Titanic in Popular Culture

Even in the time of Titanic, stories of grand ships and tragedies ensuing fascinated people’s imaginations. Since the sinking of the great ship 110 years ago, the story of Titanic, its end, and the people who died and survived have pervaded popular culture. The story of that fateful journey continues to be a cultural touchstone and moment in history that stays in our collective memory.

Music

In the years immediately following the disaster, numerous songs were penned that reflected on the Titanic tragedy. In fact, only ten days after the sinking, the first song about Titanic was copyrighted, followed by over 100 songs in the subsequent two years. Other songs followed over the years by artists such as Bob Dylan and Lead Belly. Concerts were staged as fundraisers for families of the victims, other musical compositions were composed, and even a dance song was penned.

Theater

Titanic: The Musical is not the only musical theater production created about the story of the tragedy. One of the best known is The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a fictionalization of the experience of Margaret Brown, which premiered on Broadway in 1960 and went to the silver screen in 1964. Titanic: The Musical premiered on Broadway in 1997, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. The show boasted a large cast and technical wizardry with a tilting stage to represent the sinking ship. In 2012, a retooled version of the musical was created, with a smaller cast and innovative use of technology to represent the ship. This version of the musical is the one you are seeing here at Milwaukee Rep.

The story of Titanic has been fodder for many more straight plays than musicals, with several productions gracing the boards throughout the years. The first was The Berg: A Play by Ernest Raymond in 1929. The disaster also served as the backdrop for a sexual farce called Titanic in 1974. A psychological mystery called Scotland Road (1992) moves the story of a possibly time-traveling survivor into the hands of a descendant of John Jacob Astor. In more recent years, the plays Titanic (1997) and the Song of the Hammers examined the experiences of the men who built the great ship.

Several multimedia and dance pieces have also centered around the disaster.

The Disaster in Theaters of the Time

The world was immediately fascinated with the sinking of Titanic, and newsreels, slideshows, and other presentations about the tragedy abounded. In the U.S., slideshows were shown in many theaters and were very popular; in Great Britain, a presentation called a “Myriorama” entitled The Loss of the Titanic was more en vogue. The spectacle included large scale painted gauze backdrops, special effects, and a live pageant in the foreground. Newsreels, even though they lacked significant footage of the ship itself, were sought after and played to packed houses around the U.S.

Films and Television

The first film about Titanic was released a short 29 days after the sinking, and starred and was co-written by Dorothy Gibson, a survivor. Saved from the Titanic was a heavily fictionalized version of her experience, but is considered a lost film that was destroyed by fire in 1914. Several other films from Europe followed, including In Nacht und Eis (In Night and

Ice), Et Drama på Havet (A Drama at Sea), Atlantis, and Lost in Mid-Ocean. In 1943, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels commissioned a propaganda film entitled Titanic. Since the sinking, dozens of fictionalized dramas and documentary films have been made about the ship, its wreckage, and its passengers. Television episodes have also featured references to, or episodes set on, Titanic.

Some other films set on Titanic: • Titanic (1953) • A Night to Remember (1958) • S.O.S Titanic (1979 television film) • Raise the Titanic (1980)

James Cameron’s Titanic

Still from 1998’s Titanic film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox.

The most well-known portrayal of the story of Titanic burst into theaters the same year that Titanic: The Musical arrived on Broadway, 1997. The epic saga diligently researched and elaborately rendered by filmmaker James Cameron was a box-office and critical success, making over $1 billion just ten weeks after its release. With a budget of $200 million, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time, and the opulence and attention to detail was one of the highlights of the film. The film centers on two fictional characters who fall in love in the unlikeliest of circumstances: Rose DeWitt, a dissatisfied upper class socialite, and Jack Dawson, a third class dreamer from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The film was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, winning eleven, including Best Picture and Best Director. Its theme song, “My Heart Will Go On” performed by Celine Dion, became one of the quintessential love songs of the 1990s. The film remains a cultural touchstone for many to this day. Many, many books have been written about the disaster, from survivors’ accounts to journalistic and historical elaborations on the events of the sinking to books about the rediscovered wreckage to historical fiction and even science fiction. References to Titanic can be found in almost every genre.

Video Games

Several video games based on Titanic have been released or have made it to development: Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996), Titanic: Honor and Glory (2012), and Fall of the Titanic (2015). Levels set on Titanic or some version of it also exist in several other video games.

Still from Titanic: Honor and Glory video game in development. Photo Credit: Indiegogo.

Did You Know?

Two fictional stories were written in the late 1800s that bear striking resemblance to the Titanic disaster. “How the Mail Ship Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor” (1886) by W.T. Stead tells the story of an ocean liner lacking adequate lifeboats that collides with a small ship in fog. When the ship begins to sink, only 200 of the 700 passengers are put into the lifeboats. The piece ends with the line: “This is exactly what might take place and what will take place if the liners are sent to sea short of boats.” In an ironic twist of fate, Stead died on the Titanic.

The second novella, “The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility” (1898) had even more eerie premonitions. The story follows an ocean liner, Titan, that hits an iceberg in the north Atlantic and sinks. The Titan in the story had similar dimensions and accolades as the real Titanic, boasted to be “unsinkable” and the largest ship of its time. In the book, all 2,500 passengers except 13 die. After Titanic’s sinking the story was reissued and people saw the author, Morgan

Robertson, as a clairvoyant.

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