47 Years Ago - Tragedy In Southgate
Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire
The fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club is my first memory.
I had just turned three and we were living on Moock Rd. in Wilder, KY, just below the hillside where the club was located. I, of course, did not understand what was going on. I was far too young to comprehend the tragedy that was unfolding. But the sounds, smells, and sights of that terrible May 28th night have never left me.
The piercing sounds of emergency sirens seemed to ring in my head for years. And I can distinctly remember the orange glow on the hill above me, just to the left of our front screen door. I remember staring at the hill covering my ears, while my parents turned on the TV to watch the breaking news.
The fire departments were notified at 9:01pm.
They didn’t have it under control until 2:00 am.
165 souls were lost.
More than 200 were injured.
A year after the fire, WCPO and Al Schottelkotte produced a half-hour special on the fire and the aftermath.
Today, the site on the hill is being developed for luxury homes and apartments.
Here are some looks of the site from yesterday and today.
Hi Cam. Thanks for this and interesting about your family's personal connection to the fire. I remember the famous supper club. Growing up, my family would occasionally go there for special occasions. When I was in grad school at UC in my early 20s, I got a gig as a stringer for the then-NYTimes Detroit bureau chief to do some initial groundwork covering the Who concert stampede until he got to town. He was also curious about the supper club fire 2 years earlier. There hadn't been much in-depth reporting about what instigated that fire, beyond fire code violations and overcapacity, and he suspected arson. He enlisted me to do some research for what he hoped would be a book. In those days, pre-Internet, research meant going to the library. I followed some breadcrumbs and found enough to support further reporting. When I presented my initial findings to the reporter, he saw that too, suspected coordinated foul play, and worried that we were crossing over into something that could into dangerous territory--for me in particular--so called me off the case.
I was just looking and I see that a former Cincy Enquirer reporter followed those breadcrumbs decades later and published, in 2020, a story that explores mob influence in that fire, exactly what my research was pointing to. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/12/03/forbidden-fruit-beverly-hills-supper-club-fire-peter-bronson/3782061001/
Yes Cam, Moock Rd. was one of the main roads being used that tragic night. I think the only one in our family who slept was your 9-month-old brother. Several of the people had been patrons at your grandparents Wischer's Cafe in Covington. I remember how I felt seeing their names on the list of victims.