Holocaust!: The Shocking Story of the Boston Cocoanut Grove Fire

On November 28, 1942, shortly after 10 p.m., a fire broke out in the Melody Lounge in the basement of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston's Bay Village. The night was full of festivity-Holy Cross had defeated the highly-favored Boston College football squad and the lounge was jammed with over 200 people. Witnesses said the fire started soon after a busboy replaced a light bulb located in the fake palm fronds covering the ceiling. In one of the worst fires in the nation, nearly 500 people lost their lives.

In this compelling narrative, Boston Globe reporter Paul Benzaquin provides a vivid and meticulously detailed account of the night of the fire and the people whose lives were irrevocably changed or snuffed out. There's the beloved cowboy movie star Buck Jones; bandleader Mickey Alpert, a one-time owner of the club; Frank Linney, the fire inspector who gave the club a clean bill of health days before the fire; Boston Police Captain Joseph Buccigross, who was off-duty and in the club at the time the fire broke out, and, not least, the nightclub's owner, Barney Welansky, who was known for his tough demeanor-a bellicose boss who hired underage teenagers and street toughs and who boasted of having close ties to the Boston mob and Boston Mayor Maurice Tobin. And, amidst the devastation, there were the countless anonymous heroes emerged, bravely assisting firefighters and rescue crews in saving lives.

Immersive and comprehensive, this remarkable work is fully indexed and complemented by a collection of photographs; Holocaust is a dramatic read not to be missed.

This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a paperback (ISBN 1648373410).