I was there watching this unfold as a 9 year old kid. My family and I were at the bottom of the hill about where these reporters were but a bit further down the street where the driveway ended. I remember watching people (the lucky ones who got out) coming down the hill in shock. Some were staggering about and tripping over the fire hoses. My father decided to leave after about an hour so as not to get blocked in all night by the emergency vehicles which kept arriving. A little later, we actually heard the roof collapse while standing in our front yard about 1 mile away. I still have strong memories about that night. Today, I always check for the fire exits every time I'm in a large capacity venue - especially if the building looks over 50 yrs. old.

All of this footage, not just from 12, but from 9 and 5 as well, should be well preserved, digitized and archived publicly, to aid future generations in understanding and learning from this disaster (and frankly, so many others that have taken place over the years).

The reporting here was truly exceptional. True professionalism in a chaotic environment. This should be mandatory viewing for all up-and-coming reporters.

My parents had gone out for dinner and dancing and my brother and I watched this unfold. They came home late evening and we rushed to them in tears as we thought they were in the fire. Remember this like it was yesterday.

Textbook example of how to calmly and effectively inform news of a tragic situation. This journalism work is gold medal.

At 18:17 a patron said "they brought one of the busboys up", that busboy was Walter Bailey. Bailey wanted to warn patrons about the fire but was told by management it wasn't necessary, when he saw the fire spreading he took it upon himself to go onstage, take a microphone from one of the comedians and calmly tell the patrons to make note of the exits and leave the building because there was a fire. Bailey was a competitive swimmer and knew he could hold his breath for a long time. After escorting one group of patrons outside he went back inside and guided more patrons through dense black smoke to safety.

This is an incredible documentation of one of the most tragic fires in national history. The amazing thing is that the coverage came about by just a stroke of luck. All three of the local stations doing news in 1977 were getting live microwave trucks all about the same time. WKRC had just gotten their truck earlier in the week of this fire. Their newsroom was quiet early in the evening, and they heard the first scanner traffic about a "kitchen fire at Beverly Hills." They decided it would be a good opportunity to send their new truck out and test it to see if they could get a signal back to the station. Obviously, they could -- although they had to use two-way photographer radios for the audio -- but they were the only local station to have live coverage. The other two stations had to use film, and by the time they headed to the scene, the traffic jams were enormous, and they had no visuals. The fact Channel 12 had the only live coverage from the scene (and the tremendous job done by Kyle Hill, Joanne Moore and Howard Ain with their reporting) shifted the balance in Cincinnati TV news after Channel 9 with Al Schottelkotte had dominated for decades.

Had a friend who, along with 7 siblings (8 kids total) were orphaned because of this fire. An incredible couple adopted all of them so they could stay together.

This is a great piece not only of history but of broadcast journalism history. I hope the station has shared it with journalism schools to show early use of live trucks/live shots and of how breaking news was covered back then.

I was 16 when this happened. It was horrible to see on TV. My condolences to those who lost people they loved.

I had never heard about any of this, like ever. This is just, man. Anyone else here from Fascinating History? They should have a scared straight for fires in high school. You won't complain about lines because of max capacity after you've heard "bodies stacked like cord wood." Geeze.

I’m Gina. I worked in the Cabaret Room, the Showroom, in the summers. I was a teacher during the school year. I was supposed to start working that Memorial Day Weekend. But there was a lawn party we were invited to over in Cincinnati. The back yard butted right up to a drive-in (the Dent?) and King Kong was showing. The man who lived there came out and asked if any of us kids (I was in my 20’s) were from Kentucky. My boyfriend and I told him we were. He told us that it was on TV that there was a fire at Beverly Hills. I said I worked there, and it was probably just a grease

My husband and I are survivors of that fire. We escaped from the Cabaret room. Watching this footage is chilling.

This coverage of this tragedy unfolding almost 45 years ago is fantastic! I forgot what real reporting looked like!

