A Flight of Fancy (Part Four)

LXI

Nobody on board the Hindenburg made a point of sticking to their cabins.

The Lounge, with its immense mural

So after a quick stop to check her lipstick our friend visits the lounge for a drink. The lounge is on the starboard side of the ship. It is a thirty four foot long room spotted throughout with tables and chairs, lined on the right with the immense picture windows she saw while she was boarding. The windows are open and there's a gentle breeze in the room. The lounge is full of animated passengers and and circulating Stewards. Our passenger has a question:

The Lounge was partially separated from the Promenade by a low wall, but the views from either were magnificent

"What time is takeoff?"

"We departed an hour ago, Miss," the Steward replies. Her look of surprise doesn't catch him off guard. Many passengers aboard the Hindenburg miss takeoff unless they're in the public areas. The ship is that quiet.

Remembering his duty, he asks, "Would you care for a drink? Something a bit sweet perhaps? A Kirschwasser martini?" And so another passenger gets to try a "Hindenburg."

The Lounge windows as seen from the ground. An exact set of windows graced the Dining Room on the other side of the ship

It's a comfortable room, and a friendly one, as long as she doesn't glare back at the frowning portrait of Adolf Hitler on the near wall. The far wall is decorated with a huge mural, a map of the world showing all the routes of the great names of the Age of Discovery. Children are darting about, playing hide-and-seek among the furniture. She sips her drink --- Cherry liqueur and a breath of vermouth mixed with Grenadine and garnished --- optionally --- with lemon peel. It is sweet.

Children in the Lounge with Emilie Imhof, Stewardess. Note the portrait of Hitler and the piano in both photos

She starts toward an odd corner of the lounge area, set off by a low wall, and finds herself in the Reading and Writing Room. Reading lamps stand near comfortable chairs and a small library takes up part of the wall. The tables have Hindenburg stationery displayed atop them.

She sits and sips her drink. A young man reading The New York Times introduces himself. He is an American, like her, traveling on business. Yes, he likes the new ship, but, he admits, it doesn't have the same Edwardian-era charm as the old Graf Zeppelin. He misses the coziness. He doesn't really care, he says, for the particularly severe Bauhaus style that seems to be the Nazi hallmark. It's --- cold.

The Reading and Writing Room lay right off the Lounge. Note the student carrels with the lamps. The bookshelf is bare, and Hindenburg stationery seems to be out of stock. Unfortunately, the pictures on the walls are too unclear to identify

Never having traveled on an airship before, she can only make sympathetic noises. When he asks to escort her to dinner, she agrees.

Suddenly she's startled by the sound of a piano in the lounge and voices raised in song. The Hindenburg has a Bluthner baby grand aboard, made entirely of Duralumin and weighing only 397 pounds. Despite its metal guts it has a pleasant sound, and soon "The Hindenburg Quartet" is tuning up. On the ship's maiden flight, the "Hindenburg Quartet" was made up of four passengers who happened to be professional singers along with a professional pianist, also a passenger. Now the "Hindenburg Quartet" is the accepted moniker for anybody who is talented enough, brave enough, silly enough or drunk enough to get up and entertain their fellow passengers. It's all in fun, and the trip looks like a success so far.

 

The ship's Duralumin piano weighed less than 400 pounds and was covered in yellow pigskin. It had a soft, pleasing sound despite its aluminum soundboard. Lady Suzanne Wilkins was the first singing passenger on the Hindenburg. Her first song was, I'm In The Mood For Love. Irving Berlin was by far the most popular composer on board and DZR allowed his works to be played and sung despite the fact that he was Jewish. Captain Ernst Lehmann, who'd always brought his accordian along on the Graf Zeppelin, was often found tickling the metal ivories of this unique instrument.