LA Upstairs Lounge Fire, French Quarter, New Orleans - Jun 24 1973

[folieadeuxnola]

The Massacre has remained unsolved for 45 Years

New Evidence Shows That During the 1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson, Gays Had to Take Rescue Efforts Into Their Own Hands

UpStairs Lounge, in New Orleans on June 24, 1973. Before the Orlando mass shooting in 2016, it had been the largest massacre of gay people in U.S. history, leaving 32 dead and 15 injured.

UpStairs Lounge arson attack - Wikipedia

The UpStairs Lounge arson attack occurred on June 24, 1973 at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States.[1] Thirty-two people died as a result of fire or smoke inhalation. The official cause is still listed as "undetermined origin".[2] The most likely suspect, a gay man named Roger Nunez who had been ejected from the bar earlier in the day, was never charged and took his own life in November 1974.[3][4][5] No evidence has ever been found the arson was motivated by hatred or overt homophobia.[6] Until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, the UpStairs Lounge arson attack was the deadliest known attack on a gay club in U.S. history.

The worst crime against the gay community you've never heard of -- until now

This story seemed to fit a familiar mold. In 1973, an arsonist set fire to a popular gay bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter called the UpStairs Lounge, killing 32 people and injuring many more. The fire effectively outed what was previously a deeply closeted Deep South gay community and exposed, in the city’s response to the tragedy, pervasive prejudices in the famously live-and-let-live Big Easy.

Watch a New Doc on One of the Deadliest U.S. Attacks on LGBT People

Prejudice and Pride, a 30-minute film, was posted online Thursday in advance of the 45th anniversary of the fire at the UpStairs Lounge, a New Orleans gay bar where an arsonist killed 32 people and injured many others on June 24, 1973. Until the Pulse masscare in 2016, it was the deadliest attack on the queer community in U.S. history

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Tour | Upstairs Lounge Fire | New Orleans Historical

The Upstairs Lounge had served as the home of a religious denomination, the Metropolitan Community Church; however, no church would allow a prayer service for those who died, except for the pastor of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Father Bill Richardson held a small prayer service for the fire victims on June 25, 1973, for about 100 people, and he was severely criticized for it.


On July 1, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church held a larger prayer service and memorial for the victims of the Upstairs Lounge; almost 300 people attended. This memorial was more public than

the one at St. George’s, and many journalists and photographers waited outside the church waited outside the church to expose members of the closeted gay community in New Orleans.


Stewart Butler attended the July 1st services, and he remembers that everyone was offered the option of exiting through a back door of the church in order to avoid being potential stigma and harassment from affiliation with the memorial. No one chose this option; instead, everyone decided to face the media and present a unified front to honor those who had died in the fire.


In the decade after the fire, a museum exhibit presented the history and contributions of the New Orleans Fire Department, but the tragedy of the Upstairs Lounge, with the largest number of fire-related deaths in city history, was not included. In 2003, after thirty years of neglect from the larger community, a plaque dedicated to the victims was installed on the sidewalk in front of the door that led to the Upstairs Lounge.


The plaque is small and embedded in the sidewalk, so not many people notice it. The fire is featured in some city tours, but these are mostly ghost tours that focus on supernatural phenomena instead of emphasizing the victims’ humanity and acknowledging the cultural and political effect of the fire. Such tours do not mention the implications that the fire had for the city’s LGBT community. Many believe that in the long term, the Upstairs Lounge massacre served as New Orleans’ version of the Stonewall Rebellion in that it catalyzed LGBT community unification, organization, and resistance.

The Upstairs Lounge Fire was the largest mass killing of LGBT people in United States history until the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016. The Pulse tragedy led to an outpouring of LGBT solidarity worldwide, and a renewed interest in the history of the Upstairs Lounge Fire.

These stories are shared in memory of those who perished in the Upstairs Lounge fire:

Joseph Henry Adams
Reginald Adams, Jr.
Guy D. Anderson
Joe William Bailey
Luther Boggs
Louis Horace Broussard
Herbert Dean Cooley
Donald Walter Dunbar
Adam Roland Fontenot
David Stuart Gary
Horace "Skip" Getchell
John Thomas Golding, Sr.
Gerald Hoyt Gordon
Glenn Richard "Dick" Green
James Walls Hambrick
Kenneth Paul Harrington
Rev. William R. Larson (MCC Pastor)
Ferris LeBlanc
Robert "Bob" Lumpkin
Leon Richard Maples
George Steven Matyi
Clarence Josephy McCloskey, Jr.
Duane George "Mitch" Mitchell (MCC Assistant Pastor)
Larry Stratton
Mrs. Willie Inez Warren
Eddie Hosea Warren
James Curtis Warren
Dr. Perry Lane Waters, Jr.
Douglas Maxwell Williams

