SHADOW OF THE HINDENBURG - Eastern Canada 1936

"He was a child of eight with impetigo on his knees, and he was standing on the bare clay playground of a country school when he looked up and saw the airship.  Silver, wearing for a reach across the wind, it floated over the schoolyard, scattering in the air behind it tiny objects that floated down - Baby Ruth candy bars on small parachutes. Running after the airship, Michael could stay in its shadow the length of the schoolyard, the other children running with him, scrambling for the candy bars. Then they reached the plowed field at the edge of the school yard and the shadow moved away, rippling over the rows. Lander in his short pants fell in the field and tore the scabs off his knees. He got to his feet again and watched the dirigible out of sight, rivulets of blood on his shins, a candy bar and parachutes clutched in his hand."   

(Childhood memory of "The American,"  the psychopath who plots to obliterate the Superbowl)     BLACK SUNDAY    Thomas  Harris, 1975.

On June 24, 1936  Zeppelin  D-LZ129 the HINDENBURG, passed over Saint John, New Brunswick and created an instant sensation.  The port city was one of several cities in Atlantic Canada that had a  municipal airfield, and its promoters constantly touted expansion of passenger service. But in truth the "aviation age" was passing them by. The zeppelin overflight was unexpected, because the huge dirigibles usually logged flights directly over the Atlantic, south of Nova Scotia. When local radio station CHSJ began announcing sightings of the zeppilin's approach  along the Fundy shore, all those with film in their cameras moved into the open to attempt a capture. It was a school day, so most of the kids missed it, but many, including my grandfather, had an experience they would cherish for the remainder of their lives. Canada was still three years from being thrust into a second war with Germany, so none were  offended by the giant red and black Nazi swastika flags passing overhead. [1936 was the year of the spectacular Nazi Olympiad and HINDENBURG also sported the five rings - blue, yellow, black, green and red.] Most were content to have witnessed one of the great technological wonders of their era, a form of swift transportation - "Two-Days to Europe" - which was priced well beyond reach of most folks during that  hard decade of economic depression.

A trip on a German Zeppelin cost  US$450 one-way, with a 10% discount for a round trip booking.   Those who kept up with current events in 1936 were very aware of the technological advances of Hitler's Germany where an outstanding female pilot had safely flown an autogiro into the  middle of a crowded stadium and where select sports events were already being broadcast on television.  North American aviation enthusiasts and the stamp collecting fraternity were downright passionate in their following  of  the GERMAN ZEPPELIN TRANSPORT COMPANY and as a result we can today find an astonishing diversity of ephemera on the market today.  In 1936 the HINDENBURG  was the darling of the popular press in the U.S. and in June when she passed over Canada,  our news stands were stocked with magazines which featured her as cover stories. 

From the promenade deck of the HINDENBURG boxer Max Schmeling

watched the cool shadow ripple across whole American city blocks.

The flight which passed over Saint John departed Lakehurst, New Jersey on June 23, 1936 and was expected to reach Frankfurt, Germany 48 hours later. (One flight was exactly 48 hours and 8 minutes.) Given the high price of tickets the passenger manifests often included prosperous celebrities, and this flight included the German boxer Max Schmeling, who had recently fought Joe Louis in New York.  Schmeling made two trips in the HINDENBURG and many pictures exist of him being mobbed at airfields at both ends of the route. The only photo I have seen of him aboard the zeppelin is the award winning Joe Haas shot which shows him peering down at the streets of Philadelphia. (above)

Many in Saint John did capture a photograph of the giant airship, but the trick was to hold your camera steady and remember to squeeze a piece of Saint John into the corner of the image.  Most of the snapshots which survive are of low quality. There are sharper images of HINDENBURG passing over the rooftops of Halifax, but I favor those from Saint John as it was my birthplace.

The HINDENBURG slowed its engines over Saint John and made a single broad orbit of the  harbour. It would be nice to say the captain did it for the benefit of the passengers, but in fact the German's made a practice of photographing ports and military installations wherever their zeppelins flew. The Americans maintained photo-sets of Canadian ports in their intelligence archives, so why would not the Germans?  And as it happened, there was three American military observers among the passengers that day. The HINDENBURG carried seven extra passengers on this June trip and they were required to sleep on folding cots.  Given the number of cameras onboard, I hold out some hope that we may someday see lost images taken of Saint John from the HINDENBURG's promenade deck.  

This photo (below) shows the HINDENBURG passing over the train station in Saint John. The vantage point is the sidewalk opposite the New Brunswick Cold Storage plant. Image graininess is due to the fact it is a scanned newspaper clipping.  It is though my favourite of the HINDENBURG set because my grandfather was working directly below the airship at the moment this photo was taken, and for the rest of his life all he had was memory.  As a young father he had struggled to provide for his family during the early years of the Great Depression and had just secured a job the C.P.R.. He was working in the freight sheds astride the station and his recollection was of the immensity of the near-stationary airship and of the full minute it eclipsed the sun.

