Historical Drama Based on Actual Events

On Saturday morning November 28, 1942, recently crippled newspaper photographer DANNY MCGUIRE hides in the shadows across the street from Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub.  He covertly snaps a picture of SAL RUSSO, the club’s cocky strong-arm, greasing the palm of a city official for an unwarranted certificate for a  fire safety "inspection".  It's another piece of evidence Danny and his best friend, reporter JIM REED, can use to blow the lid off the shady practices of the crooks that run the Grove.  It's the kind of story that can take them from the sports pages to front page news at the Boston Globe. When Danny spies his former fiancée GINGER LOGAN giving Sal a smooch, he seethes.  He despises Sal and the feeling is mutual.

That afternoon, Danny and Jim cover the biggest football game of the season at Fenway Park. There, Ginger is stunned and heartbroken to see Danny encumbered by a leg brace.  She confronts him about why he’s been keeping his injury a secret from her.  She demands to know, was the story that he left her for another girl a lie?  Danny just brushes her off.  Sal visits the box seats of city officials hosting cowboy movie star Buck Jones and puts pressure on them to make an appearance at the Grove.  The game has a surprising outcome.  Because undefeated Boston College is trounced by Holy Cross 55 - 12, plans for a Boston College victory party at the Cocoanut Grove are canceled. 

That night, Danny and Jim go to the Cocoanut Grove to get a quote from Buck Jones about the game.  And, it's a good excuse to snoop around.  The swanky club’s faux palm trees and blue satin covered ceilings offer the illusion of a tropical party under a starry sky.  The joint is jumping.  Men and women dressed to the nines swing to live big band music and take in a floorshow over dinner.  Scores of military men celebrate one last night on the town before being shipped out to the warfront.  

Sal, irritated by Danny's presence, repeatedly tries to intimidate him.  Danny doesn't take the bait but, when he sees Sal disrespecting Ginger, his contempt for him intensifies.  Danny manages to get Ginger alone.  He revels in being so close to her.  He now realizes breaking it off with her was a big mistake.  They are lost in each other until Jim reluctantly drags him away to return to the newspaper office.  

When a lit match accidentally ignites fronds on a faux palm tree, a deadly fire rips through the overcrowded club.  A fireball races in mid-air felling those in its path and setting people ablaze. People trample one another seeking a way out but all public exits are locked except for a slow moving revolving door.  And when that jams shut, there is no escape.  Ginger is left helplessly trapped inside.  

Multitudes of fire hoses pummel water at the building.  Firemen, battling the blaze, fall through the roof.  The dance floor collapses.  A stretcher chain that wraps around the block hustles fire victims to a makeshift Red Cross medical station.  Despite the enormous rescue effort that includes civilians and every available fire company, police department and branch of the military, the death toll mounts as bodies are found heaped behind every locked door.  

Danny frantically searches for Ginger.  Jim is torn between helping him look for her and covering the biggest story of their lives.  Will Danny find Ginger?  Did she even survive?  Will he and Jim get to expose the greed and corruption that made the joint a death trap and caused the deadliest nightclub fire in history?  And, who in the end will pay the price? 

MAJOR CHARACTER SYNOPSIS

DANNY MCGUIRE, 26, is an intense, handsome newspaper photographer and former football hero who is just trying to cope with the hand he’s been dealt.  Living life in a leg brace is the price he's had to pay for covering the battle at Guadalcanal.  It’s left him cynical and believing that he is no longer a whole man.  So he gave up the girl he loves, reluctant to "saddle her with a gimp".

JIM REED, 26, Danny’s best friend, is a tenacious reporter and a charismatic ladies' man.  He is hell bent on blowing the lid off the shady practices at Boston’s swankiest nightclub, the Cocoanut Grove.  It’s the kind of big story that’s sure to drive their careers from the sports section to the front page.  Feeling guilty that Danny was injured saving his life, he is obsessed with getting Danny's life back on track. 

GINGER LOGAN, 23, Danny's ex-fiancée, is a natural beauty.  Heartbroken and angry that Danny has let her go, she still carries a torch for him.  She studied nursing until her father lost his job. She now works at the Cocoanut Grove as a cashier to help put her brother through college.

​SAL RUSSO, 28, is the Cocoanut Grove's cocky strong-arm.  He's slick from his Brylcreemed hair to his shiny Italian shoes.  He despises Danny and Jim and the feeling is mutual.  He'd always had an eye for Ginger.  So when he found out that she was no longer with Danny, he sought an angle.  Learning of her financial predicament, he swooped in.  He used his influence to get her a raise at the club.  And, knowing she felt indebted to him, he convinced her to be his girl.  

RITA RUSSO, 21, believes that her brother Sal can do no wrong.  She thinks that he can give Ginger everything a girl could want.  A sexy, hopeless romantic, she dreams of marrying Ginger's brother Andy, a college football player she's never even dated. 

Structure - Excellent

Plot/Story Line - Excellent

Character Development - Excellent

Dialogue - Excellent

First 20 Pages - Excellent

and 

​Script - Recommend

Writer(s) - Recommend

"...the writer(s) succeed(s) in engaging the reader from page 1."

"The premise of the entire story arc is also present from the beginning."

"There is a comprehensive three-act structure and the fire scenes are highly climactic." 

"...an interesting story that keeps the reader engaged throughout the script."

"...memorable characters...bring us closer to the fire and the descriptions of the chaos are so vibrant and detailed, that one almost feels like they are a part of the crowd that assembles around the destruction." 

"The characters in A FIRE THAT STILL BURNS are well developed and believable.  It is always important to create characters that are complex and multi-dimensional and the writer is effective in communicating the different characteristics, motives, emotions, needs and wants for each of the main characters and even the smaller characters (such as the women in the club).  This is very important because as the fire progresses, characters that we have gotten to know are either struggling to escape the flames or are burnt and killed.  The story becomes much more emotional when these characters are fighting for their lives because we “know” them."

"The dialogue is appropriate for each character as they speak in their own individual manner and via their unique personalities.  Adding in certain colloquialisms that were true to that time period... adds to the realism of the characters and their existences." 

All Black & White Photos of the Cocoanut Grove Fire: NFPA - Public

Cocoanut Grove Matchbook Cover: Boston Fire Historical Society

Fire Font:  www.flamingtext.com