After the original MGM hotel in Las Vegas, I learned never have a room from abused6th floor, ladders can not reach you, and I learned in a hotel count all doors to your emergency doors, , a burning building has thick smoke, you are in the dark, if you have no idea how many doors are on the emergency escapes....my mother would have fire drills when we were kids,,,, teach your children to count the doors,

All these years ago and still heart braking. I was 8 when this happened I remember Jones town also . After Station night club I since have been super tuned in on all exits are in any place I go . Very very sad .

Disgusting that emergency services had to deal with looters looting the bodies awaiting being loaded onto the army trucks. When Howard Ain describes that scene, I actually gasped out loud. The reporters did a great job reporting this horrific scene.

my parents went there that night it was my aunts anniversary I believe it was like her 35th and she was a big John Davidson fan so my Aunt Pearl my Aunt Mary and my mom and my dad and of course their husbands went over to celebrate the anniversary and I remember my parents getting home at 2 in the morning and I started crying just because they were home safe and we were watching that live on channel 12 and where we lived in Cincinnati it was about a half-hour ride in here it was you know to 2:00 in the morning and they weren't home yet but we seen that big LTD wagon pull up the driveway and how it was this an awesome time sad time but awesome for my family. I was 11 years old

We saw the Glow across the river from Eastern Ave. It Looked like a sunset , I wasn't allowed to watch the news on it. I am just getting to see this for the first time. But when I saw the victims list I understood why. A few people didn't show up at church the nest week end and I ask where they where. I was told they moved. I was hurt they wouldn't say good bye to me. Now I know where they moved too. About 5 years ago I started slowly looking at the pictures and list and reports. They should not build anything on that land, but its not my call.

My mom wanted my family to go to BH S C that night to celebrate me graduateing HS, but I refused, Im glad we didnt go.

When local news was professional. I grew up an hour north of Cincinnati, and remember this so well..my brother graduated from high school the next day.

I remember this like it was yesterday I had just gotten home from my high school senior dinner dance which was at an equally overcrowded venue in Dayton Ohio. I'll never get over the scenes that I saw while I watched the reports all night long. It was awful I prayed for both they soles of the deceased and the survivors that night.

John Davidson personally saved a number of people by helping them out of danger. He was quite a hero that evening; I understand he still doesn't like to talk about that experience.

It seems as though every TV news program back then used "Move Closer to Your World" as its theme song!

42 years today..remember this so well..so tragic.

My mom and dad had tickets to go there the week after this happened; my dad scored tickets when he fixed the amplifier for Natalie Cole’s bass player. It’s a shame this had to happen; too many mistakes caused so many deaths. No smoke alarms. No exits. Over fire code.

This news channel does an excellent job especially considering all the technical difficulties they were experiencing.

Me and my 4 family members were supposed to go for my brothers birthdaythat night and he got sick so we didn't go Thank goodness!!

I guess I should not talk about this but regarding the point where the Army Trucks come up to pick up the bodies is heart wrenching, however, this was a mass casualty scene with many bodies that have expired being reported by media representatives who are not use to that sort of thing. Was like a warzone actually was the best way to describe it. I feel the pain/shock in their voice and disbelief but leaving them lay in the dark was not an option. Obtaining commercial vehicles would have involved too much so-called red tape and further delays at a cost arrangement. Not that cost was important it would have been the arrangement of such transportation and the shortage of time and daylight. The Army trucks were available with drivers and no red tape to go through to transport the deceased immediately to the morgue. So what may have seemed like an awkward process actually was handled in the best way possible with what was available to use. The looting discovered bothered me as it would anyone else. Another reason to evacuate the deceased as quickly as possible to a sheltered more secure location. RIP to all the victims. A real tragedy.

My grandma almost went that night. Her friend backed out. So thank God she did too. So horrible. It was KY/OH/IN's "Station" fire. So messed up 40 years or 41 this year.

