li>Bill Larsen, a fine humble, devoted Christian and Minister of that group was trying to exercise his pastoral duty that night at the bar.</li> <li>The group asked us not to give the service any publicity and we in turn asked the press not to publicize this, but since they are always looking for stories for the public they paid scant heed to our request.</li> <li>The small chapel on Magazine Street used by this group could not begin to hold the 50 or 75 or more persons who attended the service.</li> <li>God’s Church exists to help all people, regardless of who they are or what they do.</li> <li>While there has been considerable criticism from some of our own members, and from a few outsiders, most of which has been relayed not to me but to several ladies of our parish (who are not the authority), there is a mounting number of people in the community, both clergy and lay persons, who are voicing their entire agreement that the memorial service was a very Christian thing for St. George’s to permit, and the question again comes up, “Would Jesus have barred these grief-stricken people from His Church, or would he have welcomed them?”</li> </ol>Therefore, if any considerable number of St. George’s members still feel that our church is to minister only to the select few, and not to the whole community, then I should seriously consider resigning as your Rector in the near future, so the Bishop and the Vestry can look for someone else. (signed) William P. Richardson, Jr. P.S. I love you all, even if you violently disagree with me. But remember, we must try not to be Pharisees, thinking we are better than others. At all times I try to follow what I believe to be the Lord’s Will, and the Christian attitude. Upon returning from India the last of July, I shall decide what course of action to take. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richardson Circulates Statement to Congregation Description An account of the resource In an open letter to the congregation, Richardson states pointedly his reasons for permitting the memorial service at St. George’s and offers to resign if opposition is too great. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. George’s records by Rev. Richard Easterling. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/964358068ace2fcf7a8e5b43b9c480d6.jpg f1b5902b3b0d30ec9adb3aa00a925ada Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document To the Editor: Thank you for the spring 1991 issue. It is excellent. I have a some additional information for you concerning your article, “Closeted Gay Bishop Dies of AIDS.” In 1971 I attended a summer seminar at General Theological Seminary on “Homosexuality, Women’s Liberation and Communal Living.” I returned home to St. George’s Church in New Orleans where I was rector, determined to do all in my power to support lesbians and gay men. The local Metropolitan Community Church met in our chapel for some months. Then they found their own small church. From time to time I attended their afternoon service, and I came to know their minister, Rev. Bill Larsen, quite well. He often came to see me regarding their scrambled liturgy and what to do about it. The night of June 24, 1971 some 30 or more members of the MCC group and friends were at an upstairs bar. A man who was drunk fire-bombed the stairs. The windows had iron bars over them. As a result, nearly all those there were burned to death. My phone rang at 3 a.m. telling me of this. I was grieve greatly, for included among those who burned to death was Bill Larsen, my friend. The next morning a member of the MCC called to see if they could have a memorial service that evening at St. George’s. I agreed, providing they would not make a big splash over it. The Rev. Troy Perry flew in that evening and assisted with the service. Some 80-90 persons attended. I warned the TV people not to take pictures, and asked the reporters to play it low-key. They did. Bishop Iveson B. Noland, who was later killed in a plane crash in New York, phoned me early the next morning. He said, “Bill, this is the Bishop. Have you read the morning paper?” I said, “Yes, Bishop, I have.” “Is it true that the service was at St. George’s Episcopal Church?” “Yes, Bishop, it was.” “Why didn’t they have it at their own church?” he asked. I replied, “For the simple reason their small church holds about 18 persons. Without any publicity we have over 80 present.” “What am I to say when people call my office?” I replied, “You can say anything you wish, Bishop. But do you think Jesus would have kept these people out of His church?” I heard later the Bishop had a hundred calls, and I got hate calls and letters. Only one member of our vestry supported me. Later, I was stopped by many people on the street for doing such a Christian thing. Later that week I was asked if we could have another memorial service the next Sunday afternoon at St. George’s. I had to decline for I was just leaving for a month’s trip to India to visit friends, and I knew I would have to be present for such a service. It was then that the late Bishop Finis Crutchfield offered the Rampart St. Methodist Church for that service. I am still very active in lesbian/gay affairs, though our Integrity group eventually folded. I have spoken several times before our City Council and before our Diocesan Convention regarding lesbian/gay issues, but to little avail. But I’m not giving up! Cordially, (The Rev.) William P. Richardson, Jr. New Orleans, LA Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richardson Recalls Memorial Service Backlash Description An account of the resource Richardson writes a 1991 letter to the Voice of Integrity, newsletter of the national LGBT Episcopal group, telling the story of the June 25th memorial service and its aftermath. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Voice of Integrity, Volume 1, Number 2 Summer 1991. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ec0d182f28bef90c4acb1ae0efb061e8.jpg 1fbc39516d8e5e9f063dd7ef6a7ab488 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rev. Bill Richardson of St. George’s Description An account of the resource Rev. Richardson, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, opened the doors of the church for the memorial service on the night following the fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Files of St. George's Episcopal Church, New Orleans. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/0817e6a0b832a1d10f4a68353300b10c.jpg 72d6451e0b42241955296a07b34752ef Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. George’s Episcopal Church in Uptown New Orleans Description An account of the resource A memorial service, led by the Rev. Troy Perry, was held in the sanctuary at St. George’s Episcopal Church on the night following the fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. George’s Church website. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/506347fb9c7717af9fa3fd81da265981.jpg ce4724cd70056b30eb5d19a99983c78d https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/983cba1e6cf62fb6655f43efdf7492d3.jpg ee48638585f7b5fe4b8cdc5a344e9a05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document National Memorial Fund Set Up for MCC New Orleans A national Memorial Fund has been set up to aid victims of the fire tragedy that happened in New Orleans. Arrangements are being made to bury the dead, to help physically, psychologically, and socially rehabilitative survivors. Massive quantities of blood have come but the needs are still great. An emergency memorial and relief effort has been mounted by leaders of the Gay Community all over the country in response to the June 24th UP STAIRS LOUNGE fire in New Orleans which has taken the lives of 32 women and men. The Fund which is designed to meet needed burial expenses of the dead and medical, rehabilitative and living expenses of survivors is governed by Reverends Lucian Beril, Paul Breton, John Gill and Troy Perry of New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES respectively. Also on the Board of Trustees of the National New Orleans Memorial Fund are Morris Kight of the GAY COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTER, Morty Manford of the NEW YORK GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE and Dick Michaels of the LOS ANGELES ADVOCATE. Ken Bartley will serve as treasurer, Jack Monroe as Accountant of the Fund; mssrs. Bartley and Monroe are from Los Angeles. The fire which occurred on the evening of June 24th,--a national day of celebration and pride in the Gay Community commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in which Gay clashed with police on the streets of New York City’s Greenwich Village—is believed to have been set by one or more arsonists. Within 16 minutes the fire was (Continued Next Page) extinguished by the New Orleans Fire Department. 