Polygon, the Dancing Bear

Occasional notes on politics, history, technology, architecture,
and the life of a county clerk

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Current entries

Sunday, May 28, 2006, 12:21 pm

Beverly Hills Supper Club. On this day, 29 years ago, a huge fire at a northern Kentucky nightclub killed 165 people. Here's what I wrote about it a couple of years ago:

When my wife was growing up in Northern Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club was a nightclub and a familiar venue for high school proms, wedding receptions, and so on. Many famous performers appeared there over the years. The original building was built in 1937, but it had been greatly expanded over the years with little or no safety inspection or enforcement. It postdated Prohibition, but locals thought of it as an old speakeasy, and it was said to be a headquarters for illegal gambling.

On May 28, 1977, a fire broke out in the building, apparently caused by faulty aluminum wiring. The cheap building materials burned rapidly and generated toxic fumes. In the vast, crowded Cabaret Room, the exits were unmarked and access to them was constricted.

About two thousand people escaped from the building that night, but 165 died — most of them in the Cabaret Room.

Wikipedia has an article about the fire. I had not known about Walter Bailey, a teenage busboy who saved hundreds of lives. More than a thousand people were packed into the Cabaret Room, watching a comedy act, unaware of the fire raging at the other end of the building. Bailey ran down the long hallway, jumped on stage, grabbed a microphone, warned the audience to evacuate, and pointed out the exits. Most of the crowd did escape safely. Two minutes after Bailey's warning, fire and thick smoke exploded into the room.

See the comment section below where a number of people have posted their memories of that night.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

Comments:

Laura, 5/29/2004: It looks like the poor Bohrer and Fryman families were completely wiped out in this fire, not to mention countless parents...What a haunting tragedy.
Gene Fuller, 7/9/2004: The Fryman family was devastated. The daughter was in my home room at Harrison County High School. We had already lost a young man from our home room in December 1976. He died when the car he was riding in was struck by a train one week before Christmas. This event really hit hard. Our homeroom teacher called Tracey's name during roll call the first day back from the holiday. She just stopped and looked at all of us. I will never forget when she said "I am so, so sorry. I just am ..... She then ran from the room crying. R.I.P.
Jody Ashcraft, 8/9/2004: My sister and her husband were supposed to go to the show that night. I had just recently had a baby and could not get out to go there, but I remember calling her house and getting no answer. The horror that those people went through was unreal and thank God my sisters son got sick so she was at the hospital......safe. I felt relieved , but sick at the same time that all of these people from everywhere were gone. Thanks to the brave fire fighters that gave there all to do what they could. I will never forget the brave people that died that night, you will be missed.
Michael J. Coulter Coburn, 8/23/2004: Orville Coulter was my grandfather. He was a member of the "Tri-State Roadrunners" He took me with him on a trip to the UK. I am told that my mannerisms and expresions are just like him. I was 15 when he died at the Beverly Hills fire. He was so anxious for me to get my drivers license so we could go back to Maryland where he had been so long, and visit friends. His Wife Lucylle died in '74. These were my grandparents and my friends. My life.

I was a paperboy in 1977 and was delivering the Columbus Dispatch to Mrs. Phillips when she met me at the door. Strange to see her at 6am on a Sunday. My mother had gotten a call from Millie Fowler (her husband was killed too) and called some of the people on my routelooking for me. Mrs. P told me at the door "you need to get home". My father was driving me around because he is a good father and 200 Columbus Dispatches take a car to deliver. I had no idea that Grandad was there but my father knew. We finished the route and went home.

