Age 37. 50 Connecticut Avenue, East Natick (Natick), MA. Born 6/01/1905, Philadelphia, PA. Died of carbon monoxide poisoning (death certificate). Grove headwaiter, also substituting as club maître d' hôtel for Angelo Lippi (Born 9/04/1886. Died 4/11/1966, age 79. Last residence Milton, MA), not present due to chronic illness. Employed at the Grove for eight years. Acting captain of waiters Leo Givonetti, age 32 (Born 10/29/1910. Died 4/19/1997, age 86. Last residence Medford, MA), to Boston Police, 11/30/1942: "Well, the headwaiter was answering the phone...I saw flames pouring out of the office and coatroom...I told the headwaiter to drop the phone and call the riot squad. He kept on talking..." Recalled in 1992 by former club waiter John Rizzo, age 22 (Born 1/18/1920. Died 9/20/2016, age 96): "When he turned around, we saw this big ball of fire...He ran for the revolving door, I think to unclip it" (Daily Evening Item, Lynn, MA, 11/27/1992). Ordered the above Mr. Givonetti to "run like hell" with himself to the closed (but unlocked) Shawmut Street double-door fire exit, then reportedly ripped off half of it, "...with his bare hands" (The Boston Globe, 3/23/1943). Witnessed by Grove waiter and survivor Fred Guarnieri, age 51 (Born 5/24/1891. Died on 11/15/1956, age 65. Last residence Watertown, MA), to exit the building six times, then (quote), "...after leading people outside and us trying to stop him each time...he had gone back inside for the seventh time..." (The Boston Post, 12/01/1942). Was also reported that once outside, he dashed back in but was trapped, "...unable to effect the freedom of any guests or to again make his way to safety" (The Boston Post, 11/30/1942). Also: "...Swept into the street by the pressure of the crowd, he...dragged unconscious men and women beyond the jammed exit to the sidewalk, and finally collapsed and died" (Boston Daily Record, 11/30/1942). One of the first two casualties announced by Boston Police as dead at the scene (also bartender Martin "Marty" Breen, age 41, who actually succumbed Sunday evening at Boston City Hospital), "identification tentative." Graduate of Natick High School. Was single. Made posthumous news two months later when a younger brother Richard, U.S. Marine Corps (died on 9/24/2012, at age 98), stationed at a far North American base: "...received a Christmas package from his brother, Frank, which was mailed before the latter died in the Cocoanut Grove night club fire..." (The Boston Globe, 1/29/1943). Was the lone Grove victim from the town of Natick. Parents Mr. and Mrs. Ernest D. and Mary (Ardizzoia) Balzarini, same address. Burial at St. Patrick's Cemetery, Natick. Middle name Joseph.

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