29 women and men were dead by the time rescue workers were able to enter the second story bar. Three of the injured have since died in Charity Hospital’s new “Burn Unit.” Seven of the 15 people originally hospitalized remain in “grave,” “serious” and “critical” conditions and will require continued hospital care for anywhere from two months to a year. All will then need extensive plastic surgery on an ongoing basis. None of the seven are expected to be able to return to work before February, 1974. Because of severe burn injuries the very slow regenerative processes massive quantities of blood are needed to sustain life in the seven hospitalized survivors of the fire. Medical supervisors at New Orleans Charity Hospital have projected a need for 1800 pints of blood for the seven in the next six months. Several hundred pints of blood have already been donated as a result of a national mobilizing effort by Gay organizations in such cities as New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Monies sent to the NATIONAL NEW ORLEANS MEMORIAL FUND, c/o Los Angeles ADVOCATE, Box 74695, Los Angeles, California 90004 will be used for funeral arrangements for unclaimed and unidentifiable bodies as well as well as in assisting families of the deceased in burying their dead. The Fund will also be used in helping survivors meet prolonged medical care, hospital expenses, plastic surgery, psychological counseling and food and rent for injured as well as their dependents until the injured have re-adjusted into functioning life-styles. Numerous needs such as occupational therapy and helping injured find jobs will also be provided for. While exact needs of the NATIONAL NEW ORLEANS MEMORIAL FUND cannot be fully anticipated, it is projected a bar minimum of $50,000.00 will be required for the Fund’s mercy mission. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource National New Orleans Memorial Fund Description An account of the resource The story in the Bay Area Reporter about the initiation of this national memorial fund lays out, in some detail, the financial needs of persons in New Orleans, as well as the mechanics of who will oversee the fund and how it will operate. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bay Area Reporter, July 25, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a29682ad05ceeb0706a1106cd2d8b628.jpg 8cb718fb0deb4f7750ee3584f602e153 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Gay Leaders Plan Aid for Victims of Bar Fire Local, National Groups Launch Fund Drive by Vincent Lee Not all of the 29 killed when a flash fire swept through a French Quarter bar Sunday night were homosexuals, but the gay movement leaders assembling here are making no distinctions in their efforts to help bury the dead. The same holds true for the many injured, whom the local and national gay movements are attempting to help by launching a national campaign to defray medical costs many cannot afford, a national homosexual church leader said Tuesday. Troy Perry, founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UF-MCC), a gay religious order with 36 chapters across the nation, stressed that 13 of the injured are still hospitalized, six still in critical condition and in need of blood. Perry was one of the UFMCC clergymen who conducted a memorial service for the men and woman who died in the fire that turned the Up Stairs Lounge at 604 Iberville into an inferno in a matter of minutes. He and four other national and local homosexual movement leaders conducted a press conference Tuesday at the Marriott Hotel. The others were Morty Manford, a representative of the Gay Activists Alliance in New York; John Gill, southeastern district coordinator of the UF-MCC, Atlanta; Morris Kight, president of the Gay Community Services Center , Los Angeles, and reputed founder of the Gay Liberation Front; and Lucien Baril, newly appointed worship coordinator for the Church of New Orleans. William Larson, minister of the New Orleans church, was killed in the fire, along with some 30 percent of the church’s membership. Baril said there 30-35 members before the blaze claimed 10. He said the lounge was used at times for the church meetings because of insufficient space elsewhere. All emphasized how the tragedy showed the unity of the gay community. “We have unified over the years, but it takes a tragedy of this nature for that to be seen by the public,” said Baril. He said a social worker at Charity Hospital remarked that “in all her years of social work, she had never seen such mobilization and organization in the face of tragedy.” Kight called the fire “the worst single tragedy to befall the gay community since Nazi Germany.” Perry stressed, however that not all the lounge patrons killed or injured were homosexuals. Many were heterosexuals who came for the free beer between 5 and 7 p.m., as well as the “all-you-can-eat” food for $1, he said. The horror in Iberville followed in a matter of hours a “gay pride” demonstration by 17,000 in New York City and thousands more in other major cities of the country, said Manford. He said this celebration has been an annual occurrence since the “Stonewall Riot” in 1969 when gays clashed with New York City police at a gay bar. “That is generally recognized as the single most important incident precipitating the emergence of the Gay Liberation Movement,” he said. But the atmosphere of celebration in all parts of the country was quickly turned to horror and disbelief as the news of the Up Stairs disaster spread across the country, said Manford. Although it had not been officially confirmed Tuesday night, Preston Davis, UFMCC New Orleans organized who attended the press conference, said it was fairly certain from the survivors’ accounts that it was the UFMCC minister trapped in the window. Davis said he only missed being there because he overslept. “It was only the second time I ever missed the beer bust.” He added that from the accounts he had heard, Larson was struck on the head by a falling air conditioning unit as he struggled to get through the window bars. “He probably didn’t feel the pain of the fire,” he said. None of the men would contend that the fire was actually the work of an arsonist. “We feel it is incumbent on us to depend on the New Orleans police to decide that,” said Kight. Perry said he could not “comprehend that anyone contemplated murdering so many people.” If it was arson, Perry said he could not believe the person who started the fire ever imagined the devastating results. The all stressed that they are not in New Orleans to help solve the tragedy, but to help those who need it. Perry said the UFMCC will observe a day of mourning on Sunday and urged other churches to toll their bells. Perry said The Advocate, the most widely read publication of the gay community, is acting as the collection center for emergency fund donations, and that blood can be donated locally at the Red Cross Center or Charity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gay Leaders Mobilize Response Description An account of the resource MCC founder Troy Perry, Morris Kight of the Los Angeles Community Services Center and Morty Manford of Gay Activists Alliance New York launch national fund raising efforts to support the injured as well as the families of those who died. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, June 27, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/eac9fd8fa69e839abe091e443992a247.jpg 0e52ce13ca5043c825853d5d7644a5be Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document False Wall Responsible for Many of Fire Deaths New Orleans (UPI) Coroner Carl Rabin said today a false wall that hid windows from view in a French Quarter bar “certainly” was responsible for many of the 29 deaths in a flash fire that scorched the small lounge. The bar—the Upstairs Lounge—had burglar bars on at least one window and its fire escape did not reach the ground, according to state records. But fire fighters, who examined the lounge yesterday, said it was in compliance with the state fire code. Bodies of the 29 persons killed in the blaze Sunday were found on the opposite side of the room from the windows that may have had bars. The bodies were found on the side where a false-plywood wall hid windows that could have been used as an escape if they had been discovered sooner. The 21 persons who did escape kicked through the plywood and went through the windows. Fifteen of them were injured in the plunge to the ground, and the others stood on ledges or fire escapes until they were rescued by firemen. Authorities will were investigating the possibility of arson. Ten of the victims were members of the New Orleans chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church, a homosexual church with 47 chapters in the United States and London. A service for the 10 was held last night in St. George’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Troy Perry of Los Angeles, founder of the churches, said in a sermon the fire was deliberately started. