Hindenburg Explodes! (1937)

★★★★★ · Oh The Humanity · rmills · 2006-02-22

The line "Oh, the humanity!" was spoken by the radio reporter who was broadcasting from the scene - unprepared for the disaster, he even had to pause for a moment and shut off his mike while he threw up - unfortunately I cannot remember the reporter's name. The vocal track of the reporter has often accompanied the film footage in later presentations but the film was shot separately from the radio broadcast. The reason the film "cuts" at the moment of the initial explosion was because the camera man stopped rolling, thinking the big moment of a safe landing had already occurred - as soon as…

★★★★★ · Oh the humanity etc. · Spuzz · 2003-09-30

One of the more historically important films on this site, this film, even though it's silent, offers a plethora of interesting facts about the Hindenburg. For one thing, this thing was HUGE. Like massive. And I was under the impression that this was the maiden voyage of the Hindenburg (it was'nt, it had sailed across the ocean 12 times). Once you get that information, the explosion of it just makes you a little more sad. Great footage though. Rather overembelishing cards - "Suddenly - The Fatal Moment!". and the end card gives a "uh huh moment.. "The Pioneer Spirit Of The Hindenburg must go…

★★★★★ · wow · AliceTeeple · 2004-02-13

This is pretty amazing footage of the Hindenburg. I didn't realise that this wasn't its maiden voyage, either. I can't imagine how horrific it must have been to witness its explosion firsthand. Fantastic piece of history.

★★★★★ · In response to harbrown · FYLin · 2015-07-27

No known footage exists of the fire actually starting - this is the longest newsreel footage showing the fire (this footage comes from Hearst News of the Day filmed by James Seeley). The same footage was also used in the Universal Newsreel, because their cameraman ditched the scene due to bad weather to see a Broadway play. Rumor has it he never showed up to work the next day because he knew he was fired. There is an amateur footage from the spectator area showing a side-rear view of the fire a few seconds before this one but still missing the initial moments of the fire. It's rather poor…

★★★★ · Herb Morrison Secures his place in history... · AStare · 2006-03-04

Herb Morrison was a media savvy broadcaster with a great amount of talent. But, like any broadcaster, you don't want your best stuff to be lost to the ages. If you listen carefully to the full recording of Morrison's narrative (which was recorded independently of the newsreel, it was later added to the footage at the time of the production of the newsreel) you can hear Morrison say "is this thing on?" to his engineer. Meaning, of course, was the wire recorder that he was using to record his comments turned on and picking up what he had to say. Morrison knew that what he was about to say, at…

★★★ · Not what I was looking for. · harbrown · 2005-03-14

First the editing on this film cuts out the point of impact you only see it up in flames. Second this is a silent film. I was looking for "oh the humanity" footage. With that said this film includes some cool shots of successful landings and flying through the New York skyline.