Talk:Herbert Morrison (journalist)

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I don't think his response was professional. He said something to the effect of, "I can't speak anymore, ladies and gentlemen," apparently too caught up in his emotions. Chock it up to his being new and inexperienced, and it being a new moment in journalism, but still. He was over-the-top.

Well, I don't know. He watched a massive object burst into flames, grinding 37 people to death. Under the circumstances, I think he was pretty professional. riana_C|E|T|U 02:47, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

I think his reaction was appropriate under the circumstances. We're not talking about arriving on the scene of an incident after being briefed on the situation - this just happened out of the blue. Also, reporting from a studio in front of a camera as the info comes off the teleprompter is quite different from reporting from the scene as it happens. Besides, I feel that if he hadn't broken down to the extent that he did and conveyed the scene through his emotions then not as many people would be interested in listening. I don't remember any particular broadcasts from the WTC attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Columbine shootings, but I remember this - I know it nearly word-for-word - and I wasn't even alive then. He expressed the horror of the scene with just his voice, which I think is quite an accomplishment even if it happens completely unintentionally. Maybe he wasn't professional in terms of being able to describe the scene matter-of-factly in his best Robert Stack impression, but it's nonetheless a powerful piece of journalism. Intooblv 02:18, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Right, he was only human 2601:206:857D:45D0:D040:894E:3A62:818D (talk) 16:26, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Is there an mp3 or other format recording available?

I don't use Real Player. Is there another format available?

Try http://www.historywiz.org/audio/hindenburg.wav. I likewise would not touch RealPlayer with a 10 foot pole :) AxH0L0tL 16:52, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Merge

I suggest a merge from Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage. The latter has little added value. Most of the content, including the quotations, are on the Herbert Morrison (announcer) article. -- AirOdyssey (Talk) 00:44, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I oppose a merge with Herbert Morrison. Each article has its own substantial encyclopedic value, and all the Herbert Morrison information would be out of place in the Newsreel article. --MonkBirdDuke 17:30, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Whose friends are on there

Now, the version that I just listened to said, almost without question "whose friends are on there", not "they're all just standing around there." Well, at least, the last bit is definately not "around there", he is, without question, saying "on there." I'm not sure if that is enough to say it HAS to be "whose friends are on there", but it is NOT "they're all just standing around there." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.147.127.121 (talk • contribs)

I think it is "Their friends are on/out there". Frankyboy5 03:28, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

I disagree. It sounds like "Their friends are on there." Though it could be, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.178.180 (talk) 23:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Meme

Someone please remove the word "meme" from the "Oh, The Humanity" section. It's uncommon, pretentious, and, more significantly, inappropriate in this context. I'd make the change but that would mean my getting too involved. -Electric Larry

'Lady - I - I - I'm sorry'

In the early 1980s, some years before his death, Herb Morrison appeared on one of those disaster shows on American TV hosted by the actor Charles Bronson and his wife Jill. Morrsion stated that a lady standing in front of him fainted during his commentary of the crash of the Hindenberg and he caught her in his arms. This is when he exclaimed 'Lady ... I ... I ... I'm sorry.' I remember taping the show on my old Betamax video recorder and taking it to the school where I taught in Western Sydney and showing the children in my Grade 5 class an example of 'living history.' Does anyone else remember or know of this interesing reference? I think there should be some discussion before it is put in the text. Alanwhit (talk) 13:08, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

oh the humanity

really he was saying all the humanity, as in all the humanity being lost etc.... this is often misunderstood and thought to be oh the humanity because that is how everyone says it, similar to clothes being pronounced like close...just my input

I hear "all the humanities" too. --Bluejay Young (talk) 06:03, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

He said "oh the humanity and passengers around screaming." The ship had just touched down and he was doing a basic descriptive scan of the scene. The humanity screaming obviously was the large crowd of spectators around screaming. 98.164.90.210 (talk) 07:06, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Steve Dahl and Garry Meier

Moved comment from Talk:Herbert Morrison (announcer)/Comments - it is much more likely to be seen here. Astronaut (talk) 17:26, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