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Another Media Perspective in Seattle Description An account of the resource Brief story in the Seattle Times addresses questions of why this tragedy occurred as well as memorial service led by Troy Perry at St. George’s Episcopal Church. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seattle Times, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/53d66b112dc3279b50c30a7e3f5997d8.jpg 8b94b649667ae7a52d80a863417e2052 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document 29 Die in New Orleans Fire Deacon in Tavern Blames Arsonist by Joseph P. Manguno New Orleans (UPI) A church deacon who attended a Sunday beer bust inside a “gay bar” on the fringe of the French Quarter said yesterday he believes an arsonist started a flash fire that killed 29 persons inside the tavern in just 16 minutes. Police searched for clues to prove it. Investigators questioned the 15 persons injured by the blaze about reports that a fight preceded the fire, and that some of the survivors smelled gasoline when the fire flashed. Fire officials said burglar bars on the windows prevented victims from escaping. The French Quarter had not had such a serious fire since blazes in 1788 and 1794 practically destroyed the famed district. “Someone threw something in there,” said Courtney Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community Church of New Orleans. He said there was no explosion but he believes an arsonist poured gasoline in a stairwell and set it afire. “The fire came up the stairs fast. There was an immense smoke in the room immediately,” said Craighead who fled to safety out a rear exit. “The Detective Bureau is investigating witnesses, looking into the possibility of arson,” said Frank Hayward, a police department spokesman. Of the 29 victims, only one was a woman. The others died—body stacked upon body—in a tavern called “The Upstairs,” a second floor spot which had some windows covered with boards and bars. “It was a gay bar—you know, homosexual, very gay,” said Antoinette Evelyn Harris, owner of a tavern next door. “Every Sunday they have this beer bust with all the beer you can drink for a dollar.” Witnesses said two men were thrown out of the bar shortly before the fire started—one for fighting, the other for being a nuisance. “There were a couple of guys quarreling at the top of the stairs,” said William White, 18, of Pineville, La., who was headed to the party with a friend. “I don’t like no kind of fights, so we left. We weren’t more than a block away when I looked back. The whole place was lit up by fire.” The tavern is divided into three sections—a piano bar, a dance room and a place where plays and other activities are presented. The fire broke out in the piano bar. In the front, the building’s windows were covered by burglar bars and a large wooden panel. Both prevented victims from escaping and fire officials said the boarded windows probably violated the city’s fire code. “We are checking several reports that some people smelled something like gasoline,” said William J. McCrossen, New Orleans fire superintendent. Of the 15 persons injured when they jumped to the street to escape the inferno, six remained in serious condition at Charity Hospital. The tavern itself was a charred ruin. “They were just piled up—people in a mass. One falls, the another falls…it’s just a mass of death,” said Dr. Carl H. Rabin, Orleans Parish coroner, describing the scene. The blaze was reported at 7:56 p.m. Sunday and brought under control by firemen 16 minutes later. All but a few of the 29 victims were clustered at the base of boarded up windows on one side of the bar. A bathroom and the only exit were located on the other side of the room. Some of the dead were found piled there. Officials at the Coroner’s Office said identifying the victims would be difficult because they were burned so badly. Officials said it was the worst fire disaster in New Orleans’ modern history. It was the latest in the series of disastrous blazes in the city—the last of which was at the Rault Center , a downtown high-rise complex. Six persons were killed there, including three who jumped to their deaths. Several persons jumped to safety in Sunday’s fire. “They didn’t move when they hit,” a witness said. “One guy weight about 200 pounds and he was still on fire when he hit the street.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Boston Story Highlights Homosexual Angle Description An account of the resource The coverage in the Boston Herald-American illustrates the sensationalizing aspects of media coverage of gays at this time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Boston Herald-American, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/28133c5c9ede9c1440b8566ef94f133a.jpg 5b8c10baa383adf37d91d633be761610 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Probers Scrutinize Swiftness of Blaze The suspicious speed of a fire that killed 29 persons in a Sunday night “beer bust” in a French Quarter bar was under close investigation today. For the 29 trapped in the Upstairs lounge, located on the second floor of a three-story building, the end was like a quick, searing blast from a blow torch. Firemen said the fire lasted 16 minutes. It consumed the interior of the bar but did little serious structural damage to the old stone and brick building. Courtney Craighead, a survivor, said he believes somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway and lit it. “The first came up the stairs fast,” he said. “There was an immense smoke in the room immediately.” Some leap Fire Supt. William McCrossen said homicide investigators and the state fire marshal would take a careful look at reports that “some people smelled gasoline just before the fire.” However, he cautioned, such reports were unconfirmed. Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community church, said he got out by a rear exit, following a bartender who led about 20 men to safety. Most others in the bar were trapped. Those who lived had to leap for their lives. “There’s nothing like seeing human fireballs break through a window and jump—and never a word from them, not a scream, not a groan, nothing,” said a shaken young man who lives in a second-floor apartment directly across the narrow street. The young man, who declined to identify himself, said he was looking out his window because of the insistent honking of a white auto which had paused in the street by the Upstairs stairway entrance. He said two men dashed down the stairs and got into the car. Moments later, he said, fire erupted in the lounge and he watched horrified as several men, hair and clothing already aflame, smashed window glass with their shoes and scrambled out onto the fire escape landing. From there they had to jump; the old fire escape on that side of the building had no ladder to the street. “It was the quickest fire I ever heard of,” said Louis Uhlich, a retired soldier who lived was in a bar next door to the stairway of the Upstairs when it started. “ I was on my first beer when this woman ran in and yelled, “Come see, come see!” Uhlich added. “I ran out and two or three of the steps were on fire.” “I popped back into the bar and told the barmaid, call the fire department. By the time I got back outside it sounded like firecrackers going off in there. That stairway was gone.” Gay group to mourn fire victims Gay Liberation Movement leaders are planning a day of mourning Sunday for “our dead brothers and sisters” who died in a fire at a crowded French Quarter bar. Morris Kight, Gay Liberation Movement founder, and the Rev. Troy Perry, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church for homosexuals, announced plans Monday for the day of mourning. Police said 29 persons died in a second-floor fire at the Up Stairs Lounge Sunday night. Officers said the bar was a known gathering place for homosexuals. Kight said his office in Los Angeles had suspended other operations and was organizing gay leaders across the country to make the catastrophe here. William Larson, interim pastor of a local gay church, has been identified by witnesses as one of the victims of the blaze. One survivor, Linn Quinton, said he last saw the pastor caught in the burglar bars across the front window, screaming, “Oh, God, no!” to the skies as he burned to death. Other members of his church remember him as a dedicated pastor, who brought new members to the newly founded Metropolitan Community Church, located in a converted old home here. “We’ve been a small, struggling congregation since we were founded here in May 1971,” said one church deacon.” “Since Brother Larson took over as interim pastor, we’ve been a thriving, promising congregation,” he said. “He believed in freedom and love,” said the deacon. “He wanted the right of individuals to make their own choice—without harm to anyone.” When the fire struck, Larson was sitting at a table with a party of eight friends, two of whom died in the fire. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oregonian Covers for Second Day Description An account of the resource The Oregonian picks up wire stories about the fire on the following day also. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Oregonian, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/854ac71903004506694fd4c40d456f35.jpg 3ddfcc8b6038ebf390103b07b37a98a8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Fire leaves ‘mass of dead’ in bar French Quarter revelers trapped New Orleans (AP)—A flash fire swept through a second story bar in the French Quarter Sunday night, and authorities said 29 persons died. Several persons leaped from the building in flames. Fifteen persons were injured. The coroner’s office said early Monday that there was confusion over the exact number of dead, but they could confirm only 29 deaths. Bodies lay stacked under a burned piano and jammed against three windows. One man’s body was kneeling beside a window, with one foot outside. An arm dangled outside another window with a six-inch piece of unburned green sports coat around the wrist. Fifteen persons were known injured. “We were standing around the piano and I looked up and saw the door was on fire,” said Laurell Quinton, 25, of Houston, Tex. “The place just went up. Everyone panicked and started running for the windows. I jumped to the window in the left corner, opened it, swung out, grabbed a pipe and slid down. “I turned around and broke a couple of other people’s falls, but there were one or two who just wouldn’t jump. “I know almost everyone in that bar. They were my friends.” Two men apparently died in the jump, police said. A third man, described as weighing more than 200 pounds, leaped from a window with his clothes ablaze. Firemen dragged him across the street and put him in an ambulance. After the fire, the scene inside was ghastly, with bodies literally stacked on top of each other. Because of the mass, officials trouble determining the number of dead. Bert Barere, an assistant Orleans Parish coroner, said he had counted 28 bodies. Coroner Carl Rabin said he toured the burned ruins of the bar and had been unable earlier to determine the exact numbers of dead. Rabin said, “They were just piled up. People in a mass. One falls then another falls. It’s just a mass of death. It’s sickening.” Some apparently escaped down a fire escape but Quinton said he didn’t know anything about the fire door. “The small people seemed to get through the window, but the bigger people just couldn’t get out. Dave Larsen, a pastor at Metropolitan Community Church, got caught in the window and I just watched him burn” Quinton said. “He had one arm out and I heard him scream ‘Oh, God, no!’ In the next window beside him three people burned to death while I could only watch.” The bar as popular on Sundays, offering “all the food and beer you can drink for $2.” A bartender a block away said, “There was just a bit of smoke, then all of a sudden flames shot out of all of the windows. People started jumping out and flames were shooting 20 feet high. “One man was hanging out a window and screaming, ‘Let me jump! Let me jump!’ to a crowd below. We knew there had to be at least two dead because they were yelling and screaming behind the window and they never came out.” Fire Supt. William McCrossan said early Monday that the cause of the fire had still not been determined. When asked about reports that witnesses had told firemen an angry patron started the fire, McCrossan replied that none of his men had talked to anyone who claimed to have seen who started the fire. “There is absolutely no foundation as to the cause of this fire,” he said. “Anyone who says anything differently is only guessing.” McCrossan said the fire was under control 16 minutes after the first alarm sounded. City fire headquarters is only three blocks away. The blaze was in a place called “The Upstairs,” one block off Canal Street and across the street from the new 40-story Marriott Hotel. McCrossan said, “It could be one of the worst fires in the city history in term of people killed. “It burned so badly in here it’s hard to tell what happened.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Next Day Report in West Coast Newspaper Description An account of the resource The wire service story about the Upstairs Lounge fire is picked up by The Oregonian, largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Oregonian, June 25, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/64298ca28a5132c103a5a88cde489520.jpg 434362d3e1234d6216614a65c3d8b2ea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cvvRJNQolYM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource TV News Reports Description An account of the resource This archived report from the CBS Evening News is followed by an NBC news bulletin. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CBS News & NBC News https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9ff64b79799decaf0ada9a490daf9dc4.jpg 7be0df0626180fad412330ef67a484ee Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Six More Victims of Fire Identified, Coroner Says Dr. Carl Rabin, the Orleans Parish Coroner, issued the names Thursday of six more victims of Sunday’s French Quarter bar fire which killed 29 persons. Twenty-one of those are now positively identified, he said. Three more have only been tentatively identified. Dr. Rabin said “three or four identities” may be positively established Friday. As for the other victims, he said, “It’s very positive they may never be identified.” He said ages, residences and birthplaces of those just identified are still unavailable in most cases. Their names are: Joe Adams; Adam R. Fontenot; Horace Getchell; Glenn R. Green, age 32; Robert K. Lumpkin, 29, of 710 Magazine; and Dr. Perry Waters. Identifications of the following are still only tentative: George Mitchell, Guy Anderson, and Norman Laverge. A list of other victims already positively identified follows (in some cases a New Orleans street address is available, in others only a birthplace): James Curtis Warren, 26, of Pensacola, Fla. Eddie Hosea Warren, 25, of Pensacola, Fla. Inez Warren, 60, of Monroeville, Ala. Louis Horace Broussard, 26, of Kaplan, La. Donald Walter Dunbar, 21, of Tampa, Fla. Leon Richard Maples, 31, of Jacksonville, Fla. John F. Gording, 39, of New Orleans Joe William Bailey, 29, of Talapopsa County, Ala. George Steven Matyi, 27, of 130 Mikal St., Slidell Gerald Gordon, 37, of Cornersville, Tenn. William R. Larson, 47, of Kresge, Ky. Douglas Williams, 20, of Waggaman Clarence Joseph McCloskey, 48, of 816 Gayoso Kenneth P. Harrington, 48, of 1035 St. Peter Street and David Gary In another development, the director of the blood bank at Charity Hospital Thursday appealed for blood donations for fire victims still in the hospital. Dr. David de Jongh also discounted reports that blood donations for the victims were going slowly because they were connected with the lounge, frequented by homosexuals. He said he is pleased with the community’s response to the need for blood but that additional donations are needed. Another report—that some victims’ families refused to claim certain bodies because they were ashamed to—was denied by the coroner’s office. A spokesman said various funeral homes contacted the coroner’s office for “almost all” victims thus far identified. And the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church movement, said his organization has started a memorial funds to assist families financially unable to bury victims of the blaze. He said families of our victims have told him they are without funds to make funeral arrangements for their dead. The Rev. Mr. Perry said those victims’ funeral arrangements will be handled by his group and that they will be buried in New Orleans. He said the fund, which has already collected some donations, will be administered by the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. The Rev. Mr. Perry said the group’s only problem has been locating a church in which to conduct memorial services for the dead on Sunday. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Perry Helps Maintain Media Visibility Description An account of the resource Five days after the fire, the New Orleans newspaper publishes a short article listing names of persons killed along with statements from Rev. Troy Perry responding to the tragedy. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <div style="text-align:left;">The Times-Picayune, June 29, 1973.