To this day I will think of memorial day as the day my grandad died. I am not sad anymore though. I have him in me, I have the Roadrunners in me. I have memories that I can share with my family and friends that will pass beyond me to future generations. SO My grandad is still here and will always be with us. And this forum allows his legacy to be carried forward. I thank you for the opportunity and wish you all peace and contentment. Remember Orville Coulter and remember the lives of all those we lost and cherished so much. They are alive in us always.
Dave, 11/10/2005: My parents were there that night, after the fire, helping victims.
Terry, 11/12/2005: I was in Cincinnati over the weekend & decided to drive to Southgate to see where the supper club was located. I wasnt sure if something had been built there or not. I never really found it. I drove along US 27 several times. Back & forth thinking I might see some type of monumuent or marker. I went past the Evergreen cemetary. The exit that I took off of 471 was Ft Thomas/Southgate. Was I in the vicinity of the supper club? Which side of I-471 was it located? Maybe you could tell me some of the businesses that surround it now.
Jonathan Wye, 12/20/2005: At the time of this fire I was a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey, having taken a couple of years off from school. One of my good friends from college had continued straight on to his degree and then gotten a job as a Fifth Grade science teacher. The fire was of historical interest because of being a firefighter, and I was definitely not expecting the call I got two weeks after the fire from a college room mate telling me that Russel Gray, our friend, had been killed in the fire. He was at a retirement party for another teacher in the school system. The identification had been delayed in part because his girl friend/fiance (and I am ashamed to say I don't remember her name) had been killed with him. It wasn't until his mother realized a week or so later that she hadn't heard from him for a while that the alarm was raised.

Russ knew from day one that he wanted to be a teacher and I'm sure he would have been a good one.
Shayla Hampton, 3/21/2006: To Terry:

Recently I have begun to research this heartbreaking tragedy. Based on various clues in the readings, testimony from relatives,and a half an hour of driving and searching I found the spot:

Coming from Cincinnati, I took I-471 South and got off at the Ft. Thomas, Southgate exit.

At the intersection, make a left. You'll be in Southgate on Alexandria Pike.

Immediatly on the right hand side, there is a fairly new medical building. This building is sitting at the foot of the Beverly Hills Supper Club property.

You'll notice that the building sits at the bottom of a hill of trees. On the left of the medical building is the long narrow driveway that leads up the hill to the site. However, there is a small gate closing of the driveway. I didn't see if the gate was locked though. I'm guessing that nothing has been built up there yet.

I plan to walk up the hill (if I cannot drive up) and place flowers and 2 stuffed animals(for the unborn babies that died) on the site. I was also an unborn fetus at the time of this tragedy, but the family of all those victims, all the surviors, and the rescure workers will always be in my prayers.
James Woody, 5/22/2006: Nothing has been built on the site of the Beverly Hills Supper Club, but the site is quite easy to find (see below for Shayla's directions). Apparently there are still pieces of some of the stone statues that were placed outside the facility for decoration. I watched it burn down that night in 1977. I helped with moving some of the corpses at the Ft. Thomas Armory into a large refrigerated Kroger's truck. For months, when you passed the supper club site you would be able to smell the stink of the charred remains. It took them about a year to knock the whole thing down - I'm not sure why it took that long. I'll never forget hearing about it, driving back from a day at King's Island amusement park. We had the radio on and they mentioned a fire at the Beverly Hills. We all thought "no big deal." They were always having fires there, it seems, but when we heard that at least 90 bodies had been recovered we high-tailed it over to Highland Avenue in Ft. Thomas to watch it burn from the hill side. The Enquirer had a gruesome picture on the front page next day. The whole event was a nightmare for me that I will never forget. Two good friends of my sister perished. I had plans on getting a job there as a busboy, since I heard they were hiring. I'm glad that never materialized. I just can't imagine the terror and pandemonium in the Cabaret Room that night...
Terry, 5/24/2006: Hi Shayla & James
thanks for the directions.
LeAnn, 5/27/2006: It's been 29 years and it seems like yesterday. Mt grandparents went to the Supper Club to see my granmother's favorite entertainer, John Davidson. They were going with friends to celebrate my grandmothers retirement and my grandfather approaching retirement (he was due to retire that following Monday). We lived at the corner of 19th and Oakland avenue in Covington and could see the smoke from atop the flood wall in the distance. When we heard what had happened, on the T.V, my mother immediately starting calling to try and locate Maw Maw and Paw. Hoping they had stopped off for a drink, with their friends, before going to the club. I fell asleep around midnight and woke the next morning to my mom on the phone with the local hospitals trying to locate Maw and Paw. No one had heard from them as of yet.

