(film strip running) (footsteps)
(serious music)
- What I believe is one of the pivotal moments
in LGBT history here with us today,
tonight, to talk further about the fire
and the impact that it's had on him,
so please welcome to the front, Ricky Everett.
(applause)
- Ricky, once again, it's an honor.
Thank you for trusting me with your story
and helping in my efforts
to remember your friends
and to remember this reaction to the community
and help future generations learn from it,
so thank you very much.
I'm gonna start the Q and A with a question,
a question that's been asked of me because you...
Ricky's from Dallas,
but he did come to New Orleans for the screening.
- Originally from New Orleans.
- Yes, he's originally from New Orleans,
but he lives here now,
and at the screening, Ricky was one of many
survivors, family members of victims,
witnesses, many people who were touched
personally by the fire.
And the question that has been asked of me,
and since you and I haven't talked,
when you and I sat down for the interview,
you mentioned that talking about the fire was cathartic
and the possibility of meeting other people
who were affected by the fire
would be cathartic for you all.
What was your experience at the screening,
meeting, seeing people you haven't seen in decades,
and do you think, in a way, it was cathartic?
- I found it rather bittersweet,
of course, remembering all that
and seeing all the people who I remembered who died,
and saw them burning up.
For many, many years, I couldn't talk about it.
Anybody who was involved in that,
it took us about 40 years,
took me about 40 years,
to actually be able to talk about it
without just breaking down and crying.
But working with you, and there's another individual
working on a documentary who I've been working with,
and just getting it out and talking about it
has been a healing process for me.
Am I still suffering from it?
Yes, I am.
I think I will, probably, all of my life.
It's just a horrible nightmare that just,
I can't describe it.
Even though I've gone through it,
I can't describe it.
After the fire, like it was pointed out in the documentary,
that after the fire, it was like months afterward,
when I would go to sleep at night,
I would just start dreaming,
and I would see those people
that I saw burning up in the fire, and
it was rough, I'm here to tell you.
Thank God I don't have those dreams anymore,
but it's helped me out a lot,
talking about it, working with you and the other people,
and I can actually talk about it now,
and when I was at the documentary there in New Orleans,
I found it good.
I really...it was...
Basically it was just...
I thought it was amazing, you know?
Like I could sit there and see people
who had passed on in the fire
and people who were able to get out
and people I hadn't thought about for many years.
That part of it was good.
And even sitting there seeing them again, it was just...
I was sitting there, "Oh, yeah, yeah."
It's good. It's helped me a lot,
and I'm trying to reach out to people
who went through the fire,
who's going through the same emotions
that I've been going through
and try to reach out and get them to start
talking about it between each oth...
I'd like to just have a group of us to get together.
I don't know what they're called,
but kind of like a group where you--
- A support group?
- Yeah! Thank you.
And just start talking to each other
because there are people,
they don't want to be involved in the documentary,
and they should be.
Because they've got important things to add to it.
And so we all need to get together and discuss it
and work with each other
and just come out of it together.
I've got God that put me here.
You know, He sav...literally saved my life in that fire.
And like it was pointed out in...
'Cause I went back in with Mitch Mitchell
'cause I was looking for friend of mine
who was visiting from Atlanta,
long-distance boyfriend,
and because I thought he was still in there,
and Mitch and I went back into some rooms
just completely engulfed in flames.
It was just like slow-motion swirling.
I was surrounded, and Mitch just disappeared.
Once we were in there, I just didn't know
where he went to because all I could see was the flames.
At the same time, I felt that experience
of something physical covering me,
and of course I've known God all my life.
I knew it was God covering me with Himself,
and I knew Bill Larson had died.
He was one of my very, very dear friends.
And I knew Ronnie, my friend, was outside
looking frantically for me.
And so I went back out,
but I think that they estimated the fire being
what was it, like 2,000 degrees, is that correct?
- It burned really, really hot.
- Yeah, it was very hot.
But I didn't have a burn on my body.
I didn't even have a singed hair.
I didn't even feel the heat,
and so I'm grateful.
I was talking...Am I going in the right direction?
- Yeah!
- Oh, okay, I didn't want to-- (laughter)
- You're good!
- There goes one of those rabbit trails.
I lost my place. I don't know where I was.
- You were talking about being in the fire
and not having a singe.
- Yeah.
Oh, okay, now I'm back.
I used to pray, after the fire,
and I would just plead with God,
"Why did you let me get out?
