May 6, 2013 • 34 mins
The Hindenburg tragedy is one of the world's most infamous air disasters, but the dirigible had many successful flights prior to its final voyage, including 10 round trips between Germany and the U.S. Tune in to learn more.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuffworks dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I
am Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly fry So, Holly,
when I say Hindenburgh, what do you think of the
(00:22):
first time I saw the footage when I was a
kid and just being sort of a dog at the
things on fire falling from the sky. Yeah, it's pretty dramatic,
it is. I feel like that that's a lot of
people's some knowledge of the Handenburg is fiery explosion, all
the humanity, and really none of the before or after
(00:42):
kind of sticks with people quite that much. Yeah. I
think that one chunk of footage is shown so much
that it's really what imprints on people. Even if there
is discussion pre role or post roll of the footage,
that's not what's getting into your brain at that point.
You're just remembering those really stark back and white images.
It's drowned out by the fiery descent of this huge zeppelin.
(01:06):
So this podcast is publishing on the seventy six anniversary
of the Hindenburg disaster. It's one of those things everybody
has seen and heard the footage and you know, they've
heard all the humanity and like the meme that all
the humanity has become in American culture. Uh. During the
twenties and thirties, people were really trying to find an
(01:26):
efficient and reliable way to travel across oceans, and for
a while it looked like airships were going to be
the way to go. You could do it by boat,
but it would take you a week basically of your
life to go across the Atlantic Ocean by ship. Um
and passenger planes. They hadn't developed pressurization technology for commercial
(01:48):
aircraft yet, so airplanes had to fly lower in the sky.
It was not very efficient, and it was really dependent
upon the weather because planes couldn't fly higher than the
weather system. So it was really looking like airships were
going to be the way that people were going to
get back and forth between continents. Basically, well, they were faster.
(02:09):
They were also much faster yesh than water by a
long shot, and they could carry people in pretty posh
surroundings like it was a relatively comfortable ride. Um. But
of course, as we know, the airship as the luxury
travel icon was very very brief because there were multiple disasters. Yes,
the the Hemmenberg was kind of the capstone of the
(02:33):
long disaster history. It was huge and gramatic and captured
on film, which all factored into it kind of signaling
the end of airship travel. Yes, so the Hemdenberg was
designed and built by the Zeppelin Company or if you
are in German and please pardon my terrible German pronunciation,
(02:54):
left ship Bow Zeppelin g mbH. Its interior was designed
by German architect Fritz August brow House the Grout and
it was actually named after Field Marshal and President Paul
von Hendenberg, who was actually the man that appointed Hitler
the Chancellor of Germany. And at one point the German
propaganda minister attempted to have it named the Hitler instead
(03:18):
of the Hendenburg. Uh. And it did have giant swastikas
on the tail. Yeah, I think a lot of people
kind of forget that this was a Nazi aircraft pretty
much through and through. You know, it was used in
Germany before it started its transcontinental flights. It was used
in Germany on propaganda flights around Germany for four days,
(03:39):
emblazoned with giants, watts, swastikas, um. They were internal strifes
between the Zeppelin Company and the Nazi government. UM. And
that's one of the reasons that the investigation, which we'll
talk about in a bit went on for so long. UH.
The Zeppelin Company started construction of the Hendenburg in friedrich Schaffen,
(03:59):
Germany in one It was the largest rigid airship that
was ever built. It was eight hundred feet long more
than eight hundred feet long, which almost as long as
three football fields American football fields for the those of
you who live elsewhere. UM. It was powered by four
diesel engines and the frame was filled with seven million
(04:22):
cubic feet of hydrogen gas contained in sixteen shells inside
the ship. UM. These like cells. They were like big bags,
and they were coated with gelatin so that the gas
would be less likely to escape. And they also the
these rigid airships, including the Hennenberg, also used water as
ballast when trying to negotiate exactly how high it was flying.
(04:46):
And just so people have a sense of the kind
of modern differences, because there are still some air ships
we see, like the Goodyear Blunt flying over sports events. UM.
Today's blimps are really balloons. But the Mburg was truly
a Zeppelin because it had the rigid interior frame UM
that gave it that characteristic shape, and that frame was
(05:07):
made of Dura lumen, which is an alloy of aluminum,
copper and other metals. It's possible that this dr lumin
that was used in the Hennenberg came from the wreckage
of a previously crashed zeppelin, the British R one oh one,
that had been destroyed in its own fiery crash in
(05:27):
It's on the record that the Zeppelin company bought the
Dura lumen, but it's a little unclear as to whether
that particular der allumin wound up being used in the
skeleton of the Hennenburg. And regardless of whether parts from
UH the R one oh one crash made their way
into the Hindenburg, UH, that R one oh one vessel
(05:50):
is actually the reason the Hendenburg was so very big,
because the crash of that previous vessel was actually pretty smooth.
Um survivors didn't feel a lot of impact, but almost
everyone on board died after it caught fire. It wasn't
the impact but the fire that actually got them. Everyone
reached the logical conclusion that using highly flammable hydrogen to
(06:11):
keep an airship afloat was a terrible idea. Hydrogen was
to be replaced with helium, but helium is of course
heavier than hydrogen, so helium airships consequently had to be
bigger to hold more of the gas to compensate and
have lift. The problem arose when Germany didn't have its
own supply of helium to be filling up these airships.
(06:34):
The United States had plenty of helium but was really
just not inclined to hand over lots of helium to
the Nazi government. So since the Germans couldn't get enough
helium to fill the Hendenberg, they had to go back
to using hydrogen instead. So the Germans couldn't get enough
helium to fill the Hendenburg, so they had to go
back to using hydrogen instead, and extreme care was taken
(06:58):
inside of the Hindenburg to prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen.
There were ventilation systems on the inside to to vent
any any hydrogen that did escape if inspections would be
performed by people who were wearing asbestos suits and little
felt shoes that they didn't make sparks. All of this
to try to cut down on the risk of a
(07:19):
giant explosion, and the outside of the ship was covered
in a skin that was made of cotton that had
been coated with a paint which was also called dope
at the time to make it waterproof, and that dope
contained iron oxide and aluminum powder, which combined will form thermite.
Thermite burns really really well and at a very high temperature.
(07:41):
So it was not really the best planning and thought
process to cover an entire dirigible that is containing highly
flammable gas with it. Let's have a highly flammable gas
contained in something that is also highly flama highly flammable.
There are lots of measures taken to try to make
(08:02):
things safer, but obviously that they could not account for
anything for everything. So if you look at pictures of
the Handenburg pre disaster, you'll see little slits near the
bottom of it. These are windows that we're looking out
from the passenger areas, and they were in the belly
of the zeppelin with the passengers on the upper of
(08:24):
two decks that were in the bottom of the craft.