</div> https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/6aed76912b94dcffb96cdfdfcfc3d00c.jpg 5e4a7d94948e55df023f5a45d56377f6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Three Patients Hospitalized in New Burn Unit in N.O. Three victims of Sunday night’s tragic fire have been hospitalized in the new burn unit at Charity Hospital, a facility which wasn’t scheduled to be opened for several weeks. Five other persons were discharged after treatment, and the remaining seven persons injured were transferred to other hospitals, mostly at the request of families. Almost all those still hospitalized suffered serious burns escaping a flash fire in the Up Stairs Lounge and the apartments above it. Twenty-nine others were trapped in the second-story bar and died. Dr. Isidore A. Brickman, Charity Director, ordered the new unit opened ahead of time for Luther Boggs, Larry Stratton, and Jim Hambrick, all of whom suffered burns over nearly half their body. They are listed in serious condition, but show signs of improving. The Burn Unit is considered to be one of the best-equipped in the nation, and certainly in the deep South. Because of the premature opening, Charity officials had to scramble to line up personnel to work in the antiseptically clean unit. A cadre of volunteer medical students, nursing students and registered nurses came forward to be the first to work in the unit. A Charity spokesman said the burn unit would be just the first step for the first three patients. If they survived they face months of recuperation, the prospect of plastic surgery or skin grafts, and thousands of hours of therapy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Local Coverage Diminishing Description An account of the resource Only four days after the fire, one local newspaper prints a short article about special arrangements for treating some survivors. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Morning Advocate, June 28, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1b505f548430f87c34d81eed7a360366.jpg 6057862b6a2ec67b3e0d452f11d4df8d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document [picture caption] Gay Liberation movement leaders Rev. Troy Perry, left, and Morris Kight, both of Los Angeles, Calif., announced a day of mourning for the 29 persons who died in a fire Sunday in the French Quarter bar (background, center) behind them. The news conference, held on a hotel sun deck overlooking the scene, also prompted a request from Kight, of the L.A. Gay Community Service Center, for blood donations for the dozen or more survivors. Perry said a memorial chapel is planned for the victims. Fire Probe Is Said Not Conclusive. Crime lab investigators have completed probing evidence taken from the French Quarter bar in which 29 persons died, but a spokesman Wednesday termed the evidence “inconclusive.” A secret report on the fire will be sent to the Fire Protection Division and the State Fire Marshal later in the day, the spokesman added. He said the report would not be made public. “But we are not sufficiently convinced—strictly from our findings here—that this is arson, “said Sgt. Frank Hayward, police information officer. He stressed that a police investigation is continuing, based upon the assumption that arsonists set the fire Sunday night in the Up Stairs Lounge, just around the corner from the 42-story Marriott. Fire Supt. William J. McCrossen said, “We are definitely investigating the strong possibility of arson, but no one can say at this point that it was arson.” Timothy A. Driscoll, assistant state fire marshal, said he Continued on page 6-A, Col. 4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource National Gay Leaders Speak Out Description An account of the resource Report of news conference by the Rev. Troy Perry of national MCC and Morris Kight from the LA Gay Community Services Center, who come to New Orleans to provide support for victims, families and friends. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The State-Times (Advocate), June 27, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3d77154c6d3c527602dfe1374da24fbb.jpg bbe1f71b7a2954b8a1ca774d70883a1e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Church Slates Mourning for Victims of N.O. Fire by Eric Newhouse Morris Kight, Gay Liberation Movement founder, and the Rev. Troy Perry, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church for homosexuals have declared next Sunday a day of mourning for ”our dead brothers and sisters.” Police said 29 persons died in a second-floor bar here Sunday night, many of them trapped behind burglar bars. Kight confirmed the Up Stairs Lounge was a gay bar, and said his office in Los Angeles had suspended other operations and was organizing gay leaders across the country to help in the catastrophe here. One of those killed was William Larson, interim pastor of a local gay church. Not On Lists Larson does not appear on the official police casualty lists, but several witnesses, including Linn Quinton, said the pastor was last seen caught in the burglar bars across the front window, screaming “Oh, God, no!” to the skies as he burned to death. Other members of his church remember him as a dedicated pastor who brought new members to the newly founded Metropolitan Community Church, located in a converted small home here. “We’ve been a small, struggling congregation since we were founded here in May 1971,” said a church deacon who asked not to be identified. “Since Brother Larson took over as interim pastor, we’ve been a thriving, promising congregation” he said. His creed was innocent. Believed in Love “He believed in freedom and love” said the deacon. “He wanted the right of individuals to make their own choice—without any harm to anyone.” When the fire struck, Larson was sitting at a table with a party of eight friends—two others perished with him. Members of the church credit the bartender, Buddy Rasmussen, with saving their lives by trying to lead them out through a rear door as flames shot through the room. “Someone tried to go out the front door and the stairwell was on fire,” he said. “Flames raced in and across the ceiling. Buddy came running across the room, shouting ‘Follow me!’ “We had to go out a back door, onto a roof and down the stairs,” he said. “I’m sure few other people knew about it.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paper Highlights Gay Church Connection Description An account of the resource The Morning Advocate, on the second morning after, reports presence of national gay leaders Kight and Perry and focuses on MCC interim pastor killed in fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Morning Advocate, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f16ff36ce711abd48fbb83252bd51736.jpg b0eaf0656f7b9025d6e5a31834b0c980 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5611d97f7aa21ae87745c0665f887ba7.jpg a128f3ff453eee9b3003a4164700e08a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document N.O. Lounge Fire Kills 29 Persons The 29 charred bodies of victims killed in a cocktail lounge fire were stacked in the city morgue today, and officials said identification was difficult because most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. The brief, intense fire, which swept through a Sunday night beer bust at the Up Stairs Lounge in the French Quarter, trapped most of the victims behind burglar bars. A police official, calling the lounge a homosexual bar, said identification was made even more difficult because some of the men could have been carrying false identification. Fifteen men, some of whom got to the fire escape and leaped to the sidewalk one story below, were injured, and six remained in serious condition today. Hospital officials said they feared some would die. Because of the almost unbelievable speed of the blaze, officials said they were checking out the possibility of arson. “There are hints of a fire bombing,” said Chief of Detectives Henry M. Morris, “but no evidence has turned up to support it. Every story we get conflicts with every other story.” He said no arrests were anticipated immediately. One survivor said he believed somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway to the lounge and lit it. When the fire broke out, the bar, known locally as a hangout for homosexuals was packed. Sunday was its biggest day, featuring a 5 to 7 cocktail hour with all you could eat and drink for $2, followed by partying until the wee hours. Coroner’s assistants said they would have to check dental records to get identification for some of the charred bodies. Some small persons managed to escape by squeezing through the burglar bars on the lounge’s front windows and then leaping to the street. Others left the building by smashing a side window and climbed onto a fire escape. A few made their way to another fire escape in the rear. The bodies of those who did not make it lay jammed like logs against the