The ill-fated passengers who died trying to visit the wreck of the Titanic paid an extraordinary price for the privilege: $250,000 each. This is hardly surprising, given how many people view the story of the doomed ship with intense, if morbid, fascination. A profitable industry now caters to this obsession, with commercial museums the latest offering for those in need of a Titanic fix.
While it’s tempting to blame James Cameron for this state of affairs, that’s not quite right. Our obsession with the Titanic tragedy, along with monetizing it, has far deeper roots. Even as the corpses of those who died in the tragedy awaited burial in April 1912, countless entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to make a fortune off the misfortune of others.
First in line were companies that made and distributed newsreels to be screened in movie theaters. Within days of the sinking, short films claiming to show the great ship before its fateful voyage began playing in packed movie houses and theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. The only problem? Almost no footage of the ship existed.
