Tinderbox

by Robert W. Fieseler

  22.Newhouse, “Bar Not Inspected,” 4; “Quarter Violations Count Passes 1,000 Mark,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 21, 1973, 7; George Schwandt to Rob Cole, July 8, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

  23.Ken Weiss, “Five Quarter Buildings Ordered Repaired or Demolished,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 29, 1973, 14; Moon Landrieu to Frank Incaprera, July 9, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu, City Archives; Robin Riley to Hans-Henrik Holm, June 11, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu; Moon Landrieu to Carroll Trosclair, July 9, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu; Moon Landrieu, “To the Readers of Living Magazine,” July 9, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu; Bill Rushton, “Forgetting the Fire,” Vieux Carré Courier, July 6, 1973, 1.

  24.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 58, 22, 29–30; Rodger Dale Nunez, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, September 18, 1973, 4–5, Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection; “General Case Report,” NOPD 55.

  25.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 29, 58; Cynthia Ann Savant, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, August 1, 1974, Louisiana State Archives (copy courtesy of Clayton Delery).

  26.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 58, 22, 29–30; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 55.

  27.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 55, 52, 58; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 22; Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 4–5.

  28.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 58–59; Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 12; Charles Aldinger, “Teeth Only Way to Identify Victims of Fire,” Jennings [La.] Daily News, June 25, 1973, 8.

  29.“Arson Assumption in N.O. Fire Eyed,” Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, June 27, 1973; “Probe Slated in Shakedown,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 10, 1973, 10; Bob Ussery, “Charge Brings Suspension for Police Officer,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 7, 1973, 3; Glenn Helton, “Police Probe Shakedown,” New Orleans States-Item, July 7–8, 1973; Bob Ussery, “Police Officer Is Reinstated,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 27, 1973, 1.

  30.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 41; Boggs, Autopsy; interview with Troy Perry, December 2, 2014; “Yesterday’s Dreams, Today’s Ghosts,” The Advocate, March 13, 1974, 12.

  31.Jay Handelman, memorandum, July 9, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu, City Archives; Paul Atkinson, “Landrieu Attacks Property Tax Plan,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 12, 1973, 1, 3; Bill Rushton, “Fire Three: Who the Victims Were,” Vieux Carré Courier, July 13–19, 1973, 6.

  32.Rushton, “Fire Three,” 6; Atkinson, “Landrieu Attacks,” 3.

  33.Larry Stratton, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives.

  34.Breton, “United We Stand”; Stratton, Autopsy; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 41, 5; Larry Dean Stratton, memorial 112770954, findagrave.com.

  35.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 59; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 22, 29; Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 8.

  36.Interview with Tina Matyi, October 29, 2016; Johnny Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn: The Up Stairs Lounge Fire (self-published through BookLocker.com, 2011), 312.

  37.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 312; Matyi interview; George Steven [sic] Matyi, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives; Inez Warren, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 12.

  38.Matyi interview.

  39.“Morty Manford Tour” (press release), July 20, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; “Gay Coalition of Denver” (press release), July 19, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Chicago Gays to Raise Funds for New Orleans Fire Victims” (press release), July 17, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, “Chicago Gays Mobilize to Aid Fire Victims,” Chicago Gay Crusader, August 1973, 1.

  40.“Morty Manford Tour”; Paul Breton to Dick Michaels, September 7, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Fund,” Causeway, January 1974, 7–8 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, James T. Sears Papers, Duke University Libraries, Durham, N.C.); Morris Kight, transcript of phone call with The Advocate, September 12, 1973, New Orleans Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Ed Belew, “Re: Blood Account” (telephone message dictated and transcribed for Morris Kight), November 2, 1976, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  41.New Orleans Memorial Fund Receipts Journal, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; “Gay Pride Day,” The Advocate, July 18, 1973, 1; “It’s Our Concern,” The Advocate, July 18, 1973, 1.

  42.Bill Rushton, Gay People’s Coalition notes. Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans; Roberts Batson, “Remembering the Up Stairs Lounge,” Impact 23, no. 13 (June 19, 1998): 16 (read at Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection); Breton, “United We Stand”; “Fire Victims, Funeral Home,” Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives.

  43.Rushton, “Fire Three,” 6; Unknown (Body #18), Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives; Unknown (Body #22), Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records; Unknown (Body #28), Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, 1973, Upstairs Lounge Records.

  44.“Three More Fire Victims Named”; Jerry McLeod, “Family Solves Mystery After Learning Uncle Died in Infamous Upstairs Lounge Fire Forty-Plus Years Ago in New Orleans,” New Orleans Advocate, June 10, 2015 (www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/entertainment_life/article_bf16d3d9-b8e7-5994-8066-6dc1fa27bca5.html); interview with Skip Bailey, August 21, 2015.

  45.Bailey interview; “Three More Fire Victims Named”; McLeod, “Family Solves Mystery”; Rushton, “Fire Three,” 6; Royd Anderson, The UpStairs Lounge Fire (documentary film), Lake Oaks Studio, June 24, 2013.

