Buck Jones was the 481st person of, eventually, 492 who died in the 12-15 minute Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1942, 60 years ago. Buck died Monday, November 30th, of critical second- and third-degree burns to the face, mouth and throat, and smoke inhalation. He would have been 51 on December 12th. In the ensuing 53 years, many reports and stories have been perpetuated concerning Buck’s heroism in leading trapped victims to safety and returning to the raging inferno to help others.
Did it happen? Let’s look objectively at the facts and then decide. First, a bit of background on why Buck was even at a nightclub. Buck’s contingent was on a combination war bond selling tour and promotional junket for his Monogram films. On November 27, Buck phoned his wife, Odille, to tell her he’d caught a cold on his cross-country tour. Although not in the best of health when the group reached Boston, he stayed on rather than disappoint children who expected to see him Saturday, November 28th. That Saturday, as Buck visited a children’s hospital, several pictures of him were taken. One of those has been widely publicized over the years as the last photo taken of Buck. Actually, the last picture taken of him was with promoter Martin Sheridan at their hotel following an afternoon radio interview.
Mid-morning, Buck went to the Boston Garden for a rally of about 12,000 children. In a drizzling rain that afternoon, Buck and a group watched the Boston College — Holy Cross football game from the mayor’s box. Buck also gave a newspaper interview. In an August 21, ’95 letter to me, the tour’s Boston publicity representative, Martin Sheridan, stated: “I arranged Buck Jones’ schedule in Boston with the exception of the Cocoanut Grove dinner. We were supposed to have been at the………………………………………