I knew they were dead, but I still was making secret bargins with God for it not to be true. 3 days had passed and still no word. Mom and Dad went to the Ft. Thomas Armory daily trying to identify them, but they returned home with no end to the nightmare. On the 4th day, she found Maw Maw. She said she looked at peace. Alittle swollen in the face and her hair was a little burnt around the edges, but she looked peaceful. The gentlemen they found with her could only be identified by dental records. It took a few days to confirm but Paw Paw was found with her. They never let Mom see Paw, they said it was best. They were fund in the Cabaret Room. All she was given were his and Maw's personal affects. It took years after the tragedy, but I finially found the courage to open the yellow manila envelope containing Paw's personal belongings and immediately broke into tears. The coins in his pocket, the rings on his fingers, the watch he was wearing were charred through. I can only imaging the condition he was found in.

To this day I still cry on Memorial weekend. I miss my grandparents so much. They missed so much. They missed seeing their grandson being born. They missed the births and growings up of their 5 geat grand children (and 1 name sake)and their 1 grea-great grand daughter. Our children missed out also. They did not get to know their great grandparents, though they were told all about them and what wonderful peope they were. My grandmother was my best friend when I was very little, but as I grew up I found kids more my own age to replace her as my best friend and I saw less and less of her. The night before she died, I was suppose to go over to her house and spent the evening with her but I was 14 (A freshamn in High School) and my friends seemed like a more interesting time on a Friday night than my Maw Maw, so I promised to spend Saturday afternoon with her, but the next day it was unusually warm so instead I went to the pool with my sister and Aunt. When we stopped by to pick up my Aunt, Maw came out of the house with her hair freshly styled and her nails done. I remember asking Maw why she was so "styled up?" She said she was going that night to see John Davidson and asked if I was coming in. I told her no, I'm going swimming but I promise I would go to church with you tomarrow morning. Tomarrow never came (for her)and I haven't been to church that much since then. I was mad at God for a long time and i rarely spoke to him. The one, heart wrenching favor (to end all favors) I asked of him and he let me down.

Life goes on, but memories live forever in our minds. I am thankful for the time I had with them and will tell them how much I miss them and love them when I go to their grave site tomarrow to place flowers on their head stone.

Thanks for listening and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was touched by this preventable tragedy.
Stephanie Barrington, 5/29/2006: My dad was a Southgate firefighter during the Beverly Hills fire. I remember him painting our house that evening when the alarm went off. He left in a hurry, fully expecting another false alarm as there were always calls to the club. As the night went on, I remember the wives of the firemen in town going door to door collecting blankets, water, anything else that may be needed by the victims or rescue workers. We could see the smoke rising from the hill from our backyard, and as kids we knew it was bad. Alot of us kids grew up together at the firehouse and stuck together as our dads were on the hill that night. Going from one house to another, watching news...and waiting. I remember it being hard to sleep that night not knowing when dad would come home. I think he finally came home sometime the next morning for a shower...but was gone for days...searching what was left of that building. He had nightmares for years...and although he will finally talk of certain aspects...usually technical...he never has let us know most of what he saw that night. He thinks of it every year, and as he recalls certain memories you can see the sadness in his eyes...you can almost see a glimpse of the person...the people...he left up on the hill that night in 1977.
David Boyle, 5/30/2006: Thanks Larry for posting this. A sad story indeed.

By the way, when are you going to write a book? You are a repository of so many anecdotes and historical events, it should not be hard for you...
tm, 6/4/2006: I went up to the site today. You can walk up a driveway behind the new medical building. In fact the parking lot of the medical building has parking right up to the old driveway entrance. The walk up the entrance drive is pretty easy. After that, the site has become well overgrown. At this time of year (June 4), most of the growth is about chest high in the areas that used to be parking lots. These areas are easy to make your way through because the growth is mild weed type plants. Oddly enough there were daisies in bloom scattered throughout the weeds. I walked alot of the front area. It was difficult trying to find a landmark or to realize where the buildings used to be. there is alot of heavier growth were the buildings once stood. Not until I got home from this trip could I really figure out on Google Earth, where they were. Knowing what I know now, I would probably go back to find the right places. I'd like to find the place where the Cabara Room was and the circle garden near the chapel. I would suggest maybe going in March. That way the weeds are gone and you should be able to make your way around easier.

