Myths of the Golden Era -- Exploded!

[LizzieMaine]

I'm pretty sure those screams were also post-dubbed -- most newsreel footage of this sort was shot silent, and it's unlikely they had a sound truck at Lakehurst for what was expected to be a routine landing.

That's a great reel, though -- it was actually in theatres the day after the crash. One more myth is that newsreels were usually far behind the acutal news -- in fact they could get the pictures out remarkably quick.

The announcer for that reel is Alois Havrilla, a former NBC staff man who worked for Pathe for many years.

[jamespowers]

I'm pretty sure those screams were also post-dubbed -- most newsreel footage of this sort was shot silent, and it's unlikely they had a sound truck at Lakehurst for what was expected to be a routine landing.

That's a great reel, though -- it was actually in theatres the day after the crash. One more myth is that newsreels were usually far behind the acutal news -- in fact they could get the pictures out remarkably quick.

The announcer for that reel is Alois Havrilla, a former NBC staff man who worked for Pathe for many years.

I was pretty sure the screams were added.
Newsreels were in fact timely. If they weren't, they would be called history reels.
Good information to know. Thanks.

[David Conwill]

I was pretty sure the screams were added.
Newsreels were in fact timely. If they weren't, they would be called history reels.
Good information to know. Thanks.

I think the idea was that maybe people's perceptions of "timely" had changed - sort of like the transition from the nightly news to instant news updates via your smartphone. Waiting for "news at 11" is no longer a timely way to get info.

[LizzieMaine]

The "big five" newsreels -- Fox Movietone, Pathe, Universal, Hearst Metrotone, and Paramount -- produced two full seven to ten-minute editions a week, all year round, with occasional "extras" like the Hindenburg reel when news warranted. The effect wasn't so much that of a nightly newscast as it was a biweekly news magazine.

The real exception among the newsreels was "The March Of Time," which usually only covered one story in each edition, and did so in considerable depth. The mainstream reels went out of their way to *not* be provocative, especially after Hearst reels were booed and picketed off the screen around the country during the labor battles of 1936-37, but "The March Of Time" had a definite Lucean point of view that it wasn't afraid to express.

[Gingerella72]

Have there ever been accounts from the Hindenburg survivors published?

[LizzieMaine]

Herb Morrison interviewed some of them immediately after the disaster -- the entire recording he made that day runs about forty minutes. They were obviously in shock and barely able to speak -- one man was described as having all his clothing and hair burned off, but he was still able to walk and mumbled something with a thick German accent before moving on.

There were also interviews published in the newspapers in the days immediately after -- here's an example.