[78-L] Benzaquin ~ Cocoanut Grove

[fnarf at comcast.net]

Almost twenty years ago I lived just a block away from the site of the Cocoanut Grove, which at that time was still a parking lot. I think it still is. I had run across a big pile of Benzaquin's "Holocaust!" in hardcover on a remainder table somewhere, and became somewhat obsessed with this incident, the most famous and horrible thing that ever happened in Bay Village. I went to the trouble of looking up everyone in the neighborhood, including my apartment at that time, in the city directory. I spent many hours just walking around that block, which still seemed to emit a sense of horror. There were still people at my work who could remember that awful day, but Bostonians didn't like to talk about it much. It was an unspeakably tragic event, and the book really brought it to life. Many of the victims were not burned at all but were killed instantly where they sat by poison gas coming off the wall coverings, while hundreds perished stacked up against the fire door which had been weld
ed shut.

For me, the most fascinating thing about the aftermath of the fire was the fact that it was the first time penicillin was used on civilian burn victims -- applied topically, not orally. It was a military thing, designed to be tested on the battlefield, but when this terrifying opportunity presented itself all of a sudden they tried it. I believe it was also the first time in history a person with second- or third-degree burns over more than 50% of his body survived.

I'll have to check out the Schorow book.

--
Steve.

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com>
> At 12:48 AM 1/26/2009, Taylor wrote:
> >Among my endless "collecting" interests,  I collect and read everything I
> >can find related to the Boston Cocoanut Grove,  before,  during,  and after
> >the fire which destroyed the place on November 28,  1942.  I became
> >interested as a nine-year old in 1962 when I happened to find and read a
> >paperback of the Benzaquin book.
> 
> And I assume you've read the very well-researched book by Stephanie 
> Schorow about the Cocoanut Grove? She found much research (with my 
> help, I might add, but she's also a very well respected media 
> historian, author of a number of books, and a former journalist) 
> about a number of the people involved in the story.  I can ask her 
> what if anything she found about the employees of the club-- we did 
> find all sorts of stuff about Mickey Alpert and sort of solved the 
> Dotty Myles mystery.  
> 
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