The
80th anniversary is approaching, and please feel free to use this if you want to share it with others. Ms.
Schorow gives talks on her books and I’m sure would be happy to hear from organizations. That, in fact, is how I met her a
few years ago at the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, when I brought
Dad’s diary with me to her talk and read it to everyone who was there.
Here is Dad's diary:
COCOANUT GROVE FIRE
Diary of Edward C. Dullea, Boston
College Class of 1923
Saturday,
November 28, 1942:
Day of Holy
Cross-B.C. game. Rain has stopped, much
colder. Rose’s mother came over to care
for little Maurice [19 months old]. Rose
and I had lunch at Kelsey’s Lunchroom in Kenmore Square. We sat with Everett Conway at the game at
Fenway Park.
Nothing in
life is sure. B.C., number one team of
the nation by the Associated Press national poll, four to one favorites for
to-day’s game, suffered the worst defeat of B.C. athletic history, being
crushed by Holy Cross by an unbelievable 55 to 12 score. Holy Cross backs Grigas, Ball, Bezemes,
Sullivan ran wild. Their forwards clicked.
Everything B.C. did went awry, as in a nightmare. Holy Cross fans, luckless for four years,
cheered and thundered without ceasing.
Jimmy
Guaragna drove Rose home, while I waited for Maurice [B.C. 1917] in the Red Sox offices. The Sugar Bowl Committee called from New
Orleans to withdraw the invitation extended to B.C. to play in the Bowl game of
January 1.
Maurice and
I had supper at my mother’s. On the way
out to B.C., we called at Mrs. Moore’s to see Freddie Naumetz [one of BC’s
football players]. Freddie was out, and
more of this later.
Sunday,
November 29, 1942:
The
newspapers shrieked the horrible news that 448 people died in the flames and
smoke of the Cocoanut Grove on Piedmont Street last night at 10 P.M.
Maurice
called from B.C. at 9 A.M., telling me that he had been in the city all night
helping to minister to the dead and dying, and searching for Fred Naumetz,
after a police sergeant had identified one of the dead as Freddie. Later I drove out to B.C., talked with Gil
Bouley, Mike Holovak, and Rocco Canale, but still no news on Fred. Stopping to see my mother and [sister] Katherine,
I arrived back at Ocean Street about 1 P.M.
Here Mrs. Frank Jones (the trainer’s wife) called me to tell me that
Larry Kenney and his wife had died in the holocaust.
Everett
Conway came over to the house in the afternoon.
All day long the radio broadcast the long list of dead, dying, and
injured, the lists mounting every minute, as identifications were made in morgues,
hospitals, and undertaking establishments.
There was
one bit of good news. Fred Naumetz was
found. He had stayed overnight at a
friend’s house, his fiancé, Miss Jacobs.
Monday,
November 30, 1942:
The
newspapers were filled with the horrors of the Cocoanut Grove tragedy. Joseph Boratyn, Holy Cross football star of
1941, perished. John Gill, B.C. Alumni
Secretary, and his wife escaped and are in a hospital. Charles “Buck” Jones, famous movie actor,
Wild West pictures, is dying. A
policeman, Robert Pierce, and his wife, of our street, died, leaving three
children.
It was
announced to-day that B.C. will play the University of Alabama in the Orange
Bowl game at Miami, Florida, on New Year’s Day.
So B.C. will play in a bowl after all.
End of
November entry:
November
ends in deep gloom. The Cocoanut Grove
fire was one of the worst disasters in American history. On only three occasions have fires and
explosions taken a greater toll of life.
In
retrospect, the unmerciful beating that Holy Cross gave B.C. was the most
wonderful thing that could have happened.
If B.C. had won, or even tied, they would have been undisputed national
champions. The entire squad, with
coaches and officials, were to have attended a victory dinner at the Cocoanut
Grove. Rocco Canale was scheduled to
sing a baritone solo. With them would
have been girlfriends, sisters, mothers, wives of coaches and officials, etc.
The stunning
defeat led the team to call off the whole affair. The boys went home to bed to try and forget the
debacle. None of the B.C. party went,
except unfortunate Larry Kenney and his little group. Surely this was Providential.
Tuesday,
December 1, 1942:
After school
I called for Katherine at the Bailey Street School. While there, Jim Manning, custodian, painted
my headlights to conform with the new dim-out regulations. I drove Katherine to my mother’s house. On the
way home, I went to the wake of Larry Kenney and his wife on Dracut Street,
near Peabody Square [Dorchester].
When I
arrived home about 5:30, Rose told me that my brother Maurice and Coach Denny
Myers had visited us after attending Larry’s wake. They had quite a time playing with our little
Maurice.
Sunday,
December 27, 1942:
I attended 9
o’clock Mass at St. Mark’s, Rose the 10:15 Mass. I then took Maurice in town to see my cousin
Hannah Hurley, who is the cook for Doctor A. Lawrence Lowell,
President-Emeritus of Harvard University, residence at 171 Marlboro Street. Miss Mary Brown, another employee, greeted us
at the door. Maurice had a fine time for
himself in the Lowell home, running around the kitchen and pantries, eating
ginger cookies, etc. Hannah presented
him with a box of Schrafft’s chocolates.
On the way
to see Hannah, I drove by the scene of the disastrous Cocoanut Grove fire at
Broadway and Church Street, where more than 500 lost their lives 4 weeks ago.
Transcribed by Kathy Dullea Hogan
