September 1, 2025 • 11 mins
Welcome to Lucky Dip - our bite-sized weekly (sometimes fortnightly) pod! Each ep, we'll take turns sticking our mitts into the goodie bucket and unwrapping a topic to chinwag about. You never know what you're gonna get, so enjoy five minutes of randomness that we hope will bring a lil' nugget of joy to your day. Enjoy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Lucky Dip time. It's lucky dip time. We put a
hand in a bucket, we pulled out a tough pile.
Chat about it. It's MALAMONTI.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I've got a grim story everywhere. That's not like you now,
it's grim. It's you look, it's all around dark, but
it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So there was this place in the forties called the
Coconut Grove, right, and it was like this hugely popular
bar and nightclub in Boston. And it was so popular
because it had sort of opened around the end of
that you know how there was that prohibition era where
people couldn't drink alcohol, so like you that you couldn't
(00:46):
sell alcohol and all that stuff. So when that was over,
it was like everyone forties forty.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I han't remember, I say the forty Yeah you did
say the forties, but I didn't remember that you couldn't
sell alcohol and stuff, so how would people get it?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was an like an underground too. It was like
a full I guess it's like how people maybe used
to buy tobacco instead of you know, so it was
like an underworld sort of thing. But people were getting
out and about again because you could go to a
bar and have a drink and have a dance.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And the forties, I mean, what a time Oh what
a time outfit wise, what a time outfit wise.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But also this place, Coconut Grove it was called, was
like you'd imagine like a bar in the forties would
have been. It was all like heavy velvet drape whatever,
and inside they had all of these fake coconut trees
and the fixtures on the in like up at the
(01:42):
top that were lights were round as the cocon but
they were light.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Bulbs themed a themed nightclub. Fun.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, like Draculas of the Four.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Oh my god, I've always wanted to go to Draculas.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Remember there used to be Oh you never went.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Never went, and I don't care to, but I wanted
to go when I was younger so badly. We'd just
go and stand out the front. My grandparents would take
me there. What a fucking weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, I can see as a kid you would have
wanted to have gone. But I think it's closed down now.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
No, it's not still on the Gold Coast, and I think, yeah,
there's still definitely one up here.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
If the Melbourne one is still open. The next time
you come, can we please go.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yes, So I just feel like the food would be gross,
and also like the crowd participation. I'm sorry, no, we
can't crowd participation. It's a show. And then they would
come and get you. I reckon, would they?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, I can't remember. I only went once. But anyway,
all right, fucking shoot me down. Okay. So anyway, on
the night of November twenty eighth, nineteen forty two, it
was a full house. It was packed beyond capacity. There
was a guest who had met this woman and he
wanted a bit of privacy with her, so he took
(02:53):
her to like a little area off to the side,
a little lounge area. And you know how I said
that the light bulbs were up in the trees. Yes,
he unscrewed it, so it was a bit darker there
because he wanted to suckface. So anyway, someone in management
saw it and they said too. There was a sixteen
year old that was working there, sixteen year old waiter
(03:14):
bus boy whatever you'd call it. He said to him,
go up and fix that light because that guy's just
turned it off. So the kid gets up there, I
don't no, I know, and he couldn't see properly because
it was so dim, so he lit a match to
be able to see. And what happened was because everything
was fucking flammable, the match started a fire in this
(03:39):
fake coconut tree. No, and the fire tore through in
a dramatic fashion, like the wood, the draping that everything.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Was, the coconut, plastic trees.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All that stuff. Yeah, terrifying. Even at the time. Probably
people's clothing was flammable too. Everything.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I feel our clothes still are. I put ode in
flannel at pajamas and.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Everything was the warning on the tag.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Don't get even a spark within a kilometer of these I.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Know anyway, So obviously it escalates quickly, and you can
imagine in a cramped imagine a nightclub, cramped people. It
was chaos, chaos. People were trying to get out of there.
But the thing was the owner didn't like the idea
of because there was a time where people were able
to sort of win, and there was like a few
(04:31):
different exits. People might go there and then just sneak
out the back door and hit him. Want that, so
he sealed don't no, I know, it's so terrible. He
sealed the exits and even the windows he bought it up.