  46.McLeod, “Family Solves Mystery”; Unknown (Body #18), Autopsy; Unknown (Body #22), Autopsy; Unknown (Body #28), Autopsy.

  47.Interview with John Meyers, January 26, 2016; Henry Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account” (unpublished manuscript, November 14, 2013), LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire).

  48.Batson, “Errors in Upstairs Lounge Story”; Howard Smith, email to author, October 7, 2016; Edwin Edwards, email to author, January 27, 2017.

  49.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 60.

  50.Ibid., 61, 47; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 112.

  51.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 61; Eugene Davis, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, October 1, 1973, 4, Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection; Jacqueline Bullard, Statement to Office of Louisiana State Fire Marshal, March 17, 1975, 2–3, Louisiana State Archives.

  52.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 63, 61; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 22; interview with Steven Duplantis, March 11, 2016.

  53.“General Case Report,” NOPD, 64, 17, 31–33, 63; Willey, “The Upstairs Lounge Fire,” 16.

  54.Bill Rushton, “Mystery Unravels in New Orleans Bar Fire,” The Advocate, October 22, 1975 (read at Johnny Townsend Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives); John BonneCarrere to Judge Frank Shea of Orleans Parish Criminal Court, April 11, 1974, Johnny Townsend Collection; John BonneCarrere to Judge Frank Shea of Orleans Parish Criminal Court, August 7, 1973, Johnny Townsend Collection.

  55.Philip Hannan, “The Archbishop Speaks,” Clarion Herald, July 19, 1973, 3.

  56.Ibid.

  57.Ibid.; Angus Lind, Lanny Thomas, and Walt Philbin, “Twenty-Nine Dead in Quarter Holocaust,” New Orleans States-Item, June 25, 1973, 1; Lanny Thomas, “Lounge Fire Probe Goes On,” New Orleans States-Item, June 27, 1973, 1; Susan Finch, “Fire of ’73: Tragedy United Gays,” New
Orleans Times-Picayune, June 24, 1993; Dennis Hevesi, “Philip Hannan, Ninety-Eight, Dies; New Orleans Archbishop,” The New York Times, September 30, 2011 (www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/us/archbishop-philip-m-hannan-dies-at-98.html).

  58.“Fire Four: The Slight Latin and Rumor Control,” Vieux Carré Courier, July 20, 1973, 3.

  59.“HRC to Attack Gay Problems,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 8, 1973, 17.

  60.Ibid.; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 144; Joan Treadway, “Gay Community Surfaces,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 11, 1973, 13; “Human Relations Committee Minutes of Monday, October 1, 1973 Meeting,” October 1, 1973, Records of the Human Relations Committee, City Archives; “New Orleans Voters Renominate Mayor,” The New York Times, November 11, 1973, 34; “News Release Public Relations Office, City Hall,” August 24, 1973, Records of Mayor Moon Landrieu, City Archives.

  61.Treadway, “Gay Community Surfaces,” 13; Bill Rushton, “Aug. 7 release,” August 7, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library; “Grant Number Four,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

  62.Troy Perry, “State of the Church,” report presented to MCC General Conference, August 15, 1973, LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire); Perry and Swicegood, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, 113; Tom Taylor, “The Impossible Dream,” In Unity, June 1974, 19, https://issuu.com/mccchurches/doc.

  63.Paul Breton to Morty Manford, September 8, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; 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; “Outlook Brightens for Fire Victims,” The Advocate, October 10, 1973, 6.

  64.Joan Treadway, “No Mardi Gras Magic: Gay Community Surfaces in Tragedy,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 11, 1973, 13.

  65.“Fund Nudges $5000 Mark,” The Advocate, August 15, 1973, 22; “Benefits Boost N.O. Fund,” The Advocate, November 14, 1973; “First Gay Dollars Reach New Orleans Fire Victims,” The Advocate, February 13, 1974, 2; Morris Kight to Jack David, September 20, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Aid Mounts for New Orleans,” The Advocate, August 15, 1973, 2; Kight, transcript of Advocate interview, September 12, 1973; Memorial Fund Receipts Journal; John Gill to Morris Kight, September 12, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, Morris Kight to John Gill, September 16, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  66.Edward Belew to John Tunney, September 27, 1973, Russell Long to Raymond Oliver, October 5, 1973, and Raymond Oliver to Russell Long, November 2, 1973, all in supplemental materials to “Official Report,” Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, July 22, 1975, Louisiana State Archives.

  13: Downfall

  1.Press release, Gay People’s Coalition, October 12, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans; Roger Nord to Bill Rushton, July 23, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection.

  2.Public-service announcement script, Gay People’s Coalition, 1973, Vieux Carré Courier Collection.

  3.Clayton Delery, email to Troy Perry, January 4, 2010 (courtesy of Clayton Delery and Troy Perry); interview with Richard Everett, August 10, 2015; Johnny Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn: The Up Stairs Lounge Fire (self-published through BookLocker.com, 2011), 109; interview with Henry Kubicki, September 5, 2015; 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.

