“As time went on, I accepted that he must have been in it.”. However, at this point in time, no one knows exactly where the graves are located. Even though the movie was completed and released several years ago, I’m still passionate about that mission. To this day, I can remember the sound of her cry.”. As a result, Larry had metal plates implanted in his face. Jun 21, 2013. The Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home, which was established in 1850, lived up to their motto, “The highest standard of funeral services regardless of financial services.”. Some of those who survived oscillated in and out of news coverage. Donald was optimistic that Larry’s medical history might help. He worked at the UpStairs Lounge during the popular Sunday evening beer busts and knew the regulars quite well. “It bothers me that none of them even cared to investigate any further than what they did,” Candy lamented. But even as we move forward, we must find the courage to tell our stories and to record our history. He would always hug you or pick you up. I can’t recall any kind of turmoil in life,” Nancy countered as she thought back to that summer and whether she observed any signs of distress within the Frost household that may have resulted from a disturbing call from police. “I can remember him coming and riding bicycles with me. “[We had a joke] where he would say the word ‘dinosaur’ and then I was supposed to attack him, like jump on him, wrestle, goof around, play. This is where their stories get murky and timelines are blurred. It is unclear how the men first retrieved the gurney from the ambulance or even assembled into a group to help the victims. Till now, this conclusion was largely drawn from a New Orleans Times-Picayune image of Rev. To this day, Nancy cherishes a plush dinosaur toy he gave her when she was a child. A view inside of the UpStairs Lounge, following a flash fire that left 32 dead and 15 injured, on June 25, 1973. Larry Frost was never seen or heard from again. ... Now, if that was my child, I’d be on the phone or I’d be down there looking into some stuff! It is likely that after they escaped, they never looked back, refused to tell their story, and were not officially counted among the survivors. One year later, he committed suicide. Did they grow up haunted by the UpStairs Lounge fire? But in 1973 when the club was set ablaze in an act of arson that cost a staggering 32 lives, that lack of attention endured, the news barely making it into the papers or, it seemed, even into the consciousness of the local community. The fire remains the deadliest in New Orleans history. Your brother burned. Four days after the fire, Detectives Charles Schlosser and Sam Gebbia went to the church and spoke to Frank Dean. The correct number is 32, not 29. Nancy said it never occurred to her that people outside the family would be interested in his death. I then began piecing together all the clues. Larson had led the gay congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church in prayer and song moments before the attack on the UpStairs Lounge, which also served as a church—another piece of history that had initially remained unreported. The graves for Larry N. Frost and the three other unclaimed victims are located somewhere in the inaccessible, unmarked pauper's cemetery in New Orleans East. A view inside of the UpStairs Lounge, following a flash fire that left 32 dead and 15 injured, on June 25, 1973. “A gay man could, in 1973, live a very full life that he might not be able to enjoy in other places.”. Since family members have long suspected that Larry died in the UpStairs Lounge fire, why haven’t they already taken steps to identify him as one of the unknown victims? I conducted lengthy, in-depth interviews with family members. It reveals how gay men were actually doing the work of first responders. She asked if I could help her family get answers and her uncle get long-overdue recognition as a casualty of the arson. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. The family’s display of indifference and inaction certainly supports her perception. “An ordinary reaction in New Orleans society would have been effusive sympathies and a large outpouring,” said Robert Fieseler, whose new book Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the UpStairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, chronicles the blaze and its aftermath. We’ll get you some peace. And what did the massacre mean to a younger generation of gay people? This post is part of Outward, Slate’s home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Even though he liked his independence, Larry always sent greeting cards or called home on special occasions, Nancy said. In the wake of the deadly fire, most people turned their backs on the victims and the gay community. Her death in November 1975 came and went without a word. “It almost highlights even more the degree of oppression that many homosexuals lived in in this time period.”. Patrick Schoen remembers the night of the UpStairs Lounge fire vividly. The reports are vague and only a … We didn’t hate him or throw him out. Donald, now 70, speculates that his trip occurred approximately one to two months after the fire. While a message like this is not uncommon, I’ll admit I was not prepared for the staggering news she was about to divulge. The 1973 arson attack at the Upstairs Lounge killed 32 people and was the largest massacre of LGBTQ individuals in the United States prior to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016. Jim Downs is the author of Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation (University of Georgia Press) and is an associate professor of history at Connecticut College. Nancy, the youngest of the Frost siblings, was also very close to Larry, even though he was 19 years older. It would dramatically affect the way we look at the history of the UpStairs Lounge arson. “Your name would be associated with what was considered a despicable, morally licentious behavior and you would become a pariah in the society you loved. A renewed interest in the UpStairs Lounge tragedy has been in the air. During our interview, she shared that the toy brings back fond memories, and it still makes her smile. In 2013, for the 40th anniversary of the massacre, I published an article in Time magazine in order to draw public attention to this forgotten tragedy. She started crying and my dad was basically right behind me and my father confirmed. Read more here. Correction, June 22, 2018: The photo caption originally misstated the number of people who died in the UpStairs Lounge fire. Larry had blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a slender build. Book chronicles 1973 arson at gay club that barely made it into the papers, or even into the consciousness of the community, Last modified on Fri 6 Jul 2018 11.16 EDT. In 2013, I announced the production of UpStairs Inferno, the full-length documentary I made about the fire and its aftermath. In the span of a less than a year, headlines in the Body Politic, a popular gay newspaper, read “Thugs Terrorize Parks,” “Three Murders Unsolved,” and “All Faggots Should be Castrated.” The attack on the UpStairs Lounge was absolutely horrific, but in the 1970s, it ranked as yet another example of the violence that undermined the decade of so-called liberation. Without investigating any further, Donald returned to Michigan. According to his family, Larry was severely injured in a car wreck in his 20s. “It was the queer capital of the south in 1973,” said Fieseler. On the surface, her answer appeared to conflict with the notes from the investigation. “We exist in a time where queer Americans are profoundly out of power – out of power – who represents us in this administration?”, He continued: “I think there’s a need for anything that can serve as a kind of counter-narrative to that pure invisibility in the the upper echelons of power today.”. One-third of the congregation and two clergy members were killed in the fire. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. Over the past 45 years, many have claimed to know the identity of the nameless victims.
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