The HINDENBURG is one of the most heavily documented aircraft in aviation history and it was very difficult to decide which photographs to include with this article. I have for example, several colour images of the promenade decks, cabins and lounges.  The airship's extraordinary interior have been featured in several Hollywood movies, often in outrageously fanciful scenarios, such as in Disney's THE ROCKETEER and Brooklyn Films SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. Both DVDs are recommended. Lot's of funky fun!

The passenger section was forward on the HINDENBURG so I

indicate the vantage point of Max Schmeling in the Joe Haas photo.

This cutaway diagram of the passenger berths and amenities is very helpful in understanding the flight experience.  Should intercontinental airship flight return, I would definitely be among those purchasing tickets.  These illustrations also help to put the HINDENBURG visit into some perspective, and are a reminder that when the ship into flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey  a year later, people died on those decks.  The explosion of the HINDENBURG at Lakehurst, New Jersey  is rated as one of the top news events ever captured on film and it destroyed an industry.   The newsreel of the ghastly disaster played in movie theatres throughout Canada, as did films of Max Schmeling's heavy-weight fights. 

After taking a good look at Saint John harbour  the Germans resumed course, continuing on their two-day flight  to Europe. A lucky few on the ground managed to get photographs of the HINDENBURG overflight, but hundreds at least had a story to tell their children.   The airship passed over several New Brunswick and Nova Scotia communities before heading out over the open Atlantic.

LAWRENCE EARL - the Anglo-Canadian Writer who began life as a Saint John Jew - Part 2

by Ronald J. Jack

In 1950 Patrick Leo Maguire, an Irish radio personality, wrote a hit folk song under the pseudonym Sylvester Gaffney. Entitled THE BATTLE OF BALTINGLASS, the single was released on a 45 RPM disc and it was in part the inspiration for the Lawrence Earl book ofhe same title. The song lyrics read like a pop-culture scrapbook from the Cold War, and aremore zany than the Lawrence Earl prose which won the 1953 Leacock Medal for Humour. 

THE BATTLE OF BALTINGLASS                 

by Sylvester Gaffney, Dublin 1950

(Air: The South Down Militia)

O, the G.P.O. in Dublin will go down in history,

'Twas there the glorious fight was made that set our country free,
But from Aughrim down to Boland's Mills there's nothing could surpass,
The siege of the sub Post Office in the Town of Baltinglass,

CHORUS:

There were Bren-guns and Sten-guns and whippet tanks galore,

The battle raging up and down from pub to general store:

Between the Vintner and the Cook the pot was quite upset,

And the Minister swore this Irish stew was the worst he ever 'et.

The job of sub-postmaster or mistress, as might be,

Is not exactly one that leads to wealth and luxury:

But Korea was a picnic and Tobruk was just a pup

To the row the day the linesmen came to take the cable up.

Now all the countryside joined in, the lowly and the great;

There were elephant-guns from Poona, and pikes from '98.

But the Cossacks came from Dublin, and the Irish Navy too,

And poor cook, she burnt her fingers on this wretched Irish stew.

There were gremlins from the Kremlin, and little men from Mars

Complete with flying saucers and hats festooned with stars.

There were rocket-firing, jet propelled, atomic flying boats,

And Commandos from the G.P.O. in their oul' tarpaulin coats.

The linesmen made a dash to open up the cable trench

They opened up the sewer instead, Lord save us! what a stench

A gentleman in jodhpurs swore, "By Jove, they're using gas"

"The next will be an atom bomb on peaceful Baltinglass."

Now the case has gone to U.N.O. and we're waiting for the day,

When Truman, Attlee and McBride will come along and say

"Get back behind your parallel, drop atom bombs and gas,

"And respect the bound'ries and the laws of Sov'reign Baltinglass.

LAWRENCE EARL  -  Part 2 - SHAMROCKS

Sixty years ago a book reviewer chose to list the names of Canadian authors who spent “most of their time in the United States” but he also noted that “New Brunswick author Lawrence Earl and the young Montreal writer Mordecai Richler are finding their destinies in old London”. The differences among our writers were often more than geographic. Earl and Richler for example, were both Canadian born Jews, but while Richler expertly tilled the rich ethnic soil of Jewish religion, traditions and culture which rooted him and produced some of the truly great Canadian novels of his century, Earl chose the adventure genre and ignored the streets and characters of his youth.  In Saint John he learned the camera arts, but memories of his native city never inspired the writing man.  The result?  Lawrence Earl is frequently mis-identified by those who consult his early non-fiction, and the novels he produced for Canadian readers are seldom encountered.