  4.Delery to Perry, January 4, 2010; Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account”; John Gill to Morris Kight, September 12, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles.

  5.“Fund,” Causeway, January 1974, 7–8 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, James T. Sears Papers, Duke University Libraries, Durham, N.C.); Everett interview, August 10, 2015; Troy Perry, transcript of phone interview with The Advocate, June 26, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

  6.MCC New Deal,” Causeway, February 1974, 5 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files); Morty Manford to Paul Breton, October 16, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; Paul Breton to Morty Manford, October 24, 1973, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “New Church Building from Ashes of Tragedy,” The Advocate, February 13, 1974, 10.

  7.Interview with Henry Kubicki, September 4, 2015; Matthew J. Friedman, “PTSD History and Overview,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/ptsd-overview/ptsd-overview.asp.

  8.Kubicki interview, September 4, 2015; Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account.”

  9.“MCC New Deal.”

  10.Morris Kight, memorandum to ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, March 11, 1984, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; New Orleans Memorial Fund Receipts Journal, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Aid Mounts for New Orleans,” The Advocate, August 15, 1973, 22; J. B. Gautreaux to The Advocate, July 17, 1973, New Orleans Upstairs Bar Fire/Advocate Records, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Lewis Rio, “Perry on TV,” The Advocate, August 15, 1973.

  11.Gerald Hansen, “Arsonists Torch San Francisco MCC,” The Advocate, August 15, 1973, 1; “Gay Meeting Place Burned Out,” The Advocate, October 24, 1973, 1, 22; “Indianapolis Police Hit MCC Meet,” The Advocate, October 24, 1973, 1, 22.

  12.Interview with Roberts Batson, May 18, 2016; “Human Relations Committee Meeting of November 5/73,” November 5, 1973, Records of the Human Relations Committee, City Archives, New Orleans Public Library; Paul Atkinson, “Park to Honor Satchmo OK’d,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 26, 1973, 1.

  13.“General Case Report,” New Orleans Department of Police, August 30, 1973, 64, Upstairs Lounge Records, City Archives; “Official Report,” Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, July 22, 1975, 29, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge; Rodger Dale Nunez, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, September 18, 1973, 8, Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection.

  14.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 30; John BonneCarrere to Judge Frank Shea, Orleans Parish Criminal Court, Johnny Townsend Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; John BonneCarrere to Judge Frank Shea, Orleans Parish Criminal Court, August 7, 1973, Johnny Townsend Collection.

  15.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 30; Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 13.

  16.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), 125; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 64; BonneCarrere to Shea, April 11, 1974.

  17.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 13, 5–6, 8; Jerel Giarrusso, “Bayou Country Offers Everything from Sweet Potatoes to Mansions,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 21, 1988, F2.

  18.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 12, 11; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 59; “Office Report,” State Fire Marshal, 20.

  19.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 2.

  20.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 8, 4; “Office Report,” State Fire Marshal, 32.

  21.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 11, 7, 3; “Office Report,” State Fire Marshal, 22.

  22.Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 6.

  23.“Office Report,” State Fire Marshal, 30.

  24.John Jenkins, “A ‘Lie Detector’ That Often Lies: ‘Voice Stress’ Analyzers Are Accurate Less than Half the Time, Experts Say,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1979 (www .washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1979/09/02/a-lie-detector-that-often-liesvoice -stress-analyzers-are-accurate-less-than-half-the-time-experts-say/fb9a3aad-cab7-4225 -a8ad-20d16ce79a50/?utm_term=.5bfb7c31f02f); Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs
Lounge Arson, 122; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 36; Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal.

  25.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 36; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 127; Roger Nunez, Dektor PSE 1, October 1973, Louisiana State Archives.

  26.Jenkins, “A ‘Lie Detector’ That Often Lies.”

  27.“New Gay Role Felt as Psychologists Convene,” The Advocate, October 16, 1973, 6; Robert Heath, “Pleasure and Brain Activity in Man,” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 154 (1972): 7.

  28.American Psychiatric Association, “Homosexuality and Sexual Orientation Disturbance: Proposed Change in DSM-11, 6th Printing, page 44,” November 1973, psychiatryonline.com/DSMPDF/DSM-II_Homosexuality_Revision.pdf.

  29.Ibid.

  30.Morris Kight to Fund Trustees, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Paul Breton to Morty Manford, February 13, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; Note on grant amounts to victims, National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  31.“Grant Number Four,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Grant Number Five,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Medical Bills Submitted to the National New Orleans Memorial Fund,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Grant Number Nine,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; interview with Mary David Mihalyfi, May 4, 2016; “Grant Number Six,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  32.“Grant Number Three: Mrs. John Golding,” National New Orleans Memorial Fund, c. January 17, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 309; Frank Perez and Jeffrey Palmquist, In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar (Hurlford, Scotland: LL-Publications, 2012), 43; interview with John Golding Jr., November 6, 2017.