And then the little cabin that you can see near
the flour of the Hindenburgh, which is on the underside,
is the control cabin, and that contained the bridge, the
navigation room, and another observation area, traveling by zeppelin was
supposed to be the height of luxury, and in this case,
(08:44):
the height of luxury means that you had a windowless
interior stateroom that measured seventy eight by sixty six inches,
that contained a couple of bunks, a wash basin with
hot and cold running water, a writing desk, and the
service of a room steward who would come and help
take care of you. So really, the passenger accommodations in
(09:05):
a big ocean liner probably would have been more comfortable
and more spacious and better outfitted, but that trip would
have taken a whole lot longer, so comparatively speaking, so
it would only take you two days to get across
the ocean instead of an entire week. That relatively austere,
tiny space, it was not too bad. It was the
trade off that you made, saving you a lot of time. Uh.
(09:27):
And in addition to the cabins, passengers also had access
to several common areas, so they weren't stuck in those.
And this is really that these are the things that
you would see photos of as as the luxury experience.
For these common areas, there was a lounge room with
a grand piano, and that piano was actually made of
the same aluminum alloy as the ship's frame uh and
covered with a pig skin to be lighter than a
(09:49):
traditional grand piano, although that piano was not part of
the historic and tragic Final Voy, apparently not h The
ship also had a reading and writing room, a dining room,
and a promenade with slanted windows where you could get
a view of the world below. There was also, and
this one kind of befuddles me, a smoking room. Uh.
(10:12):
So you have all of these explosive, dangerous things, which
you've taken great care to prevent any sparking happening adjacent
to you. And then you're like, oh, but you can
light up. We have a lounge for you. Put some
put some active fire there in the hands of the
passengers who theoretically were not trained to handle flammable substances.
(10:32):
So here's the care that was taken in the smoking room,
so that the smoking room was not the undoing of
the entire craft. It was a pressure ized room, so
it was maintained pressure inside the room so that when
you opened the door, any hydrogen that was around would
not get in there. Um. There was one electric lighter
that was used to light all things that were going
(10:53):
to be smoked in the room, and passengers were required
to hand over any matches or lighters that they had
on their person before they embarked. So there was this
one place where people could smoke if they chose, but
pretty strict requirements of keeping that room a safe place
that was not going to light the whole ship on fire.
(11:14):
I'm still the fuddled by it. I really have such
a hard time wrapping my brain around why you would
be like that's cool. Well, and it's it's just cultural,
like you would not have a traveling vessel without a
space for that, right. Well, when you think about how
still on aircraft, uh, there's the no smoking sign. We're
still having the no smoking sign on airplanes, which for
(11:35):
those of us who have been flying mostly in recent years,
that seems weird. But there was ever smoking on airplane.
I remember smoking on airplanes when I was a kid
because it was like a similarly terrible idea, yeah, but
again not filled with hydrogen. My mother smoked, and I
remember her like when I was traveling when I was
quite young, you know, lighting up on the plane. And
(11:57):
now it's just so bizarre to me to even come
contemplate that we did that. But so yes, the whole
room with extreme safety precautions set aside for set aside
for smoking. So along with the crew quarters, which were
very small bunks like you would see on an aircraft carrier.
The lower deck, which was basically in the belly of
(12:17):
the Zeppelin, contained the galley, the cruise mess washrooms, and
other necessary facilities. So while everyone remembers the final flight
the service, the Hannenberg had a service history prior to
that that was not its first flight, which some people
I have found when talking to them, they think it
only flew once, right, But it really had a lot
(12:38):
of air hours, yes, a lot of safe air hours
without incident before this happened. Um so Apart from the
four day propaganda flight in Germany and lots of test
flights in Germany, the Hndenburg made its first transatlantic voyage
in ninety six. It flew from Germany to Rio da
(13:00):
Narrow and this was a round trip that departed on
March thirty one and returned on April tenth, and Commander S. E.
Peck was on board as an official observer from the U. S.
Government UH since the plan was for the Hindenburg to
potentially provide service between Germany and the naval air station
in lake Hurst, New Jersey, with connecting service through American Airlines,
(13:22):
which I did not know prior to prepping for this. Yeah,
it was a commercial service that that was, you know,
meant to carry passengers. That's pretty much what it was
built for, was to carry passengers between Germany and the US.
Lake Hurst was the United States main airship station. It's
where America's first airship, the Shenandoah, took off on its
(13:43):
maiden for voyage, and it's also where a really famous Zeppelin,
the graph Zeppelin, started and ended a trip around the
world in um In addition to that round the world flight,
the graph Zeppelin was in service for nine years and
in that time it made five and ninety flight including
a hundred and forty four ocean crossings. Also on board
(14:04):
was a doctor Hugo Eckner, who was a German aeronautical
engineer that had worked with Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin on
the development of airships. Echner was director of the Zeppelin
Company at the time, so people would knowledge about Zeppelin's
were there, Yes, So this cann end out. This first
trip across the ocean wound up being the subject of
(14:24):
kind of an f li I memo to the Secretary
of State. Um Peck reported to Hugh Gibson, who passed
it up to the Secretary of State, but he had
had several conversations with Eckner about the Nazi government's decisions
surrounding the Hindenburg while crossing the ocean. Essentially, what Peck
was letting everybody know was sort of the history of
(14:47):
of why uh Eckner seems to be falling out of
favor with the Nazi government, and it had to do
with basically his trying to put the safety and quality
of airships ahead of the Nazi government's desire for propaganda.
There's much bigger story there that maybe will be a
(15:07):
subject for a future podcast, but it really could be.
It's a whole intrigue, yeah, a lot of gossipy drama
about the about about the Nazi government and the various
people involved with airship design. So the Hendenburgh's first journey
to Lakehurst, which was the trip it had really been
designed for, took place h in May of ninety six,
(15:31):
from May six to May nine, and aboard it were dignitaries, aviators,
famous people, the media. I mean it was a big
publicity event in many ways, right it was. It was
one of those things where you had a carefully selected
passenger list of notable people and this kind of big
media event. Before the final tragic journey, the Hendenberg had
(15:52):
made ten round trips between Germany and the United States,
carrying one thousand and two passengers along with mail and
other cargo. Safely, it had traveled for more than two
hundred thousand miles. But of course we know it did
have a short life release and then we come upon
the final voyage. Yes, on May third seven, the Hendenberg
(16:14):
left Frankfurt at seven sixteen am. This was the ship's
return to flight after being refitted over the winter, which
is why there were media waiting for it to arrive
in lake Hurst. There were ninety seven people on board,
thirty six of those were passengers and sixty one of
those were crew. The Hyndenburg was running more than ten
(16:34):
hours late because of thunderstorms. The weather at lake Hurst
had been bad enough that the ship had flown to
New York City to give passengers a nicer view while
waiting for the weather to clear up. So they could land.