Three unknown white males buried in New Orleans’ Potter’s Field remain unidentified.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

TY BayouBelle, Did not know there were (3) males still unidentified

Three unknown white males buried in New Orleans’ Potter’s Field remain unidentified.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

TY BayouBelle, Did not know there were (3) males still unidentified

Three unknown white males buried in New Orleans’ Potter’s Field remain unidentified.

Thanks for starting the thread. I wonder about those three unidentified victims. Were they drifters or perhaps family didn't want to claim their loved ones because of the stigma in 1973.

 

[MarziPanda]

It's sad that nobody seems to want to identify those three men - I doubt LE are putting much effort into it. There's a good chance their families knew who they were and didn't want to claim them, but I also think there's a chance their families may have reported them missing without ever stopping to think they could have been victims of this fire, because the families didn't know they were gay. They may have reported them missing before the fire if the men left to be themselves in New Orleans, or long after if they didn't hear from the men for a long time. But as BayouBelle said, it's very possible that the families knew but didn't want anything to do with them. Very sad. We'll probably never know. I'm glad we've made so much progress since then. If I died in a gay club, my family wouldn't hesitate to claim me, even though most of them don't know I'm bisexual.

RIP to all of these victims.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Family solves mystery after learning uncle died in infamous Up Stairs Lounge Fire 40-plus years ago in New Orleans

It’s January 2015 when Bailey sits at his computer to Google his uncle’s name.

“I typed in his name and did a little search, and my computer screen lit up. There were five pages of ‘Ferris LeBlanc,’ and that’s when I found The Up Stairs Lounge fire …

“I was crying and I said, ‘Mom, I found out what happened, and it’s horrible.”

Ferris LeBlanc was among the dead, his body identified by someone who recognized a ring he was wearing.

The authorities had little to go on. With a name like LeBlanc, they may have assumed that he was a local and that the family was ashamed to claim the body. But no one in California was ever contacted.

(Much more at link)

 

[Betty P]

Thanks for starting this thread. I read about this tragedy a few years ago and could have sworn there was a thread about it here somewhere. Guess not.

Thanks for the updates, BayouBelle_LA. Last time I was in NO, I forgot to visit this place, but will try to remember to go by there next time I visit. It sounds like it was such a nice club, a positive force in the community that served it's members so well in a time when society wasn't very accepting of homosexuality. A real safe haven. It should be remembered for what it accomplished as well as the horrific tragedy it's members experienced.

 

[Betty P]

Family solves mystery after learning uncle died in infamous Up Stairs Lounge Fire 40-plus years ago in New Orleans

It’s January 2015 when Bailey sits at his computer to Google his uncle’s name.

“I typed in his name and did a little search, and my computer screen lit up. There were five pages of ‘Ferris LeBlanc,’ and that’s when I found The Up Stairs Lounge fire …

“I was crying and I said, ‘Mom, I found out what happened, and it’s horrible.”

Ferris LeBlanc was among the dead, his body identified by someone who recognized a ring he was wearing.

The authorities had little to go on. With a name like LeBlanc, they may have assumed that he was a local and that the family was ashamed to claim the body. But no one in California was ever contacted.

(Much more at link)

What a heartbreaking story about Ferris LeBlanc and his family. I'm so glad they finally discovered his fate.

“We needed to be able to tell people and spread the word about our family’s story, as well as his story, so that they know what really happened, that he left the family and we didn’t leave him, we didn’t disown him,” Bailey said. “He took off. He was loved.

“There never was an issue with him being homosexual — at the time we didn’t use the word gay — the family never ever cared.”

I can see how it would have been difficult for them to learn of his death back then. They lived in CA and probably didn't read the news coverage that mentioned his name. They had no idea he had left CA and moved to New Orleans.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Thanks for starting the thread. I wonder about those three unidentified victims. Were they drifters or perhaps family didn't want to claim their loved ones because of the stigma in 1973.

Your welcome ... I knew of the crime that was committed did not realize until today there was no thread on it. TY for adding in all the additional information BayouBelle.

