The Johnstown Flood (1926) starring George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert, Janet Gaynor Directed by Irving Cummings Screenplay by Edfrid Bingham, Robert Lord. Produced by William Fox Run time: 60 minutes. Black and White with tints. USA. Silent, Melodrama, Disaster
On Friday, May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, catastrophically failed. The result was a flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that killed 2208 people and accounted for $17 million (equivalent to $580,000,000 in 2023 dollars) in damage. The death total made the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the U.S. at the time. It has only been surpassed twice, by the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
