Tinderbox

  2.Richardson, The Voice of Integrity; “Morality in Media Issues Letter Urging Involvement,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 8, 1973, 12.

  3.Richardson, The Voice of Integrity.

  4.Ibid.; Troy Perry and Thomas Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore (New York: St. Martin’s, 1990), 95.

  5.Richardson, “An Important Statement from the Rector,” St. George’s Episcopal Church, June 28, 1973, LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire/gallery?response-to-tragedy).

  6.Richardson, The Voice of Integrity; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 95; Paul Breton, “United We Stand” (unpublished manuscript, August 1973), National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles; Perry interview.

  7.Martinez, “The Fire at the Lounge: Where Was Mercy?,” Nola Express, July 27, 1973; Breton, “United We Stand”; Bill Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” Vieux Carré Courier, July 6, 1973, 1.

  8.Peter Finney, “Archbishop Hannan, Paratroop Chaplain and Kennedy Counselor, Dies at Ninety-Eight,” Today’s Catholic News, September 29, 2011 (www.todayscatholicnews.org/2011/09/archbishop-hannan-paratroop-chaplain-and-kennedy -counselor-dies-at-98/); Philip Hannan, The Archbishop Wore Combat Boots: From Combat to Camelot to Katrina (Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor, 2010), 196–243; “Condolences to Victims’ Families Offered by Archbishop Hannan,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 30, 1972, 3; Elmo Romagosa, “Shepherd Tends to His Flock,” Clarion Herald, January 11, 1973, 1; “Archbishop Hannan’s Legacy: Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans,” Archdiocese of New Orleans, September 30, 2011, www.arch-no.org/articles/archbishop-hannans-legacy-catholic-charities-archdiocese-of-new-orleans-1.

  9.Bill Rushton, “New Orleans Toll Thirty-Two; Arson Evidence Cited,” The Advocate, August 1, 1973, 2; Breton, “United We Stand”; interview with John Meyers, February 3, 2016.

  10.Breton, “United We Stand”; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 96; Perry interview.

  11.Clayton Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2014), 79; David Bird, “Clay Shaw Is Dead at Sixty; Freed in Kennedy ‘Plot,’ ” The New York Times, August 16, 1974, 32; Moon Landrieu, oral history interview with Mark Cave, September 15, 2009, New Orleans Life Story Project, Historic New Orleans Collection; “Planned French Market Rejuvenation Is Praised,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 17, 1972, 21; “News Release,” City Hall, July 12, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu, City Archives, New Orleans Public Library; Perry interview.

  12.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 79.

  13.Ken Weiss, “Disaster Waiting to Happen: Quarter Firetrap Crackdown,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 28, 1973, 1; “VCC Blamed for French Quarter Firetraps,” New Orleans States-Item, June 28, 1973, 3.

  14.“VCC Blamed for French Quarter Firetraps,” 3; Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” 6; Weiss, “Disaster Waiting to Happen,” 1, 7; Bob Damron, Bob Damron’s Address Book, 8th ed. (San Francisco: Bob Damron, 1972), 76–78.

  15.Weiss, “Disaster Waiting to Happen,” 7; “VCC Blamed for French Quarter Firetraps,” 3; Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” 6.

  16.“Two Persons Die in $50,000 Hotel Fire at Silver Dollar Hotel,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 14, 1970, 8; Bob Damron, Bob Damron’s Address Book, 9th ed. (San Francisco: Bob Damron, 1973), 101; George Schwandt, “Holocaust in New Orleans,” The Advocate, June 18, 1973, 1; Paul Atkinson, “Obscenity Crackdown Begins,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 28, 1973, 1; Ed Jackson, “Obscenity Ruling Turns Back Clock—and Then Some,” The Advocate, July 18, 1973, 4; “Court Resolves Obscenity Suits,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 7, 1973, 7.

  17.“General Case Report,” New Orleans Department of Police, August 30, 1973, 49, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives.