 

[Betty P]

View attachment 136613

The Massacre has remained unsolved for 45 Years

New Evidence Shows That During the 1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson, Gays Had to Take Rescue Efforts Into Their Own Hands

UpStairs Lounge, in New Orleans on June 24, 1973. Before the Orlando mass shooting in 2016, it had been the largest massacre of gay people in U.S. history, leaving 32 dead and 15 injured.

UpStairs Lounge arson attack - Wikipedia

The UpStairs Lounge arson attack occurred on June 24, 1973 at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States.[1] Thirty-two people died as a result of fire or smoke inhalation. The official cause is still listed as "undetermined origin".[2] The most likely suspect, a gay man named Roger Nunez who had been ejected from the bar earlier in the day, was never charged and took his own life in November 1974.[3][4][5] No evidence has ever been found the arson was motivated by hatred or overt homophobia.[6] Until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, the UpStairs Lounge arson attack was the deadliest known attack on a gay club in U.S. history.

The worst crime against the gay community you've never heard of -- until now

This story seemed to fit a familiar mold. In 1973, an arsonist set fire to a popular gay bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter called the UpStairs Lounge, killing 32 people and injuring many more. The fire effectively outed what was previously a deeply closeted Deep South gay community and exposed, in the city’s response to the tragedy, pervasive prejudices in the famously live-and-let-live Big Easy.

Watch a New Doc on One of the Deadliest U.S. Attacks on LGBT People

Prejudice and Pride, a 30-minute film, was posted online Thursday in advance of the 45th anniversary of the fire at the UpStairs Lounge, a New Orleans gay bar where an arsonist killed 32 people and injured many others on June 24, 1973. Until the Pulse masscare in 2016, it was the deadliest attack on the queer community in U.S. history

In the documentary at your link above, it sounds like witnesses knew the man who set the fire, Roger Dale Nunez. Police brought him in to question him, but didn't get far. They let him go and he later committed suicide.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Here's another documentary done in 2015.
Upstairs Inferno (2015) - IMDb

On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar located on the edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. The fire ultimately killed 32 people and severely injured countless others. For over 40 years, it was considered the "Largest Gay Mass Murder in U.S. History". With exclusive interviews from survivors, family/friends of victims and witnesses, along with long lost artifacts, newsreel footage and photos, UPSTAIRS INFERNO vividly examines this oft-forgotten story and gets inside the hearts and minds of a handful of vibrant people who experienced one of the most important and underreported moments in LGBT History. Written by Camina Entertainment

There was a special commemorative screening of this movie at the Broad Theater last night in New Orleans.

Family members of Mr. Ferries Leblanc (story in my post #6) were going to be there.

Upstairs Inferno 45th Anniv Commemorative Screening and Panel @ The Broad Theater, New Orleans [23 June]

 

[Gruffin]

The fire is very similar to the Blue Bird Cafe fire that killed 37 in Montreal less than a year earlier, on September 1, 1972. Both involve drinking establishments in big cities that have a mix of English and French culture, with flammable substances poured on or near the base of the entrance stairway, probably by angry intoxicated individuals refused entrance and further alcohol.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

45 years after UpStairs Lounge fire, memorial offers something like peace for 1 family

When Farris Jerome LeBlanc went missing from his home in California in the early 1970s, his family was heartbroken and confused. Decades later, they learned he was one of 32 men killed in an arson attack at a French Quarter gay bar, the UpStairs Lounge. On Sunday (June 24), three years after discovering his fate, Farris LeBlanc's sister, Marilyn LeBlanc, was finally able to attend a memorial service for her long-lost brother.

"I am at a loss for words," Marilyn LeBlanc said after the memorial at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, which marked the 45th anniversary of the Upstairs Lounge fire. "It was so beautiful, it was touching. Very, very touching."

"This was a memorial for all the victims, but in our minds, it was for Farris."

Marilyn LeBlanc, now 88, traveled from her home in Redding, California, to attend the memorial service. She was joined by her son, Skip Bailey, and his wife Lori, as well as about 200 other attendees who gathered to remember the tragedy that, until the 2015 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, was the deadliest single attack on the LGBT community.

Due to the stigmas associated with homosexuality at the time of the fire, some of the victims' remains went unclaimed because their families were unwilling to step forward. Identifying the bodies was difficult, according to police, because many of the patrons carried fake IDs to protect their identities if the club was raided.

Today, three men remain unidentified.

"They never told us Farris died," Marilyn LeBlanc said Sunday. "Everybody assumed we never claimed his body because we were ashamed, but that is just not true. We would have, but we simply did not know."

