Summer of Death: America’s Heat Wave of 1936 That Killed 12,000
About this episode
The episode discusses the deadly heat wave of 1936 in America and its lasting impact on society and culture.
A coast guardsman named Earl Cunningham froze to death on Lake Michigan trying to rescue five fishermen trapped on a drifting ice sheet. His last words were "I wish I could see my wife and three children once more." That was February 1936. A few months later, the same country that had been paralyzed by temperatures of negative sixty was recording temperatures above 110. Sidewalks exploded. Spare tires detonated and sent hubcaps through restaurant windows. A heat-crazed elephant in San Francisco killed its zookeeper and was sentenced to death after a courtroom trial. People slept on rooftops to escape the heat and rolled off to their deaths. At least 12,000 North Americans died in what remains the deadliest heat wave in the continent's history. Today's guest is Geoff Williams, author of The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America . We discuss how a Polish immigrant died tending furnaces at a Chevrolet factory because that was the job given to immigrants and Black workers, why Marlene Dietrich fainted shooting a movie in the Arizona desert where the baby camel died with sand in its stomach, and how men were arrested for taking their shirts…
People in this episode
Host: History Unplugged
Guest: Geoff Williams
Topics covered
- heat wave
- 1936
- climate impact
- American history
- social change
- immigration
Keywords
- heat wave
- 1936
- Earl Cunningham
- Geoff Williams
- air conditioning
- social change
- immigration
- Marlene Dietrich
- Kentucky police
- San Francisco
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America
Places: America, Lake Michigan, San Francisco
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