Excerpt from Report Concerning the Cocoanut Grove Fire, November 28, 1942 The Cocoanut Grove was a night club. It occupied approximately square feet and was open only during the evening hours, during which hours food and liquor were served and an entertainment program offered. The restaurant license permitting the sale of food and alcoholic beverages on the premises had been issued by the Boston Licensing Board. The application for the license for the year 1942 stated that the premises contained 100 tables, 400 chairs and 30 fixed stools. It had been in operation as a night club since 1927, at the same address, 17 Piedmont street, Boston. One previous fire was recorded as having occurred at this location, on November 2, 1931, but there was no loss of property or life, or any injuries recorded as having been caused by this fire. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Provides a minute-by-minute account of the fire in Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub in 1942.

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On Saturday night, November 28, 1942, Boston suffered its worst disaster ever. At the city's premier nightspot, the Cocoanut Grove, the largest nightclub fire in U.S. history took the lives of 492 people--nearly one of every two people on the premises. A flash of fire that started in an imitation palm tree rolled through the overcrowded club with breathtaking speed and in a mere eight minutes anyone left in the club was dead or doomed. The Grove was a classic firetrap, the product of greed and indifference on the part of the owners and the politicians who had knowingly allowed such conditions to exist. Against the backdrop of Boston politics, cronyism, and corruption, author John C. Esposito re-creates the drama of the fire and explores the public outcry that followed. In retelling the horrific events of one of America's most cataclysmic tragedies, Esposito has fashioned both an incomparably gripping narrative and a vibrant portrait of the era. But it is the intense, detailed narrative of the fire--harrowing yet compulsively readable--and the trials that followed that will stay with the reader well after they finish this remarkable book. "[Esposito] reminds us that the cautionary tale of the Cocoanut Grove is still relevant today." (New York Law Journal)