So landing the airship required the captain to very precisely
balance the ship's hydrogen with its ballast to level it
off at the right distance from the ground, and then
(16:57):
two hundred very strong men had to grab mooring lines
to bring it the rest of the way in. So
this would have been challenging. Even in great weather, airships
had been known to catch a gust of wind and
sail upward, leaving the ground crew to either choose between
hanging on and hoping for the best, or letting go
and possibly falling to their deaths. So, uh, it's very
(17:19):
tricky to land an airship, is the bottom line there. Yeah,
as much promise as people thought these had for transoc
oceanic flight, as they were pretty dangerous. Yeah, they had
a lot of big obstacles that you had to overcome
with each flight. So at PM, as it reached its
mooring mast and its mooring lines touched the ground, a
(17:41):
fire started near the rear of the Hendenburg. It was
still high off the ground at the time, around um
or about two feet up, and some people aboard knocked
out windows and jumped off catwalks in the hope of
avoiding the fire, so they knew they were trapped and
they wanted to just take their chance on jumping right.
The entire airship burned in thirty four seconds. The ground crew,
(18:05):
which was made of both civilians and navy men, first
rushed away from the falling wreckage, and then as the
as the Hendenburg made it to the ground, they ran
back in to try to pull survivors away, and in
the end thirty six people were killed, including one member
of the ground crew. That was one of the things
that that had never stuck with me, that there were
(18:26):
actually a lot of survivorsburg me too. I think again,
it's one of those things that we see that brief
piece of footage and we hear the oh the humanity,
and it's always counted as a huge tragedy, which it was,
but it kind of leads to the conclusion that everyone parish.
It doesn't look like something that people would survive, but
there were really a lot of albeit very badly injured,
(18:49):
but there were a lot of survivors of the of
the disaster. Herb Morrison was recording radio coverage of the
landing for the Chicago station w LS, and he is
the person who uttered the famous All the Humanity, which
became part of the first radio report ever to be
nationally broadcast by NBC. There's always been a little bit
(19:11):
of mystery about what caused the fire, and it was
an inherently difficult disaster to investigate, since the whole thing
burned down to the skeleton and the ground crew, the survivors,
the media and others had really trampled the entire scene
trying to get people out of there and also get
away before the military could really establish a perimeter for investigation.
(19:33):
There was a pretty extensive investigation at the time, which
was driven both by the disaster itself and the fact
that the airship belonged to Germany. There was a lot
of speculation about whether it had been sabotaged or a
deliberate attack by either people who sympathized with the Jews
who were living in Germany or anti Nazi groups. There
(19:53):
were a lot of people who would have had cause
to make a Nazi ship a target, and so there
was a lot of an investigation into whether it had
been a deliberate act. There were hundreds of pages of
FBI documents that were declassified in the eighties through the
Freedom of Information Act, and you can read them all online.
The general agreement is that a spark from somewhere ignited
(20:16):
the hydrogen gas, and that the Zeppelin skin, which we've
already said was also highly flammable, accelerated then the burn
and that's why it just kind of went up in
a pretty quick flash. One of the most recent refinements
of this static discharge theory came about in March. Jim Stansfield,
who was a Britick British aeronautical engineer, theorized that the
(20:38):
ship had become charged during the electrical storm, that it
was sort of skirting the edges of and that when
the ship got to its moorings it became grounded, and
that's the spark that resulted ignited a leak of hydrogen
um that's kind of different from the other. Or maybe
it was a spark of some kind of machinery on board,
(20:59):
or a loose wire or some kind of short circuit somewhere.
That the general consensus is a spark from somewhere. We
know it's a spark of something, but they've never uh
conclusively identified what or found clear evidence that it was sabotage.
So I think this will probably be a mystery with
many theories forever. Yeah, there's also a MythBusters episode where
(21:23):
they make a model of the Hindenburg to try to
recreate it, and it burns much like the real airship
did when covered in the same paint mixture and when
it's filled with hydrogen. But when they did the same
experiment without filling it with hydrogen, it did not go
up quickly. The question was kind of was it really
the paint that was the problem? And that the answer
(21:44):
and that experiment was now that the paint by itself
does not burn nearly as quickly as the paint with
this huge source of hydrogen fuel underneath it, and that
really Uh, that tragedy put an end to the concept
of commercial airship travel. It really shut on that potential industry. Yeah,
it had already had a pretty a pretty rocky history
(22:06):
before that point. While Germany had been using Zeppelin's pretty
successfully for a long time. UM it had used Zeppelin's
for military purposes during World War One, although the Treaty
of Versailles put a stop to that. UM, the German
government had been using it for commercial purposes after the war,
and without a lot of horrible things happening, but other
(22:29):
nations were not quite as fortunate. Um. Some of the
disasters that happened prior to the Hendenburg were that in
nineteen twenty one, the U. S. Navy's z R two
broke apart and burned and sixty two people died, and
in nineteen twenty three the French airship Dixmud disappeared on
its way to Africa. In nineteen five, the Shenandoah, which
(22:52):
we talked about a little earlier, broke up during a
storm and fourteen people were killed. In nineteen thirty, the
R one one of Britain, which we discussed earlier, the
one who's dr Lumen may have been used in the Hendenburg,
caught fire after an emergency crash landing and killed forty
seven people, including many British airship experts, so they really
(23:12):
lost like a brain trust of knowledge about airships. In
NT three, the USS Akron, which was a military airship
of the U. S. Navy, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
and seventy three people died, and the akron sister ship,
the Makon, crashed into the Pacific in killing two people.
So there had been pretty much an airship disaster every
(23:35):
couple of years before the Hendenburg, and the Hendenburg, with
its dramatic news coverage that was just so startling to
look at, was really the final straw and the public's
mind about whether they were going to ever get up
in one of those things. The U. S. Navy continued
to use the station at lake Hurst as an airship
station for anti submarine blimps right up until the end
(23:57):
of World War Two, and Germany continued to use Zeppelin's
for propaganda and transport through World War Two. But the
Zeppelin airship works in Germany were destroyed by the Allies
during the war and they weren't really rebuilt, so that
ended German development of Zeppelin's for many many years. Zeppelins
aren't completely gone though. Zeppelin started being manufactured in Friedrichschaffen
(24:20):
at German company z lt Zeppelin lu Shift Technique in
and these Zeppelins are semi rigid and they use helium,
unlike their rigid and hydrogen filled Hindenburg. We mentioned a
Good Year blimp at the start of this podcast that's
actually going to become the Good Year Zeppelin in following
an announcement in eleven. So we will see things that
(24:44):
may visually resemble a little bit the Handenberg flying through
the sky, but no longer potentially fiery catastrophes waiting to happen. Yes,
hopefully history has taught us enough that modern engineering has
found safe ways. We're not putting hydrogen in things that
are going to fly through the sky. It sounds like
a good plan to me. Ye had it struck me
(25:07):
as I was researching this, that the Hindenburg and the
Titanic are stuck together in people's minds as these disasters
that happened in kind of the same era of history,
like not immediately next each other, but reasonably goes close
to a twenty year gap. There's like a twenty year
gap between them, but they're both They have both this
air of in hindsight. Of course, you would not want
(25:28):
to go through iceberg infested waters in this giant ocean liner,
and of course you would not want to fill something
flammable with hydrogen and then fled across the ocean. And
then add to that the fact that both of these
were supposed to be pretty luxurious experiences unless unless you
were in steerage on the Titanic. I think that's a
lot of why they get looped together as because they
(25:50):
were both kind of going to be the new era
of travel for the times that they were launching. So
that's the story of the Himpenburg and I believe you
also have listener mail for us. Two more pieces of
listener mail for us. Both of them are about our
recent episodes on Loving Versus Virginia, which we have gotten
(26:11):
a lot of great mail about and a lot of
great feedback on. So thank you everyone for all of that. Um.