A lot of the windows shit, and some of the
doors that did open only opened inwards. So then you
can imagine all these people into the.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Door capacity and you can't open it because everyone's freaking
not like a worse.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Knock is hideous story so far. Yeah, it's horrible. It's horrible,
and it gets worse. So there were a couple of
small windows and I think one other door that the
staff knew about that were in the kitchen. So as
many of them that could get out got out, and
you know, like they tried to help other people out,
but you know, every man for themselves. At this point,
(05:20):
it was freezing outside as well, so it was snowing outside,
but it's burning inside. The people that had gotten out,
a lot of them died because of that. They were burnt,
but the extreme of the exposure, going from fire into
snow shocked their bodies. Yeah, because you're not I think
(05:41):
those massive extremes, like we're not talking about a sauna
and colage. We're talking about like your skin's on fire.
Fuck Anyway, So the people that were able to be
rescued were taken to the two main hospitals in the area,
but the emergency systems weren't set up properly back then
to take in that amount of people. So out of
(06:03):
four hundred and forty four burn victims that actually did
make it to the hospital, only one hundred and thirty
of them survived. All up, four hundred and ninety two
people died.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
From one night night club maybe Yeah, I just have
the twister setting in my head from Melbourne, and I'm like,
if there was a fire there, oh my god, they're chaos.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Oh my god, and it's so made it the deadliest
nightclub fire in history and the third deadliest single building
fire after the Twin Towers and this other Chicago theater.
But on a positive note, during that time treating all
of those burns victims, they came up with so many
technologies that we still use today to help treat burns victims,
(06:46):
like skin grafting and all that. Because they were so
desperate to help these people, they were like, what the
fuck do we do, So they just implemented, Wow, this
is just a real fucked side story to go with it.
So there was a there called Clifford Johnson that night
and he was on a first date. He was twenty
one at the time, in the stampede to get out.
(07:08):
He lost track of where his day was, right, he
went back no three times to try and find her.
First day. Wow, wind a.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Day because I was thinking how far would I go
to get somebody else. I'm like, I would hands down,
be like where Sam? Where Sam? But outside of that,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You wouldn't. Really that's a year to go back into
a fire. Oh so I couldn't get out. That's he
really wanted to get like.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
He really wanted to get laid. Are you sure he
wasn't the guy who unscrewed the coconut light.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
No on that poor kid had to go to trial
to really messed him up. Oh my god, kistein. Oh
my god. Anyway, listen to this guy's story. So he
goes in and out turns out she actually made it
out safely. He got burnt very badly. He got third
degree burns to about sixty five percent of his body.
(08:10):
He was in hospital for twenty one months recovering from
his injuries. And during that time and imagine too, Like
you know, they say treating burns is like the most
one of the most painful things you can go through because.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
When you burn your finger or something. It just gives
you a taste.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And how they have to be so careful because I
think back then too, they would put like ayer dine
and stuff on you because the infection risk because it's open,
everything's open. So imagine in the forties, even without the
sort of pain relief we have now. Anyway, So in
those twenty one months, he fell in love with his nurse.
Oh cute, which is beautiful. They got married, they had
(08:53):
I think they had three kids. Fourteen years later, he
was on his way home from work delivery driver had
a fucking car accident. The car burst into flames, and
he died.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
From the fire of the car. This is taking time.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, how it's just.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you get onto these stories, Like what it's a
ratal it's a historical thing.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's a historical thing. What was it called the Coconut Club,
Coconut grove, but coconut is spelt like coconut and aut
not spelled like coconuts. Oh my god, yeah, coconut grove fire.
I mean, there's plenty more details if you look into it.
But yeah, like just the thought of how many things
went wrong in that one moment.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Oh my god, And I reckon. You got things go
into a vortex like law of attraction, like something goes
wrong and then there's just a ripple on effect. It's
like the same as when something goes well. It's like
you're in this flow. It's almost a low of positive
and negative and it just keeps going. Because just for
that much bad, like for it to be snowing outside,
(10:07):
like every everything was against every part of that except
for the fourteen years later, the poor dude dying. That
is such a not feel good story.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I know, but you know, like I guess we can.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It can make us be grateful that we're not at
the Coca Nought.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, sometimes the grim stuff it sounds stupid, but it
does make you feel grateful, or you know, when you
have a near miss. Sometimes if I have a near
miss of something like if I'm driving, yeah, right, and
I think, you know, sometimes you're driving, you're almost which
is very wrong to say, but you're almost on autopilot.
Did I get here? Yeah? Or you need to know
(10:46):
I wasn't paying attention. Sometimes I think to myself, imagine
not had an accident, or I'd hurt someone else or
I was injured, then I'd really have something to complain
about stuff out of it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Just brings you back to reality. All right, everyone, thank
you so much for listening, and we appreciate you choosing
our podcast. You can grab a Patreon where you get
an extra a Patreon membership where it's about five bucks
a month. You can get an extra podcast every couple
of weeks over there, and yeah, give us a rating
(11:22):
or a like, or share this podcast with your friends.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
We'll be back soon to love yous
Lucky Dip time. It's lucky dip time. We put a
hand in a bucket, we pulled out a tough pile.
