The crash of the German dirigible Hindenburg on 6 May 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was one of the most spectacular disasters ever captured on film. A total of thirty-six people were killed in the terrible explosions and fire that lit up the evening sky in New Jersey. The coverage of the crash by newsreel and radio brought home the awesome immediacy of the media in delivering information. The images of destruction and death contained in the reports of the crash of the Hindenburg were a vision of a coming world that would be more subject to the emotional response of human beings to the suffering of others.

The radio report by Herb Morrison for WLS, Chicago, has become well known for its stark emotionalism, a response not in the later tradition of unemotional reporting.

Here it comes, ladies and gentlemen, and what a...