Saturday Morning, April 30, 2022
Oh the Humanity!
A flash so bright, his body winced. The world spun as a blast of heat smacked him, its intensity felt even on the skin beneath his clothes. Dragon fire. Lightning quick, there was no time to think. Instinctive reaction. His body lurched forward. His father, clamping his hand around his, launched into a full sprint. He felt the ground fall away, free flight, his body flailing like streaming colors on a racing sailboat.
From a family photo album, the first image titled Christmas at Passaic, 1922, we spend several years with them exploring. In 1925 they visited the Lakehurst Naval facility in New Jersey, home to those magnificent floating beasts - the dirigibles, a state-of-the-art technology attracting many.
They dashed across the field. A tremendous explosion shook the ground. Black smoke billowed above them, thunderhead high. From everywhere he heard primal screams, in disbelief, in terror. The world disintegrating. Then, a sizzling sound and that smell. He felt his stomach heaving. Shrapnel rained upon them in House of Usher red, streaking, dripping with droplets of fire. His father, knocking the debris aside with his free hand, never hesitated. He ran to safe harbor near the hanger.
There he stopped, adrenalin still coursing. The grip released, his father bent down, fighting for air. Before them, a monstrous metal framework stripped of its skin seemed to hang midair, then so gently settled to the ground, breaking into pieces across the landscape.
Companion photographs detailing mooring setup. 200 tons demanded respect and strength to lasso these beasts. Photographed is a US Navy dirigible.
He could still feel the heat from the burning rubble. 1937. Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. The pride of Germay's Third Reich, airship Hindenburg, lay in ruin, foreshadowing the European continent only years away. The day cost loss of pride, thirty-five lives, and several seared memories.
Up, Up and Away
In 1783, the Montgolfière brothers introduced flight with their first hot air balloon. By the end of the nineteenth century, the beginnings had expanded to airships. World War I advanced the technology opening dirigble doors to commercial flight throughout the 1920's and 30's.
Of the four-page paper model kit, one remains intact, Zweiter Bogen. The rest, separated and awaiting assembly. The kit was released outfitted in French, English, and Spanish. Printed in Germany.
Tremendous balloons, held aloft with helium and hydrogen, traveled the world. Now one could navigate the globe in gliding splendor. Regular routes were also available between Europe and America, a crossing taking two days. The most famous, the Graff Zeppelin, logged 590 flights. She also traveled around the world on goodwill tours for Germany. For war reparations, Germany built the airship Los Angeles, housed in
Lakehurst's Hangar One. Certain this means of travel would last, designers of the Empire State Building (constructed in 1930/31), first included a mooring tower on top of skyscaper, even publishing a fake photo of the Los Angeles docked. It would be a selling point, an international terminal. That first step off seemed to discourage most passengers. In truth, the mooring was a gimmick to insure the Empire State Building rose taller than the Chrylser Building. But all it attracted was an oversized gorilla and his shrieking side kick Fay Wray. Reality steps in. Some dreams do come to an end, like King Kong, in a rubble heap at the base of a tall structure.
Led Zepplin
Fred Mueller was much like you. He attended Brown Bros. on a regular schedule fifty years ago. As is the ritual, so many of us enjoy, kibbitzing, face-to-face. One day, for a reason now forgotten, Fred started chatting with me about his life. His conversation drifted along like, well, a dirigible, hitting a mooring post with the Hindenburg. He hesitated, then began. When I was a boy, I would go to Lakehurst with my father to take delivery of German Shepherds. The breed grew immensely popular in the 1920's and 30's through the film success of Rin Tin Tin. Starring in over two dozen movies, Rin never earned a star on the Hollywood Boulevard. All they gave him was a fire hydrant [fact check].
From The Empire State Building, text by Jonathan Goldman, design by Michael Valenti, St. Martin's Press, , New York, 1980,
One day I tagged along with my father. It was the Depression. An outing to Lakehurst was a true treat. He stopped, his thoughts gathering. I only remember the tragedy in images, snap shots, so fast was the moment. His words chosen carefully. But I remember it most through my senses. It was horrible. The heat. The screams. The smell. Burning hydrogen is one thing. Flesh... He gazed across the gallery, his trance intact. It was all so quick. People smiling down at us from the passenger cabin, eternity the next second. His memories flashed like flames rising skyward. My fingers clamped around the baton now secure in my hand.
The question we hear constantly is what do we collect? The answer simple. You. Your memories, your shared experiences, all filed deep within our cerebral cortex, until one day they reappear. Dreamcatchers. Could there be a better collection in all of Bucks? We will find out each week immersed in our Joseph Campbell bliss. See you again this Saturday.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]