48:23 Nick Clooney, George's old man. He was a local celeb, he hosted "Thriller In The Night" scary Sat. night movies.

What happened to Joanne Moore? Did she continue as a television reporter? She didn't seem to get as much credit for excellent coverage as she should have; she was the one running up and down that hill all night.

So grateful this footage exists

I remember this so vividly I live about 2 miles away I was on my porch and told my mom where are all these emergency vehicles going I was 10 years old but remember it like it was yesterday

I was 7 when this happened. I don't remember this broadcast. Our next door neighbor's parents passed away in this tragedy. I can't even begin to describe the trauma.

It occurred on the night of May 28, 1977

The look on the firefighter’s face at 41:30 says it all.

Amazing coverage given the technical limitations of the era. This would have been impressive for a NETWORK, This a a LOCAL channel. Today we have the tech to report a damned abandoned dog house on fire in 4K, BUT we don't get NEWS anymore.

I was 10 when this happened I remember the stories of death and survival in the days ahead. 165 people lost there lives so sad

So scary .... All power lost and can’t see the exits and fire all around you WOOOOW How on earth can you have a place like this with no sprinklers

Wow. That was some good reporting by Howard, Joanne, and Kyle. I don't know if they and/or the station got an award for this but I hope they did. I also hope they were not too traumatized by the events.

Thank you for posting this incredible video from the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in May 1977. This was a horrendous tragedy in the Greater Cincinnati area. This is a haunting reminder how life can be ended very suddenly from a disaster like this.

00:43 smiles waves hands - 'hi mom over 160 people are burning alive behind me! - weeeeee!'.

I was nine yrs old. I remember this being all over the news . I remember Jonestown to . So sad.

Such a sad memory

WKRC Cincinnati did a well job with trying to document that tragic event. I wouldn't even consider it trying- I would consider it fine documentation!

You can tell that this story took an emotional toll on the reporters. Joanne looks like she’s about to cry

How technology has changed. This was a reported mob hit cause the owners would not sell. This is amazing reporting. Live as we watch the building disintegrate. This is excellent reporting. I hope the team got an award.

I used to teach night electric classes at HBA in NKY for local electricians to get licensed. I always tried to do at least one night of class re Beverly Hills and how it pertains to building trades (especially electric) even to this day. Although the real cause is undoubtedly questionable, electric work and materials got a black eye as a result of this tragedy. Stressing the importance of emergency lighting and marking of exits, making sure our work is tight and to code, inspected by authority having jurisdiction with permits etc. The National Electric Code is actually NFPA 70. National Fire Protection Association Art 70.......and it is revised every 3 years. This is to keep up with new products and practices in and among the trades, new appliances etc. Electricians you hire have to do a lot of "keeping up" on code changes and licensing so treat them right. Also when in places of assembly, always check for ALTERNATE EXITS as it is human nature to go OUT the way they come IN. Most fire deaths occur within 15' of an exit.

The look in that firefighters eyes is just like the look of a soldier in a war zone. Saw alot of traumatic scenes. Been there myself before

Yet in 2003 The Station Nightclub fire killed 100. No sprinklers. Why didn’t they learn from tragedies like this?

My brother in law Russell Gray died in this fire.

Kudos to you guys.simply awesome team.

There’s a popular theory that the fire was intentionally started by the local mafia because the owners refused to give them control of the club. Apparently they used timers to set the fire off, but they messed up, and they were actually supposed to go off the next morning when the building was empty.

My daughter cut her toe that night , It was a small cut but I thought it might need a stitch We were at a relatives house and didn't know anything about the fire.when we went to St Luke Hospital there were cars and emergency vehicles everywhere. We couldn't even get to the emergency room entrance.We had to turn around and leave . We found out about the fire when we got home. It was such a tragedy

A guy i know was locked up at the jail in Newport. The lowlifes that were caught looting from the bodies were brought in. The cops beat the piss out of them.

