(While describing the Hindenburg disaster): "It's practically standing
still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and it's
been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men. It's
starting to rain again; the rain had slacked up a little bit. The back
motors of the ship are just holding it, just enough to keep it from
...[shouting] IT BURST INTO FLAMES! Get out of the way! Get out of the
way! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It's fire and it's crashing!
It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's
burning, bursting into flames and is falling on the mooring mast, and
all the folks agree that this is terrible! This is the worst of the
worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it's crashing...[his voice
cracking]...oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a
terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's
flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the
mooring mast...Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming
around here!" "I told you...I can't even talk to people...around there.
It's...[sobbing]...I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's
just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage, and everybody can hardly
breathe and talk...I, I'm sorry. Honest, I can hardly breathe. I'm
going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible.
I... [pause] Listen folks, I'm going to have to stop for a minute,
because I've lost my voice...This is the worst thing I've ever
witnessed..."