"Why did you protect me?"
And for years I've asked the same question, over and over.
After Katrina, I moved here to Dallas,
and I finally got an answer.
What I received in my spirit was the Lord saying,
"You have a story to tell."
And it's not just about the fire,
although it was the most horrible thing
anybody could imagine.
But it's a fire of love,
and it's God's love.
We've been taught all of our life,
"God hates you. You're gonna go to hell."
People at that time were saying that
the bar was burned because God destroyed it with fire
because of the homosexuals,
and my answer to them is,
"Hey, look. I'm a homosexual.
I was in the bar. God protected me."
Why? Because He gave me a message
to give to everybody in the LGBT community
and anybody else who wants to hear it.
God does love all.
He created every human being equally in His eyes,
In His eyes we are all perfectly created,
and so we are.
And He loves us.
Scripture even says He loves us
as much as He does Jesus,
and that's a lot,
and He loves all of us, every one of us, that much.
And it's a story that I feel that I'm taking from that fire
that it wasn't destroyed because of the sexuality.
It was just a crazy man who was angry and drunk,
wanted to get even.
And like it was said, and I believe, too,
I don't think he planned it and wanted to kill anybody.
Somebody asked me not long ago,
"Can you forgive him for that?"
I looked at them, I said, "I already have."
And I do, I really forgive him,
and that's the way we all have to be
and forgive all those people in New Orleans
that said all the bad things
and did all the bad things at that time.
They didn't know what they were doin' or sayin'.
We're humans. We're people, just like they are,
with feelings, and anyway...
- Thank you. (applause)
Yes! Absolutely!
(applause)
I'm going to open up the floor to questions
for either Ricky or myself.
Yes, Jack.
- [Jack] How many people survived?
- It's tough to say how many people survived
because of the time period.
People may have escaped,
but they didn't make a statement
or didn't say anything because again
if they said that they were at this queer bar,
they could've lost everything,
so it is impossible to say
with accuracy how many people survived.
- [Audience Member 2] Robert, I have a question.
You say that there were three unidentified
male victims of it.
Was there any attempt to identify them,
or any photos people have looked at
and said it might've been this person?
- They have looked.
There have been efforts over the past 40 years,
and nothing has come up.
Yes.
- [Audience Member 3] I see online
the building is still there.
What is upstairs now?
- The bar that's on the bottom floor is The Jimani.
It's still the same bar that existed in 1973.
The owner is the son of the owner that was...
That owned the bar in 1973,
And his name is Jimmy Massacci, Jr.,
and the family is very passionate
about the preservation of this story.
Jimmy is a strong ally and has been instrumental
in telling the story.
The second floor is basically a storage room
for the bar that's below.
That's where his office is,
but around the windows there's still char.
In the stairwell, you can still see burned out wood,
and he wants to keep it that way
as a reminder of the history
because he's very passionate about it.
As a child, him and his dad came down
to the building 'cause at first,
they thought it was their bar that was on fire,
and he remembers as a child seeing the bar burn down,
so he's very emotionally connected
and pays respects to everybody that
was touched by that fire.
Yes?
- [Audience Member 5] What are your hopes and plans for the
documentary and how can other people help spread the word?
- The question is what are my hopes and plans
for the documentary.
We want to share this film with as many people as possible
because this story has been in the shadows
for far too long.
I thought I knew my LGBT history
until David Golden, who became an associate producer,
came up to me after "Raid of the Rainbow Lounge"
and said, "Hey. I like what you've done with that film.
"You've told it with responsibility,
and you've helped educate and enlighten people.
I think you would be the perfect team to tell
the Up Stairs Lounge fire story
and help educate people."
And that's what we really want to do,
so we're just really in the beginning stages
of a film festival process,
look to share the film with audiences around the world,
and ultimately, get distribution on some bigger platforms.
And to help that, you can go to the Facebook page
and like it, and also just spread the word.
If you have friends in other cities,
tell them about this film and have them contact
their local film festival so they can say,
"Hey, we want this film."
They like to hear from their potential audience members,
and that this is a film that they want to see,
both mainstream and LGBT film festivals.
And if you ever have anything to jump in and say,
just feel free to jump in.
- Well, I want to just express first of all
my appreciation for what you've done.
It's a major thing,
and it's kind of brought me back out into life.
Where I was just kind of,
well anyway, I won't go into that.. (speaks softly)
You've done a great, marvelous thing,
and he deserves a great applause.
