chase4 wrote:
Bob - Here's a snapshot I took on the San Diego, CA waterfront of a statue depicting that iconic photo.
chase
Please allow me to add a few photos and the mystery of this iconic photo.
As you already know, the iconic photo taken on August 14, 1945 (V-J Day) was that of the Navy sailor, George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant. The photo was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt but failed to document any information about the photo's subjects and their identities remained a mystery for years.
For 74 years, Mendonsa insisted that he was the man in the photograph, along with dozens of others who were sure it was them. Mendonsa was on leave at that time and happened to be in Times Square when the war ended. He told Lawrence Verria, coauthor of The Kissing Sailor, "He sees the nurse, he can't help himself." He grabbed Friedman and kissed her because she represented the nurses he's seen helping the wounded sailors on the USS Bunker Hill. Apparently, he kissed the woman mistakenly thinking she was a nurse in the war because of her uniform. "It's what everybody was doing on August 14, 1945," he told Verria. "Everybody was kissing and hugging. As soon as the kiss was over, they went their separate ways," he told Verria.
Greta Zimmer Friedman was born and raised in Austria. She and her 2 sisters fled Hitler and the Nazis and came to America in 1939, leaving her parents behind. She was 21 years old, living in Queens and working as a dental assistant when she came across Mendonsa, a drunken sailor stumbling through Times Square amid jubilant crowds after the war ended on August 14, 1945. It wasn't until 1960s that she learned the kiss had been immortalized by Life magazine photographer Eisenstaedt when she saw the photo and immediately recognized herself. She passed away aged 92 at an assisted living facility in Virginia on September 8, 2016. She was laid to rest alongside her late husband in Arlington National Cemetery.
More than a dozen people claimed to be either the sailor or the nurse shown passionately embracing Eisenstaedt photo. It wasn't until seven decades after the photo was taken that facial recognition technology confirmed that the kissing pair were George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman. In addition, experts in photography and forensic anthropology ruled out all other claimants. The precise moment of the photography also ruled out other claimants. In a CBS news: "We can rule people out based on the position of the sun. The shadows were the key to unlocking some of the secrets of the iconic VJ Day images. ...The famous kiss happened, and that gives us some idea of who might or might not have been in the picture."
The other claimants:
Edith Shain, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, was given the nod of approval from Eisenstaedt decades after the fact, as well as a vote of confidence from Life magazine. Shain was working in a hospital on August 14, and remembers being grabbed by an excitable young Navy man - but didn't get his name. She wrote to Life magazine in the 1970s making her claim - leading to a visit from Eisenstaedt, who reportedly took one look at her legs and declared her the woman he had photographed. Years later, a statement from Life.com, the magazine's successor, also backed her. It said, "Shain's claim is the one that, over the years, has held up best and has been most widely accepted. However, the Shain theory never produced firm identity of the Navy man.
Another solid claim came from Carl Muscarello, a Floridian who was just 18 at the time of the photo. He remembers tearing through Times Square kissing everyone in sight from sheer excitement. In a 2013 interview, Muscarello said, "I was very, very happy. I would kiss all of the girls who would stand still - I even kissed a couple of guys. I was just in a kissing mood, it was great." The tale matches an account from Eisenstaedt, who recalled the moment by saying: "I was a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old didn't make a difference."
Glenn McDuffie, who died in Dallas at the age 86, was another claimant. He said, "I was s happy. I ran out in the street. She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face. I just went right to her and kissed her. We never spoke a word."
The V-J Day Kiss is one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century. The image came to represent how jubilant Americans and people around the world felt after the Japanese surrendered, ending the war that had cost an estimated 70-85 million lives.
Thank you.
Reference:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6717529/Sailor-iconic-V-J-Day-Times-Square-kiss-photo-dies-95.html.
Key West, FL during our visit in Feb 2018. Taken during a trolley tour.
Key West FL, evening approaching.
Mendonsa & Friedman re-enact their KISS, Times Square in 1980.
Mendonsa & Friedman, Times Square, 1980.
The young Greta Zimmer (Friedman)
The young George Mendonsa
Mendonsa with wife, Rita Petry, 2005 in WW II Memorial.
Alfred Eisenstaedt, in a 1994 photo. Took the iconic photo, V-J Day Kiss. He passed away aged 96, in1995.
The kiss inspired an entire sculpture series called, Unconditional Surrender. The first iteration was in Times Square, 2010. (Below)