Troy Perry, the founder of the national Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) for gay and lesbian Christians flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans immediately after the fire. Then the stories slipped into the inside pages of the paper. The fire dominated the headlines of The Times-Picayune and The States-Item for several days. The burned body of pastor Bill Larson was left for hours where he died trying to escape through the window bars. The New Orleans Metropolitan Community Church lost its pastor, a deacon and a quarter of its congregation in the fire. Some survivors were left disfigured, badly burned and missing fingers. Three more later died from severe burns and injuries. The fire lasted less than 20 minutes, but it flared so furiously it claimed 29 lives that night. Rasmussen saved many lives as he found men in the smoke-filled room and led them to a little-known exit in the back.
#1973 GAY BAR NEW ORLEANS WINDOWS#
Some of them tried to squeeze through bars spaced 13 inches apart that blocked the floor-to-ceiling windows a few were able to jump to the sidewalk. The fire roared into the room and up to the ceiling, torching the drapes, wallpaper and everything in the room. Luther Boggs opened the door to an entrance stairwell engulfed in flames. Sunday, June 24, when there was a long ring of the downstairs buzzer. There was a group gathered at the piano at around 8 p.m. There also was a poster of Mark Spitz wearing a swimsuit and his Olympic gold medals.Įsteve installed a baby grand piano, and many nights patrons sat around the piano and sang along. Red flocked wallpaper covered some of the walls, and the Cosmopolitan centerfold featuring Burt Reynolds, nude on a bearskin rug, hung behind the red Formica-topped bar. Long drapes hid pipes and other unattractive features. The space previously housed a bar with a gritty reputation, and when Esteve opened Up Stairs in October 1970, he created a cleaner, friendlier place. Owner Phil Esteve and bartender Buddy Rasmussen started the promotion to attract patrons to the second-floor gay bar at Iberville and Chartres streets. The weekly "beer bust" allowed patrons to pay $1 for a glass and each table had a pitcher that was refilled as long as the bust lasted. The Up Stairs Lounge was usually crowded on Sunday nights. Will Coviello on the musical premiering on the 40th anniversary of New Orleans' deadliest fire
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This is a tragic story in gay history that deserves to be remembered.įire at the Up Stairs Lounge: a musical That sounds morbid but it will make my trip to the historic French Quarter far more memorable. I'll see it every day I'm in New Orleans and think about the people who suffered and died there. I'm presuming it's a few doors down in the same block. Quarter House is at 129 Chartres and the former Up Stairs was at 141 Chartres. I wondered how close it might be-I wanted to see the location and pay my respects, so to speak-so I did a little more research. I'm staying at a place called the Quarter House on Rue de Chartres. Later this summer I'm visiting New Orleans for the first time. It mentioned the Up Stairs was on Chartres St., though no specific street number was specified. One detail in the article struck me as strangely coincidental on a personal level. There's also Wikipedia article on the topic if you're squeamish.) (Warning: The OP's link contains some very disturbing images. As a result, Cousin was put on death row at the age of 16, but the conviction and death sentence was overturned after four years, in 1999. In the case of Shareef Cousin, Connick's attorneys withheld a key witness statement from the defense, arguing that the prosecution were under no legal obligation to disclose such information.
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John Simerman, in a recent article in the Times-Picayune, reaffirms that, “the sheer number of trials in Orleans Parish criminal court distorts the numbers.” Simerman continues, “In his last five years in office, the courthouse at Tulane and Broad handled nearly 2,200 trials, more than a third of the criminal trials in Louisiana.” Indeed, his office tried about 1,000 cases per year, as compared to the approximate 100 cases per year that the Garrison administration tried. "According to the Innocence Project, a national organization that represents incarcerated criminals claiming innocence, 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish during Connick's 30-year tenure as DA have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and 19 have had their sentences overturned or reduced as a result." However, Connick has recently defended himself against these claims. There are several allegations of systemic misconduct by Connick and his prosecutors. He made life for us gays living and playing in the French Quarter at the time miserable. at the time of this fire was none other than Harry Connick Sr, a homophobic slime ball who committed many "questionable" acts while in office.