(applause) - Thank you.
- You all need to applaud yourselves.
I applaud you for being here
because you're loving people,
you're caring about what happened in our community
and the people's lives who were affected by the fire,
and I just want to thank you.
I appreciate you being here tonight.
(applause)
- I've got a question for you, Ricky.
One of the favorite moments in the film
that I've seen as I've traveled across the country,
is when you talk about the Nelly Dramas.
(laughter) (applause)
What was your experience like?
You can elaborate a little bit more
than we talked about in the film.
Talk a little bit about Nelly Dramas.
- Well, they were fun.
Of course, you know, they were all old-fashioned
melodramas, which called them Nelly Dramas,
that Bettye McAnear would write all the scripts.
You saw her picture and her husband.
It was just a fun thing that we would do,
and I don't know who thought of the idea,
but we had several different plays that we did,
and I was part of it, and I loved it.
We would have the same people
who would come back every weekend.
Same crowd.
They learned the script.
They would sit there,
and I mean they would throw the popcorn at the villain.
They learned the script,
and so when we went to go deliver that punch,
that punchline, the audience would just
all of a sudden they would...
So we wound up having to do a lot of ad-libbing
to try to throw them off,
but that's where all the fun came in
because the audience was trying to outdo us.
And I don't know who won that.
And what closed it was Bettye and her husband,
they had been out of town for quite awhile,
and they came in, we didn't know they were there.
And they were sitting there watching,
and we were just totally off-script.
And all of a sudden,
Bettye just got very temperamental and stood up.
"I wrote this stuff, and I don't..."
Well, I'm not gonna say the words she used, but
"I wrote this stuff, and I don't have to sit here
and listen to it." She got up and walked out,
and someone clean back in the back said,
"Well if she wrote it and doesn't want it..."
He walked out,
and all of a sudden, everybody...
We were just standing there on stage like,
"What just happened?"
(laughter)
But they were fun.
We had a lot of fun with it,
and it got...it was just a lot of fun.
- Well, I have a special surprise.
Karen Bartlett? Are you here?
Ricky, Karen Bartlett back there
is Bunny's granddaughter,
and sitting next to him, Devin
is her great-grandson.
- Oh, wow! (applause)
We're gonna have to--
- We need you two to talk after the show.
I'm very honored to have you here.
And thank you for all your help here, locally,
to help this film get made.
This was a community effort,
so thank you so much.
Other questions? Yes!
- [Audience Member 6] Have any of the congregations of
St. George's Episcopal Church or St. Mark's Methodist
had an opportunity to see the film
or voice their opinions and thoughts about
the church 40 years ago and the church today?
- Yes. Members and clergy from both churches
came to the screening in New Orleans
on the 42nd anniversary,
and from what I've heard, they really appreciated
the depiction of it and their role
because Father Bill Richardson
and the entire St. Mark's Methodist Church,
Finis Crutchfield, those were real heroes
to be able to stand up and say,
"Hey, we are going to hold these memorial services
because as it was said in the film, in the time of death,
you hope to turn to the church for comfort,
and many churches turned their backs,
and both of those churches welcomed
the grieving with open arms,
and so those are some of the true heroes of the event.
Other questions? Yes?
- [Audience Member 7] Since there's a lot of mention about
religion and the like in the film and whatnot,
I was curious to know if part of your intention,
besides just providing the history of the event,
was to also help kind of bridge the divide
between religion and the LGBT communities
because there seems to be a vast divide,
as a whole, between the two.
- It was always an intent to have religion
be a theme to this because it did play
such a huge role, both as an antagonist
and as a protagonist in this
because the church was not accepting.
And it's been a journey,
and Troy Perry started that with
Metropolitan Community Church as an affirming church
and welcoming people, and so that was the founding
of the church in New Orleans.
Ricky, I believe you were one of the founding members
of the congregation.
It really helped open the doors
and showed that God does love you,
even though you are gay or lesbian, transgender.
So it was always a goal of mine
to help educate people and like you said,
bridge that gap and understanding with religion,
that religion and the LGBT community can coexist.
- Can I throw something in here?
Kind of backing up a little bit before the fire,
I'm not sure how long it was,
but I had a conversation with Bill Larson at church,
and I told him, I said,
"Bill, I don't know what it is,
but I just feel like for some reason
you're not gonna be in the pulpit much longer."