This first one is from Cameron and uh. Cameron says,
I wanted to write in since I just listened to
your awesome podcasts on Loving versus Virginia. I recently went
over some of this case with my students i'd teach
high school history. It came up when I was also
(26:32):
reviewing the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments with them when
we wrapped up reconstruction. Though the language of the fourteenth
Amendment states, quote, no State shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States. To reinforce the equal status of
African Americans, including recently freed slaves, it's important to note
(26:54):
that section two of this amendment also states representatives shall
be apportioned among the step real states according to their
referverse their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons
in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. The mention of
Indians is important because the fourteenth Amendment, while making allowances
for four million plus new citizens I eat freed slaves,
(27:18):
does not take Native Americans under the same protection. This
is clear when the country expands westward in the late
eighteen hundreds and reservations are assigned to people with no
apparent claim on the land. Native Americans are conveniently not
considered citizens, which makes it much easier to quote ask
them to move off their land so pioneers can have it.
I wanted to bring this up because I teach high
(27:40):
school in an area that is classified as the urban core.
The majority of my students are definitely under the minority
classification on the Census. I was so proud of my
students were immediately taking note that forcing tribes off their
land was just as unfair as telling blacks they don't
count as people. That in both cases, an entire group
of people are being judged and persecuted based on being
(28:01):
different than the whites in charge. So thank you Cameron.
Such a good letter. Now it's a great letter. So
number one, it's a great letter. Number two. It was
pretty startling to me that zero of the things that
I read while researching that podcast referenced the incongruity between
section one in section two of the fourteenth Amendment. Like,
(28:22):
none of them got into it. I feel like that's
how American history works. Often. You're like, I don't think
that's exclusive to American history, but it does happen a lot.
You know. It's kind of um compartmentalized, right, it's totally
and it's sort of like, and then we gave rights
to these people, sort of leaving out everyone else who
(28:45):
did not get right the other we got several so
we may have other Loving Versus Virginia letters later. But
the other one that I wanted to read today is
from James. He says, I've listened to your most recent
podcast about Loving Versus Virginia as a story buff who
lives in Virginia, I was surprised that I have never
learned about this landmark decision back in school, despite the
(29:06):
fact of at least one year of public schooling is
dedicated to Virginia history. What makes this even more surprising
is that I actually actually live in the Northern Virginia area, which,
in part due to its close proximity to d C,
is one of the most racially diverse areas in the country. Now,
I can't imagine what it would be like if inter
racial marriage was still outlawed. Also, when I was listening
(29:27):
to the second part of the episode, I realized that
the title of the case reminded me of the old
tourism slogan Virginia Is for Lovers. I was curious if
you knew if the decision had any bearing on the
creation of the slogan. The phrase was created and first
used in advertising by a Richmond based advertising company called
Martin and Waltz. The slogan was first used in advertising
in nineteen sixty nine, two years after the court decision,
(29:50):
so it would still be fresh in people's minds. I
did some quick Internet research and the only thing I
could find that directly referenced the connection was an article
from last year that when over the history of a slogan,
and according to the current president of the ad agency,
there is no connection. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if
there was a connection, and the ad agency just didn't
want to advertise it for fear of creating controversy. Still,
(30:12):
it does seem like other people have noticed the connection since.
When I was checking the history, I found a book
about the trial from two thousand four titled Virginia Hasn't
Always Been for Lovers? So I did some research on this. Also.
I was hoping to go look back through newspaper articles
from the sixties to see how much coverage there really
was of it, like is this a name that would
(30:35):
be in people's minds the way like Delma is in
people's minds currently because of the cases that are before
the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, my newspaper database did not go
back that far, but I found a couple of other
articles that were about that particular slogan on various anniversaries
of its creation. UM And the story that I have
(30:56):
found several times from several different sources is that a
copywriter named Robin McLaughlin came up with a concept that
had lots of different ads that was Virginia, like Virginia
is for history lovers, Virginia is for beach lovers, Virginia
is for mountain lovers. UM. And everybody sort of decided
that was too complicated and too narrow for each ad
(31:17):
to have a different Virginia is for bloody blah lovers. Um.
And then somebody said, what if we just said Virginia
is for lovers and everybody loved that, and the first
ad mentioning the slogan ran in the nineteen sixty nine issue.
March nineteen sixty nine issue of Modern Bride was the
first place that was ever used. Uh. Yeah, it was
tobitably pitching it as a honeymoon destination. Yeah, well it was.
(31:41):
It was because the state had done some research and
realized that most of the travelers vacationing in Virginia were
fifty years old or older, and the state was like,
if we were going to make tourism money, we need
to bring some younger people here, and so this was
part of an effort to attract younger people. UM. A
lot of people who worked on the pain have pointed
out that it was kind of racy at the time,
(32:03):
but I didn't find any that were from people specifically
saying oh and then also the Supreme Court case, Yeah,
so I think it's going to be probably not UM
if it was intentional on the part of a copywriter. Uh.
That I think was something that flew under the radar.
We don't have a record of that being an intent. Yeah,
and the people making the approvals of it did not
(32:25):
have that in the forefront of their minds, or I
think they probably would have said no, giving that Virginia
was on the losing side of that case. One last thing, yea,
we have lots of new YouTube channels from many of
our sister and brother colleagues here. There's been a lot
of dizziness. Yes, So if you go to YouTube, you
(32:47):
can see all kinds of awesome new videos from stuff
mom never told you, stuff you should know, stuff to
blow your mind, and stuff they don't want you to know.
So you'll be seeing links from us to those things. Uh.
And they're fun and they're very fun. Really, I watched
stuff now, mo. I've never told you at lunch every day,
but I have to finish eating first so I don't
choke on my food or spin on the screen. Yes
(33:08):
while laughing. If you would like to write to us,
you can. We're at History Podcast at Discovery dot com.
