A lesser-known tragedy from gay history looks set to make it to the big screen.
A fire that destroyed the Up Stairs Lounge in New Orleans in 1973 is regarded as the largest mass slaying of gay people in the US until Pulse in 2016. Thirty-two people lost their lives in the inferno.
Despite this, news of the incident quickly faded from the news. This was largely because the victims were gay.
There’s an excellent 2015 documentary about the incident on Amazon Prime called Up Stairs Inferno.
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Author Robert Fieseler also brought attention to the tragedy in a 2018 book, Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation.
That book is now the basis of a planned movie about the tragedy.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears has joined the project as a producer. He is also allowing some of his songs to be used on the soundtrack. Shears divides his time between London and a home in New Orleans. He has recently reunited with his Scissor Sisters bandmates and has also dipped his toes into movies, with a role in this year’s gay biker movie, Pillion.
Filmmakers Colby Holt and Sam Probst (Ganymede) will write and direct the film, which has the working title of Tinderbox.
Fellow producer Cory Thompson, of Rewind Artists, said, “Tinderbox is exactly the kind of project we’re passionate about developing at Rewind Artists—stories that are both artistically ambitious and culturally significant. Robert’s book is extraordinary, and from the moment Colby and Sam shared their vision for the adaptation, I knew this was a film we wanted to help bring to life. Jake’s involvement only strengthens an already incredible creative team, and we’re excited to continue building the project together.”
The Up Stairs Lounge fire
Despite the loss of life, the Up Stairs Lounge fire has been largely forgotten outside of Louisiana.
It happened at a time when politicians were far less likely to condemn the deaths of LGBTI people. Indeed, it was decades before the city of New Orleans erected a permanent memorial to this tragic event.
The Up Stairs Lounge, at 604 Iberville and Chartres, was a gay bar on the edge of New Orleans’ French Quarter. It was on the first floor of a corner building, at the top of a staircase – hence its name. The bar was launched in 1970, when it was taken over by a gay former sailor called Phil Esteve.
Despite being a little further away from the district’s other gay bars, it built itself a loyal following. One room had a stage, and the team began to host camp, drag melodramas that they dubbed ‘Nelly Dramas’.
Regulars remember it as more like a social club than a cruise bar. The live entertainment and Sunday beer bust made it more ‘a gathering place of friends,’ according to one former regular.
The theatre bar also made it attractive to another crowd. The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) was launched as a specifically LGBTI-friendly church in San Francisco in the 1960s.
When a chapter of the MCC opened in New Orleans, it held its small services in the theatre room of the Up Stairs Lounge. These Sunday services began in May 1971. The MCC soon moved into its own premises, but many of its congregants continued the tradition of attending the Sunday Beer Blast at Up Stairs Lounge after their service.
Many were in attendance on the fateful Sunday in 1973 when the bar was destroyed.
Beer Blast
On the afternoon of Sunday 24 June 1973, the Up Stairs Lounge was busy for its weekly beer bust.
Those present remember that someone kept ringing the door buzzer. A regular, Luther Boggs, went to open the door to the bar, which was at the top of the stairwell leading down to the street.
As soon as he opened the door, fire literally poured into the room.
The stairwell had been decorated with glitzy drapes. It was lined with an old, extremely combustible carpet (flammability regulations only came into force in 1971). When the carpet and old wood panelling caught ablaze, the stairwell acted as a chimney, funnelling fire upwards.
The bar itself was similarly decorated with old furnishings and other combustibles. Fire swept through the room in seconds.
Because the inferno originated on the main staircase, most customers had no idea how to get out.
“It was pandemonium instantly when the fire came into the bar. And it was the end of the beer bust, so people had had lots to drink,” remembers one.
One regular, Buddy Rasmussen, who’d previously worked with the Fire Division in the Air Force, had some emergency training. He managed to lead around 25 people to safety through a fire exit in the theatre room. However, although he knew the location of the second exit, most of the customers did not. The exit was hidden behind the stage set.
Others rushed for the bar’s windows. However, these had bars across them to ensure people didn’t accidentally fall through them. Some people managed to push through some of the bars, but many others didn’t. The greatest number of bodies were later found next to the windows – piled up against one another.
One regular, Duane ‘Mitch’ Mitchell, was among those led to safety by Rasmussen. However, when he realized his partner was still inside, he rushed back to find him.
The FBI later found the charred skeletons of the two men on top of each other.
City’s reaction
When a tragedy befalls a city, you expect officials to seek justice and pledge support for victims. But this was a gay bar in the southern US in 1973. One high-ranking policeman told the press the bar was frequented by “thieves, burglars and queers.”
Most of those present at the bar were not openly gay. One survivor, Mike Moreau, recalls having to go to work today and pretend he didn’t know about the inferno. He feared he would be sacked if his employer knew.
Both the city Mayor, Victor H. Schiro, and the governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards, thought it a political risk, or simply inappropriate, to issue a statement acknowledging the suffering the fire had caused. Neither did local Archbishop Philip Hannan.
There was no local day of mourning declared. No Roman Catholic churches would host a memorial service in the aftermath of the tragedy. The mother of one of the deceased even refused to claim his body, so shocked was she by the news coverage of her homosexual son.
Who burned the Up Stairs Lounge?
Fire Investigators immediately suspected someone started the fire deliberately. Police found an empty can of lighter fluid near the bottom of the stairwell. It was purchased a block away at a local Walgreens.
Twenty-six-year-old ‘hustler’, Rodger Dale Nunez, from Abbeville, Louisiana, had reportedly been causing trouble with patrons in the bar earlier in the evening.
A regular took objection to his behaviour, and a confrontation followed. He punched Nunez in the face, knocking him to the floor. Nunez was thrown out of the bar and, according to one witness, threatened to “burn you all out.”
It’s now thought that Nunez himself was gay and wrestling with his own internalized homophobia. He married a woman shortly after the fire, but when she was interviewed by police, she told them they had never consummated the marriage. They slept separately. Nunez had told her he was gay after their wedding.
Nunez was interviewed shortly after the tragedy by the fire marshal’s investigators. He denied having anything to do with the fire. However, during the interview, he had a grand mal seizure.
He was shortly after diagnosed with a brain tumor. He took his own life in November 1974, before ever being interviewed by police. Many believe he was responsible for the tragedy. Some people who knew him said he admitted it after drinking, but would deny it when sober. They say it was likely an attempt to scare customers rather than harm them.
It wasn’t until 40 years later, in 2013, that a permanent memorial was placed on the sidewalk outside the building.
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