  18.“Six More Victims of Fire Identified, Coroner Says,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 29, 1973, 9; Angus Lind, Lanny Thomas, and Walt Philbin, “Twenty-Nine Dead in Quarter Holocaust,” New Orleans States-Item, June 25, 1973, 1; list of persons identified or presumed dead, New Orleans Police Department, July 27, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans; Supplemental Lists, Orleans Parish Coroner, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records.

  19.“Six More Victims of Fire Identified,” 9; “Thirtieth Bar Blaze Victim Dies; Eight Remain Unidentified,” New Orleans States-Item, June 29, 1973; Adam Fontenot, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records; Johnny Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn: The Up Stairs Lounge Fire (self-published through BookLocker.com, 2011), 319; “History of Sacred Heart Parish,” sacredheartvp .com, http://sacredheartvp.com/about/parish-history/; Adam Roland Fontenot, findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=82606301.

  20.Breton, “United We Stand”; Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 319.

  21.Interview with Mary David Mihalyfi, May 4, 2016.

  22.Ibid.; Glenn Richard Green, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records.

  23.Mihalyfi interview; “Services,” “Relatives and Friends,” and “Newspaper Notices” pages of Glenn Green funeral album, 1973 (courtesy of Mary David Mihalyfi); “General Case Report,” NOPD, 60.

  24.“Hambrick” (paid death notice), New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 29, 1973, 24; interview with Sheri Wright, June 2016; James Hambrick, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records.

  25.Wright interview; “Thirtieth Bar Blaze Victim Dies”; “Hambrick” (paid death notice), 24.

  26.“Larson” (paid death notice), New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 30, 1973, 19; William Ros Larson, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records; Sharon Swindall, “Dead Man Was Pastor to Other Fire Victims,” New Orleans Daily Record, June 26, 1973, 1; Vincent Lee, “Gay Leaders Plan Aid for Victims of Bar Fire,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 27, 1973, 14; Lanny Thomas, “Fun … Drinks … Song … with Death at the Piano,” New Orleans States-Item, June 25, 1973, 6; Eric Newhouse, “Arson Squads Probe Rubble of Bar; Gay Group Plans Day of Mourning,” Mobile [Ala.] Press, June 26, 1973; “Fire Victims, Funeral Home,” Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records.

  27.Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 93; “Troy R. Howell Rites Thursday,” Hamilton [Ohio] Daily News Journal, October 27, 1953, 2.

  28.“Summary,” Ohio Bureau, 1929, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records, Ohio History Connection, Columbus, Ohio; “Roscoe Larison,” Butler County Children’s Home, 1938, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records; “Larison,” Butler County Children’s Home, 1936–1941, 5, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records; “Dickens’ Characters Portrayed At Program In Children’s Home,” Hamilton [Ohio] Daily and News Journal, December 22, 1937, 28; “Children’s Home Kiddies Also Hunt Eggs,” Hamilton [Ohio] Daily and News Journal, April 10, 1939, 14; Roscoe Larison, Certificate of Confirmation, First Reformed Church, 1939, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records; “Roscoe Larison” (weekly reports), Butler County Children’s Home, 1940, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records; “Entertainer There,” Hamilton Daily News Journal, June 24, 1951, 6; “Larson” (paid death notice), 19.

  29.Wm. Roscoe Lairson to Butler County Children’s Home, February 21, 1947, Children’s Home Association of Butler County Records.

  30.Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 25; “Twenty-Nine Persons Die in Blaze Destroys New Orleans Bar,” Hamilton [Ohio] Journal-News, June 25, 1973, 2; “Re: The Rev. William (Bill) Ros Larson,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 90.

  31.House of Bultman to Gay Community Services Center (letter), May 13, 1974, National New Orle
ans Memorial Fund Collection; Breton, “United We Stand”; Lucien Baril, transcript of phone interview with The Advocate, 4:30 a.m. PST, June 25, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

  32.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 176; Veterans Administration to Thomas L. Baril, March 6, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; Paul Breton to Morris Kight, March 21, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  33.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 313; interview with Richard Everett, September 30, 2016; “Larson” (paid death notice), 19.

