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Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, Inc. | 4618 F.2d 972 (1980)
In 1937, the Hindenburg, a hydrogen-filled zeppelin, exploded over New Jersey. The disaster’s precise cause remains a mystery. Over the years, causation theories have ranged from lightning to static electricity to sabotage. In Hoehling versus Universal City Studios, we examine if one historian could copyright his painstakingly researched theory.
In 1962, A. A. Hoehling authored a work of historical nonfiction about the Hindenburg disaster. Hoehling’s journalistic narrative was based on articles, official reports, and interviews. The book posited that Eric Spehl, a photographer and rigger aboard the Nazi-built airship, detonated a bomb in gas cell four. Hoehling’s rationale was that Spehl had the necessary access, bomb-making ability, and motive to destroy the airship. Hoehling posited that Spehl planted the bomb to please his girlfriend, who was an anti-Nazi activist. In 1972, Michael MacDonald Mooney published a work of historical fiction centered around the Hindenburg disaster. In writing his book, Mooney sourced facts from Hoehling’s book. Mooney’s book identified Spehl as the saboteur using the same rationale Hoehling used. Universal City Studios bought the movie rights to Mooney’s book, and the studio’s writers penned a screenplay. Universal’s film involved a cast of characters suspected of destroying the Hindenburg. The film identified a rigger with an anti-Nazi girlfriend as the source of the disaster.
Hoehling sued Universal and Mooney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging copyright infringement and other claims. The district judge granted summary judgment in favor of Universal and Mooney. Hoehling then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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