Love old news footage. Horrible situation very sad

Had no idea about this fire. I've always been one to look for exits and never sit with my back to a door. Poor souls.

My right ear heard the story fine. No idea what happened in the left ear.

Nick Clooney's resemblance to George is remarkable.

My grandfather was was going to remarry at the Beverly Hills Supper Club on the night of the fire, but a Catholic Official objected, and instead he remarried at his new bride's house in Alexandria KY, with over 100 or so it seemed to me, in attendance. The drive home took us through Covington and/or Newport ( I don't think 471 or 275 East Bridge were completed yet) and we could see the flames and smell the smoke, as well as hear so many fire engines and ambulances and police cars. My dad rolled down the car window and asked a guy on the street if he knew and the guy just shrugged. My mom turned on the car's AM radio and heard it was the Supper Club. My parents ended up losing friends that night, as it was quite a draw to go there for a meal or to see John Davidson. I was ten years old when this happened.

“The club was not equipped with a sprinkler system” Wtf?!

I was only 15 months old when this fire occurred. RIP to the 165 people who lost their lives that night!

This was a *huge* story; I was living in Vancouver, BC, at the time and it absolutely dominated the 11 o'clock news. As the old saying goes in journalism, "If it bleeds, it leads." Also, were those reporters smokers? Lots of tobacco fiends back in ‘77 and that would explain why they were all so winded.

The Horror Thoses Poor Victim's Went Though I Was 9 Year's Old When This Nightmare Happened I Do Remember Seeing This On Tv When It Happened My Mom And Dad Were Shocked They Couldn't Believe It Just Like Everybody Else Who Were In Shock May God Have Mercy On All The Victims And There Family's

The anchor with Howard Ain is Nick Clooney. Very much respected.

Though out the years new areas were added on without any regard to fire safety. The rural fire district had little rule over this monster that was built. It was like a maze inside. Read the NFPA account the National Fire Protection Assoc.

1970s were really something else. So fresh

As hideous an event as this was, especially with the rapid progression of the flames, it's astounding that only 165 of some 3,000 people inside lost their lives. It was, in large part, due to the quick action of the young busboy, who took to the stage and calmly informed the people in the main room that there was a fire and they should leave the building. He was a true hero who probably saved hundreds of other lives. Minutes and seconds made a huge difference in getting the first thousand people safely outside this growing inferno.

I was on vacation at my grandmothers when this happened. I recall her neighbor had not been home for a few days,we later found out she was killed in the fire.

Forty-four years ago this coming Friday. Saturday, May 28, 1977-Friday, May 28, 2021. To put the date in a little bit of context, Star Wars (1977) had been released just three days earlier.

In my hospital, this would have been a code green - external disaster. I was so lucky, as was my community, I only heard it once - tornado hit a rural community near us. Dozens injured and a few deaths, OR was hopping, but we initially feared it was much, much worse. If we had a similar disaster in my county, if we’d taken hundreds of casualties like the hospitals that night....oh my god. The stuff of nightmares.

There's an interview with Howard Ain from just a few years ago on KZfaq about this, it's really interesting.

What a tragedy, 1st time I had heard of this was after watching a separate video on the Fascinating Horror KZfaq channel. I was only 2 years old in 1977 and being in the UK had never heard of it before. Did they ever arrest anyone? Thankfully fire safety standards have improved massively at least here in the UK after the Bradford City Football Stadium fire disaster in May 1985. R.I.P. to the poor souls who lost their lives.

I watched a documentary on this, I can’t believe they got the full news coverage from 77 on KZfaq.

i was visiting fort thomas on a class trip from north ont canada about three weeks after fire everone was still talking about it the reporters here are first class

I think the reporters did an excellent job,howard,kyle,joanne.especially with all the technical difficulties

Reminds me of the station fire

Looting the bodies??? Omg! Unbelievable! :-( ...vultures everywhere!

