Titanic Fever - Life Magazine - June 1997

Front Cover of Life Magazine for the June 1997 Special Issue of "Titanic Feaver." GGA Image ID # 103f894625

On The Cover: In the popular imagination, the Titanic refuses to sink. (Inset: First Daughter and First Dad in Conference, June 1992). Painting by Ken Marschall, Eye Photograph by Steve Dunwell/Image Bank, Inset: Harry Benson.

Part II:
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TITANIC

By Charles Hirshberg

There has been much sound and fury in the 85 years since the night to remember, and this year it became a din. However, as books, television documentaries and, yes, magazines retell the Titanic story—mixing it up, embellishing it, deconstructing it, rewriting it—hype can overwhelm history.

Titanic on the Screen and Elsewhere

• TV Movie Titanic starring George C. Scott
• Broadway Musical Titanic
• $6 Million Exhibit of Titanic Artifacts in Memphis
• Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
• A cookbook Last Dinner on the Titanic

This five-page article that summarized the disaster at sea (based on the knowledge of what probably happened circa 1997) and included a Survivor's Tale of Michel Navratil who was a passenger on the Titanic at the tender age of 3 years, 9 months.

Profusely illustrated, the article included a few factoids about the Titanic - Premonitions and foretelling of the tragedy, fees for various services, provisions onboard, unique items in the cargo hold, the "Suitcase Suit" by Charlotte Cardeza, a quote heard on the lifeboat, and a rather amusing Q&A from the Congressional Hearing on the Titanic.

Hirshberg, Charles, "Part II: The Tragedy of the Titanic," in Life Magazine, June 1997