We're also on Twitter at mist in history and on
Facebook at Facebook dot com slash history Class stuff. You
can find our tumbler at mist in history dot tumbler
dot com, and we're on Pinterest too. If you would
like to see some photos of the Hindenberg before and
(33:33):
during and after it's horrible disaster, we have a brand
new image gallery on our website, but is of Hindenberg pictures,
so you can search for that at our website and
find that in a lot more at our site, which
is how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
(33:54):
dot com. This episode of Stuff you Missed in History
Class is brought to you by Audible
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuffworks dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I
am Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly fry So, Holly,
when I say Hindenburgh, what do you think of the
(00:22):
first time I saw the footage when I was a
kid and just being sort of a dog at the
things on fire falling from the sky. Yeah, it's pretty dramatic,
it is. I feel like that that's a lot of
people's some knowledge of the Handenburg is fiery explosion, all
the humanity, and really none of the before or after
(00:42):
kind of sticks with people quite that much. Yeah. I
think that one chunk of footage is shown so much
that it's really what imprints on people. Even if there
is discussion pre role or post roll of the footage,
that's not what's getting into your brain at that point.
You're just remembering those really stark back and white images.
It's drowned out by the fiery descent of this huge zeppelin.
(01:06):
So this podcast is publishing on the seventy six anniversary
of the Hindenburg disaster. It's one of those things everybody
has seen and heard the footage and you know, they've
heard all the humanity and like the meme that all
the humanity has become in American culture. Uh. During the
twenties and thirties, people were really trying to find an
(01:26):
efficient and reliable way to travel across oceans, and for
a while it looked like airships were going to be
the way to go. You could do it by boat,
but it would take you a week basically of your
life to go across the Atlantic Ocean by ship. Um
and passenger planes. They hadn't developed pressurization technology for commercial
(01:48):
aircraft yet, so airplanes had to fly lower in the sky.
It was not very efficient, and it was really dependent
upon the weather because planes couldn't fly higher than the
weather system. So it was really looking like airships were
going to be the way that people were going to
get back and forth between continents. Basically, well, they were faster.
(02:09):
They were also much faster yesh than water by a
long shot, and they could carry people in pretty posh
surroundings like it was a relatively comfortable ride. Um. But
of course, as we know, the airship as the luxury
travel icon was very very brief because there were multiple disasters. Yes,
the the Hemmenberg was kind of the capstone of the
(02:33):
long disaster history. It was huge and gramatic and captured
on film, which all factored into it kind of signaling
the end of airship travel. Yes, so the Hemdenberg was
designed and built by the Zeppelin Company or if you
are in German and please pardon my terrible German pronunciation,
(02:54):
left ship Bow Zeppelin g mbH. Its interior was designed
by German architect Fritz August brow House the Grout and
it was actually named after Field Marshal and President Paul
von Hendenberg, who was actually the man that appointed Hitler
the Chancellor of Germany. And at one point the German
propaganda minister attempted to have it named the Hitler instead
(03:18):
of the Hendenburg. Uh. And it did have giant swastikas
on the tail. Yeah, I think a lot of people
kind of forget that this was a Nazi aircraft pretty
much through and through. You know, it was used in
Germany before it started its transcontinental flights. It was used
in Germany on propaganda flights around Germany for four days,
(03:39):
emblazoned with giants, watts, swastikas, um. They were internal strifes
between the Zeppelin Company and the Nazi government. UM. And
that's one of the reasons that the investigation, which we'll
talk about in a bit went on for so long. UH.
The Zeppelin Company started construction of the Hendenburg in friedrich Schaffen,
(03:59):
Germany in one It was the largest rigid airship that
was ever built. It was eight hundred feet long more
than eight hundred feet long, which almost as long as
three football fields American football fields for the those of
you who live elsewhere. UM. It was powered by four
diesel engines and the frame was filled with seven million
(04:22):
cubic feet of hydrogen gas contained in sixteen shells inside
the ship. UM. These like cells. They were like big bags,
and they were coated with gelatin so that the gas
would be less likely to escape. And they also the
these rigid airships, including the Hennenberg, also used water as
ballast when trying to negotiate exactly how high it was flying.
(04:46):
And just so people have a sense of the kind
of modern differences, because there are still some air ships
we see, like the Goodyear Blunt flying over sports events. UM.
Today's blimps are really balloons. But the Mburg was truly
a Zeppelin because it had the rigid interior frame UM
that gave it that characteristic shape, and that frame was
(05:07):
made of Dura lumen, which is an alloy of aluminum,
copper and other metals. It's possible that this dr lumin
that was used in the Hennenberg came from the wreckage
of a previously crashed zeppelin, the British R one oh one,
that had been destroyed in its own fiery crash in
(05:27):
It's on the record that the Zeppelin company bought the
Dura lumen, but it's a little unclear as to whether
that particular der allumin wound up being used in the
skeleton of the Hennenburg. And regardless of whether parts from
UH the R one oh one crash made their way
into the Hindenburg, UH, that R one oh one vessel
(05:50):
is actually the reason the Hendenburg was so very big,
because the crash of that previous vessel was actually pretty smooth.
Um survivors didn't feel a lot of impact, but almost
everyone on board died after it caught fire. It wasn't
the impact but the fire that actually got them. Everyone
reached the logical conclusion that using highly flammable hydrogen to
(06:11):
keep an airship afloat was a terrible idea. Hydrogen was
to be replaced with helium, but helium is of course
heavier than hydrogen, so helium airships consequently had to be
bigger to hold more of the gas to compensate and
have lift. The problem arose when Germany didn't have its
own supply of helium to be filling up these airships.
(06:34):
The United States had plenty of helium but was really
just not inclined to hand over lots of helium to
the Nazi government. So since the Germans couldn't get enough
helium to fill the Hendenberg, they had to go back
to using hydrogen instead. So the Germans couldn't get enough
helium to fill the Hendenburg, so they had to go
back to using hydrogen instead, and extreme care was taken
(06:58):
inside of the Hindenburg to prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen.
There were ventilation systems on the inside to to vent
any any hydrogen that did escape if inspections would be
performed by people who were wearing asbestos suits and little
felt shoes that they didn't make sparks. All of this
to try to cut down on the risk of a
(07:19):
giant explosion, and the outside of the ship was covered
in a skin that was made of cotton that had
been coated with a paint which was also called dope
at the time to make it waterproof, and that dope
contained iron oxide and aluminum powder, which combined will form thermite.
Thermite burns really really well and at a very high temperature.
(07:41):
So it was not really the best planning and thought
process to cover an entire dirigible that is containing highly
flammable gas with it. Let's have a highly flammable gas
contained in something that is also highly flama highly flammable.
There are lots of measures taken to try to make
(08:02):
things safer, but obviously that they could not account for
anything for everything. So if you look at pictures of
the Handenburg pre disaster, you'll see little slits near the
bottom of it. These are windows that we're looking out
from the passenger areas, and they were in the belly
of the zeppelin with the passengers on the upper of
(08:24):
two decks that were in the bottom of the craft.
