BHSC History and Community Resources

Below are links to a number of resources for information about the Supper Club, its history, the fire, and discussion groups. If you know of any other resources that should be included here, please post in the comments section for consideration. 

BOOKS

The Beverly Hills Supper Club - The Untold Story of Kentucky's Worst Tragedy by Robert Webster, David Brock (contributor) and Tom McConaughy (contributor). 

Five years in the making, this is the most comprehensive history of the BHSC, its ties to the Newport Syndicate, the fire and the aftermath. It chronicles all of the available evidence as collected by a team of people committed to finding and sharing the complete picture of what happened the night of May 28th, 1977. Webster, Brock and McConaughy, along with Wayne Dammert (see below), are the leading historians of the Supper Club and the fire. 

Inside the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire by Ron Elliot 

This book is invaluable in its recounting of the BHSC fire as it is the story told by Wayne Dammert, a long-time employee of the Beverly who not only led a group of people safely out of the fire, but who is today one of the leading historians on the Supper Club and the fire.


        

Beverly Hills Country Club by Earl W. Clark and Allen J. Singer

This book contains rare photographs and some of the entertainment history from the Country Club years of the Beverly Hills. Allen J. Singer has also written books on the Cincinnati Subway System, Mass Transit in Cincinnati and the old Theatre and Entertainment district of Cincinnati.


Community Groups 

Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire Facebook Group (Admin: Tom McConaughy) 

Remember the Victims of The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire (Admin: Tim Abramis)

BHSC 40th Year Project (Admin: Helen Ann Swartwout)


Other Media 

The Real Deal Podcast - The Scandal of The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire 
(an extended interview with Tom McConaughy and David Brock). 

Paula L. Prince Neill and Everett H. "Buzz" Neill, Jr.

"I remember my aunt and uncle, Paula L. Prince Neill 
and Everett H. "Buzz" Neill, Jr. Buzz was in the band and he and Paula had only been married a few years when this happened. I was only 10 years old and I still miss them so much. I think of them often and this picture is displayed on our mantel. My heart goes out to all those affected. We will forever remember." 
- Stacy Hoffmann Sylvester

Paula and Buzz were married on
August 23rd, 1975. 
(photo courtesy of Cheryl Duncan Hussung)

Paula Prince (Neill)
(photo courtesy of Cheryl Duncan Hussung)

Paula was a grade school teacher at Taylor Mill Elementary School. She is remembered as being a sweet girl with a bright future.

Another shot of the Neills. Buzz studied at NKU and was a band member for the John Davidson show at the Beverly Hills Supper Club on the night of the fire. 
(photo courtesy of Shea Murtaugh)

Still Standing

On May 28th, 1977, The Beverly Hills Supper Club (known as the "Showplace of the Nation") stood proudly on a hill in Southgate, Kentucky. Thousands of people had gathered there on that Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of a night of festivities. John Davidson was in town to perform in the grand Cabaret Room while in other areas of the large facility there were wedding parties and corporate gatherings, reunions and retirements. The club's staff was working hard, as usual, to accommodate their many guests, to ensure that their time at the Beverly exceeded expectations.

What none of them could have known early in the evening, was that the ending to this night was completely out of their hands.

By approximately 8:00 pm, unmistakable evidence of a fire within the Beverly Hills Supper Club was noticed by patrons and employees alike.

By Midnight, after hours of a smoky, blazing horror, the entire building was destroyed.

Over 160 people were dead, several more were dying, and the survivors were inflicted with physical and emotional trauma that lingers on even today.

It was the worst tragedy ever to strike the state of Kentucky, the third worst night club fire ever in the United States. There are tomes written about the details of the event and there is controversy surrounding the cause of the fire. Was it accidental? Was it arson? Probably we will never know for certain.

But that isn't what this website is about.

One of the saddest pieces of this history, is that regardless of who or what caused the fire, there is no public memorial dedicated to the victims of the Supper Club tragedy. There's no real place where people can freely congregate or pay respects.

Nearly forty years later, still standing, are families whose lost loved ones live only in their hearts; survivors who have found a way to move forward from that terrible night; survivors who say that justice was never truly served, and, still standing, overgrown and neglected, is the hill on which the Beverly Hills Supper Club both thrived and perished along with 169 human lives.

This website is dedicated to all of them with the hope that one day there will be a proper memorial built in its proper place.

Until then, come, visit, read the stories...

Remember.