Book Review: "Shadow Before The Flame" by Catherine Grace Katz

"Shadow Before The Flame"

by Catherine Grace Katz

How much do you know about the 1937 explosion and crashing of the German airship Hindenburg?  If you are like me, you have no doubt seen film footage of the fiery explosion of this airship (it wasn't a "zeppelin", nor was it a "blimp", but an "airship", a distinction that you will learn about when reading this book).  You have probably heard the famous recording of broadcaster Herb Morrison's description of the disaster as it unfolded before his eyes.  You have no doubt used the phrase "Oh, the humanity" at some point in your life without even being aware of its origin.

Did you know that the Hindenburg had been in service for several years prior to the crash, and had in fact been making transatlantic passenger flights between Europe and North and South America during that time period?  I did not.

Did you realize that over sixty of the ninety or so people on board survived the crash?  I did not.  Thirty-six of the on board died as result of the crash.

Did you realize that the Hindenburg remains to this day that largest aircraft ever built?  I did not.

And do you know anything about the stories of the people who were on board that fateful flight?  I am sure that you did not.

Author Catherine Grace Katz fills in the blanks about many of the individual passengers and crew.  In her own words, the variety of people on board (a meatpacking executive, a perfume manufacturer, a vaudeville performer, a husband and wife team of authors, a single American woman, a young Yale student)  were like the cast of characters in an Agatha Christie novel.  She tells us all about the people, how they came to be on board that flight, and what happened to them afterwards.

The story is also told amidst the backdrop of what was happening in Germany during the 1930's leading you to the 1937 flight.  The rise of Hitler, the suppression of the Jews during that period, and how the Nazis were more than happy to use the success of their airship fleet to glorify Aryan supremacy, and to use its destruction to scapegoat their enemies of the state.  Interestingly enough, Hitler himself said that he "would never ride on an airship."  Sadly, reading about how the Nazis and the fascists came to power in Europe, and the passing of laws and incendiary methods that were used brings to mind much of what we are seeing in the world and in America today, but that is another matter entirely, and I won't dwell on that here.

I really liked the book.  I loved how Katz got into the lives of those on board, and her descriptions of those moments on board the ship leading up to the awful thirty-four seconds that consumed the Hindenburg in flames are almost cinematic.  While her extensive research probably gave her an idea as to what was unfolding on the ship during the moments, I am sure that no one still living really knows, but this is probably as close as we can come to it eighty-nine years later.

This is also the story of news media and how primitive it was back in 1937.  The medium of radio was less than twenty years old at the time, and it was the policy of all broadcasting networks to only air live programming.  Nothing was ever recorded.  How Herb Morrison convinced his bosses at station WLS in Chicago to send him to Lakehurst, NJ to record (on recording equipment that was new at the time, but very primitive by today's standards) is a story in itself.  The fact that Morrison was there and captured the catastrophe as it occurred was pure luck, but it preserved forever that awful scene.  You can find newsreel footage the event and recordings of Morrison's play-by-play on YouTube.  It is worth the effort.   Anyway, realizing that they had history on wax disc recordings, WLS played Morrison's broadcast repeatedly, which by doing so, led to changes in the way news was delivered to the public from that day forward.

My only criticism of the book was how deep in the weeds Katz got in describing how airships like the Hindenburg were constructed and how they operated.  If you are a pilot or an engineer, you will probably dig all of that, but I tended to skim over those passages in the book.  The same went for the details in how electrical sparks might have been generated and how that might have caused the ship to go up in flames.  

I mentioned that this was heavily researched.  The text of the book is only 360 pages, which made it a relatively easy read, but the footnotes, bibliography, and index run 105 pages long.  Katz could have made this a dry historical tome, but she did not.

If you went to any college campus today, and asked a cross section of today's students to "tell me about the Hindenburg", I wonder how many would even have a small idea of what you was talking about.  The story of the Hindenburg should not be forgotten.

Three stars from The Grandstander for this book.

The Hindenburg flies over New York City.  

Photo was taken in 1936 on one of the ship previous trips.

Note the swastikas on the tail fins.

Lakehurst, New Jersey

May 6, 1937

To Absent Friends - Ann Hornaday

 

Ann Hornaday

1960-2026

I came to know Ann Hornaday from her being a regular guest on Tony Kornheiser's radio show and podcast.  She was the film critic for the Washington Post and her discussions with Tony about what was currently worth seeing and her opinions on just about anything in the world of motion pictures and entertainment were always informative and entertaining.  She also did a short lived podcast, "At The Movies With Arch and Ann", where she teamed up with another veteran DC film and entertainment critic, Arch Campbell.  I also made a habit of reading her reviews in the Post online.

