Tinderbox

  Writing a work of history invariably involves standing on the shoulders of those who came before. So I must recognize Clayton Delery, author of the award-winning The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, for his tireless mentorship while I examined the very same subject. Clayton could have easily turned me away as an annoying usurper treading on his terrain. Instead, treating me as an equal and a friend, he gave me early tips, scanned and emailed documents, encouraged me when I doubted myself, and even lent me his notes. His actions taught me an unforgettable lesson: a work of history does not hinge on self-glamorization.

  In a similar vein, I must recognize Royd Anderson, creator of the documentary The Up Stairs Lounge Fire; Johnny Townsend, author of Let the Faggots Burn; Frank Perez, co-author of In Exile; Janet Allured, author of Remapping Second-Wave Feminism; Skylar Fein, the artist and activist behind the trailblazing exhibition “Remember the Upstairs Lounge”; and Sheri Wright, director of the forthcoming documentary Tracking Fire. All not only graciously spent time with me but also shared evidence that they had gathered through their tireless research. In addition, each permitted me an inside look at their interview style and subjects. Although we were not able to connect to the same degree, I must also thank Robert Camina, whose award-winning documentary Upstairs Inferno succeeded in raising the profile of the fire more than any other project before or since.

  Writing a book is actually deeply humbling in practice, one that involves drawing on the resources of friends and family members. During my four years of research on Tinderbox in New Orleans, I stayed generously—often at free or reduced rent for extended periods of time—on the day bed in the sunroom of my good friends Gareth Veitch, Miriam Matasar, and Scott Morrison. Their faith in my ability to write a book about the Up Stairs Lounge made possible the detailed and highly localized research that gave birth to Tinderbox. I could not have undertaken this book without their hospitality and daily sacrifice of privacy. The delightful Kelsey Green also put me up on several occasions. In addition, my sister Annie and brother-in-law Paul Garchar hosted me in Columbus, Ohio, during my research into Bill Larson’s past.

  The rest of my family also deserves acknowledgment. My father taught me to love the slog of writing and sat with me many a late evening as I struggled to write my first essays. My mother taught me to examine cultures from different angles. My aunt Donna encouraged a sensitive boy not to be embarrassed about loving poetry. My uncle Charlie demonstrated to me, by example, that it was possible to write a book that matters. My sister Lauren taught me how to organize projects. And Billy, my brother, taught me about never giving up.

  I appreciate being taken under the wings, so to speak, of several esteemed French Quarter personages, including the celebrated LGBTQ+ historian Roberts Batson, the famed Sazerac mixologist Neil Racoma at the Hotel Monteleone, and the cherished staff and management of Boucherie on Carrollton Avenue.

  I am in awe of the great constellation of archivists and librarians who not only maintain troves of documents but helped guide me to the ones cited in this book. My heartfelt thanks and praise go to the staff of the Historic New Orleans Collection; the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans; the Louisiana Research Collection of Tulane University, especially Leigh Miller; ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries; the Duke University Library Archives; the Ohio History Connection; the Sexual Minorities Archives; and the History Project of Boston. As our civilization has painfully learned from gaps in our vision of antiquity, history is lost to us without our great archives—those stores of knowledge maintained in perpetuity for our enrichment.

  About the Research

  As a journalist by training, I began my research into the Up Stairs Lounge fire by relocating to New Orleans and sleuthing through the primary source documentation preserved in local archives. Through this process, I discovered that, in the great diaspora of people and knowledge of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, certain documents had found their way to archives located around the country, and I made plans to visit those other repositories.

  Simultaneously, I reviewed and collected secondary sources from the early 1970s, such as newspaper stories, and read or reviewed any account of the tragedy that had already been told through an academic paper, book, art exhibition, or film. Microfiche became a font of historic gold. With this foundation, I then reached out to the authors, academics, and artists—experts who had engaged with this history.

  Through this initial process, I was able to assemble a list of the historic figures involved in this tragedy and use publicly available databases to determine whether these figures were alive. If I found that they were dead, I worked to find information about their burial, gravesite, and the circumstances of their death. If I found that they were alive, I attempted to contact them through phone, email, or letter.

  When a person responded and contacted me, I engaged him or her as both an informed professional and as a student of the subject matter. I described the book and requested an interview. These on-the-record interviews generally lasted forty-five to sixty minutes. While sometimes there was just one interview per subject, other figures required as many as seven separate sessions, all conducted from a historical rather than an activist angle.

