2 20 2500 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/8697e2a893ef41b004f9d5d7b4dc2a3f.jpg 1f5fce51200a818cb03eea925ecc2ee4 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 2 BARS FOR SALETO ANYONE. 604-608 Iberville St. Appointment only. 525-3529 after 2 p.m. 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 Wanda Lists Bar for Sale Description An account of the resource Wanda Long lists two bars for sale at 604-608 Iberville. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, September 17, 1970. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/97925daa23468d2a0b0d22f7814d3c8c.jpg a253f64605c7623c5011cae0b1801f28 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 AM applying to the La. ABC Board for a permit to sell alcoholic beverages at retail at the following address: The Upstairs, 604 Iberville St., in the Parish of Orleans. Philip J. Esteve, Prop. AM applying to the Collector of Revenue, State of Louisiana, for a permit to sell beer at retail at the following address: The Upstairs, 604 Iberville St., in the Parish of Orleans. Philip J. Esteve, Prop. 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 Esteve Prepares to Open Upstairs Lounge Description An account of the resource Philip Esteve applies for liquor license for 604 Iberville Street. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, October 11, 1970 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a639bf75db8c596134408983a33d62dc.jpg 27cc41e3c03bf47abae85587a357e9a1 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 Street Map with Location Description An account of the resource Street map indicating the location of the Upstairs Lounge on the corner of Chartres and Iberville. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.nola.com">www.nola.com</a> The Times-Picayune https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/cdfc1955a757824001b9aa9dd8f030a6.jpg 263cab2530210d39247015ecc82426d0 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 Bar Floor Plan Description An account of the resource Floor Plan of bar drawn after the fire, showing the three rooms and escape route along with location of fatalities. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Upstairs Lounge Fire by A. Elwood Willey in The National Fire Protection Association Journal (1974). https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e4532f1fbf6c0b644ecdf8fc31954f67.JPG 0a8efc79bb17e87897e79e65fd582584 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/773b398fa0056986047dec9b8ac96339.JPG 7149ac7c3b478b325220c38130fb799a 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 Bartender Buddy Rasmussen Description An account of the resource Bartender Buddy Rasmussen and the interior bar area of the Upstairs Lounge, Mardi Gras 1973. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Johnny Townsend collection https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/4fbeb0862361cc3ee759d220c36e63cf.JPG 6c5e0d78bf4babd485c1580480089226 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ff70dcf96e6d1771d2d99515f7c165de.JPG 5f11b9f3301342b321856986b3dd5c0e 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 Life in the Upstairs Lounge Description An account of the resource Photo 1: Stanley Plaisance, Gene Davis, and two unknown bar patrons. Photo 2: Mardi Gras costume contest, 1973. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Johnny Townsend Collection https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/fecbc1ececa5cd63f7741a463acfcb23.jpg e268c902d0e21db53825ab2186d12d43 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="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/H-yprOLmRkc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound “United We Stand” written by Tony Hiller and John Goodison There's nowhere in the world that I would rather be than with you my love. And there's nothing in the world that I would rather see than your smile my love. For united we stand, divided we fall. And, if our backs should ever be against the wall, we'll be together, together, you and I . And if the world about you falls apart, my love, then I'll still be here. And if the going gets too hard along the way, just you call, I'll hear. For united we stand, divided we fall. And, if our backs should ever be against the wall, we'll be together, together, you and I. 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 Original Recording of “United We Stand” Description An account of the resource This popular song (recorded by the Brotherhood of Man) is the anthem sung regularly by Upstairs Lounge patrons gathered around the piano. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Used by permission of Tony Hiller Music. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2f29a8a8fde3ca4128ad4bba2091b2d7.jpg 8e377674b245b42a1380ac388d352a49 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 Lovers of the old-time mellerdrammers will rejoice that the Upstairs at 604 Iberville is planning a revival of this style of attraction. The first production EGAD, WHAT A CAD will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday at an extension of the bar known at the “Second Landing” at the Upstairs. Bettye McAnner is the director… 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 Announcing Nellydrama Description An account of the resource Newspaper announcement of melodramatic production at the Upstairs Theater. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, May 15, 1971. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/da9ccd5ee165badaab76ce60eec2e909.JPG 954b09e92cc15d6391297979215a88bd https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/b24159d357671c74cde22bbc4ad0ae3d.JPG 38cdbcc5c64a7fa90001dd52dfca6cd5 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 Getting Ready for a Show Description An account of the resource Photo 1: Audience gathers in theater before show. Persons identified: Bill Larson (back row seated, 2nd from right); Ricky "Mother" Cross (back row, 4th from right); Francis Dufrene (across from Bill Larson); Reggie Adams (to left of Dufrene); Courtney Craighead (eyes shaded in background); and Mike Scarborough (standing, bottom left). Photo 2: Mike Scarborough, Ginny Lynch and Reggie Adams waiting for show to begin. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Johnny Townsend Collection https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ca1dd24449c32e93a62ecfc252b3b4d5.jpg d16390fca28d9137b9f3a64305c6e1d3 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/de90fe168c0979d45d589d8de2565690.JPG 11d4254136b05146b079fa86264798c2 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 Nellydrama Productions Description An account of the resource Photo 1: Tad Turner as the heroine Pauline and Adam Fontenot as the hero Harold Trueblood in production of “The Rise and Fall of Sir Jaspar Hardmaster.” Photo 2: Rick Everett as Connie Francis in "Where the Boys Are." Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived From Henry Kubicki (photo 1) and Johnny Townsend Collection (photo 2) https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/77bb6f5ed8aaae998acdcd06af1a2a65.jpg 4cf243e0830aa6822b9dc838f47a7f20 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 Corner of Disaster Description An account of the resource Firemen peer from the charred windows of a second story bar in the New Orleans French Quarter that [was] gutted by a flash fire Sunday night leaving 29 dead and 15 injured. The bar is located at the corner of Iberville and Chartes just a block off Canal Street. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/89f8d5b1efd9f00ad7e44e8e4b85c21c.JPG 68c53b20a800539ce16f72ff372699b8 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 Crying Survivor Description An account of the resource Linn Quinton weeps as he is helped by New Orleans firemen after he escaped from a fire at the Upstairs bar on Sunday night. Quinton said he was with a group singing around the piano when the fire swept through the bar leaving 29 dead [and] 15 injured. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/cccf2d8c508ebfff5e06284a835d9581.JPG 0155acfba8415286e5d7ab791134b05d 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 Sidewalk First Aid Description An account of the resource Firemen give first aid to survivors of a French Quarter fire that swept through a second story bar leaving 29 dead and 15 injured. Several persons leaped to safety before the entire bar was engulfed in flames in New Orleans. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3d7f75fb654d6e1abf675aa50a569d03.jpg e17a8c173690f719cb254c603557ac3b 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 Overcome Description An account of the resource A rescue worker leans heavy against a charred window at the Upstairs bar in New Orleans where 29 persons died and another 15 were injured during a fire Sunday night. The rescue worker was helping remove the bodies when apparently he couldn’t face it any longer. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e601e600b720b4262a7a7509dbca9599.JPG 4a8af45deacb4ee0a19c923a310c7ce8 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 Upstairs—A Victim Description An account of the resource A fire department snorkel was used to remove the body of man, one of 20 killed Sunday night when fire raced through the Upstairs, a French Quarter bar. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/002427dc8e72919447938afa4cdb3d83.JPG f40eb45a8124e38b3b5409d9f6d1975b 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 Bar Destroyed Description An account of the resource Charred remains of the main room of the bar, facing Chartres Street. Most of the victims were found at these barred windows. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9a9c8924588b0c7cddb6ef2f3e6efa28.JPG 43dd53311c2249c582c4d08b506d80a8 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 Trapped Bodies Description An account of the resource Bodies burned as bar patrons tried to escape through the barred windows facing Chartres Street. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/507333d73b7b697a14b3263825a4122d.jpg f6e214362fdd2e1d9ab9a9ced290e552 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2234f1a615d4547aaae8182a28c4dd95.jpg cf30be631bfe61358e074875ef62f9f6 https://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. https://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://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f16ff36ce711abd48fbb83252bd51736.jpg b0eaf0656f7b9025d6e5a31834b0c980 https://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.