Ann accepted a buyout from the Post in 2024 and soon thereafter, as I understand it, she developed cancer.  She died this past Sunday at the age of 66.

On his podcast this morning, Kornheiser had difficulty getting through his tribute to her, and he also read a number of emails from listeners expressing their admiration for Hornaday and their sadness at her passing.  Add this remembrance to that list.

In her retirement, she worked on a book about the 1976 movie "All The President's Men".  Apparently, she finished that book, and it is scheduled to be released in 2028.  I can't wait to read it.

RIP Ann Hornaday.

The World Series of 2026

 

The 2026 World Series begins in two days, and it will feature the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  Interestingly enough, each of these teams had the best records in their respective leagues over the course of the 162 game regular season, 103 wins for the Brewers and 98 wins for the Rays.  I am too lazy to look it it up, but is this the first time that this has happened since the introduction of divisional play and multiple rounds of post-season baseball?  Anyway, that fact alone makes this an "old school" kind of season in that the two teams with the best records in each league will face off in the Series, just like it used to be.  I think of my good friend Jim Haller, a baseball junkie if ever there was one, who maintains that 1968, the last year before the leagues were split into divisions, was the last "pure season" in Major League Ball.

Another cool fact about this World Series is that the two teams playing in it have never won a World Series.  It will be fun and exciting to watch a team win its first ever Championship.   Now I did do a little research into this factoid and I can tell you that this is the 10th time in World Series history that there has been a match-up of two teams looking to claim their first World Series championship.  As you might expect, this happened frequently in the early history of the World Series, seven times between 1903 and 1920.  It happened again fourteen years later when the Cardinals met the Tigers in 1934, and then again in 1980, forty-six years later, when the Phillies met the Royals, and now, after another forty-six years, it is happening again.

My rooting interesting in this year's contest will be for the Brewers.  I like their manager, Pat Murphy, who seems to be an old school kind of guy, who relies on his gut instincts more than analytics.  I am sure that the Brewers computer nerds supply him with all of the statistical mumbo jumbo that they generate, but when it comes down to it, Murphy has the final say.  That's just what I see looking at it from afar.

I also have made some friends from Milwaukee over the years through the connective tissue of the Tony Kornheiser Show podcast.  Most notable of these is Steve Ozbolt, a terrific guy.  We first met Steve in person when he traveled to Pittsburgh in 2023 on a Brewers road trip, and again when we met him and his wife at their Emerald City Catering business when we visited Milwaukee in 2024. I am hoping that he will get to pop open that celebratory champagne bottle at the conclusion of this Fall Classic.

What A Football Weekend It Was

Before Week 7 of the College Football and Week 6 of the NFL seasons kick off tomorrow night, I didn't want to let any additional time pass before commenting on the smorgasbord of football delights we all experienced this past weekend.  I cannot think of a weekend where we were treated to so many terrific games.

• For me, it began with watching undefeated Pitt take on the University of North Carolina Belichicks.  It began with Pitt reeling of a long time consuming drive in the first quarter to take a 7-0 led, and it looked like Pitt was going to control the game.  However, some head scratching clock management and play calling by Pitt at the end of the first half, combined with Coach Bill coming up with some defensive schemes that stymied Pitt in the second half led to Pitt suffering their first loss of the season, 21-17.   Post game quote of the weekend from the loquacious HC Pat Narduzzi was stating that North Carolina "has a pretty good coach over there."  Bill Belichick, a "pretty good coach"?  Keen observation there, Pat.
• There then followed two amazing rivalry games.  Oklahoma defeated #1 ranked Texas, 27-24, and in the prime time game, #2 Georgia defeated #6 Alabama, 20-17.  If you put a gun to my head, I wouldn't know which game I would say was better, and both were highly entertaining.
• There were lots of other significant college games.  Penn State loses to USC on White Out Night, heir third loss in a row, and one would think that the Matt Campbell Honeymoon is over in Happy Valley.  Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Indiana all win, and Kentucky upsets #10 LSU and their highly dislikable head coach, Lan Kiffin.
• One college football observation from The Grandstander.  I haven't seen every game he's played, of course, but when I have seen Arch Manning play for Texas, I am not seeing a reincarnation of his uncles and his grandfather.  Not sure that him being the overall Number One pick in the NFL draft is a sure thing.  Anyone with me on that?