I took an old pic and overlayed it on Google Earth. The link is below. It's not the best but it should help you see what it used to look like and where it was located. There are also some pics I took of things I found.

I also created the building in 3-D and placed it on Google Earth. I hope it's in the right place.

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/435310/page/0
Bob Schulenberg, 12/23/06: On Feb 1st 2007 I will have been a Northern Ky firefighter for 45 years. I will always remember the night that time stood still. I always and still do go to the Indianapolis 500. Saturday May 28th was a very warm and sunny May Saturday. As always I was filled with anticipation for the next days Indy 500 hoping my driver A.J. Foyt would win his 4th 500. A little after 9:00 word came out the the Beverly Hill Supper Club was on fire. The club was in Campbell County and I was in Kenton County. I responded to our Station #1 and we listened as more and more fire departments were being called to the fire. Then our fire tones dropped to respond to the fire. Upon arrival I was directed to go in for search and rescue. As described in many news articles the smoke was intensely black and thick. Finally I stumbled over a body. I remember make trip after trip in and out of the Caberet room taking victims out, never to know if they lived or died. Finally while I was inside the loud long blasts of the fire truck air horns signaled us to evacuate the building. I suddenly realized I had gotten turned around and was lost. Well, I told the Lord that if he took me now I would not be happy because I would miss the Indy 500. After gathering my thoughts and slowing my breathing as shallow as I could to conserve air I saw light ahead of me. Flowwing the light I escaped thru an opening that had been cut into the wall of the room. I will never forget that night as long as I live. In my entire career that is the most disappointing night of my career. I wanted to do more, I wanted to save lives, I wanted families to still have their loved ones. My heart was present at every funeral. My heart is still with all those who lost their lives and who were injured. My heart is still with all their families who lost so much. Yes, the night of May 28th 1977 goes down as the night I was a total failure. And I will live with that forever.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 5:19 pm

Life After Roe. The Atlantic Monthly (June 2006) has an intriguing cover story, by Jeffrey Rosen, about the political fallout of the Supreme Court's likely reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. Rosen predicts political upheaval and voter rebellion that would be catastrophic for the Republican Party:

If Roe falls in June 2007, abortion will almost certainly become the central issue of the 2008 presidential election. And Republicans are already worrying about the political fallout. "We'd be blown away in the suburbs, and you wouldn't see another Republican president for twenty years," a pro-choice Republican congressman recently told Roll Call.

It's an appealing storyline: Republicans would finally receive their comeuppance via getting what they asked for.

But emotionally appealing predictions are usually wrong. As a firmly pro-choice Democrat, I don't buy it.

Before 2000, political scientists warned of the "time bomb" lurking in the Electoral College: that some day, in some close election, the country would stumble into a severe political crisis when a popular vote winner failed to win the most electoral votes. For example, a 1980 League of Women Voters report stated ominously:

The election of a President who received less than a popular vote plurality is perceived by some critics as a potential constitutional crisis of the first magnitude, an outcome that would not be acceptable to the American people.

And from Becky Cain's testimony in 1997 congressional hearings on Electoral College reform:

Picture if you will a future national election in which a presidential candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, but is denied the 270 votes necessary for election by the electoral college....Imagine the public outcry today, after a long primary campaign and a grueling race for the Presidency. Imagine the public's rage at being denied their candidate of choice.

Obviously the American people did not rise up in rage after the 2000 election and declare the outcome "not acceptable". Nor, contrary to predictions by many experts, did these events trigger any serious demand to alter the system. Indeed, any criticism of the Electoral College is now dismissed as a partisan effort to undermine George W. Bush's legitimacy.

I have written before (unfortunately not on this blog or anywhere I can find easily and link to) about why things turned out this way. Suffice it to say that the American public's inclination to take to the barricades (even figuratively) on issues of abstract principle is enormously overrated.