front windows, with four huddled under a charred grand piano. Some of the injured apparently were hurt in jumping to the street. Authorities said there was only one woman among the dead. Fire headquarters is but three blocks away. Units were on the scene in two minutes, said Supt. William McCressen. The fire was out 16 minutes later. Adolph Medina, 32, of San Antonio, Tex., said flames engulfed the bar in a short, panicridden moment after the fire broke out on the front stairway. He said, “I was panicked about jumping but two guys urged me to jump and I was small enough…some big guy on the ground caught me, and…kept looking back but my friend never got out.” Linn Quinton, 25, of Houston, Tex., said, “The place just went up. Everyone panicked and started running for the windows. I jumped to the window in the left corner, opened it, swung out, grabbed a pipe and slid down.” “I turned around and broke a couple of other people’s falls, but there were one or two who just wouldn’t jump.” Quinton said, “The bigger people just couldn’t get out.” “Bill Larsen, a pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church, got caught in the window, and I just watched him burn. He had one arm out, and I heard him scream, ‘O God! No!’” “In the next window beside him, three people burned to death while I could only watch.” The bar was at the corner of Chartres and Iberville, one block off Canal Street, and across the street from the back entrance to the Marriott Hotel. Marriott security guard Kenneth Meynard said, “It went up real quick. Second floor, flames were already at (Continued on Page A-4, Col. 7) N.O. Lounge (Continued From Page One) the windows when people started jumping.” Police said the floor above the fire-gutted bar included three single-room apartments that were empty at the time. A bar downstairs and one next door were damaged but there apparently were no injuries in them, police said. Hundreds of persons swarmed from the busy Quarter area to watch firemen remove the bodies, lowering them one at a time with snorkel truck. A bartender set up a bar on the sidewalk across the street and did a brisk business with the spectators. French Quarter Fire Is Probed Quick Searing Blast The suspicious speed of a fire that killed 29 people at a Sunday night “beer bust” in a French Quarter bar was under close investigation today. For the 29 that death found trapped in Up Stairs Lounge, located on the second floor of a three-story building, the end was alike a quick, searing blast from a blow torch. Firemen said the fire lasted about 16 minutes. It consumed the interior of the bar but apparently did little serious structural damage to the old stone and brick building. Courtney Craighead, a survivor, said he believes somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway and lit it. “The fire came up the stairs fast,” he said. “There was an immense smoke in the room immediately.” Fire Supt. William McCrossen said homicide investigators and the state fire marshal would take a careful look at reports that “some people smelled gasoline just before the fire.” However, he cautioned, such reports were unconfirmed. Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community church, said he got out by a rear exit, following a bartender who led about 20 men to safety. Most others in the bar were trapped. Those who lived had to leap for their lives. “There’s nothing like seeing human fireballs break through a window and jump –and never a word from them, not a scream, not a groan, nothing,” said a shaken young man who lives in a second-floor apartment directly across the narrow street. The young man, who declined to identify himself, said he was looking out his window because of the insistent honking of a white auto which had paused in the street by the Up Stairs stairway entrance. He said two men dashed down the stairs and into the car. Moments later, he said, fire erupted in the lounge and he watched horrified as several men, hair and clothing already aflame, smashed window with their shoes and scrambled out onto the fire escape landing. From there they had to jump; the old fire escape on that side of the building had no ladder to the street. “It was the quickest fire I ever heard of,” said Louis Uhlich, a retired soldier who was in a bar next door to the stairway of the Up Stairs when it started. “I was on my first beer when this woman ran in and yelled, ‘Come see! Come see!’” Uhlich added. “I ran out and two or three of the steps were on fire.” “I popped back into the bar and told the barmaid, call the Fire Department. By the time I got back outside it sounded like firecrackers going off in there. That stairway was gone.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource More Next-Day Coverage Description An account of the resource This edition of the The State-Times (Advocate) from Baton Rouge mixes even more homophobic subtext into its reporting. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The State-Times (Advocate), Monday afternoon, June 25, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3ce592e8e3fe81e9322e35940345b729.jpg efd359277daba6b68b9cbed8bb7b93ab Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Fire Toll Worst Ever for Orleans. Brief Fire Fatal to 29 in Quarter by Ed Tunstall. As French Quarter bars go, it wasn’t much, a hangout on a street lined with little bars. But as a blazing deathtrap it will rank as the worst in New Orleans history. The first which claimed 29 lives at the Up Stairs Lounge lasted less than 20 minutes. But Fire Supt. William J. McCrossen said it was the worst he had seen in 31 years in “terms of human life.” The second-story bar was in a building just a block from the Mardi Gras-famed Canal Street and sandwiched between the 42-story swanky Marriott Hotel and the French Quarter Holiday Inn, another new highrise. 87 Firemen Respond. Eighty-seven firefighters and 21 pieces of firefighting apparatus turned out to combat the blaze. A fire in the centuries-old French Quarter brings the fire department on the run as quickly as possible. Officials allowed newsmen up to the second floor after making sure that the building was secure. They saw bodies piled against windows on which bars had been placed as protection against burglars. The head and shoulder of one man poked through the window, as far as the burglar-preventing bars would allow. The rest of his body was charred. At the next window, a man died in a kneeling position with one foot poked through the window. Three or four bodies were piled atop his. “The place was a complete inferno when my men got there just two minutes after the alarm was sounded,” said McCrossen. McCrossen said he thought the 29 victims did not burn to death. “’The tiger,’” as he called the fire, never got to them while they were still alive. He said he thought all died from breathing “superheated gas and I’m talking about 180 degrees. That will knock you unconscious with just a couple of whiffs.” Bodies Removed. After police and firemen secured the burned-out room, the long task of removing the bodies began. It took more than three hours as hundreds of curious spectators lined the streets. A fire engine with a 65-foot lift arm kept raising and lowering its basket. Bodies in black rubber and plastic sacks were loaded into it to be lowered to the street. On the sidewalk below stood firemen with rolling cars to take the bodies to nearby ambulances. Roman Catholic priests quietly administered the last sacrament of the church. A young man, no more than 18 or 19, stood on the corner with tears streaming down his cheeks. “Sure I knew them, they were all my friends,” he said. Barred Windows Prevented Victims From Fleeing Fire. Burglar-proof bars over second floor windows prevented many of the 29 victims of the Sunday night’s French Quarter fire from jumping to safety. “I was small enough so I could get out,” said Adolph Medina, who had been standing at the fire at the Upstairs Lounge when the fire broke out. “I didn’t hear anyone shouting, but I felt the excitement and turned around to see the flames,” said Medina, 32, of San Antonio, Tex., as he stood in Charity Hospital awaiting treatment. Couldn’t Help. “And all I could do was stand there.” “My friend started toward the door, but it was blocked, so he turned back and gave me a push toward window,” said Medina, a slightly-built wig saloon manager. “I was panicked about jumping, but two guys urged me to jump and I was small enough so I could get out,” he said. “Some big guy on the ground caught me and I kept looking back, but my friend never got out.” “I loved him.” Many others died against the windows, including two bodies which slumped for hours at the window’s edge, one with the sleeve of a green sports coat unburned on a wrist, and the other, naked except for an undamaged brown workman’s shoe. “Four persons died in front of my eyes tonight,” said Linn Quinton, also awaiting treatment at Charity. “I was pleading and pleading with them, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t jump. The bigger people just couldn’t get out. Bill Larson, a pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church, got caught in the window and I just watched him burn. “He had one arm out, and I heard him scream, ‘Oh, God, no.’ And in the next window, three people burned and I could just watch.” Quinton, 25, of Houston, had been at the back of the bar when someone screamed ‘fire’ and he jumped for a nearby window, swung out of it, slid down a pipe and hit the street. Back Fire Escape. Others found a back fire escape. “I went through a back door with several others, ran through a theater where we used to produce plays and went down a fire escape to the street,” said a young man, who would not identify himself. But Quinton said he knew of no back fire escape—nor did most of the others. Officials at Charity Hospital said 15 persons were being treated for second and third degree burns early Monday morning. But the handful of lucky ones, who had escaped the tragedy with only lacerations and minor burns, sat in a hospital hallway discussing the friends they knew were trapped in the building. “I’ll tell you something,” said Quinton, “I’ll never go into a second floor bar again.” 13 of Dead Tentatively Identified. Working with scraps of charred drivers’ licenses and pieces of melted jewelry, police have tentatively identified 13 of the victims of Sunday night’s fire which killed 29. Chief of Detectives Henry M. Morris said the identities probably will not be confirmed until dental charts are obtained for the coroner’s office. “We don’t even have addresses on these people,” said Morris. Normal police policy is to withhold identities until they are confirmed, a police spokesman said. But since dental records will have to be mailed from all over the country, the spokesman said, police are departing from policy this time. Tentatively identified as victims of the fire were Leon Maples, Louis Broussard, John Goldring, Donald Dunbar, George Mitchell, Clarence McCloskey, Joe Bailey, Guy Anderson, David S. Gary, Norman Lavergne, Kenneth Harrington and Jerry Gordon. The body of one woman lay among the 29 victims in the morgue. She was identified as Inez Warren. “We don’t even know if these papers belonged to the people we found them on,” Morris said. “We’ve had calls from all over the country saying that friends or relatives of theirs hung out in that bar,” said a spokesman in the police information office. “All we can tell them is to get hold of a dental chart and mail it to us.” Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition in the intense heat of the 20-minute blaze, the spokesman said. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Next Day in Baton Rouge Paper Description An account of the resource The next-afternoon coverage in The State-Times, published in Baton Rouge, includes undercurrents of aversion to homosexuality. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The State-Times (Advocate), Baton Rouge, La., June 25, 1973 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/507333d73b7b697a14b3263825a4122d.jpg f6e214362fdd2e1d9ab9a9ced290e552 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2234f1a615d4547aaae8182a28c4dd95.jpg cf30be631bfe61358e074875ef62f9f6 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/185407c830b9dad82ce149020a17b452.jpg d7208eb99d03c04f8fb4319e55a7c869 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document 29 Killed in Quarter Blaze. Arson Possibility Is Raised by John LaPlace and Ed Anderson At least 29 people were killed and 15 others injured—six seriously—when a flash fire swept through a three-story building housing three bars and some apartments in the 100 block of Chartres Street Sunday night. The dead were either killed in the blaze or were mangled in the chaos to escape the searing flames which destroyed the second and third floors of the building. New Orleans Fire Department Supt. William McCrossen called the holocaust “certainly as far as the death toll goes, one of the worst in the history of New Orleans.” Police were investigating reports of a firebombing at the Upstairs, 604 Iberville, one of the three bars housed in the building at the intersection of Iberville and Chartres Streets. A man allegedly was being questioned in connection with the incident shortly after the fire was placed under control. Witnesses at the scene said the man being questioned allegedly was ejected from the Upstairs Bar shortly before the fire broke out. A security guard at the Marriott Hotel—across the street from the building—said he heard a hotel guest wanted to burn down the Jimani Bar, 141 Chartres St., another part of the building involved in the blaze. The other bar located in the building was La Normandie Bar, 139 Chartres St. Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Carl Rabin, who was at the scene, said, “It looked like all the people tried to get to the windows facing Chartres Street…it was a mass death. “Some of them were burned to the bone…It looked like mass hysteria…A mass of dead people.” Scene “Sickening” Inside the building Rabin said the scene was “sickening.” He added, “They were just piled up. People in a mass…one falls, then another falls…It’s just a mass of death.” The names of the dead were not immediately available. Firemen and police, as well as rescue workers, toiled into the night in the eerie shadow of klieg lights to remove bodies from the building. A mass of bodies was found Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 3, Col. 3 Bar Fire Toll is High Continued from Page 1 clumped together in the stairwel of the Upstairs. Arms dangled from the second floor windows; some bodies just hung limply—but scorched—from portals in the building in full view of spectators. McCrossen said the immediate cause of fire was undetermined but was being placed under investigation by the NOFD’s Fire Prevention Bureau. Arson Possibility However, one eyewitnesses at the scene said arson was a definite possibility. A spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department said that “35 to 40 persons” were on the second floor of the complex when the fire broke out at a party that was supposedly going on at the time. The fire broke out at 7:56 p.m. and was declared under control just 16 minutes later—at 8:12 p.m. However, the death toll was high and may go higher when authorities are finished shifting through the carnage. The incident brought to mind the Rault Center fire of last Nov. 29 in which four women leaped to their death from the 13th floor of the building during the noon lunch hour in order to escape the searing flames. McCrossen said that when he was in the building there were “several…many” bodies still waiting to be pulled out. The fire chief call the blaze “a rapid-moving fire” which destroyed the second floor where most of the persons were situated when the blaze broke out. Those injured in successful attempts to jump from the flaming structure were taken to Charity Hospital. Many of those who were killed died when they tried to jump from the building or from the mad chaos which broke out inside the bars. Seen from Street The bodies of some of the jumpers were visible from the street. Four were spotted on a fire escape on the Iberville Street side of the structure; six others were lying near the Chartres Street side. Several bodies were huddled inside the building, all trying to get out at one time. The body of one victim was found hanging out of the second floor window over the Jimani Bar. He was killed when a window fell on him as he tried to escape the inferno. Fire trucks from the Central Fire Station—located about three blocks from the scene as well as other parts of the city responded to the alarm, blocking streets in the immediate area to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. McCrossen said 87 men—manning a total of 13 engines, three hook and ladder units and five special units—fought the brief but deadly blaze. The second and third floor windows of the complex were damaged with the first floor of the building sustaining water damage. Linn Quinton, a patron of the Jimani Bar when the fire broke out, described the scene: “We were standing by the piano and I looked up and saw the door was on fire. And the place went up.” He added, “Everyone panicked and started running for the windows. I jumped to the window in the left corner, opened it, swung out, grabbed a pipe and slid down.” “I turned around and broke a couple other people’s falls but there were one or two who wouldn’t jump. I knew almost everyone in that bar. They were my friends.” Two men apparently were killed instantly when they jumped from the building. A third—weighing more than 200 pounds--leaped from the window with his clothes ablaze. Quinton added: “The small people seemed to get through the window but the bigger people just couldn’t get out. Dave Larsen, a pastor at Metropolitan Community Church, got caught in the window and I just watched him burn. “He had one arm out and I heard him scream, ‘Oh, God no!’ In the next window beside him three people burned to death while I could only watch.” There were some reports that the windows on the second and third floors of the building were nailed shut. A bartender a block away from the scene who identified himself only as Bill, said: “There was just a bit of smoke, then all of a sudden flames just shot out of all the windows. People started jumping out and flames were shooting 20 feet high. “One man was hanging out a window screaming: ‘Let me jump! Let me jump! to the crowd below. We knew there has to be at least two dead, because they were yelling and screaming behind the window and they never came out.” Injured Persons’ Names Are Listed The following is a list of the 15 persons injured—six seriously—in the fire which swept through three bars in a building at Chartres and Iberville Streets. The injured, their conditions, and where they are being treated include: --Michael Scarborough, 27; West Jefferson General Hospital; serious condition. --Sidney Estinache, 50; Charity Hospital; serious condition. --Luther Boggs, 47; Charity Hospital; serious condition. --Eddie Jillis, 52; Veterans Administration Hospital; serious condition. --Larry Stalton, 25; Charity Hospital; serious condition. --Jim Hembrick, 45; Charity Hospital; serious condition. --Fred Sharehwa, 22; Charity Hospital; fair condition. --Eugene Thomas, 42; Charity Hospital; fair condition. --Jean Gosnell, 36; U.S. Public Health Service Hospital; fair condition. --Roger Dunn, 36; Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. --Adolph Medina, 32; Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. --Bob Vann; Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. --Francis Dufrene, 21; Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. --Phillip Bird; Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. --Linn Quintonn, 25 Charity Hospital; ambulatory condition. Blood, Moans: Charity Scene: Med Teams Race Time Against Confusion by Clarence DuBos A nurse’s aide mopped blood off the floor while an intern drew more from the arm of a scorched patient. Doctors in tennis shoes cut dead skin off the chest of a middle-aged man who moaned steadily while he was rocking on his side. More ambulances arriving with more stretchers bearing more cut and burned victims—that was the scene at the Accident Emergency room of Charity Hospital well into Sunday night. A fire flashed through a building housing three French Quarter bars several hours earlier on the corner of Iberville and Chartres Sts. Outside in the visiting area friends and family waited, with questions, prayers, and scattered bits of information. Confusion seemed to reign, yet tightly woven into the mesh of helter-skelter was a delicate pattern—a pattern of doctors and nurses racing against time to save the lives of fifteen victims whose injuries ranged from broken fingers to multiple fractures and third degree burns. Nurses divided themselves into teams. Some gathered blood. Others tried to get names from those who could talk, and still others checked for vital signs of life. Once every few minutes a doctor or nurse went out into the main hallway, where other patients from “less important” accidents patiently waited for treatment. One victim, who was able to move about somewhat freely and talk, asked for assistance in making a telephone call. His fingers were burned too badly to take the nickel out of his pocket and dial the numbers. Wide-eyed at the floor, he continued: “Listen…David? I’ve had sort of an accident. Yes, I’m at Charity Hospital. Yes, please come quick. Please come..I hurt…a fire. Tears ran freely down his cheeks. He slowly hung the receiver up and walked back into the Emergency Room. He couldn’t have been more than 19, and at five feet, seven inches tall, he made the sign of Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 2, Col 3 Charity Teams Aid Victims Continued from Page 1 the cross as he explained how his slight build saved his life. “I was on the second floor of the Upstairs,” he said, “all of a sudden there was a noise , and when I turned to the door I could see nothing but flames.” “Naturally, everybody panicked. They ran to the windows. My God, I’m so lucky I was the first one out. But it was terrible. There were steel bars on the windows and no one could get through!” He began to sob again. “My best friend was up on the third floor and I haven’t heard from him or seen him yet!” He slowly seemed to be gathering his wits again. Shaking his head slowly and looking “You see how slim I am. I was first to get to the window, and thank God…thank God I was able to get out. But the others..they…” “I got out the window, hung by my hands on the bars, and dropped to the ground (from the second floor).” He reentered the Emergency Room asking if anyone could X-ray his hand. Special guards tried to keep other patients in the hall and curious bystanders away from the vital entrances, where a steady stream of doctors, nurses and a few patients who could walk poured in and out, in and out, in and out. The race was on. Two priests entered the room and tried to comfort victims. A small child with a patch and a tube on his arm lay on a stretcher in the Emergency Room, watching doctors work on the fire victims, wondering what was the matter. More ambulances and more police arrived, and tide of friends and family swelled in the halls. Rumors and numbers floated around en masse. No one knew for sure “who” or “how many” there were, just “how badly.” The pieces of the pattern began to fall quicker and quicker into place: there were 15 in the Emergency Room; at least 29 were reported dead at the scene; those in the hospital were badly hurt, but were probably going to live. The race was over. Scene of French Quarter Fire Is Called Dante’s ‘Inferno,’ Hitler’s Incinerators Victims Reported Burned to Death Fleeing Spreading Blaze by John LaPlace The scene inside Upstairs Bar was from Dante’s ‘Inferno,’ Hitler’s Incinerators. At least 29 persons burned to death when trampled by others fleeing from a rapidly spreading blaze, according to Orleans Parish Coroner, Dr. Carl H. Rabin. The blaze rushed through the bar driving the victims to windows apparently closed over by paneling or some type of decoration. One survivor said “steel bars.” The horror of the holocaust could be seen easily from the street. One victim died while squirming through a partially opened window. The slim build of one survivor saved his life. “You see how slim I am,” the survivor said at Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 2, Col. 1 Fire Scene Said “Inferno” continued at Charity Hospital. “I was the first to get to the windows and thank God…thank God…thank God I was able to get out. But the others…they…” They were mangled and burned as they fought to get out the windows on the Chartres Street side of the building—falling one on top of the other. The dead were piled knee-high in a twisted, charred mass of death—some a few feet from safety. “They were just piled up. People in a mass…one falls then another falls…It’s just a mass of death…It’s sickening,” Dr. Rabin said. No Stairs In another corner of the bar, near a fire escape with no stairs to the ground, were the bodies of others. At least two others died crawling under a piano on the right side of the gutted barroom to the windows. Dr. Rabin counted 29, but the death toll could rise when the badly charred, entangled bodies are removed. Bodies were so badly burned, said Rabin, that identification would be difficult and take some time. Extinguish Blaze New Orleans firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly—14 minutes after arriving on the scene—but that was not fast enough. The grim job of removing bodies would continue in the glare of klieg lights mounted from fire trucks parked in narrow French Quarter streets of Chartres and Iberville until early Monday morning. Coroner’s assistants would untangle bodies two at a time, lowering them to the ground in a fire department snorkel, Rabin said. Then transferring bodies to the city morgue or Charity Hospital; where identifications of the victims of “one of New Orleans’ worst fires” would be made, he said. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Newspaper Recounts the Horror Description An account of the resource New Orleans’ daily morning newspaper, The Times-Picayune, publishes several articles the next day reporting the appalling suffering of the fire victims as well as the survivors. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Times-Picayune, June 25, 1973.