Headlines of the Past – Nov. 30, 1942: Cocoanut Grove fire, local residents perish – Worcester Telegram

The continuation of a yearlong series

My hands are trembling all over this typewriter keyboard as the reaction sets in to a night of almost indescribable horror.

These were the opening words of the breaking news story written by Gardner native and Associated Press staffer Harry C. Glasheen, reporting of the events of 77 years ago this week in Boston one of the most horrific tragedies in the history of the commonwealth.

It was Nov. 28, 1942, the night of the devastating fire at Bostons Cocoanut Grove nightclub where some 492 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured.

On that Saturday night, the club was jammed with approximately 1,000 occupants, many of whom were soldiers preparing to leave overseas for military duty. According to legend, a lighted match, used by a 16-year-old busboy dispatched to replace a light bulb, was the cause of the tragedy.

History has documented the tragic tale and the chaos that ensued, bodies stacked nearly four and five deep as the panic-stricken throng attempted to wedge through the clogged revolving doors. It was later learned that possibly 300 of those killed could have been saved had the doors been able to swing outward.

Glasheen, a newspaperman who worked previously out of Gardner, Springfield and Lowell, was the son of Henry and Mary Glasheen of Vernon Street and nephew of longtime Gardner High teacher Minnie Glasheen.

He worked in an era when the newspaper man did not just record the events that were happening, rather he became a part of the action as his first-person narrative was documented in the newspaper.

I can still hear the screams of the dying. I can still recall the stories of the living torches running wildly about, trying to get away from the swift-reaching flames and suffocating smoke, Glasheen wrote. I can still see those 30 or more bodies huddled on the floor of a garage, transformed into a morgue, some of them so horribly burned it will be difficult ever to identify them positively, he wrote.

Although the fire occurred some 50 miles east of Greater Gardner, this area did not escape its brushes with the tragic event.

Two former Baldwinville residents 27-year-old Bartlett P. Stuart and 40-year-old Clyde C. Clark both perished in the fire. Stuart was at the Grove attending a farewell dinner for a fellow worker from the Lynn General Electric plant, while Clark and his wife were both enjoying a night out on the town with their daughter, Ann Marie.

Clark and his wife, Mabel, both died from their injuries suffered in the fire, while their daughter was also injured but survived.

The nightclub, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy, was located at 17 Piedmont St. in what is now Bostons Bay Village neighborhood. Prior to the time of the fire, it had been expanded with the addition of a lounge that opened onto an adjacent street.

Decorated in tropical style, the restaurant, bars and lounges were adorned with flammable paper palm trees. It was learned after the tragedy that the place was a virtual fire trap. Cloth draperies covered the ceiling and other festive decorations obscured the exit signs.

Men and women were reported to have clawed through the smoke in an effort to get out of the building. Another exits panic bar had been welded shut while a large plate glass window, that could have provided another access out, was boarded up.

In the aftermath, bodies were found piled up behind the welded exit door. Still another exit was hidden by draperies. Autopsies indicated that, in addition to the fire itself, the leak of the refrigerant methyl chloride (also called xhloromethane) may have also contributed to the high death toll.

It was impossible to get through the entrance immediately because firemen and volunteers were coming out of the building in a staggering stream with the dead and dying, Glasheen continued. At first there was a shortage of stretchers and it was necessary to use overcoats to carry out the victims.

Former Gardner City Councilor William S. Tappin, a call member of the Gardner Fire Department, was one of the volunteer workers at the tragic scene. He and his wife had accompanied another couple to the Boston College-Holy Cross football game earlier that day. They were staying at the nearby Bradford Hotel when the fire alarm sounded.

Tappin and the other man left their wives at the hotel and rushed over to the Cocoanut Grove when the second alarm sounded, to help firemen pull hose lines from fire trucks.

The longtime veteran of many years with Engine 2 of the Gardner Fire Department said that the entire experience was the worst sight he had ever seen.

I half leaned over into the building to grasp bodies dragged to the window by firemen. These were hoisted through the window and onto waiting stretchers, Glasheen noted in his story. One Catholic priest asked me to notify him of any of the living. Of the 20 or more which I helped take out at this point I saw signs of life in only two. We covered one man who looked to be dead and as the blanket was pulled up over his face he shouted, Dont smother me.

However, in the face of this unspeakable tragedy there was also a miracle of sorts. That miracle came earlier in the day, although at the time it hung over Boston like an ominous cloud.

The nations No. 1-ranked college football team, Boston College, faced lowly Holy Cross in their annual rival game at Fenway Park. A victory by the unbeaten Eagles over the 4-4-1 Crusaders would send them to the Sugar Bowl game.

However, the gods did not smile down on B.C. that day or so it had appeared as Holy Cross came away with an improbable 55-12 victory; a real old-fashioned whipping.

As a result of that devastating loss, a disconsolate Boston College team canceled plans they had for a victory party. A large horseshoe table in the middle of the first-floor room of the Cocoanut Grove had been reserved for the expected victorious gathering.

Among the players on that Boston College team was Gardners John Dubzinski, captain of the 1939 Wildcat football team, whose life was spared that night. In addition, Johns brother, Walter, and his wife, Ruth, were in town for the game. B.C. alum Walt would have likely also joined in the proceedings had the Eagles been victorious.

Instead, the Boston College players opted to lick their wounds at a smaller venue, booking a rather sedate gathering at the Park Plaza Hotel.

From nearby East Templeton, Leon Fredette also attended the Boston College game that day and hoped to also celebrate the victory at the Grove. However, at the last minute the disappointed Eagles fan also canceled his reservation and decided to head for home.

When the last body was reported out, I looked around the room of the ground floor. It was shambles, Glasheen further reported. Chairs and tables were upended, crockery and glassware were strewn everywhere, the same as if a tornado had whistled through the room.

In the years following the fire, a reform of fire codes and safety standards across the country were enforced.

Laws were immediately enacted in public establishments to ban flammable decorations and inward-swinging exit doors. In addition, exit signs had to be visible at all times, and all revolving doors used for egress had to be flanked by at least one normal, outward-swinging door.

In 1993, in the Bay Village Neighborhood where the Cocoanut Grove once stood, a bronze memorial was set into the brick ground on Piedmont Street and dedicated where the club formerly existed.

It is a mute reminder of a very dark day in our states history and a sad chapter of one of the most tragic events ever experienced in these parts.

Next week: Pearl Harbor bombed (December 1941).

Comments and suggestions can be sent to Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing to Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Road, Sandwich, MA 02563.

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Headlines of the Past - Nov. 30, 1942: Cocoanut Grove fire, local residents perish - Worcester Telegram