Chat about it. It's MALAMONTI.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I've got a grim story everywhere. That's not like you now,
it's grim. It's you look, it's all around dark, but
it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So there was this place in the forties called the
Coconut Grove, right, and it was like this hugely popular
bar and nightclub in Boston. And it was so popular
because it had sort of opened around the end of
that you know how there was that prohibition era where
people couldn't drink alcohol, so like you that you couldn't
(00:46):
sell alcohol and all that stuff. So when that was over,
it was like everyone forties forty.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I han't remember, I say the forty Yeah you did
say the forties, but I didn't remember that you couldn't
sell alcohol and stuff, so how would people get it?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It was an like an underground too. It was like
a full I guess it's like how people maybe used
to buy tobacco instead of you know, so it was
like an underworld sort of thing. But people were getting
out and about again because you could go to a
bar and have a drink and have a dance.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And the forties, I mean, what a time Oh what
a time outfit wise, what a time outfit wise.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But also this place, Coconut Grove it was called, was
like you'd imagine like a bar in the forties would
have been. It was all like heavy velvet drape whatever,
and inside they had all of these fake coconut trees
and the fixtures on the in like up at the
(01:42):
top that were lights were round as the cocon but
they were light.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Bulbs themed a themed nightclub. Fun.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, like Draculas of the Four.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Oh my god, I've always wanted to go to Draculas.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Remember there used to be Oh you never went.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Never went, and I don't care to, but I wanted
to go when I was younger so badly. We'd just
go and stand out the front. My grandparents would take
me there. What a fucking weirdo.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, I can see as a kid you would have
wanted to have gone. But I think it's closed down now.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
No, it's not still on the Gold Coast, and I think, yeah,
there's still definitely one up here.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
If the Melbourne one is still open. The next time
you come, can we please go.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yes, So I just feel like the food would be gross,
and also like the crowd participation. I'm sorry, no, we
can't crowd participation. It's a show. And then they would
come and get you. I reckon, would they?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, I can't remember. I only went once. But anyway,
all right, fucking shoot me down. Okay. So anyway, on
the night of November twenty eighth, nineteen forty two, it
was a full house. It was packed beyond capacity. There
was a guest who had met this woman and he
wanted a bit of privacy with her, so he took
(02:53):
her to like a little area off to the side,
a little lounge area. And you know how I said
that the light bulbs were up in the trees. Yes,
he unscrewed it, so it was a bit darker there
because he wanted to suckface. So anyway, someone in management
saw it and they said too. There was a sixteen
year old that was working there, sixteen year old waiter
(03:14):
bus boy whatever you'd call it. He said to him,
go up and fix that light because that guy's just
turned it off. So the kid gets up there, I
don't no, I know, and he couldn't see properly because
it was so dim, so he lit a match to
be able to see. And what happened was because everything
was fucking flammable, the match started a fire in this
(03:39):
fake coconut tree. No, and the fire tore through in
a dramatic fashion, like the wood, the draping that everything.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Was, the coconut, plastic trees.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All that stuff. Yeah, terrifying. Even at the time. Probably
people's clothing was flammable too. Everything.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I feel our clothes still are. I put ode in
flannel at pajamas and.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Everything was the warning on the tag.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Don't get even a spark within a kilometer of these I.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Know anyway, So obviously it escalates quickly, and you can
imagine in a cramped imagine a nightclub, cramped people. It
was chaos, chaos. People were trying to get out of there.
But the thing was the owner didn't like the idea
of because there was a time where people were able
to sort of win, and there was like a few
(04:31):
different exits. People might go there and then just sneak
out the back door and hit him. Want that, so
he sealed don't no, I know, it's so terrible. He
sealed the exits and even the windows he bought it up.
A lot of the windows shit, and some of the
doors that did open only opened inwards. So then you
can imagine all these people into the.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Door capacity and you can't open it because everyone's freaking
not like a worse.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Knock is hideous story so far. Yeah, it's horrible. It's horrible,
and it gets worse. So there were a couple of
small windows and I think one other door that the
staff knew about that were in the kitchen. So as
many of them that could get out got out, and
you know, like they tried to help other people out,
but you know, every man for themselves. At this point,
(05:20):
it was freezing outside as well, so it was snowing outside,
but it's burning inside. The people that had gotten out,
a lot of them died because of that. They were burnt,
but the extreme of the exposure, going from fire into
snow shocked their bodies. Yeah, because you're not I think
(05:41):
those massive extremes, like we're not talking about a sauna
and colage. We're talking about like your skin's on fire.
