We are approaching the 40 year anniversary of the massive fire that killed 165 and sparked so many lawsuits as well as the career of lawyer, Stan Chesley. Questions still remain about who was involved, how the fire started and whether there was a cover-up by people close to the investigation including the KY governor at the time, Julian Carroll.

 

There is a great book on this subject written by Robert Webster, David Brock and Tom McConaughy called "The Beverly Hills Supper Club: The Untold Story of Ky's Worst Tragedy". I highly recommend it!

 

 

Beverly Hills Supper Club fire: What remains after 4

Interesting article. This fire is a topic of conversation from time to time in my office since my job is safety. When I first started here a couple of old timers who actually were part of that safety and fatality investigation for the state were still here and talked about the investigation. Evidently they were pretty much stonewalled as they told it. One thing was clear though...basic life safety code regulations as they apply to building construction and exit and egress were obviously disregarded, even by 1977 standards. The belief was (as the old times told me) people in charge of overseeing these codes overlooked the shortcomings (actually that's pretty obvious)...and it's possible they may have been paid off to do so. It's a tragic story, yet is also a fascinating tale, especially in my line of work, of how things go wrong and how one thing builds upon another and the end result is horrific.

One of the few things I remember well because I drove by.

 

I was getting married that July and lived in Southgate on Bluegrass Ave. My fiancée and I had been to eat at Larosa's in Ft. Thomas. We drove down Highland Ave and turned right on US 27 and there were fire trucks screaming by and heading south on 27. I turned around in St Theresa's parking lot, turned onto 27, to see what I could. The trucks were going up the drive to the Supper Club. We saw a little smoke but nothing huge. We thought it might be a small kitchen fire and turned around in the country club drive and headed home.

 

US 27 was not closed when we went by the Supper Club either time. I am not sure of the time, but it was still daylight. When we got to the house, sirens were still roaring and you could just tell something was up and bigger than I thought. We turned on the tv and, OMG, they were just beginning to report what was happening. Initially they said there might be injuries, but obviously as the night wore on it just kept getting more tragic and mind boggling. I remember around 10:00PM or so, we walked down to US 27 and Blue Grass Ave intersection and people were walking north on 27 towards the Newport Shopping Center. Almost all of them were in tattered smoke stained formal wear and seemed to be in shock. I can still see that vividly today in my mind. We would ask them if they needed help or anything, they would give us a blank stare and just trudge along like the living dead. It was the absolute most surreal thing I have ever experienced. Not one person remotely seemed to have their faculties. I can only imagine today what they saw, heard and/or smelled.

 

We had been to the Supper Club earlier that week for an event and stuff like a fire never crosses your mind. From that day forward, I now always look for exits out of restaurants, clubs, venues, etc. I never once thought about it before that day.

 

A memory I wish I'd never had.

Thanks for sharing that @Bengal Maniac.

The book cat references to is a must-read. Unequivocally, the most thorough account I've read. Enough to convince me what the true cause of the fire was.

 

The part about Keith Holliday took my breath away. And Chesley is revealed to be the scum of the earth.

I've told this story before....

 

I came home from Boone Woods in Burlington after playing tennis with Steve Cantrall and noticed a bunch of people at my house. Finishing up 8th grade year. "There's a fire at Beverly Hills." My parents were there that night on a rare nice night out for them. No cell phones. No communication. We just watched the news hoping we'd hear from them. They finally called letting us know they were alright.

 

My dad said that had he gone the way they were instructed to exit the building they would have ended up piled up with the other bodies that were found by a locked door. He figured that too many were going that way and chose another path. Fortuitious decision.

 

He still has dreams that the house is on fire. 40 years later.

 

I now look for exits when I enter a building.

 

Weird to think what "might have been" for my life had it not turned out the way it did.

I knew a devout Italian Catholic man and WWII Vet who at the time made his living in the catering business. He and his wife had tickets to attend the John Davidson show that evening, and time and again he reminded his staff of a dinner they were catering that he had to cut out early to go make the show, and that he wanted to make sure that nothing interfered with him being able to smoothly break away in time to go pick up his wife and make the show on time.

 

Just as he was getting ready to split, an old priest that he knew attending the dinner, not knowing that he needed to leave, began babbling on to him, engaging him in a long endless conversation.

 

Not wanting to interrupt him, or insult him by cutting him off, he respectfully let the priest continue on and on and on with his long story while thinking inside that he wished that he would just wrap it up so that he could get on his way, but no, the priest kept talking on and on and on to the point this man realized that he would be late for the show, and decided to just give up on the idea of going.

 

He forever felt that God had his hand in making this priest continue to talk for so long preventing him from leaving to go to the show.

 

This man lived to be 92 and passed away just two years ago.

I've told this story before....

 

I came home from Boone Woods in Burlington after playing tennis with Steve Cantrall and noticed a bunch of people at my house. Finishing up 8th grade year. "There's a fire at Beverly Hills." My parents were there that night on a rare nice night out for them. No cell phones. No communication. We just watched the news hoping we'd hear from them. They finally called letting us know they were alright.

 

My dad said that had he gone the way they were instructed to exit the building they would have ended up piled up with the other bodies that were found by a locked door. He figured that too many were going that way and chose another path. Fortuitious decision.

 

He still has dreams that the house is on fire. 40 years later.

 

I now look for exits when I enter a building.

 

Weird to think what "might have been" for my life had it not turned out the way it did.

 

I had not heard you tell that. WOW!!!! Glad your parents were safe so many years ago.

 

I could see the flames in the air from my house. Horrible evening.

This tragedy happened when I was finishing up the 7th grade, and while being creeped out all night long with the news reports, I would have never guessed that there'd be any connection to it effecting the end-of-the-year school picnic that was scheduled for our Catholic grade school the following day, yet by a weird coincidence Tower Park and Armory in Ft. Thomas was where we had planned to hold our picnic, and the Armory Gymnasium just happened to be the place that they were placing all of the deceased from the fire. Our picnic had been relocated to Highland Park instead, and while certainly insignificant compared to what was going on, and likely uninteresting to just about everyone, it'll always stick with me what a strange coincidence it was.

My family was camping at AJ Jolly Park in Alexandria that weekend. I was just a young boy. My dad was an EMT for a local volunteer fire department. By the time we heard the news on the radio and he left for the fire house, his units had already left. He stayed behind, threw a cot or gurney into the back of our Econoline van and basically became the only other "life squad" for the rest of the county since everyone else was at the BHSC. Fortunately, nobody else in the county needed help that night.

I wrote a 25+ page paper on this in college. Spoke to the writer of "Inside the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire," and spent at least 1-2 days a week at the state archives in Frankfort while reading the special investigator's report along with the a few other reports on the whole thing.

 

I wish I knew where the file was for it. It freaked me out though whenever I would go somewhere because I would always look for all the exits for years. I was way more aware of that stuff for a long time.