There are five known newsreels of the fire, released by
Pathé News,
Paramount News,
Movietone News, Hearst
News of the Day/
Universal Newsreel, and the fifth is of unknown origin. In addition, there is one known amateur film, by Harold N. Schenck.
Fox Movietone The Fox Movietone footage was filmed by Al Gold (who filmed the fire sequence shown in the newsreel), Larry Kennedy and Deon de Titta. Gold stated that he was filming the ground crew when the fire started. However, the Movietone newsreel shows the ground crewmen catching the ropes early on, and it appears Gold's camera only started to film the fire as the airship's stern touched the ground. Kennedy and de Titta were closer to the airship when the fire started and had to run. Soundman Addison Tice was present as well, and recorded some of the audio of the disaster. 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!".
Universal/Hearst News of the Day 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. Both newsreel companies had taken their own aerial footage of the airship over New York hours before the fire. One scene in the Universal reel showing passengers looking out of the windows, was taken from Universal's 1936 newsreel of one of the ''Hindenburg's'' previous transatlantic crossings. This newsreel is the longest in showing the fire sequence. The camera pans upward showing the stern ablaze as it crashes down and the fire burns through the nose like a blowtorch. It does not show what is happening below the burning airship when it crashes to the ground as the camera is focused more on the fire itself until the bow nears the ground. At this point, navy ground crewmen can be seen walking close to the camera. The
Hearst News of the Day Newsreel is much less common than the Universal reel. A high quality government archive copy of the Universal version also appeared online (which also includes the Universal Newsreel of the wreckage a few days after, and the Pathé newsreel). 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. The same narration is used in the
Gaumont British News report which uses footage from both Universal/Hearst and Movietone. Another redub of the newsreel is the "Victoria Record".
Paramount The Paramount was filmed by Tommy Craven using an
Eyemo, which had interchangeable lenses. During the landing approach, Craven alternated between wide-angle and telephoto views of the airship. As the ship dropped its ropes another cameraman can be seen. Craven was using the
telephoto lens when the fire started (the footage starts a few seconds after the Hearst reel), giving a close-up view of the fire and people running away from the airship. The footage also shows flames burning away the ship's name as it crashes to the ground. Craven, an out-of-work news photographer aspiring to become a newsreel cameraman, was given the chance by Paramount to cover the
Hindenburgs arrival, which landed him the job at Paramount News. The footage has sometimes been misattributed to Al Mingalone. In 1957, Craven made an appearance in the Canadian game show
Front Page Challenge recounting his experience filming the disaster.
Amateur footage There is one known amateur film of the disaster, a 25-second 8mm home movie by Harold N. Schenck, giving a side-rear view of the disaster. 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. A restoration and analysis of the film was performed for the 2021
Nova documentary
Hindenburg: The New Evidence. While missing the initial stages of the fire, it shows the fire a few seconds earlier than the Universal/Hearst newsreel, seconds before the airship's tail started to fall. ==References==