Fuck Anyway, So the people that were able to be
rescued were taken to the two main hospitals in the area,
but the emergency systems weren't set up properly back then
to take in that amount of people. So out of
(06:03):
four hundred and forty four burn victims that actually did
make it to the hospital, only one hundred and thirty
of them survived. All up, four hundred and ninety two
people died.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
From one night night club maybe Yeah, I just have
the twister setting in my head from Melbourne, and I'm like,
if there was a fire there, oh my god, they're chaos.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Oh my god, and it's so made it the deadliest
nightclub fire in history and the third deadliest single building
fire after the Twin Towers and this other Chicago theater.
But on a positive note, during that time treating all
of those burns victims, they came up with so many
technologies that we still use today to help treat burns victims,
(06:46):
like skin grafting and all that. Because they were so
desperate to help these people, they were like, what the
fuck do we do, So they just implemented, Wow, this
is just a real fucked side story to go with it.
So there was a there called Clifford Johnson that night
and he was on a first date. He was twenty
one at the time, in the stampede to get out.
(07:08):
He lost track of where his day was, right, he
went back no three times to try and find her.
First day. Wow, wind a.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Day because I was thinking how far would I go
to get somebody else. I'm like, I would hands down,
be like where Sam? Where Sam? But outside of that,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You wouldn't. Really that's a year to go back into
a fire. Oh so I couldn't get out. That's he
really wanted to get like.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
He really wanted to get laid. Are you sure he
wasn't the guy who unscrewed the coconut light.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
No on that poor kid had to go to trial
to really messed him up. Oh my god, kistein. Oh
my god. Anyway, listen to this guy's story. So he
goes in and out turns out she actually made it
out safely. He got burnt very badly. He got third
degree burns to about sixty five percent of his body.
(08:10):
He was in hospital for twenty one months recovering from
his injuries. And during that time and imagine too, Like
you know, they say treating burns is like the most
one of the most painful things you can go through because.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
When you burn your finger or something. It just gives
you a taste.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And how they have to be so careful because I
think back then too, they would put like ayer dine
and stuff on you because the infection risk because it's open,
everything's open. So imagine in the forties, even without the
sort of pain relief we have now. Anyway, So in
those twenty one months, he fell in love with his nurse.
Oh cute, which is beautiful. They got married, they had
(08:53):
I think they had three kids. Fourteen years later, he
was on his way home from work delivery driver had
a fucking car accident. The car burst into flames, and
he died.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
From the fire of the car. This is taking time.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, how it's just.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you get onto these stories, Like what it's a
ratal it's a historical thing.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's a historical thing. What was it called the Coconut Club,
Coconut grove, but coconut is spelt like coconut and aut
not spelled like coconuts. Oh my god, yeah, coconut grove fire.
I mean, there's plenty more details if you look into it.
But yeah, like just the thought of how many things
went wrong in that one moment.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Oh my god, And I reckon. You got things go
into a vortex like law of attraction, like something goes
wrong and then there's just a ripple on effect. It's
like the same as when something goes well. It's like
you're in this flow. It's almost a low of positive
and negative and it just keeps going. Because just for
that much bad, like for it to be snowing outside,
(10:07):
like every everything was against every part of that except
for the fourteen years later, the poor dude dying. That
is such a not feel good story.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I know, but you know, like I guess we can.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It can make us be grateful that we're not at
the Coca Nought.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, sometimes the grim stuff it sounds stupid, but it
does make you feel grateful, or you know, when you
have a near miss. Sometimes if I have a near
miss of something like if I'm driving, yeah, right, and
I think, you know, sometimes you're driving, you're almost which
is very wrong to say, but you're almost on autopilot.
Did I get here? Yeah? Or you need to know
(10:46):
I wasn't paying attention. Sometimes I think to myself, imagine
not had an accident, or I'd hurt someone else or
I was injured, then I'd really have something to complain
about stuff out of it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Just brings you back to reality. All right, everyone, thank
you so much for listening, and we appreciate you choosing
our podcast. You can grab a Patreon where you get
an extra a Patreon membership where it's about five bucks
a month. You can get an extra podcast every couple
of weeks over there, and yeah, give us a rating
(11:22):
or a like, or share this podcast with your friends.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
We'll be back soon to love yous
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