For another thing, there is a peculiar heads-I-win-tails-you-lose quality to the discussion of Roe. If the Supreme Court sustains the doctrine, then abortion rights are protected, so we (pro-choicers) win; if the doctrine is struck down, then the voters respond by throwing out pro-life politicians, so we win that way too.

One could reasonably ask: isn't there a scenario where we could lose abortion rights? Millions of right-to-life Americans do want that to happen. Wouldn't striking down Roe be a big step in that direction?

Rosen's vision of the political impact seems to be based on the idea that the electorate is closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, so the slightest little shift would change everything.

But if the "closely divided" model is accurate, why do Republicans control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court? Even here in blue-state Michigan, the legislature is almost hopelessly Republican, and the (elected) state Supreme Court is dominated by five nakedly partisan members of the Federalist Society.

Yes, Al Gore did win a half-million more votes than GWB in 2000. But Gore was heir to an administration which was credited for a balanced budget and a sustained economic boom. Surely the economy is the most important motivator for swing voters; anyone who wanted to keep the economy under the same stewardship would have voted for Gore, regardless of their views on other issues.

And yes, John Kerry did get some 48% of the popular vote in 2004. But that was after it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that the GWB administration was a catastrophe. Lots of avowed Republicans decided that Kerry was a lesser evil. Still, Bush won.

Like it or not, voters with even moderately liberal views are a minority in this country. The Supreme Court isn't going to change that by overruling Roe.

Yes, if abortion becomes more politically salient, people would be forced to face the conflict between their views on abortion and their party affiliation. Presumably, some pro-choice Republicans would start to vote for Democrats. Of course, at the same time, faced with the same stark choice, some pro-life Democrats would start to vote for Republicans.

But another effect would work to reduce both of those numbers. Most people who feel some loyalty to a political party have plenty of reasons for doing so that matter to them. Given a conflict between their views on abortion and their party's views on abortion, it's not necessarily the party loyalty that loses. They could change their views on abortion to conform to their party loyalty.

Indeed, we have seen this happen already. Among politicians, for example, Richard Schweiker (R) switched sides to become strongly pro-life, and Jim Blanchard (D) switched sides to become strongly pro-choice. Undoubtedly millions of voters have emulated them in the past thirty-plus years.

The more abortion views match party identification, the less the status quo could be disturbed by any Supreme Court ruling. And the status quo is political control by anti-abortion Republicans.

Hence, I think a woman's legal right to control her own body is in grave danger.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Monday, May 2, 2006, 8:31 pm

Election Day: Much Happening. Today is Election Day in Washtenaw County, and most of the rest of the state, as school districts vote on board members and tax proposals. We also have a countywide proposal for 1/5 mill of property tax to pay for a new police and fire radio system.

At this writing we are waiting for results.

Today is also the 35th day from the submission of recall petitions against three Pittsfield Township officials, and the deadline for me to certify the sufficiency or insufficiency of signatures on those petitions.

For each of the petitions, 2,246 valid signatures were required. On petitions to recall Township Supervisor James Walter, we found 2,358 signatures to be valid. On petitions to recall Township Clerk Feliziana Meyer, 2,275. On petitions to recall Township Treasurer Cristina Lirones, 2,381. Hence, I certified that sufficient signatures were submitted for all three officials.

Here's the Ann Arbor News story about the certification.

In the normal course of things, an August recall election would be the next step, but litigation is expected, and the three officials will ask a judge to consider evidence that the entire petition drive was fraudulent.

And also today, on schedule (okay, a very tight schedule), the state rolled out its solution to the federal requirement (via the Help America Vote Act or HAVA) that disabled voters be afforded a private way to cast votes in polling places.

The "AutoMARK", as it is called, will be a new piece of voting equipment for each polling place. Equipped with a screen, headphones, foot pedal, suck and puff straws, etc., it will mark a standard ballot so that it can be counted by the tabulator in the same way that all other ballots are counted.

The good news for county and municipal clerks is that the machines will accept the same programming that is currently done for all three brands of tabulators in use in Michigan. Clerks had feared a doubling of ballot programming time and costs.

