Rhythm Night Club Museum opens ‘theater room’ to share stories of survivors

By Roscoe Barnes III
Natchez, MS, USA / ListenUpYall.com
Feb 7, 2025 | 12:09 PM

Monroe Sago, co-owner of the Rhythm Night Club Memorial Museum, views a video recording of Sidney Fowler, a survival of the night club fire that occurred April 23, 1940. Visitors can now view recordings of Fowler and other survivors in the museum’s theater room. (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. — The Rhythm Night Club (On Site) Memorial Museum has opened a theater room where visitors can watch recordings of the people who survived the fatal fire of April 23, 1940 – the deadliest club fire in the nation’s history.

Monroe Sago, co-owner of the museum with his wife, Betty, recently cleared out his office in the back of the building and turned it into a 20×12 theater that can seat 15 people.

“We’ve been open since 2010, and we felt it was time to create space where our visitors can come and hear these stories,” Monroe said. “We have video recordings of some of the survivors. These people need to be seen and heard.”

The Rhythm Night Club Museum is located at 5 St. Catherine St. on the exact site of the original building. The survivors are the people who visited the club on the night of the fire where more than 200 people died, including Walter Barnes and members of his band, a jazz orchestra, known as the Royal Creolians.

Monroe said one of the survivors was Frank R. Robinson III, the grandson of Dr. John Bowman Banks, who built a home at 9 St. Catherine. Robinson died in 2003 at the age 83, according to his obituary.

“This is the only place where people can come and see these survivors, all of whom are now deceased,” said Monroe.

Photos and profiles of the survivors are displayed in a history panel on the wall of the museum. Visitors can select the survivors they want to see and enter the theater room to watch the selected recordings.

One visitor selected Sidney Fowler, who was 22 the night of the fire. He was 93 when he was interviewed by Monroe. Fowler appears on the screen with his wife, Mary, and their daughter, Audrey Martin. He talks about the piles of bodies he saw after the fire. He also speaks of how he rescued his sister.

“I couldn’t sleep at all that night,” he says. The fire was so tragic, people talked about it for many weeks, he says.

In addition to announcing plans for the theater room, Monroe said the museum is seeking community support for its annual scholarship fundraiser. Each year local high school seniors are invited to visit the museum and write an essay about their experience for a chance to win a scholarship of $500 to $1,000.

The scholarship is presented during the museum’s annual commemoration ceremony.
Monroe said the scholarship will help to defray the student’s cost to a college of his or her choice for the fall of 2025. This year, it will be presented on Saturday, April 26.

The museum is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. It is open on Sunday by appointment.

For more information on the museum’s theater room and scholarship fundraiser, call 601-597-0557.