And then the little cabin that you can see near
the flour of the Hindenburgh, which is on the underside,
is the control cabin, and that contained the bridge, the
navigation room, and another observation area, traveling by zeppelin was
supposed to be the height of luxury, and in this case,
(08:44):
the height of luxury means that you had a windowless
interior stateroom that measured seventy eight by sixty six inches,
that contained a couple of bunks, a wash basin with
hot and cold running water, a writing desk, and the
service of a room steward who would come and help
take care of you. So really, the passenger accommodations in
(09:05):
a big ocean liner probably would have been more comfortable
and more spacious and better outfitted, but that trip would
have taken a whole lot longer, so comparatively speaking, so
it would only take you two days to get across
the ocean instead of an entire week. That relatively austere,
tiny space, it was not too bad. It was the
trade off that you made, saving you a lot of time. Uh.
(09:27):
And in addition to the cabins, passengers also had access
to several common areas, so they weren't stuck in those.
And this is really that these are the things that
you would see photos of as as the luxury experience.
For these common areas, there was a lounge room with
a grand piano, and that piano was actually made of
the same aluminum alloy as the ship's frame uh and
covered with a pig skin to be lighter than a
(09:49):
traditional grand piano, although that piano was not part of
the historic and tragic Final Voy, apparently not h The
ship also had a reading and writing room, a dining room,
and a promenade with slanted windows where you could get
a view of the world below. There was also, and
this one kind of befuddles me, a smoking room. Uh.
(10:12):
So you have all of these explosive, dangerous things, which
you've taken great care to prevent any sparking happening adjacent
to you. And then you're like, oh, but you can
light up. We have a lounge for you. Put some
put some active fire there in the hands of the
passengers who theoretically were not trained to handle flammable substances.
(10:32):
So here's the care that was taken in the smoking room,
so that the smoking room was not the undoing of
the entire craft. It was a pressure ized room, so
it was maintained pressure inside the room so that when
you opened the door, any hydrogen that was around would
not get in there. Um. There was one electric lighter
that was used to light all things that were going
(10:53):
to be smoked in the room, and passengers were required
to hand over any matches or lighters that they had
on their person before they embarked. So there was this
one place where people could smoke if they chose, but
pretty strict requirements of keeping that room a safe place
that was not going to light the whole ship on fire.
(11:14):
I'm still the fuddled by it. I really have such
a hard time wrapping my brain around why you would
be like that's cool. Well, and it's it's just cultural,
like you would not have a traveling vessel without a
space for that, right. Well, when you think about how
still on aircraft, uh, there's the no smoking sign. We're
still having the no smoking sign on airplanes, which for
(11:35):
those of us who have been flying mostly in recent years,
that seems weird. But there was ever smoking on airplane.
I remember smoking on airplanes when I was a kid
because it was like a similarly terrible idea, yeah, but
again not filled with hydrogen. My mother smoked, and I
remember her like when I was traveling when I was
quite young, you know, lighting up on the plane. And
(11:57):
now it's just so bizarre to me to even come
contemplate that we did that. But so yes, the whole
room with extreme safety precautions set aside for set aside
for smoking. So along with the crew quarters, which were
very small bunks like you would see on an aircraft carrier.
The lower deck, which was basically in the belly of
(12:17):
the Zeppelin, contained the galley, the cruise mess washrooms, and
other necessary facilities. So while everyone remembers the final flight
the service, the Hannenberg had a service history prior to
that that was not its first flight, which some people
I have found when talking to them, they think it
only flew once, right, But it really had a lot
(12:38):
of air hours, yes, a lot of safe air hours
without incident before this happened. Um so Apart from the
four day propaganda flight in Germany and lots of test
flights in Germany, the Hndenburg made its first transatlantic voyage
in ninety six. It flew from Germany to Rio da
(13:00):
Narrow and this was a round trip that departed on
March thirty one and returned on April tenth, and Commander S. E.
Peck was on board as an official observer from the U. S.
Government UH since the plan was for the Hindenburg to
potentially provide service between Germany and the naval air station
in lake Hurst, New Jersey, with connecting service through American Airlines,
(13:22):
which I did not know prior to prepping for this. Yeah,
it was a commercial service that that was, you know,
meant to carry passengers. That's pretty much what it was
built for, was to carry passengers between Germany and the US.
Lake Hurst was the United States main airship station. It's
where America's first airship, the Shenandoah, took off on its
(13:43):
maiden for voyage, and it's also where a really famous Zeppelin,
the graph Zeppelin, started and ended a trip around the
world in um In addition to that round the world flight,
the graph Zeppelin was in service for nine years and
in that time it made five and ninety flight including
a hundred and forty four ocean crossings. Also on board
(14:04):
was a doctor Hugo Eckner, who was a German aeronautical
engineer that had worked with Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin on
the development of airships. Echner was director of the Zeppelin
Company at the time, so people would knowledge about Zeppelin's
were there, Yes, So this cann end out. This first
trip across the ocean wound up being the subject of
(14:24):
kind of an f li I memo to the Secretary
of State. Um Peck reported to Hugh Gibson, who passed
it up to the Secretary of State, but he had
had several conversations with Eckner about the Nazi government's decisions
surrounding the Hindenburg while crossing the ocean. Essentially, what Peck
was letting everybody know was sort of the history of
(14:47):
of why uh Eckner seems to be falling out of
favor with the Nazi government, and it had to do
with basically his trying to put the safety and quality
of airships ahead of the Nazi government's desire for propaganda.
There's much bigger story there that maybe will be a
(15:07):
subject for a future podcast, but it really could be.
It's a whole intrigue, yeah, a lot of gossipy drama
about the about about the Nazi government and the various
people involved with airship design. So the Hendenburgh's first journey
to Lakehurst, which was the trip it had really been
designed for, took place h in May of ninety six,
(15:31):
from May six to May nine, and aboard it were dignitaries, aviators,
famous people, the media. I mean it was a big
publicity event in many ways, right it was. It was
one of those things where you had a carefully selected
passenger list of notable people and this kind of big
media event. Before the final tragic journey, the Hendenberg had
(15:52):
made ten round trips between Germany and the United States,
carrying one thousand and two passengers along with mail and
other cargo. Safely, it had traveled for more than two
hundred thousand miles. But of course we know it did
have a short life release and then we come upon
the final voyage. Yes, on May third seven, the Hendenberg
(16:14):
left Frankfurt at seven sixteen am. This was the ship's
return to flight after being refitted over the winter, which
is why there were media waiting for it to arrive
in lake Hurst. There were ninety seven people on board,
thirty six of those were passengers and sixty one of
those were crew. The Hyndenburg was running more than ten
(16:34):
hours late because of thunderstorms. The weather at lake Hurst
had been bad enough that the ship had flown to
New York City to give passengers a nicer view while
waiting for the weather to clear up. So they could land.
