Floyd Loc: Misplaced Texan in Florence, Alabama

Never had a Senior Moment-too mundane! Had multiple Intellectual Interludes!

scsdesphotography Loc: Southeastern Michigan

For all those are who following this thread and don't know the full story of that photograph, this is a summary of the photographers own statement about how it came about.

'When the news about the end of the war reached us, everyone started celebrating in the streets. I went over to Times Square to look for photographic opportunity to capture the moment. Arriving there I presently observed a sailor going through the crowd and randomly kissing every women he could. He kissed a lady in a nurses uniform in front of me. I stopped them and asked if they would mind taking a minute and reenacting the kiss. They didn't mind and posed for me long enough to get the picture and then they were off and disappeared in the crowd before I could get their names.'

Sadly today in this PC world, the opposite would have happened. Randomly kissing women is now a form of sexual assault. The nurse would become a poster girl for the Me Too movement. The sailor would be arrested and charged with multiple sexual assault felonies, serve jail time and be on the sex offenders list for the rest of his disgraced life. The "iconic" photo would serve as a warning for all the rest of us male predators!

Somehow it seems our culture has lost something, like our sense of humor, between then and now. Fortunately that image will always be the sailor and the nurse's and their families legacy. A legacy of what sheer joy looks like. They are all gone now, but the photograph will live on.

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

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

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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)

scsdesphotography Loc: Southeastern Michigan

chase4 Loc: Punta Corona, California

[quote=Sunnely]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.

Thanks Bob for the start of this thread and thanks Sunnely for the rest of the story with photos...........
chase

tmuilenberg

I had the honor of meeting Glenn McDuffie many times and worked with him in raising money for wounded veterans. He also passed facial recognition and many other tests and was acknowledged by many to be the actual Kissing Sailor. I will always believe he is the one.

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

According to a "forensic artist" from the Houston, Texas police department, Glenn McDuffie was incontrovertly the man in the photograph.

In his (McDuffie) account of the day to a Lois Gibson, he describes the kiss as a spur-of-the-moment lunge while he was heading to Brooklyn to meet his girlfriend. He said, "I was so happy. I ran out in the street. She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face. I just went to her and kissed her. We never spoke a word."

According to the photo scientists, "while these claimants Shain (woman), McDuffie (sailor) and Muscarello (sailor) appear to have given a firm time for the moment, their accounts have been taken to imply it was an early afternoon moment of passion - which in the eyes of the scientists disqualifies them." They explained, "astronomy alone can't positively identify the participants, but we can tell you the precise moment of the photograph...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 images - we know when the famous kiss happened, and that gives us some idea who might or might not have been in the picture."

References:

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/us/glenn-mcduffie-who-claimed-to-be-sailor-in-v-j-day-photo-is-dead-at-86.html?_r=0
2. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6717529/Sailor-iconic-V-J-Day-Times-Square-kiss-photo-dies-95.html

IMO, if the photograph were taken in the digital age of photography, identifying the participants in the iconic picture would be as easy as ABC. It looks like for now, the mystery continues.

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Glen McDuffie passed away March 9, 2014 at age 86.


Edith Shain, who died in 2010 aged 91, was given the nod of approval from Eisenstaedt.

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

[quote=chase4]

BREAKING: VJ Day Iconic Sculpture Spray-Painted

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/us/sailor-kissing-nurse-statute-vandalized-trnd/index.html

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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

#metoo is the grafitti on the statue. Apparently someone objects and, like just about everything else in the world today, it's now politically incorrect to celebrate surviving a world war with an innocent kiss.

It's estimated that 70 million to 85 million people died world wide during WWII... 50 to 56 million of those due to the war itself, the rest from disease and famine.

For comparison, the population of the United States in 1939 is estimated to have been 151 million (419,000 war-related deaths). The population of the UK is estimated to have been close to 48 million (451,000 deaths). Germany had a population of about 69 million (6.9 to 7.4 million dead) and Japan about 71 million (2.1 to 3.1 million dead). Soviet Union population est. 194 million (nearly 27 million dead).

The list goes on and on... and some people get upset by a kiss!