  11: In Memoriam

  1.Troy Perry and Thomas Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore (New York: St. Martin’s, 1990), 96.

  2.Ellen Blue, St. Mark’s and the Social Gospel: Methodist Women and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1895–1965 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2014), 20, 165; Claude Sitton, “Crowd of Racists Heckles Minister,” The New York Times, December 5, 1960, 1, 38.

  3.Blue, St. Mark’s and the Social Gospel, 212; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 96; “Blaze Victims’ Memorial Set,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 30, 1973, 11; Clayton Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2014), 80; B. A. Robinson, “The United Methodist Church and Homosexuality Decisions by Church Conferences and Courts from 1972 to 1996,” August 21, 2014, ReligiousTolerance.org, www.religioustolerance.org/hom_umc6.htm.

  4.“Blaze Victims’ Memorial Set,” 11; Paul Breton, “United We Stand” (unpublished manuscript, August 1973), National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles.

  5.Breton, “United We Stand”; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 97; interview with John Meyers, February 3, 2016.

  6.Meyers interview, February 3, 2016.

  7.Interview with Stewart Butler, July 20, 2014; interview with Richard Everett, September 30, 2016; Henry Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account” (unpublished manuscript, November 14, 2013), LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire), Berkeley, Calif.; Breton, “United We Stand”; Eric Newhouse, “Memorial Services for N.O. Blaze Victims,” Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, July 2, 1973; Martin St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls Was Ignited … ,’ ” The Advocate, August 1, 1973, 16; interview with Paul Killgore, January 17, 2016.

  8.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 82; Bill Rushton, “Fire Three: Who the Victims Were,” Vieux Carré Courier, July 13–19, 1973, 6; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; Butler interview, July 20, 2014.

  9.Butler interview, July 20, 2014; Everett interview, September 30, 2016; Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account”; interview with Henry Kubicki, September 5, 2015.

  10.Interview with Steven Duplantis, March 11, 2016; Lucien Baril, transcript of phone call with The Advocate, September 14, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

  11.Chris Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem for Homosexuals,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 2, 1973, 14; Newhouse, “Memorial Services for N.O. Blaze Victims”; Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” 6; “Morality in Media Issues Letter Urging Involvement,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 8, 1973, 12; Emily Yoffe, “Bishop Denies ‘Brotherhood’ to the End,” Chicago Tribune, December 3, 1987 (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-12-03/features/8703300793_1_rev-troy-perry-metropolitan-community-churches-gay-bar); Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 98; Breton, “United We Stand.”

  12.Breton, “United We Stand.”

  13.Ibid.; Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem,” 14.

  14.Breton, “United We Stand”; interview with Henry Kubicki, September 4, 2015; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 99.

  15.Breton, “United We Stand”; “Resolution,” LSUNO Young Democrats, June 28, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.

  16.Ed Martinez, “The Fire at the Lounge: Where Was Mercy?,” Nola Express, July 27, 1973; Bill Rushton, “New Orleans Toll Thirty-Two; Arson Evidence Cited,” The Advocate, August 1, 1973, 2.

  17.Breton, “United We Stand”; “Two Hundred Attend Service for Lounge Victims,” New Orleans States-Item, July 2, 1973; Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem,” 14; Newhouse, “Memorial Services for N.O. Blaze Victims.”

  18.Butler interview, July 20, 2014; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016.

  19.Breton, “United We Stand”; Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem,” 14; Martinez, “The Fire at the Lounge”; St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls,’ ” 16; Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” 6.

  20.Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem,” 14; Kubicki interview, September 5, 2015; Newhouse, “Memorial Services for N.O. Blaze Victims”; Breton, “United We Stand”; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016.

  21.Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; Butler interview, July 20, 2014; Breton, “United We Stand”; Perry interview; Rushton, “Fire Three,” 6; Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem,” 14; Martinez, “The Fire at the Lounge.”

  22.Interview with Henry Kubicki, September 4, 2015; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; Martinez, “The Fire at the Lounge”; Perry interview; Newhouse, “Memorial Services for N.O. Blaze Victims.”