So landing the airship required the captain to very precisely
balance the ship's hydrogen with its ballast to level it
off at the right distance from the ground, and then
(16:57):
two hundred very strong men had to grab mooring lines
to bring it the rest of the way in. So
this would have been challenging. Even in great weather, airships
had been known to catch a gust of wind and
sail upward, leaving the ground crew to either choose between
hanging on and hoping for the best, or letting go
and possibly falling to their deaths. So, uh, it's very
(17:19):
tricky to land an airship, is the bottom line there. Yeah,
as much promise as people thought these had for transoc
oceanic flight, as they were pretty dangerous. Yeah, they had
a lot of big obstacles that you had to overcome
with each flight. So at PM, as it reached its
mooring mast and its mooring lines touched the ground, a
(17:41):
fire started near the rear of the Hendenburg. It was
still high off the ground at the time, around um
or about two feet up, and some people aboard knocked
out windows and jumped off catwalks in the hope of
avoiding the fire, so they knew they were trapped and
they wanted to just take their chance on jumping right.
The entire airship burned in thirty four seconds. The ground crew,
(18:05):
which was made of both civilians and navy men, first
rushed away from the falling wreckage, and then as the
as the Hendenburg made it to the ground, they ran
back in to try to pull survivors away, and in
the end thirty six people were killed, including one member
of the ground crew. That was one of the things
that that had never stuck with me, that there were
(18:26):
actually a lot of survivorsburg me too. I think again,
it's one of those things that we see that brief
piece of footage and we hear the oh the humanity,
and it's always counted as a huge tragedy, which it was,
but it kind of leads to the conclusion that everyone parish.
It doesn't look like something that people would survive, but
there were really a lot of albeit very badly injured,
(18:49):
but there were a lot of survivors of the of
the disaster. Herb Morrison was recording radio coverage of the
landing for the Chicago station w LS, and he is
the person who uttered the famous All the Humanity, which
became part of the first radio report ever to be
nationally broadcast by NBC. There's always been a little bit
(19:11):
of mystery about what caused the fire, and it was
an inherently difficult disaster to investigate, since the whole thing
burned down to the skeleton and the ground crew, the survivors,
the media and others had really trampled the entire scene
trying to get people out of there and also get
away before the military could really establish a perimeter for investigation.
(19:33):
There was a pretty extensive investigation at the time, which
was driven both by the disaster itself and the fact
that the airship belonged to Germany. There was a lot
of speculation about whether it had been sabotaged or a
deliberate attack by either people who sympathized with the Jews
who were living in Germany or anti Nazi groups. There
(19:53):
were a lot of people who would have had cause
to make a Nazi ship a target, and so there
was a lot of an investigation into whether it had
been a deliberate act. There were hundreds of pages of
FBI documents that were declassified in the eighties through the
Freedom of Information Act, and you can read them all online.
The general agreement is that a spark from somewhere ignited
(20:16):
the hydrogen gas, and that the Zeppelin skin, which we've
already said was also highly flammable, accelerated then the burn
and that's why it just kind of went up in
a pretty quick flash. One of the most recent refinements
of this static discharge theory came about in March. Jim Stansfield,
who was a Britick British aeronautical engineer, theorized that the
(20:38):
ship had become charged during the electrical storm, that it
was sort of skirting the edges of and that when
the ship got to its moorings it became grounded, and
that's the spark that resulted ignited a leak of hydrogen
um that's kind of different from the other. Or maybe
it was a spark of some kind of machinery on board,
(20:59):
or a loose wire or some kind of short circuit somewhere.
That the general consensus is a spark from somewhere. We
know it's a spark of something, but they've never uh
conclusively identified what or found clear evidence that it was sabotage.
So I think this will probably be a mystery with
many theories forever. Yeah, there's also a MythBusters episode where
(21:23):
they make a model of the Hindenburg to try to
recreate it, and it burns much like the real airship
did when covered in the same paint mixture and when
it's filled with hydrogen. But when they did the same
experiment without filling it with hydrogen, it did not go
up quickly. The question was kind of was it really
the paint that was the problem? And that the answer
(21:44):
and that experiment was now that the paint by itself
does not burn nearly as quickly as the paint with
this huge source of hydrogen fuel underneath it, and that
really Uh, that tragedy put an end to the concept
of commercial airship travel. It really shut on that potential industry. Yeah,
it had already had a pretty a pretty rocky history
(22:06):
before that point. While Germany had been using Zeppelin's pretty
successfully for a long time. UM it had used Zeppelin's
for military purposes during World War One, although the Treaty
of Versailles put a stop to that. UM, the German
government had been using it for commercial purposes after the war,
and without a lot of horrible things happening, but other
(22:29):
nations were not quite as fortunate. Um. Some of the
disasters that happened prior to the Hendenburg were that in
nineteen twenty one, the U. S. Navy's z R two
broke apart and burned and sixty two people died, and
in nineteen twenty three the French airship Dixmud disappeared on
its way to Africa. In nineteen five, the Shenandoah, which
(22:52):
we talked about a little earlier, broke up during a
storm and fourteen people were killed. In nineteen thirty, the
R one one of Britain, which we discussed earlier, the
one who's dr Lumen may have been used in the Hendenburg,
caught fire after an emergency crash landing and killed forty
seven people, including many British airship experts, so they really
(23:12):
lost like a brain trust of knowledge about airships. In
NT three, the USS Akron, which was a military airship
of the U. S. Navy, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
and seventy three people died, and the akron sister ship,
the Makon, crashed into the Pacific in killing two people.
So there had been pretty much an airship disaster every
(23:35):
couple of years before the Hendenburg, and the Hendenburg, with
its dramatic news coverage that was just so startling to
look at, was really the final straw and the public's
mind about whether they were going to ever get up
in one of those things. The U. S. Navy continued
to use the station at lake Hurst as an airship
station for anti submarine blimps right up until the end
(23:57):
of World War Two, and Germany continued to use Zeppelin's
for propaganda and transport through World War Two. But the
Zeppelin airship works in Germany were destroyed by the Allies
during the war and they weren't really rebuilt, so that
ended German development of Zeppelin's for many many years. Zeppelins
aren't completely gone though. Zeppelin started being manufactured in Friedrichschaffen
(24:20):
at German company z lt Zeppelin lu Shift Technique in
and these Zeppelins are semi rigid and they use helium,
unlike their rigid and hydrogen filled Hindenburg. We mentioned a
Good Year blimp at the start of this podcast that's
actually going to become the Good Year Zeppelin in following
an announcement in eleven. So we will see things that
(24:44):
may visually resemble a little bit the Handenberg flying through
the sky, but no longer potentially fiery catastrophes waiting to happen. Yes,
hopefully history has taught us enough that modern engineering has
found safe ways. We're not putting hydrogen in things that
are going to fly through the sky. It sounds like
a good plan to me. Ye had it struck me
(25:07):
as I was researching this, that the Hindenburg and the
Titanic are stuck together in people's minds as these disasters
that happened in kind of the same era of history,
like not immediately next each other, but reasonably goes close
to a twenty year gap. There's like a twenty year
gap between them, but they're both They have both this
air of in hindsight. Of course, you would not want
(25:28):
to go through iceberg infested waters in this giant ocean liner,
and of course you would not want to fill something
flammable with hydrogen and then fled across the ocean. And
then add to that the fact that both of these
were supposed to be pretty luxurious experiences unless unless you
were in steerage on the Titanic. I think that's a
lot of why they get looped together as because they
(25:50):
were both kind of going to be the new era
of travel for the times that they were launching. So
that's the story of the Himpenburg and I believe you
also have listener mail for us. Two more pieces of
listener mail for us. Both of them are about our
recent episodes on Loving Versus Virginia, which we have gotten
(26:11):
a lot of great mail about and a lot of
great feedback on. So thank you everyone for all of that. Um.