And I don't remember what he said,
but anyway, at the day of the fire,
he, a couple other people, and I
had lunch together after church,
down in the French Quarter at a nice place.
And while the four of us were sitting at the table,
I looked at Bill, just right dead in the eyes,
and I said, "Bill..."
I said, "For some reason,
I just feel like you're gonna die."
And he looked right back at me,
and he said, "I know it."
Anyway, with that, you know,
talking about the religion, I don't want to say religion.
I'd say experience with God is
totally different from religion.
Buy you know, God has all kinds of angels
with different positions and responsibilities,
and one of them are observing angels.
What they're supposed to do, I'm not sure.
I don't know too much about it.
They day of the fire, before the fire happened,
there was a little bar downstairs
on Chartres Street, Gertrude's.
I don't know if you knew about it.
- I've heard of it.
- It had a picture window overlooking the street
and a table, and a friend of mine and a friend of his
were sitting there having a cocktail,
and you could see through the window down to the corner,
across the street from the Up Stairs.
And they saw this man they said,
well, Gil, the friend of mine was telling me
some time after the fire,
they saw this most incredibly beautiful man
that they just couldn't even describe,
and they were just so curious about him.
They put their drinks down,
started walking down to the corner to talk to him.
I don't know what their intentions were,
but they were just drawn to him,
and as they were walking, they had their eyes
just dead set on the man,
and all of a sudden, Gil was telling me,
all of a sudden he wasn't there.
And he said he didn't walk away
because they were watching him.
He just wasn't there anymore.
I believe that's one of the observing angels,
and you know, I feel in my heart,
that if God sent angels to surround the place,
God knew what was gonna happen.
He gives us our own free will.
He can't stop us because it would go against His word,
and He had these angels there he had already seen.
He knew what was going to happen,
just couldn't stop it,
and when He sat there in Heaven,
and all the creation, all the beings that He's created,
angels and creatures that are in Heaven.
They all sat there
and watched God's perfected creation
being burned and suffering, and I really believe
that that's the day, God and all of Heaven wept.
Because He saw His creatures,
His people that He loved so much
to be tortured and burned,
and so now, leave out religion,
but just, there's a relationship that I have with God.
I've...all my life-- (applause)
have learned as a child
to take, want to take their toys to church to show God.
My parents would have to say, "No, leave 'em home."
"He already saw them." (laughter)
And so it's a relationship that...
My relationship's not a book,
based on religiosity or different religions.
It's just my relationship with God,
and even as a teenager, when I'd go to bed at nighttime
I'd pray, and I'd ask Him to just hold me in His arms.
He did, and He still does.
- Thank you. (applause)
We have time for a couple more questions.
- [Audience Member 7] I just wanted to say a couple
of things to you in appreciation for what you're doing,
and that stories like this are important,
especially for a chronicle of what has happened
in the past and where we are today.
Because I think people in the future are gonna forget
about things like what you've done.
And the other thing I wanted to say
is that beyond the LGBT community,
this is of graver importance in terms of understanding
what hatred and looking at people,
looking down on people does
and how it hurts people.
- Oh, absolutely.
I think it has a greater implication.
As Ricky says in there, "Look what hatred can do."
"It can kill people."
And we're seeing that today.
So it's not just the LGBT community.
It's a message that crosses all communities.
People ask me what the takeaway,
what I want audiences to take away from this film,
what I say is that I hope it's a call for more compassion.
Compassion for people who are in pain.
Compassion for people who are in need.
Compassion for people who are not like us,
because they did not receive that compassion back then.
So I hope this is a wake-up call and a reminder
that we need to share more compassion
among ourselves, despite our differences.
We need to share more compassion.
So, thank you for the comment about LGBT history.
It has been an honor to tell this story.
I believe that we have come a long way
in very recent years in our effort for LGBT equality,
and we risk losing our history.
And if we don't tell our history, who will?
So it has been a great honor to present this story
and pass on to future generations.
- [Audience Member 8] Thank you, Robert.
(applause)
- [Robert] Thank you, guys for coming out,
supporting the film, supporting LGBT history.
Don't forget there's "Raid of the Rainbow Lounge" DVDs
for sale in the lobby.
We'll also be out in the lobby for any additional questions.
And always we're accessible on Facebook.
So everybody, Happy Holidays.
Ricky, thank you so much.
This is the only screening we've had
a Q and A with one of the survivors.
So Dallas, here you go.
Thank you so much, guys! (applause)
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