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.