This first one is from Cameron and uh. Cameron says,
I wanted to write in since I just listened to
your awesome podcasts on Loving versus Virginia. I recently went
over some of this case with my students i'd teach
high school history. It came up when I was also
(26:32):
reviewing the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments with them when
we wrapped up reconstruction. Though the language of the fourteenth
Amendment states, quote, no State shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States. To reinforce the equal status of
African Americans, including recently freed slaves, it's important to note
(26:54):
that section two of this amendment also states representatives shall
be apportioned among the step real states according to their
referverse their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons
in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. The mention of
Indians is important because the fourteenth Amendment, while making allowances
for four million plus new citizens I eat freed slaves,
(27:18):
does not take Native Americans under the same protection. This
is clear when the country expands westward in the late
eighteen hundreds and reservations are assigned to people with no
apparent claim on the land. Native Americans are conveniently not
considered citizens, which makes it much easier to quote ask
them to move off their land so pioneers can have it.
I wanted to bring this up because I teach high
(27:40):
school in an area that is classified as the urban core.
The majority of my students are definitely under the minority
classification on the Census. I was so proud of my
students were immediately taking note that forcing tribes off their
land was just as unfair as telling blacks they don't
count as people. That in both cases, an entire group
of people are being judged and persecuted based on being
(28:01):
different than the whites in charge. So thank you Cameron.
Such a good letter. Now it's a great letter. So
number one, it's a great letter. Number two. It was
pretty startling to me that zero of the things that
I read while researching that podcast referenced the incongruity between
section one in section two of the fourteenth Amendment. Like,
(28:22):
none of them got into it. I feel like that's
how American history works. Often. You're like, I don't think
that's exclusive to American history, but it does happen a lot.
You know. It's kind of um compartmentalized, right, it's totally
and it's sort of like, and then we gave rights
to these people, sort of leaving out everyone else who
(28:45):
did not get right the other we got several so
we may have other Loving Versus Virginia letters later. But
the other one that I wanted to read today is
from James. He says, I've listened to your most recent
podcast about Loving Versus Virginia as a story buff who
lives in Virginia, I was surprised that I have never
learned about this landmark decision back in school, despite the
(29:06):
fact of at least one year of public schooling is
dedicated to Virginia history. What makes this even more surprising
is that I actually actually live in the Northern Virginia area, which,
in part due to its close proximity to d C,
is one of the most racially diverse areas in the country. Now,
I can't imagine what it would be like if inter
racial marriage was still outlawed. Also, when I was listening
(29:27):
to the second part of the episode, I realized that
the title of the case reminded me of the old
tourism slogan Virginia Is for Lovers. I was curious if
you knew if the decision had any bearing on the
creation of the slogan. The phrase was created and first
used in advertising by a Richmond based advertising company called
Martin and Waltz. The slogan was first used in advertising
in nineteen sixty nine, two years after the court decision,
(29:50):
so it would still be fresh in people's minds. I
did some quick Internet research and the only thing I
could find that directly referenced the connection was an article
from last year that when over the history of a slogan,
and according to the current president of the ad agency,
there is no connection. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if
there was a connection, and the ad agency just didn't
want to advertise it for fear of creating controversy. Still,
(30:12):
it does seem like other people have noticed the connection since.
When I was checking the history, I found a book
about the trial from two thousand four titled Virginia Hasn't
Always Been for Lovers? So I did some research on this. Also.
I was hoping to go look back through newspaper articles
from the sixties to see how much coverage there really
was of it, like is this a name that would
(30:35):
be in people's minds the way like Delma is in
people's minds currently because of the cases that are before
the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, my newspaper database did not go
back that far, but I found a couple of other
articles that were about that particular slogan on various anniversaries
of its creation. UM And the story that I have
(30:56):
found several times from several different sources is that a
copywriter named Robin McLaughlin came up with a concept that
had lots of different ads that was Virginia, like Virginia
is for history lovers, Virginia is for beach lovers, Virginia
is for mountain lovers. UM. And everybody sort of decided
that was too complicated and too narrow for each ad
(31:17):
to have a different Virginia is for bloody blah lovers. Um.
And then somebody said, what if we just said Virginia
is for lovers and everybody loved that, and the first
ad mentioning the slogan ran in the nineteen sixty nine issue.
March nineteen sixty nine issue of Modern Bride was the
first place that was ever used. Uh. Yeah, it was
tobitably pitching it as a honeymoon destination. Yeah, well it was.
(31:41):
It was because the state had done some research and
realized that most of the travelers vacationing in Virginia were
fifty years old or older, and the state was like,
if we were going to make tourism money, we need
to bring some younger people here, and so this was
part of an effort to attract younger people. UM. A
lot of people who worked on the pain have pointed
out that it was kind of racy at the time,
(32:03):
but I didn't find any that were from people specifically
saying oh and then also the Supreme Court case, Yeah,
so I think it's going to be probably not UM
if it was intentional on the part of a copywriter. Uh.
That I think was something that flew under the radar.
We don't have a record of that being an intent. Yeah,
and the people making the approvals of it did not
(32:25):
have that in the forefront of their minds, or I
think they probably would have said no, giving that Virginia
was on the losing side of that case. One last thing, yea,
we have lots of new YouTube channels from many of
our sister and brother colleagues here. There's been a lot
of dizziness. Yes, So if you go to YouTube, you
(32:47):
can see all kinds of awesome new videos from stuff
mom never told you, stuff you should know, stuff to
blow your mind, and stuff they don't want you to know.
So you'll be seeing links from us to those things. Uh.
And they're fun and they're very fun. Really, I watched
stuff now, mo. I've never told you at lunch every day,
but I have to finish eating first so I don't
choke on my food or spin on the screen. Yes
(33:08):
while laughing. If you would like to write to us,
you can. We're at History Podcast at Discovery dot com.
We're also on Twitter at mist in history and on
Facebook at Facebook dot com slash history Class stuff. You
can find our tumbler at mist in history dot tumbler
dot com, and we're on Pinterest too. If you would
like to see some photos of the Hindenberg before and
(33:33):
during and after it's horrible disaster, we have a brand
new image gallery on our website, but is of Hindenberg pictures,
so you can search for that at our website and
find that in a lot more at our site, which
is how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
(33:54):
dot com. This episode of Stuff you Missed in History
Class is brought to you by Audible
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
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Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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