In maybe 1982 or 83, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier on WLS Chicago did a phoner with Herb Morrison on the Hindenberg anniversary. Before the interview, Dahl played the complete WLS recording.. from the start of the broadcast, with the commercials read by Morrison. It was maybe fourteen minutes long, and is pretty fascinating. You hear the explosion stuff within the context of the entire broadcast. And according to Morrison that day, he was ABOUT to be fired from WLS, he didn't know it at the time of the broadcast. WLS had decided to let him go earlier, but before they could tell him, he arranged this trip to New Jersey, completely paid for by Morrison drumming up spots. I think the advertiser was the airline that flew him there. Morrison shipped the discs back to Chicago, and then WLS informed him they were letting him go. At least, that's what the old man said in 1982 or 83. He also became angry at Dahl for suggesting that maybe the screaming part was a little fake. Morrison said something like "You've interrupted my dinner for this nonsense. I was warned about you." Dahl speculated on the air that Wally Phillips had perhaps interviewed the old man in the morning, and had gotten him worked up about rival Dahl. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.230.147.244 (talk) 13:23, 22 April 2009

Okay, but where can we hear this or see a transcript? I mean, where did you get this info? --Bluejay Young (talk) 05:01, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

The quote itself

Reading the quote is a stop-start affair due to all the second-guessing as to what he actually said. I propose that the second-guessing be stripped out and moved somewhere else, because as it stands it's just a difficult, joyless, laborious read. Objections? Vranak (talk) 17:46, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm taking it upon myself to strip out some of the second-guessing because, I agree completely with Vranak, and, more importantly, because if you listen to the "corrected-speed" version made available at the WLS external link (and WLS was the station for which Morrison recorded the broadcast, so they can be considered canon for this), most of it becomes quite clear. 207.181.228.210 (talk) 16:08, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Okay, done, and posted. Really, throw the whole thing into Audacity, hit 'Change Tempo' to slow it down without chipmunking it, Amplify to turn up the volume, and there's few indecipherable sections left in the quote. 207.181.228.210 (talk) 17:16, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

I think that's fine. The only quibble I have is that I've always heard "all the folks between" -- backed up by an interview with Morrison where he said the thing that really terrified him was that the flaming ship was going to fall on the workers and spectators beneath. --Bluejay Young (talk) 09:18, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Nehlsen OR Nielsen

Nehlsen OR Nielsen ??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.159.233.142 (talk) 18:08, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Herb Morrison - the person

Is there any information about Herbert Morrison that does not relate to the Hindenberg disaster? Where was he born, where did he die? Most of the article is about one event in a man's life and not the man's life. Jtyroler (talk) 17:29, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Corrected speed link?

Ive searched this page for a link to the corrected speed version of the audio recording and wasn't able to find one. I did find a partial clip on You Tube and was shocked at the difference. If anyone is able to link to or embed a speed corrected version on the main page, it would be a valuable addition as it is very different from what is etched into the collective conscience as "Herbert Morrison's voice". 184.78.162.36 (talk) 10:05, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

I would think that since Morrison lived more than 50 years after the crash and the recording was played to death for the rest of his life, if it was really significantly sped up, there would be a quote from him or somebody who knew his voice commenting on the difference. -- But|seriously|folks  04:38, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

So I just edited the article to take a neutral approach to the "wrong speed" theory. The article previously assumed that it was correct. It might be, but as of now it's just a theory. -- But|seriously|folks  04:48, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Possible error in transcript?

I listened to the recording embedded in the article while reading the transcript. These words from the transcript are not in the recording: "It burst into flames, and it's falling, it's crashing! Watch it! Watch it, folks! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Where did those come from? ~Amatulić (talk) 19:33, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Many versions of the broadcast are edited, with words here and there, and short bursts of noise from debris falling onto the apparatus, edited out. Therefore many transcripts don't agree perfectly. I suggest you listen to the entire, roughly 40 minute unedited broadcast, available on YouTube, for the precise words he said.

"Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage." No matter how carefully I listen what I hear is "[...] a massive fucking wreckage."--Rimmer7 (talk) 08:10, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

And no matter how carefully I look at ice cubes in my drink, I see naked girls. That says more about me than the ice cubes.

Corrected transcript

The transcript has Morrison saying, "...it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this one one of the worst catastrophes in the world." Obviously that doesn't make sense; he didn't stop and poll everyone around him five second after the airship caught fire to ask them, one by one, if they agreed this was one of the worst catastrophes in the world. If you slow down the recording to half speed you can clearly hear him say, "... it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks between us." [full stop] "This is terrible, this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world." I made the change to the transcript in the article. 2601:643:8D80:9D10:2846:7D12:E066:4B66 (talk) 08:36, 19 June 2024 (UTC)