Joseph Anthony Späh (March 14, 1905 – September 30, 1986), known as Ben Dova, was a German–American acrobat and actor.
Career Späh emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1922 and became a contortionist in the vaudeville genre, using the artist name Ben Dova, from the English "bend over". His signature act was playing a drunk man balancing on a street light. In 1933 he performed his act on top of the 56-story Chanin Building in New York with no safety measures, for the benefit of the newsreels.BEN DOVA – The Drunk Daredevil, The Human Marvels
Next to his acrobatic career he became an actor, performing in small parts in movies and television episodes, most notably as Klaus Szell (the brother of the movie's antagonist) in Marathon Man (1976).
Hindenburg disaster Dova was a passenger on board the LZ 129 Hindenburg during the Hindenburg disaster and escaped using his acrobatic skills.One survivor of the Hindenburg disaster was an acrobat who jumped out, Gizmodo, July 3, 2014Survivor Describes Jump From Blazing Hindenburg, The Pittsburgh Press, May 8, 1937 The FBI investigated him as a possible saboteur but found no evidence and cleared him from wrongdoing.Monsters: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Birth of Pathological Technology, Edward Regis, 2015
He was played by Robert Clary in the motion picture The Hindenburg (1975).The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema: A Guide to the Films, 1950–1979, p.122, Nik Havert, 2019
Filmography A Chinatown Fantasy (1930, short)Encyclopedia of American Short Films, 1926–1959, p.108, Graham Webb, 2020 The Way of All Freshmen, (1933, a Broadway Brevity short) – Acrobatic dancerEncyclopedia of American Short Films, 1926–1959, p.605, Graham Webb, 2020 Toast of the Town (1952, television variety show, one episode)Toast of the Town / Season 5 / Episode 48, TheTVDB Naked City (1962, television series, season 3, episode 20: To Walk Like a Lion) – Tailor To Walk Like a Lion (1962), cinemagia.ro Marathon Man (1976) – Klaus Szell Der Preis fürs Überleben (1980, West German movie) – Jim Der Preis fürs Überleben, filmportal.de Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982, West German movie) – Ben Höllenfahrten: Titanic der Lüfte – Die letzte Fahrt der Hindenburg (2000, German TV episode) – Self Titanic der Lüfte – Die letzte Fahrt der Hindenburg, fernsehserien.de Die letzten Stunden der Hindenburg (2011, German documentary) – Self Die letzten Stunden der Hindenburg, The A.V. Club
References
External links
Faces of the Hindenburg – Joseph Späh