1900 Galveston Hurricane - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• 1934: "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" is an American folk song concerning the 1900 Galveston hurricane that originated as a spiritual and was revived and popularized by Eric Von Schmidt and Tom Rush in the 1960s.
• 1935: Film director King Vidor was born in Galveston and survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Based on that experience, he published a fictionalized account of that cyclone, titled "Southern Storm", for the May 1935 issue of Esquire magazine. Erik Larson excerpts a passage from that article in his 2005 book, Isaac's Storm:

I remember now that it seemed as if we were in a bowl looking up toward the level of the sea. As we stood there in the sandy street, my mother and I, I wanted to take my mother's hand and hurry her away. I felt as if the sea was going to break over the edge of the bowl and come puring down upon us.

• 1946: Meteorologist Joseph L. Cline, who with his brother Isaac Cline played a pivotal role in the hurricane, shares his account of the storm in an autobiograpy titled When the Heavens Frowned.
• 1999: In Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson describes the storm and the pivotal roles played by Galveston Weather Service director Isaac Cline and his meteorologist brother Joseph Cline.
• 2009: Ain Gordon's play A Disaster Begins centers on the Galveston hurricane.