Then the NFL took over on Sunday.

Jaylon Warren up the middle for a 50 yard touchdown run 

The highlight for me, of course, was the Steelers 34-22 win over the Colts.  The game featured two enormous touchdown plays by Jaylon Warren.  One was a check down pass from Aaron Rodgers that Warren broke for 80 yards, and the second was 50 yard burst where Warren ran right up the middle, virtually untouched.  I can't remember the last time a Steelers running back broke off a run like that.

Fun fact about this Steelers game.  Aaron Rodgers threw three TD passes in this one for the third consecutive game.  The only other Steelers QBs to do that were two guys you may know: Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger.

The 4:30 game was the 49ers 32-29 win over the Seahawks.  The game was tremendous, and I can't with to see the rematch between these teams later this year.

The Sunday Night game was an 30-23 overtime win by the Ravens over the Falcons, and the week concluded with that unbelievable overtime 37-34 win by the Bills over the Rams that featured a fourth quarter where the two teams combined to score 35 points.  That was great for those who might have wagered (a'hem) on OVER 54.5 points for the game, a wager that seemed very much in doubt at the end of the third quarter.

Amid all of that there were some games that featured boneheaded clock management that caused the Eagles to lose to the Jags with only :01 second on the clock, this after the Eagles took the lead with only :08 seconds to play, and the Giants-Commanders game that ended in a 21-21 tie when Jayden Daniels called a running play with :12 left in OT and no time outs remaining that made it impossible for the Commies to clock the ball and attempt a game winning football.   People smarter than me are saying that these gaffes were fireable offenses for head coaches Nick Siriani and Dan Quinn.

Some big college games coming up this weekend: Ohio State at Indiana, Alabama at Tennessee, and Notre Dame at BYU are matchups between ranked teams.  There are no marquis matchups that jump out at you in the NFL this weekend, but there will no doubt be a few games that will keep us glued to our television screens.

Oh, and Major League Baseball's League Championship Series are taking place over this weekend as well.  It is a good time to be a sports fan.

I will close out with a look at Jaylon Warren sprinting down the sidelines on his 80 yard touchdown.

Jaylon Warren

AFC Offensive Player of the Week

To Absent Friends - Mike Ditka

 

Mike Ditka

1939-2026

How I Think of Him - As A Pitt Guy

Mike Ditka died this past Friday at the age of 86.   If ever there was a character of "football tough guy" right out of central casting it was Mike Ditka.

Born in the western Pennsylvania steel town of Aliquippa, Ditka went to earn All-America honors at the University of Pittsburgh from 1958-60, and he may very well be the first guy that I, as a little kid, identified with Pitt football.  I was too young to ever see him play at Pitt, but I remember when he was drafted by the Chicago Bears and immediately became a star in the National Football League, virtually "inventing the position of tight end as we know it today" as all the ESPN pundits put it in their eulogies this weekend.  He had a twelve year career in the NFL, six with the Bears, two with the Eagles, and four with Dallas, where he played on the Super Bowl VI championship team.  He was a six time All-Pro, and a member of the NFL's 75th and 100th Anniversary Teams.

I do have a specific memory of a game that Ditka played against his hometown Steelers. It was at Forbes Field on November 24, 1963, the weekend of President Kennedy's assassination.  The game was neither telecast nor broadcast. The teams played to a 17-17 tie that day.  Ditka had 7 receptions for 146 yards, including one catch and run that covered 63 yards wherein Iron Mike seeming broke about a half dozen attempted tackles.  You no doubt saw that run and may not have realized it when various highlights of his career were shown on the news this past weekend.  Chicago went on to win the NFL championship that season.

Ditka went on t0 greater fame as head coach of the Bears, where he guided the 1985 Bears, generally conceded to be one of the great single season teams of all time, to the championship in Super Bowl XX.

It was at this point that Mike Ditka became a figure in the popular culture and not just a football guy, thanks in large part to the famous "Da Bears" sketch on Saturday Night Live, where he forever became known as "Da Coach".  After his coaching career ended, he went on to do TV commentary for three different networks over three different decades.  He also became a ubiquitous commercial pitchman for a myriad of products and services, where he became almost a caricature of himself, always playing the role of "Mike Ditka".

I know that Chicago is claiming Ditka as one of their own, but to me, he will always be a "Pitt guy" from Aliquippa, PA.

To conclude, allow me to cut-n-paste the closing paragraphs from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Noah Hills in his column from yesterday's Sunday edition sports pages.