That young boy should have received a medal for his bravery & TRYING to help people....How sad, so excited for a show & never to become....The one TV2 lady taking witnesses theory of a cigarette butt lol.....I grew up with TV stations & technology, or lack of in the 70's lol ramming that big walkie-talkie in their faces lol.....I know this isn't a laughing matter, TRAGIC is an understatement...but watching those boys in tank tops behind the news made me laugh....sure do miss the good ol' days!!!

KZfaq: Stop your Asinine commercial interruption of difficult memories like these - WAKE UP!

How many people died in this tragic fire, R.I.P.

I remember this

Reporting over a walkie talkie where nowadays it would be a satellite truck. *And whats with a funeral director being there* ? Talk about the bodies not being cold. Each victim would go to the Medical Examiner Office for cause of death first!

My uncle was a bartender there that night, he was helping to pull people out his best friend went in to try to save somebody and he never came out. He was messed up from that night on I don't remember ever seeing him again after that. He just couldn't handle what he saw and left the state

A year before this occurred, I saw John Davidson, at a venue in New Jersey.

I was 5 right before I started kindergarten, my neighbor the same age as me his mother was working there that night she was OK but it affected her spirit 😔

The previous fire should have been a wake up call. A true tragedy. Too much death. The building inspector should have been prosecuted and imprisoned for his stupidity and negligence. Check the damn wiring thoroughly. And the owner should have been held accountable for his part in this. That floorplan was quite literally a death trap. And when the announcement was made to that manager he was more worried about unpaid tabs than getting people out alive. He needed to be in prison for the rest of his life

42:45 That poor fireman looks absolutely exhausted and traumatized.

When this began..the time the news started..we're people still being saved or was the "rescue" portion of this over?

1970s America: Fire and death behind you... camera in front of you: Smile and wave because you are excited to be on TV.

Couple of questions... 1. Was this one long broadcast, like a special report, or was it a regular newscast where they would cut back to, say, the weather, come back to this story, then cut to other news stories? 2. There seems to be a lot of noise in the studio early on. Is that a police scanner that they have on on the background.

So many individuals standing behind and about the reporters as they narrate this disaster. You would see a prepared background with one narrator and the "officials" standing behind him today.

So awful! The $25M (equal to ~$110M in 2020) that G&E ended up being ordered to pay victims was not nearly enough, imo. That's less than a million per victim (or $4M in today's dollars). One guy lost both his parents AND his sister that night; that, alone, should have garnered him about $6M according to the America's ' Office of Management and Budget', which (ridiculously) determined that the value of a human life is btwn $7-9M in 2012 dollars, which, at the high end, is roughly $2M in 1977 dollars. If those monetary standards had applied 40 years ago, then that single victim would've deserved ¼ of the award money by himself. So what about the other ~100 families??? Unfair. Even at the low end of the OMB's valuation, that'd be roughly $270M in lost lives in 1977 dollars. SMH.🤦‍♀️

Sickening how anyone could loot the dead bodies. I had a man that I worked with who had been in the Navy during the 1960's that told me that they caught sailors looting bodies of the dead on the USS Forrestal. Sick people!

If they are building a housing development at the site as planned I could never set foot in the place let alone live where 160+ people died even if it's been 46 years. The screams of those people burning to death would still be heard in the back of my head. The massive fire rivals that of a plane crash. Just out of control. So glad the news footage has survived. Sometimes the station often erases the tapes.

Sports later but first Death and Holocene 😮😮

Wow

The egregious combover was so hot in the late 70’s. My father had a full head of hair, and even he parted and styled his hair into a combover. Real long and blunt on the sides and back, and the top parted very deep and swept over the top of his head. Lol! 🤷🏻‍♂️

Wow that' fireman had no compassion for all the burned up bodies he just saw firemen usually don't smile and laugh at these catastrophes there are normally broke down at this point