  23.Interview with Royd Anderson, September 2, 2017; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 143; WDSU-New Orleans, “Film Log June 2, 1973, to December 31, 1974” (courtesy of Royd Anderson).

  24.“Rev. Perry Will Speak,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 16, 1977, 32; St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Soul,’ ” 1; Tom Taylor, “The Impossible Dream,” In Unity, June 1974, 19, https://issuu.com/mccchurches/doc; Jackie M. Blount, Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005), 138; Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015); Perry interview; Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 29.

  25.Breton, “United We Stand”; Morris Kight to Lucien Baril, January 18, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Morty Manford to Bill Rushton, July 11, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library; Gay People’s Coalition to Human Relations Committee, July 25, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  12: Deliverance

  1.Martin St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls Was Ignited … ,’ ” The Advocate, August 1, 1973, 1; Paul Breton, “United We Stand” (unpublished manuscript, August 1973), National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles; “Parade,” The New Yorker, July 11, 1970, 19; “The Militant Homosexual,” Newsweek, August 23, 1971, 45–48.

  2.St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls,’ ” 1; Roberts Batson, “Errors in Up Stairs Lounge Story,” Gambit 19, no, 25 (June 23, 1998): 6; interview with John Meyers, January 26, 2016.

  3.Vicki Eaklor, Robert R Meek, and Vern L Bullough, Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress (Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, 2006), 86; “Memorial Services … San Francisco” and “The Seattle MCC,” Advocate notes, July 1, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls,’ ” 16; Grace Lichtenstein, “Homosexuals in New York Find New Pride,” The New York Times, October 25, 1977, 39; “Ecumenical Memorial Service” (official leaflet), July 1, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records.

  4.Jim Kepner, “Memorial Remarks for Those Gays Burned to Death Last Sunday in the Upstairs Bar in New Orleans,” July 1, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records; “Join the Rest,” Advocate notes, July 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records.

  5.St. John, “ ‘A Part of Our Souls,’ ” 1; National Day of Mourning Memorial Service” (official leaflet), July 1, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advo
cate Records.

  6.“General Case Report,” New Orleans Department of Police, August 30, 1973, 54, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives, New Orleans Public Library; Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, July 22, 1975, 20, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge.

  7.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 20.

  8.Ibid., 12–20.

  9.Ibid., 20; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 54, 37–38.

  10.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 54–55.

  11.Ibid., 55; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 29; “New Burn Unit Used at Charity,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 28, 1973, sect. 7, p. 16.

  12.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 55, 52; C. Helmstaedter, C. E. Elger, and M. Lendt, “Postictal Courses of Cognitive Deficits in Focal Epilepsies,” Epilepsia 35, no. 5 (September 1994): 1073–78.

  13.“Notes on Fire Victims,” Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives; interview with Duane Mitchell, August 14, 2015.

  14.Tom Frazer, “Sons of Fire Victim Sent Home—Unaware of Father’s Death,” New Orleans States-Item, June 26, 1973, A3; Mitchell interview, August 14, 2015; “Three More Fire Victims Named,” New Orleans States-Item, June 30, 1973.

  15.Mitchell interview, August 14, 2015; “Duane George Mitchell” (paid death notice), Birmingham News, July 2, 1973, 43.

  16.Ibid.

  17.Ibid.; “Broussard, Louis Horace,” Acadia Genealogical and Historical Society, www.theusgenweb.org/la/acadia/obitalpha/Obits_B18.html.

  18.Mitchell interview, August 14, 2015; “Duane George Mitchell,” 43.

  19.Mitchell interview, August 14, 2015.

  20.Eric Newhouse, “Bar Not Inspected in Two Years,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 1, 1973, 4.

  21.A. Elwood Willey, “The Upstairs Lounge Fire,” NFPA Journal 68, no. 1 (1974): 16–20; Elaine Tyrrell to Elwood Willey, December 12, 1973, LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire), Berkeley, Calif; “NOFD Officials Rebut AP Story,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 3, 1973, 6.