  I let interviewees know that I had ears to hear whatever they had to share. I wanted to understand social nuance. I encouraged any explication of the context of the time period. The transcriptions of these interviews became living documents, material I could cross-check against primary sources and that I could mine for quotations incorporated into the text.

  If a historic figure didn’t respond to my initial overtures, or if someone responded merely to decline participating in this project, I searched for any source that might contain that person’s testimony in a previous account; if I was successful, I acquired the appropriate permissions to use their words.

  I have to observe that about midway through the process of writing the book, the Pulse nightclub shooting occurred in Orlando. Many of the historic figures who had been on the fence about granting an interview reached out in those weeks after the June 2016 mass shooting, urgently wanting to have their testimony included. This made some aspects of the drafting of this text challenging, because I was suddenly faced with the task of distilling and slotting the new data into a narrative structure that had already taken root. It became something of an improvisation to not just accept but also to celebrate and integrate each new revelation into the fabric of the work.

  Illustration Credits

  Endpaper

  Courtesy of Johnny Townsend

  Frontispiece

  Times-Picayune Archives

  Act I: Fire

  Courtesy of Johnny Townsend

  Act II: Fallout

  AP Photo / Jack Thornell

  Act III: Legacy

  AP Photo / AB

  Coda

  Courtesy of the author

  Index

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  Page numbers after 254 refer to notes.

  Abbeville, Louisiana, 42–43, 206, 219

  Acadians; Cajuns, 42, 43

  Adams, Joseph Henry, xxxiii

  Adams, Reginald Jr., xxxiii, 36–37, 60, 68, 80, 87, 123, 150, 225

  Adams, Regina [Soleto], 235

  Advocate, The:

  on fire victims, 124, 145

  on the gay scene, xxv–xxvi, 31, 38, 119, 162

  “Is God Gay?,” xxv–xxvi

  and MCC, 27, 114, 122, 139, 172

  and memorial fund, 151, 189, 198

  and memorial plaque, 198

  and memorial services, 177

  on Stonewall riots, 107

  on Up Stairs Lounge fire, xxix, 94, 146, 204, 224

  African Americans, xxx, 122–23, 155, 168

  Black Panthers, 24, 26, 37, 123, 132

  civil rights groups, 130

 
AIDS, xxvii, 47, 239–41, 249, 251

  All in the Family (TV), 63

  American Baptist Churches, 171

  American Episcopal Church, 140

  American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), 231

  American Grotesque (Kirkwood), 9

  American Psychiatric Association, xxxi, 202, 209–10

  American Psychological Association, 209

  American Red Cross, 150–51, 154, 190, 239

  Andersen, Guy D., xxxiii, 36

  Anik Homophile Organization, 198

  Arkansas, new laws enacted in, 221

  Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board, 52

  Armstrong, Louis, memorial park for, 135, 147, 204, 225, 235, 238

  Arrata, Blake, 162, 190

  Associated Press, 123–24, 173

  Association of Gay Psychologists, 209

  Atlanta, Gay Day in, 221

  Austin, new ordinances in, 221

  Bagneris, Larry, 128, 130

  Bailey, Joe William, xxxiii, 80

  Baril, Lucien, 170, 191, 196

  after the fire, 127, 128–29, 166

  and MCC, 35, 114, 127, 129, 150, 171, 198, 201–2

  and memorials, 171, 197–98, 211–12

  unmasking of, 200–202, 203–4, 211

  Baril, Thomas L. (pseud.), 114

  Barry, Marion Jr., 241

  Bartholomew, Harold, 70, 73, 96–97, 194

  Basie, Count, 235

  Bassett, Elaine Wharton, 216–17, 218

  Batson, Roberts, xxxv, 8, 134, 231, 233, 235, 236, 241

  Baum, Dan, 133

  Berkeley, new ordinances in, 221

  Bermuda, Joseph, 26, 70, 79–80, 121, 238

  “Bertrand, Clay” (mystery man), 8, 41–42

  Bewitched (TV), 64

  Birmingham, Alabama, church firebombed in (1963), xxx

  Birmingham News, 182

  “Black Mama White Mama” (film), 137, 140, 147, 155

  Blackmon, Richard, 224

  Black Panthers, 24, 26, 37, 123, 132

  Bob Damron’s Address Book, 16, 32, 161, 227

  Boggs, Luther Thomas, 36

  after the fire, 95, 144–46, 180

  during the fire, 71–72, 73–74, 75, 89, 186

  and Gosnell, 60, 72, 73, 89, 144–45

  as victim, xxxiii, 186, 187, 217

  BonneCarrere, John P., 215

  Book of Discipline (Methodist Church), 168

  Borstelmann, Thomas, 122

  Bourke, Pat, 91

  Bowie, David, 64

  Bradley, Tom, 171

  Brady, Alice, 184

  Brecht, Dexter, xxiii–xxvi, xxvii–xxx, xxxiii–xxxv, xxxvii–xxxviii, 244–46, 247–48, 249–52

  Breton, Rev. Paul, 155, 202

  after the fire, 143, 144, 145

  and fire victims, 144, 145–46, 148, 149, 163, 164, 166, 167, 174, 186

  and MCC of Washington, D.C., 143, 171

  and memorials, 159, 160, 169, 171, 189, 197–98

  Bridges, Ruby, 168

  Broshears, Ray, 204

  Brotherhood of Man, 32

  Broussard, [Louis] Horace:

  after the fire, 97

  during the fire, 75–76

  and Mitchell, 6, 15, 35, 36, 38, 59, 60, 67, 75–76, 181

  at Up Stairs Lounge, 59, 60, 67

  as victim, xxxiii, 80, 102, 182

  Brubeck, Dave, 235

  Bryant, Anita, 174, 228–33, 234, 236, 239

  Bugg, Dan, 103

  Bullard, Jackie, 78

  Bundy, Vernon, 8, 15

  Burton, John, 171

  Butler, Stewart:

  and activism, 232, 233, 235, 241, 242

  on afternoon of the fire, 50, 51, 52, 60, 66–67, 68, 103–4

  after the fire, 88, 114–15, 116, 152, 220, 243

  and Doolittle, 6, 51, 55–56, 57, 58–59, 66–67, 68, 85, 103–4, 170, 238

  and Duplantis, 5, 51, 52, 54–55, 57, 66–67, 103–4, 115, 170, 238

  early years of, 56–57

  and gay community, 4, 53, 54, 232, 233

  and leprosy, 56–57

  and Mardi Gras, 50

  and memorial services, 169–70, 172, 233, 249, 250, 252

  and museum exhibit, xxxv–xxxvi

  and Up Stairs Lounge, 11, 14, 58–59, 60, 66–67, 236, 243

  at Wanda’s, 85, 86

  Butler County Children’s Home, Ohio, 125, 165–66, 264

  Byrd, Phillip, 79, 87, 94, 95

  Cabildo Gallery, New Orleans, 26, 70, 121, 238

  Cabrini Playground, New Orleans, 23–24

  Café Lafitte in Exile, New Orleans, 30, 31, 50, 51–53, 133, 141, 156, 169, 177, 184

  Cajuns, 42, 43

  California Medical Facility, Vacaville, 190

  Canal Baths, New Orleans, 240

  Capote, Truman, 64

  Capplin, Jerry, 10

  Cappon, Daniel, xxxii

  Carr, Tom, 95

  Carrel, Jack, 248

  Carson, Johnny, 18

  Carter, Jimmy, 174, 229

  Carter, Troy, 247

  Catholic Church:

  absolution to fire victims by, 100, 159

  Archdiocesan Human Relations Committee, 159

  Archdiocese of New Orleans, 40, 158–59

  and gay activism, 232, 241

  homophobia in, xxxii, 128, 159, 241, 242

  Nunez funeral service in, 219

  reconciliation as divine ritual in, 214, 216

  and Up Stairs Lounge fire, xxxiv, 131, 159, 194–96

  Causeway (New Orleans), 197

  Caverns, New Orleans, 16, 50, 141

  CBS News, “The Homosexuals,” xxxii

  Cenacle Retreat House, Metairie, Louisiana, 203

  Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 239

  Charity Hospital:

  fire victims in, 94–95, 96, 102, 114, 124, 144–45, 147, 148, 159, 162, 164, 187, 211