If these machines are delivered to local units, and are up and running properly for the August 2006 primary, Michigan will have just barely made the federal HAVA deadline.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Monday, May 1, 2006, 8:03 pm

Women in Politics. Here's an editorial from the Ann Arbor News, Wednesday, April 8, 1931.

Why Not Have More Women in Politics?

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, of Florida, member of the national house of representatives, advocates more women in public office. "It is time that Uncle Sam gets a wife," she said at a recent women's political meeting in Kansas City. "He has been a bachelor long enough. Woman's love of beauty and man's practical knowledge both are needed in the community. The community and the whole nation has become the home today, and the woman's place is in the home."

Representative Owen is right, in theory at least. More women in public office should have a tendency to remove the dirt from politics. The trouble is that many women are forced by domestic circumstances to keep house and look after children. Either of those occupations requires plenty of time, if it is rightly handled: the upbringing of children is more than a full-time occupation. Economic conditions will not permit maids and governesses in every home, and we doubt if it is a good idea, anyway, for governesses to mother the nation's children.

Men can learn to do housework, but few feel so disposed. The question of self respect sometimes enters the situation. And men simply cannot be the mothers. If the race is to continue, mothers must undertake most of the responsibility. Nature refuses to let men bring children into the world.

There are practically insurmountable drawbacks to a political life for a large percentage of the nation's women. The nineteenth amendment cannot endow physiological equality.

For that matter, there is no convincing evidence that women in general appreciate the franchise that was granted by the amendment. They do not vote in large numbers. Their place may not be "in the home," in the restrictive sense of the term, but too many are found there on election day. They should display greater interest in elections than they do, if all the time, pains, money, worry and energy spent in the crusade for suffrage is to be considered justified.

True, there are far too many men who do not vote. But that is no excuse for the small feminine vote at every election. If Uncle Sam needs a wife, she should set a good example at the polls, as a beginning of her political usefulness. Certainly she should not follow hubby's bad example.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum — Comments

Monday, May 1, 2006, 2:52 pm

Restaurant inspection reports now online! I'm delighted to report that Washtenaw County (and several other counties on the same system) is making restaurant inspection reports available to the public via a searchable online database.

Here's an excerpt from today's letter to my staff in which I discuss this:

Readers of the Ann Arbor News are familiar with the typical content of these reports, but most newspapers don't choose to embarrass potential advertisers in this way.

More than 20 years ago, I attempted to do a very crude version of this in a portion of Ingham County. I went to the Environmental Health office, copied information from inspection reports, and posted them on a local public access computer system for others to see.

In those days, the inspectors would assign a numeric score to each food establishment based on the inspection report. A perfect score (no violations) would be 100. For each violation, a few points would be subtracted. A score like 97 or 98 would be "almost" perfect. A place with a lot of violations might have a score of 70. Anecdotally, a really bad restaurant had so many violations that the score was less than zero.

It was a simple, numeric summary of an inspection report. But sanitarians did not like the scoring system, because they felt it was misleading. A perfect score would be easy to achieve for a small place which specialized in a couple of easy pre-packaged foods, but almost impossible for a busy full-service restaurant that did a lot of its own food preparation.

Think of it this way: a score like "20 wrong" might be awful on a 30 question test, but pretty good if the test had 1,000 questions. Similarly, an inspection score of 80 (one hundred minus 20 points) would be shockingly bad for a snack bar, but excellent for a fancy restaurant.

So, some years ago, they did away with numeric scores.

Instead, on the new web site, for any restaurant or food service location, we can read of very specific problems found in inspections.

Every so often you find something appalling or almost amusingly bad — "SOCK FOUND IN SOUP USED AS WRAP FOR DRIED SPICES. THE SOCK IS PROHIBITED FOR USE AS A FOOD CONTACT SURFACE" — but most of it is very routine, everyday stuff, like hand washing supplies and the temperature of coolers.

The lack of numbers makes it hard to quickly compare one eatery with another, but you do gain some appreciation for what our fellow county employees in Environmental Health are doing on their workdays: measuring temperatures, looking under sinks and into floor drains, checking expire dates on packages, examining chemical test strips, and on and on.

Their dedicated work helps keep all of us safe and healthy.

Let's have a great week!