 

[folieadeuxnola]

UpStairs Lounge book details devastating 1973 fire at New Orleans gay bar

On Sunday June 24, 1973, dozens of patrons had gathered at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans when an arsonist set fire to the building. Within minutes, the flames engulfed the bar, killing 32 patrons. Now author Robert W. Fieseler has come out with a new book "Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation," that details the fire and its aftermath:

 

[Murkywaters]

Unknown Victim of Deadly 1973 Arson in Gay Bar Finally Identified

Larry had blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a slender build. He was a “soft-spoken, gentle person,” according to his sister, Nancy Frost Spence, 58. She referred to him as her “fun brother.” His niece Lynette described Larry in a similar way: “Goofy ... playful. He loved to play with the kids.”

Larry was especially close to Ruth, Lynette’s mom. “They were each other’s favorites. My mom loved him,” Lynette recalled. After being diagnosed with lymphoma leukemia, Ruth, along with her husband and children, moved from Michigan to Georgia to live with her in-laws. There, her mother-in-law helped raise Lynette and her two younger sisters and served as Ruth’s caregiver.

 

[shadowishes]

As the 50th anniversary of the Upstairs Lounge arson approaches, there are still 2 unidentified white males among the 32 people who perished in the fire. I want to try and give their names back.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Upstairs Lounge arson, here is an overview of the case:

It was the last day of Pride in New Orleans, LA, and the Upstairs Lounge had a "beer bust" event going on from 5:00-7:00 PM. After the event ended, about 60 to 90 people stayed, listening to to the piano being played and discussing an upcoming church fundraiser. Around 7:56 PM, the downstairs door buzzer went off repeatedly, and the bartender asked a man named Luther Boggs went to open the door. When Boggs opened the door, he found the front stairwell engulfed in flames and smelling strongly of lighter fluid. There was a rush to escape the fire through the windows and any other means, as the stairwell to the front door downstairs was the main point of entry. 32 people did not make it out of the building.

There was one suspect identified, Roger Dale Nunez, who the police attempted to question; however, he had a grand mal seizure during the interview and had to be transported to the hospital. As a result, the police never ended up interviewing Nunez, who had apparently been a patron of the bar and had been asked to leave due to his behavior. It is believed that Nunez was a gay man who was struggling with his identity and internalized homophobia, and that at the time he was asked to leave the Upstairs Lounge, was just beginning to become comfortable with being a member of the gay community.

A Walgreens clerk indicated that shortly before the fire, a man fitting Nunez's description had been in the store seeking out a 4-ounce bottle of Ronson lighter fluid and had ended up purchasing a 7-ounce bottle, as they were out of the 4-ounce bottles. Survivors of the fire have gone on record saying that they believe Nunez to have been responsible for the fire.

Due to the length of time that the 2 unidentified men have remained nameless, I know that it will be a challenge to try and identify them and would appreciate any help you all may have to offer, since I am quite new to attempting to return people's names to them. If anyone has any starting points or wants to work on this as well, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CCJD]

Article from November 15 2018

Over a month after the deadly fire, four bodies were still unclaimed: those of the three unidentified victims and Ferris LeBlanc. According to local laws, unclaimed bodies had to be buried as "indigents." On July 31, 1973, those four were buried in unmarked graves at a New Orleans cemetery, identified in recent years as Resthaven Memorial Park. Sadly, the exact location on the property remains a mystery.

Who are these three unidentified men?

It's an unsettling question that has haunted the community for decades. However, after 45 years, we may finally have an answer, at least for one of the three unknown victims.

Unknown Victim of Deadly 1973 Arson in Gay Bar Finally Identified

Forty-five years after the UpStairs Lounge fire, the largest gay mass murder prior to the Pulse shooting, one of the "unclaimed" victims has finally been ID'd.

www.advocate.com

 

[CCJD]

Article from June 30, 2020 with list of victims, the last two listed as Unidentified White Male

The UpStairs Lounge: Remembering One of New Orleans' Most Horrific Tragedies

On the final day of Pride Weekend in 1973 -- one of the deadliest attacks on a gay club in American history (second only to the 2016 Orlando “Pulse” nightclub shooting) took place in New Orleans.

www.verylocal.com

 

[airportwoman]

There was a really good book that came out (no pun intended) about this disaster a few years ago.

 

[phantomstrider]

The unidentified victims don’t seem to have a namus or doe network profile.