  morgue in, 100, 101, 148, 164

  new burn unit in, 95, 144, 180, 246

  Nunez discharged from, 185, 206

  Charles, W. F., 52

  Chicago, gay activism in, 53, 119, 189, 198, 230

  Chicago Daily Defender, The, xxix, 122–23

  Chicago Gay Crusader, 189

  Chicago Tribune, 17, 118–19, 177, 230

  Choate, Rose, 184–85

  Christian Right, xxv, 234

  Christopher Street Liberation Day, New York, 53, 107, 110–11

  Christopher Street West, Los Angeles, 53, 106, 109, 217

  Church of God of Prophecy, 27

  Citizens United for Responsive Broadcasting, 200

  Citron, Alan, 233

  civil rights:

  activists in, xxix, xxx, 130

  ERA, 234

  and homosexuals, xx, xxix, xxx, xxxiii, 24, 54, 106–8, 111, 112, 119, 122, 130, 155, 156, 174, 177, 189–90, 196–99, 210, 221–22, 227–33, 235–37, 241, 243, 251

  in New Orleans, 133, 135

  and religion, 27, 130

  rollbacks of, 230

  Clarion Herald, 194–96

  Clinton, Bill, 246–47

  closet:

  anonymity sought, 16, 28–29, 61, 62, 144, 178, 221, 240, 244

  being outed involuntarily, xxxvi, 16–17, 29, 61, 102, 116, 118, 130, 142–43, 196, 233, 238, 245

  coming out on television, 248–49

  coming out voluntarily, xxxvii, 16, 29, 173, 197, 209, 231, 232, 233, 242, 247, 248–49, 253

  historic, 243

  “Out of the closets and into the streets!,” 232

  prevalence in 1970s, 119

  public officials in, 131, 171

  uses of term, xix, xxxvi, 28–31

  Club My-O-My, New Orleans, 12, 42

  Club New Orleans Baths, 47

  Cobb, Lynn, 187–88

  “Cocoa” (longshoreman), 15, 17, 149

  Coleman, Wil, 248, 251, 253, 314

  Collier, Wayne, 161

  Columbia University, gay student protests (1968), 111
<
br />   Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York, 178

  Connick, Harry, 223

  Cooley, Herbert “Hugh,” xxxiii, 6

  during the fire, 75, 77–78, 80

  and Nunez, 65, 66, 115

  at Up Stairs Lounge, 59, 65, 66, 67, 71, 115

  as victim, xxxiii, 80

  Cory, David Webster, xix

  Cosmopolitan, 18

  Costanza, Midge, 229

  Craighead, Courtney:

  after the fire, 86, 90, 91, 92–93, 127, 202–3, 243

  death of, 250

  discrimination against, 49, 143

  during the fire, 75

  family of, 142–43, 153

  and krewes, 237

  and MCC, 26, 35, 36, 59, 124, 127, 128, 202, 203, 222, 237, 245, 250

  and memorial services, 171, 249, 250

  and memories of the fire, xxvii–xxviii, xxxvii–xxxviii, 140, 244–46, 249

  outed by media stories, 142–43

  Cranston, Alan, 171

  Creole culture, 15, 28, 29, 43, 247

  Crippled Children’s Hospital, 33, 38

  Cross, Richard Robert “Mother Cross,” 32, 36, 75, 76

  “Cruisin’ the Streets” (TV), 238

  Crutchfield, Bishop Finis, 170, 173, 240

  Culotta, Joe, 200

  Cutler, Pamela, 62–63, 144, 188

  D&B Boat Rentals, 206, 208

  Dade County, Anita Bryant in, 229–33

  Dade County Commission, Miami, 228

  Daily Record (New Orleans), 88, 91

  Darling, Arthur, 233

  David, Jack, 198

  David, Mary, 126, 163–64

  Davis, Ed, 27–28, 228

  Davis, Gene, 10, 41–42, 45, 46, 85, 161, 185–86, 206

  Dean, Frank, 72

  Defense of Marriage Act (1996), 249

  de Gaulle, Charles, 7

  DeGeneres, Ellen, xxvii, 238, 248–49

  Dektor Psychological Stress Evaluation (PSE), 208–9

  DeLarverie, Stormé, 107–8

  Delery, Clayton, 137, 173–74

  Deliverance (film), 19, 63, 121–22, 137

  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) (APA), xxxi, 209–10

  Diana, Princess, xxvii

  Dickey, James, 121