Editing Cocoanut Grove fire (section)

==Background==
The "Grove" had become one of Boston's most popular nightspots, featuring a restaurant and dancing in the main area, floor shows, and piano-playing entertainers in the Melody Lounge. Visiting movie stars and singers would have their entry announced by the ''[[maître d']]''. The "Caricature Bar" featured renditions of the establishment's prominent guests. The club had expanded eastward with the new Broadway Lounge, which opened onto adjacent Broadway between Piedmont Street (south side) and Shawmut Street (north side).{{cn|date=November 2019}}

Wall coverings and decorative materials had been approved on the basis of tests for ordinary ignition, which showed resistance to combustion from sources such as matches and cigarettes. Decorative cloth was purportedly treated with fire retardant [[ammonium sulfate]] upon installation, but there was no documentation that the treatment was maintained at the required intervals. The air-conditioning [[freon]] refrigerant had been replaced with the flammable gas [[Chloromethane|methyl chloride]] because of a wartime shortage.<ref name=":0" />

On the day of the fire [[Holy Cross Crusaders football|College of the Holy Cross football team]] beat [[Boston College Eagles football|Boston College]], causing the Boston College celebration party scheduled for the Cocoanut Grove that evening to be canceled.<ref name = "fire story">{{cite web|url=http://www.bostonfirehistory.org/firestory11281942.html |title=The Cocoanut Grove Fire, archived copy |access-date=December 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507061956/http://www.bostonfirehistory.org/firestory11281942.html |archive-date=May 7, 2012 }}</ref> Mayor Tobin, a Boston College fan, also canceled his plans to go to the Grove.<ref name = "Saffle"/>  Female impersonator [[Arthur Blake (American actor)|Arthur Blake]] was a headlining act that night.<ref name="variety">{{cite magazine|title=OBITUARIES: Arthur Blake|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|volume=318|issue=10|date=April 3, 1985|page=87}}</ref> It is estimated that more than 1,000 people were crammed into the space rated for a maximum of 460.{{cn|date=November 2019}}  On the night of the fire Welansky was recovering from a heart attack in a private room at [[Massachusetts General Hospital]] (MGH).