78 years ago tomorrow evening. Joseph Späh survived the Hindenburg...

[Cooley Hurd]

http://facesofthehindenburg.blogspot.com/2008/11/joseph-sph.html



Joseph Späh

Passenger

Age: 32

Residence: Douglaston, Long Island, New York

Occupation: Vaudeville acrobat/comedian

Location at time of fire: Portside dining salon

Survived


Joseph Späh was a vaudeville performer. Born on March 14th, 1905 in Strasbourg, he emigrated to the United States as a young man, and got into vaudeville as an acrobat and contortionist. He eventually took the stage name "Ben Dova" and developed a comedy act which centered around his acrobatic skills.



<snip>

Leaning out of one of the forward-most windows, Späh was taking movies of the landing crew and had just aimed his camera at Lakehurst's massive Zeppelin hangar when the hangar started reflecting an orange glow. It quickly became obvious that the Hindenburg was suddenly and inexplicably afire. The whole ship tilted about 45 degrees down by the tail, and Späh managed to hold on to a rail while most of the others slid 15 or 20 feet down the floor to the back wall of the observation deck.

Once the ship began to descend and level out, Späh hung out of the nearby window, let go once he was about 20 feet above the ground and, his acrobat's instincts kicking in, tried to do a safety roll when he landed. He injured his ankle nonetheless, and was dazedly crawling away when a U.S. sailor came up, slung him under one arm, and ran him out of the fire zone.

</snip>

...his act, pre-Hindenburg:

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Wow! Amazing!

This is something I did not know, don't remember this from any documentary. I learn something new on DU every day.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Did you watch the video?

Damn, no wonder he survived the Hindenburg!!!!

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I didn't remember this from the documentary, though I do remember the guy visiting his dog...

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Sadly, Spah's dog didn't survive the wreck.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. That's what I meant, remembered because it bothered me so much...

[jberryhill]

2. Among the various discarded theories...

Spah had been suspected of being a potential saboteur. He was traveling with his pet dog kept caged in a cargo area, and he would be allowed in that rear cargo area of the ship. On account of his acrobatic skills, it was supposed that he could have climbed up the interior rigging of the ship in order to hide an explosive device.

The actual cause is most likely to have been an electrostatic discharge due to the stormy conditions, a slow leak of hydrogen from one of the cells, the wet skin of the upper part of the ship from a light rain, and the ground path provided through a spark gap between the skin and the structure when the mooring lines were dropped.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. I do remember that there was a dog on the flight from a documentary I watched

Remember feeling particularly bad about that, but I didn't remember that he belonged to an acrobat who survived. Fascinating story, thanks for the information...

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Joseph Spah was portrayed by Robert Clary

(Corporal LeBeau from Hogan's Heroes) in the 1975 movie The Hindenburg (which also starred George C. Scott, Anne Baxter, and Burgess Meredith).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hindenburg_(film)

[MerryBlooms]

9. That video is something else!

The audiences watching that bit on the big screen must have been on the edge of their seats!
Fascinating piece, thanks for sharing.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. Wasn't that wild???