After the success of YANGTSE INCIDENT Lawrence Earl immediately sought another book project.  He was in luck! JOHN BULL magazine assigned him to cover a fascinating story in Ireland that had already been immortalized by a folk song recorded in Dublin. It was called THE BATTLE OF BALTINGLASS.  Sensing that he was mining valuable ore, Earl signed another contract with his publisher George Harrap.  Baltinglass was, in 1950, a village of some 800 souls, located quite near Dublin.  Its tiny sub-post office doubled as an agency for paying government fees and telephone bills. The job was a valuable sinecure. When the position was re-allocated the resulting furor came close to igniting open sectarian violence.   In his book of the same title Lawrence Earl stuck to his preferred style of peppering prose with carefully fabricated dialogue.  In the Preface he wrote “Because it is not fiction I lacked the happy licence of the novelist who arranges his facts to suit the plot, who can plumb the minds of his characters, enter locked doors, and eavesdrop on deep secrets.” 

Without a doubt, "Baltinglass" is Earl's finest book.  Although I sought in vain any trace evidence of the author's New Brunswick education or influences in the novel, I must note that the principle action of the story takes place on Mill Street and Main Street in the village of Baltinglass. It is merely a coincidence that there was a Mill Street - Main Street junction in Saint John, N.B. where  Earl grew up.  There is no way of knowing if Mr. Earl smiled when he stood on the corner of Mill and Main in distant Ireland, but I would like to believe he had a 'moment'.

In creative style as in the use of elastic veracity, Lawrence Earl’s non-fiction was very much in step with fellow Canadian author Farley Mowat, and indeed both writers were in the 1950s relying on ARGOSY and other popular “Men’s magazines” of the era, to establish an American reader base.

Lawrence Earl's third book, CROCODILE FEVER,

was condensed for the Sept. 1954 ARGOSY magazine.

A very serviceable description of events in Baltinglass is provided in a review published in Australia in 1952 (below).  I like the reviewer’s conclusion that – “Mr. Earl’s book is as Irish as shamrocks, and a manual for agitators.” Harrap sold the Canadian rights to publisher Clarke Irwin who marketed the book as a work of humour. As a result in 1953 Lawrence Earl was awarded the coveted Leacock Medal.  His third work of non-fiction, CROCODILE FEVER: A True Story of Adventure, appeared in 1954. It described the career of a successful croc-hunter. In the U.S. it was  published as RIVER OF EYES (a better title)  and condensed for ARGOSY magazine.  

CROCODILE FEVER was published in the U.S. as  RIVER OF EYES.

At the risk of being caught at large in the cape and mask of a pedantic outlaw, I have to point out that by assuming a purely Anglo-Canadian identity, and eschewing opportunities to draw from his family heritage, Lawrence Earl avoided a contribution to the important body of Jewish Canadian writing we now study in our schools. He was a part of that community and yet apart. If I didn't care about New Brunswick history I would not quibble about gaps in its literature. It is not so bad that some Canadian writers get Earl facts wrong -  for example R.B. Fleming in his recent biography of Peter Gzowski,  labelled YANGSTE INCIDENT "his novel". Worse are the writers who frequently refer to Earl as "a British journalist" or some variant phrase, but it is entirely Earl's doing. He was creator of his own identity.  (NOTE: If Earl did write any memoir piece for the Saint John newspaper, I would like to learn of it.)

Though he was still living and working in London, Earl’s first novel THE FROZEN JUNGLE, [1956] was written for the Canadian market. His subject, the dramatic tale of survival after a plane crash in Labrador, made total sense for the time period. In fact the tale was literally ripped from the pages of the newspapers. Ottawa and Washington were pouring millions of dollars and many thousands of workers into the North, rushing completion of the chain of distant early warning radars known as the DEW LINE. During a twelve-month period, eighteen of 81 civilian aircraft working under contract to military project sites crashed in the North.  

Just as his early non-fiction had been promoted in JOHN BULL magazine, Earl’s first novel was serialized in Canada. It appeared over four weeks in 1956, supported by a dozen drawings prepared by a WEEKEND magazine illustrator.  WEEKEND was published in Montreal, and was descended from the STANDARD Photo News, where Earl got his start as a young newsman. (see Part 1)  It is claimed that in the mid-1950s he took up writing books full time, but in fact he was still doing freelance journalism and editing, while his photographs were still being purchased by magazines.

THE FROZEN JUNGLE, a tale of lust and survival

set in Labrador, was published by Harrap in 1956.

By the 1960s the Earl's were dividing their time between London and Toronto, but they lived almost five decades as Londoners. Mr. Earl completed two more Canadian novels, the last a thriller published in 1969.  In old age he finally moved back to New Brunswick, accompanied by his journalist wife Jane Armstrong.  They took up residence at Driftwood Cottage, the Wiezel's old summer home at Grand Bay  on the St. John River, where he could relax with his Glenfiddich and his collection of fishing tackle.  In 1999 Lawrence Earl received an honorary doctorate from U.N.B. which acknowledged a lifetime in letters.   He died in 2005 at the age of 89  and his burial was in Shaarei Zedek, the Jewish section of Fernhill Cemetery in Saint John.