Fun Fact!

While ‘Saved from the Titanic’ gets all the press, it was just one of three Titanic films made in 1912. The other two still survive and are on YouTube!

In Nacht und Eis

La Hantise

Now, Titanic is sort of shoehorned in to ‘La Hantise’, but (IMO) what’s most interesting about it is, due to the very limited special effects, it accidentally does a decent job portraying the sinking… all things considered of course :)

Absolutely no scolding here :) Titanic history is complex and bogged down by tabloid and pop-history. The gist was correct, just debatable :)

Not quite, although your overall point is correct :) The only real evidence we have of her personal drama is all press, and it’s not really great source material :)

1912 society loved melodrama, and the frenzy and demand for Titanic material started to turn violent. It’s just good press for your film if you can promote an actual survivor, in actual clothes, and on top of that paint her as a tortured yet heroic figure bravely fighting her trauma for you… the viewer. This was a society obsessed with heroics. The reports of her bravery were all carefully constructed in press releases from her studio.

As for ‘ruined’ … I wouldn’t say so. The film was an international hit, with a only a few editorials grumbling about taste. Dorothy’s stepping away from film seemed to be more a choice than a failure. Her very scandalous public affair and case of manslaughter did much more to derail her than a hit movie, but she did switch to theatre and opera between the two.

Whatever happened, we don’t know, but like you said - after that film she went from being a huge movie star to …. not. There are multiple possibilities why, but our sources are all tabloid and come with the purchase of a salt mine :) the film itself though was very popular.

She went on to live, well… quite a wild life :)

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Sarnoff has a piece of Titanic history too.

Working the wireless on top of Wanamaker’s in New York, Sarnoff was able to pick up the faint sounds of Titanic’s distress calls. He then spent the next 72 hours trying to tune in to the messages firing across the Atlantic to Cape Race, relaying news to the world desperate to hear who had survived.

… except no he didn’t. Sarnoff totally fabricated this story in the 20s. He was managing a team of radio men who did work in the days following the Titanic sinking, but… so was every other east coast station. He didn’t hear Titanic’s distress call- it was a Sunday night, Wanamakers was closed, and its set was unlikely to be strong enough to cover that distance anyway, and he certainly didn’t stay at the keys for three days. He just… went to work like normal , even took a spa day in the middle of it.

But Sarnoff’s self created legend stuck strong, even mentioned in his obituary. There are good sources and reputable researchers who have recounted it, despite it not being in any way true at all.

For this old Titanic nerd, stepping onto Nomadic was very emotional :)

Poor Jack Grimm, he really did try. By “try” I mean at least his new expedition actually existed. He’d had no luck finding the entrance to the center of the Earth or the Yeti (seriously).

Although, even with the monkey, I suppose it didn’t give him too much scientific credibility to conduct a North Atlantic research expedition by setting off from Florida.

On the third try, he found an odd shaped … something… called it a propeller, declared he’d found her, and quits.

He spent the rest of his life claiming ownership of the wreck based on that ‘propeller’. I imagine it must have been very annoying when he realized he’d passed over Titanic and missed her. Not so bad though, a few years later the French spent over a month slowly combing the ocean floor before later realizing they’d missed her in the first few days by a few hundred feet :)

For those interested, the history of attempts to search for/find/recover Titanic is crazy. They started almost immediately after the sinking and only got more insane until 1985 :)

About this topic specifically? Most of the books are just copies of the testimony which can be found online for free- check out the Titanic Inquiry Project

That being said, any good research book will have a section dedicated to this- try ‘On a Sea of Glass’, ‘The Ship Magnificent’, even ‘The Night lives on’ which is old and now outdated but does have a very broad overview of the controversy and conspiracy surrounding post sinking.

We keep going back to them because more research, more discovery, means we see threads that dont add up, they make no sense, that may just be downright lies. It’s imperative to understand the litigation of Titanic to begin to understand the testimony. They are entwined together- and that effects “history”

One of my super nerdy areas in Titanic studies is post sinking inquiry and litigation. The way they shaped the history, and the reason why, will probably never be undone. It’s great stuff!

The Navratil boys, it's a bit of a sad story actually.

Michel Navratil and his wife, Marcelle, separated after both his business (he was a tailor) started to fail and he found evidence she was cheating on him. Marcelle gained custody of Michele and Edmond. Devastated to lose his sons, his wife, and almost his career- he took the opportunity for their Easter visit to take the boys and go to America.

Easter that year was April 7, and Titanic sailed April 10th, so Michele's plan was incredibly last minute. They sailed from France, to Monte Carlo, to London where he booked last minute tickets on Titanic under the name "Hoffman"- the name of a friend.

Navratil didn't actually know if he was going to be allowed into America, and while on board wrote a letter to his mother asking if she would take the boys should they be told to leave the country. Reportedly, he only left the boys out of his sight once on the journey to play a few hands of cards.

On April 15th, Michel Navratil put his sons in Boat D, telling his oldest to tell his mother he loved her and always had. He died, was picked up by the Mackay Bennet and because he was traveling under an assumed name, was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Halifax that held Titanic's victims.

The boys, speaking no English and being toddlers, were dubbed "the Titanic Orphans" by the press as they were the only unclaimed children. They were taken in by first class passenger Margaret Hayes while the search for family was conducted. Thankfully, their mother recognized them in a newspaper and White Star Line paid for her voyage to and from New York to retrieve them.

Michele went on to live a long and happy life, becoming a professor. He finally visited his fathers grave in the mid-90's

Edmond went on to fight in WW2 but died at the age of 43 after the treatment he suffered in a POW camp