Hindenburg disaster newsreel footage

Most of the original newsreels have their own narration, and many composite edits have been made for documentaries dubbed with Morrison's commentary.

At least one amateur film, taken by Harold N. Schenck, is known to exist, showing a side view of the stern on fire and the tail crashing to the ground.

[8][9][10][11][12][13] In 1997, the original reels were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

The narrator describes the Hindenburg as a "puny plaything in the mighty grip of fate", foreshadowing the stern-heaviness and dumping of water ballast as a "grim note of impending tragedy."

Although the explosion sound in the newsreel was simulated, some of the audio may have been from the crash, as someone can be heard saying "you're alright now Al!".

The Universal cameraman stationed at the air field left early due to the bad weather and went to see a Broadway play.

However, James J. Seeley filmed the disaster for Hearst's News of the Day and Universal used his footage of the fire for their report.

The camera pans upward showing the stern ablaze as it crashes down and the fire burns through the nose like a blowtorch.

Compared to the Universal edit, the Hearst newsreel has some different shots of the airship over New York and also shows footage of passengers inside the ship from 1936.

In 1957, Craven made an appearance in the Canadian game show Front Page Challenge recounting his experience filming the disaster.

[11] While it was known by the Lakehurst Historical Society for many years and shown at an event for the 50th anniversary of the disaster, it was not publicly broadcast until May 2014 by NBC.