He was the rare example of a star athlete who also went on to experience success as a coach, analyst and entertainer. And he managed to do so without ever allowing anyone to sanitize, dilute or constrain a single iota of who he was — a gritty, grouchy, quintessential Western Pennsylvania football guy.

We might see another tight end play the game like he did. We might see another Super Bowl-winning coach match his intensity. We might see a former gridiron great have equal success in the media, be it through covering sports or acting on shows or in movies.

But we will never see anyone do all of this with the unique aura of Iron Mike Ditka. He was one of a kind from start to finish, an Aliquippa-born and bred star who can never be replicated.

RIP Mike Ditka

To Absent Friends - Eva Marie Saint

 

Academy Award winning actress Eva Marie Saint died this past week at the age of 102.  Hers was a remarkable acting career that began with a television production of "A Christmas Carol" that was made in 1947, and continued well into the 2020's.  IMDB lists only 86 acting credits for Ms Saint, which surprised me but what a resume!

She had made over two dozen acting appearances on the then new medium of television when director Elia Kazan tapped her to play Edie Doyle, the young Catholic school girl who befriends longshoreman Terry Malloy, played by Marlon Brando, in 1954's "On The Waterfront".  It  is one of the great American movies ever made.  It won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Saint, and it led to a remarkable career in movies, television, and stage.  Besides her appearance in "On The Waterfront", her best known role was no doubt that of Eve Kendall in Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest" (1959).  She played a....well, I'm not going to tell you because it would be a spoiler (even for a 67 year old movie) and the romantic interest of Cary Grant.  It also contained THIS SCENE which, for my money, is one of the sexiest ever filmed in a movie. 

(ASIDE:  If you have not seen either "On The Waterfront" or "North By Northwest", stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW and find them and make it a point to watch them over the next weekend.  You will not be sorry.)

Eva Marie Saint appeared in many other significant films, among them "Hatful of Rain", "Splendor In The Grass", "Raintree County", "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming", and even "Superman Returns" in 2006.   She also continued to appear on television shows including playing Cybill Shepherd's mother in six episodes of "Moonlighting" (1986-88), and, of course, two appearances on "The Love Boat" wherein she appeared in two consecutive episodes (S 6, E 18&19) playing the character "Aunt Helena Georgelos".  I think I have to look up those two episodes.  They have to be streaming on some platform or another.

I also remember seeing Eva Marie Saint being featured in a long interview with Robert Osbourne on Turner Classic Movies within the last ten years or so.  She was in her nineties at the time, and I remember it being a terrific and delightful interview.

RIP Eva Marie Saint.

Trivia: At the time of her death, Eva Marie Saint was the oldest living Academy Award Acting Winner.  That honor now goes to actress Lee Grant, who is 100 years old.

With Cary Grant in "North by Northwest" 

and Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront"

As Edie Doyle in "On The Waterfront"

As Eve Kendall in "North By Northwest"

More On Sam McDowell

 

In the thirty-six hours following THIS ABSENT FRIENDS post abut Sam McDowell, I realized that I sort of glossed over his accomplishments in his post-baseball life.

McDowell's career came to an end in 1975 largely due to his alcoholism.  Stories in his obituaries make note of the fact that Sam was "booted out" of baseball because of his condition.  Soon after that, McDowell found himself $190,000 in debt due to a failed business venture, his wife left him and took their two kids with her, and Sam found himself selling insurance and living with his parents, all while still battling his alcoholic demons.

No mention is made of what the turning point was that caused McDowell to check himself into Gateway Rehabilitation, but that is what he did.  After becoming sober, he enrolled in  the University of Pittsburgh and obtained a degree in Sports Psychology and Addiction.

He then became an addiction counselor for the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays, earning a World Series ring with the Blue Jays in 1993.  He then served in similar capacities with the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) and the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.   In 1998, he founded the City of Legends Retirement Community, a community for retired professional athletes.

The obit that appeared in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette included this quote from  McDowell:

“I truly believe, with all my heart, the greatest thing that ever happened to me was that I was an alcoholic and found out about it,” McDowell told the New York Post in 2001. “Had I never known and had not been thrown out of baseball, I would not have the great life I have now. I would not have the education. I would not have learned how to live and love. Every day is a kick.”

The term "redemption story" has become a cliche, but Sam McDowell's life after he threw his last pitch truly embodies that term, and his accomplishments there exceed any of his accomplishments on the diamond. 

Again, RIP Sam McDowell.