The photograph above was published on page one of The Time-Picayune the morning after the fire. In a pdf posted on the NOLA.com blog of Doug MacCash, the Times-Picayune arts writer, which contains apparent copies of the first two pages of the June 25, 1973 ediiton, it was the only image that lacked an accompanying caption---while being the one most needing some sort of explanation. It also lacked a published photo credit, but in 2013, NOLA.com posted a gallery of 14 images from the fire, where this image is credited as being a Times-Picayune photo by G.E. Arnold. But someone there also indulged in a literal "spinning" of the news, by giving the image a quarter-turn counterclockwise, which made it even less intelligible.
The image following it in the gallery is a view of the June 25th front page, so small it's doubtful anybody would make a connection between the two pictures if they weren't already in the know. But we can see in this limited view that the image originally did have a caption and credit line below it, making Doug MacCash's pdf version an altered copy. Editor Andrew Boyd, who is the present go-to-guy at the Times-Picayune for Upstairs-Lounge fire business, including this NOLA.com gallery, appears to be working at cross purposes with other people at the paper, not to mention the truth itself.
That MacCash was no font of disclosure was already evident by his posting a pdf online that contained only the first and second pages of the June 25th edition, although the lead article, 29 Killed In Quarter Blaze, Arson Possibility Is Raised, by John Laplace and Ed Anderson, continues on page three, which makes what's missing seem very obvious. I suspect really ghastly incongruities will turn up lower down in the article, but there are plenty of those already in hand.
Given the enormous blossoming of interest over the last two years in the 1973 fire, The Time-Picayune should simple come clean with its part, by making every bit of their handling of the story available to gays and straights alike online. The days of manipulating its own publishing record to hide an irreconcilable truth are over---it's only a matter of time before a private, or library copy of the printed newspaper of record in
New Orleans will surface online.
P.S. I just found a copy of the front page of the June 25, 1973 Times-Picayune where I could just make out the barely legible caption went missing: Lose Foot Tells Grim Story
June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, 29 Killed In Quarter Blaze, Arson Possibility Is Raised, by John Laplace and Ed Anderson,
June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, Scene of French Quarter Fire Is Called Dante's 'Inferno', Hitler's Incinerators; Victims Reported Burnt to Death Fleeing Spreading Blaze, by John Laplace,
June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, Blood, Moans: Charity Scene; Med Teams Race Time Amid Confusion, by Clancy Dubos,
June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 2, Past Underlines Tragedy of French Quarter Fire; Nothing Close to Death Toll of Disaster, by Bruce Nolan,
The caption: "Death Scene is Viewed by Weary trio" makes no sense accompanying this image
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June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, 29 Killed In Quarter Blaze, Arson Possibility Is Raised, by John Laplace and Ed Anderson,
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June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, Blood, Moans: Charity Scene; Med Teams Race Time Amid Confusion, by Clancy Dubos,
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June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, Scene of French Quarter Fire Is Called Dante's 'Inferno', Hitler's Incinerators; Victims Reported Burnt to Death Fleeing Spreading Blaze, by John Laplace,
June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 1, Scene of French Quarter Fire Is Called Dante's 'Inferno', Hitler's Incinerators; Victims Reported Burnt to Death Fleeing Spreading Blaze, by John Laplace,
The scene inside the Upstairs Bar was from Dante's "Inferno," from Hitler's incinerators.
At least 29 persons burned to death when trampled by others fleeing from a rapidly spreading blaze, according to Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Carl H. Rabin.
The blaze rushed through the bar driving the victims to windows apparently closed over by paneling or some type of decoration. One survivor said "steel bars."
The horror of the holocaust could be seen easily from the street.
One victim died while squirming through a partially opened window.
The slim build of one survivor saved his life.
"You see how slim I am," the survivor said at
[Cont. in Sec. 1, Page 2, Col. 1]
Charity Hospital. "I was the first to get to the window, and thank God...thank God I was able to get out. But the others....they..."
They were mangled and burnt as they fought to get out the windows on the Chartres Street side of the building---falling on top of the other.
The dead were piled knee-high near the windows in a twisted, charred mass of death--some a few few from safety.
"They were just piled up. People in a mass...one falls then another falls...It's just a mass of death...it's sickening," Dr. Rabin said.
No Stairs
In another corner of the bar, near a fire escape with no stairs to the ground, were the bodies of others.
At least two others died crawling under a piano on the right side of the gutted barroom to the windows.
Dr. Rabin counted 29, but said the death toll could rise when the badly charred, entangled bodies are removed.
Bodies were so badly burned, Rabin said, that identification would be difficult and take some time.
Extinguishing Blaze
New Orleans firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly---14 minutes after arriving on the scene---but that was not fast enough.
The grim job of removing bodies would continue in the glare of klieg lights mounted atop firetrucks parked in narrow French Quarter streets of Chartres and Iberville until early Monday morning.
Coroner's assistants would untangle bodies two at a time, lowering them to the ground in a fire department snorkel, Rabin said. Then transferring bodies to the city morgue or Charity Hospital: where identifications of the victims of "one of New Orleans worst fires" would be made, he said.
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Photo by Ronald LeBoeuf of the Times-Picayune Staff
HORRIFIED Linn Quinton of Houston, Tex., tells firemen at Chartres Street fire, "My friends are up there." Quinton said he and a group of friends were around a piano in the Upstairs Bar when they heard a big boom and the fire swept over them.
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June 25, 1973, The Times-Picayune, page 2, Past Underlines Tragedy of French Quarter Fire; Nothing Close to Death Toll of Disaster, by Bruce Nolan,
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