Entry from November 10, 2005
V-J Day Kiss (August 14, 1945)
Life magazine published a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt of an American sailor kissing a woman in Times Square to celebrate V-J Day (August 14, 1945). Eisenstaedt never recorded the couple's names. The woman's name was much-later identified as Edith Shain. Several men take credit for kissing her.
A statue immortalizing the photo and event was placed in Times Square in August 2005.
Wikipedia: Alfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 – August 24, 1995) was a German-American photographer and photojournalist. He is renowned for his candid photographs, frequently made using various models of a 35mm Leica rangefinder camera. He is best known for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day.
(...)
V–J day in Times Square
Eisenstaedt's most famous photograph is of an American sailor kissing a young woman on August 14, 1945 in Times Square. (The photograph is known under various names: V–J day in Times Square, V–Day, etc.) Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the V-J Day celebrations, he stated that he didn't get a chance to obtain names and details, which has encouraged a number of mutually incompatible claims to the identity of the subjects.
Life magazine
The pretty arc of the nurse and the seaman's stylish stance made a "one in a million" composition, says Eisie. "They were very elegant, like sculpture."
For millions of Americans, Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 LIFE photograph of a sailor stamping a masterly kiss on a nurse symbolized the cathartic joy of V-J Day. After a celebrated five-decade career, Eisie now 81, (actually 96 in 1995) calls V-J Day, Times Square his most memorable photograph. "People tell me, 'Oh, you have taken pictures of Loren and Monroe!' But this is what they know me for." His most famous couple has long been nameless, but when the nurse recently wrote to him, a delighted Eisie visited her and took the pictures that follow.
Life magazine
It seems as if everybody's claiming to be the sailor -- or the nurse he's kissing -- in the famous photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for LIFE magazine 50 years ago on V-J Day, August 14, 1945.
The most recent claimant is Carl "Moose" Muscarello, an ex-cop from New York, who has been identified by the self-proclaimed then-nurse, Edith Shain as the man who kissed her in Times Square. They've appeared on television last week to broadcast their claims. But LIFE magazine has never identified the couple in the historic embrace--and probably never will.
About.com: Art History
August 13, 2005
New Sculpture Commemorates V-J Day Kiss
60 years after the fact, a world-famous kiss has been immortalized with a sculpture in New York's Times Square. J. Seward Johnson, Jr., known for his life-sized, intricately realistic, bronze human figures, has recreated the iconic 1945 shot - of a U.S. Navy sailor passionately kissing a white-clad nurse - taken by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
NPR
All Things Considered, August 13, 2005 · New York has unveiled a life-sized statue in Times Square, based on a famous Life magazine photo of New Yorkers celebrating the end of the war with Japan on Aug. 14, 1945. Edith Shain, the woman in the photo, was on hand for the unveiling.
New York (NY) Times
Edith Shain, Who Said Famous Kiss Came Her Way, Dies at 91
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: June 23, 2010
Edith Shain, who became something of a celebrity decades after World War II, asserting that she was the nurse kissed by a sailor in Life magazine’s memorable photograph of V-J Day in Times Square, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.
(...)
Mr. Eisenstaedt visited Mrs. Shain, and Life reproduced her letter to him in its August 1980 issue, along with pictures he took of her with her family and her students. Mrs. Shain said she had recognized herself in the photo but had kept silent over all those years. “I didn’t think it was dignified, but times have changed,” she told Life.
Two months later, Life published photos of 10 men who had come forward to say they were the sailor in that photo, and a picture of yet another man, no longer alive, whose family had put in a claim. It also ran pictures of two other women who said they were the nurse.
CBS New York
Sailor In Iconic V-J Day Times Square Kiss Photo Laid To Rest In Rhode Island
February 22, 2019 at 8:18 pmFiled Under:George Mendonsa, Local TV, New York, Times Square Kiss
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The sailor photographed kissing a woman in Times Square at the end of World War II was mourned Friday at a funeral in Rhode Island.
George Mendonsa’s funeral was held at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, and he was buried at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown.
Mendonsa died Sunday after he fell and had a seizure at an assisted living facility, his daughter said. He was 95 and leaves behind his wife of 72 years.
Mendonsa kissed Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered.
The two had never met.
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo of the kiss became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. First published in Life magazine, it’s called “V-J Day in Times Square,” but is known to most as “The Kiss.”
A statue immortalizing the photo and event was placed in Times Square in August 2005.
Wikipedia: Alfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 – August 24, 1995) was a German-American photographer and photojournalist. He is renowned for his candid photographs, frequently made using various models of a 35mm Leica rangefinder camera. He is best known for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day.
(...)
V–J day in Times Square
Eisenstaedt's most famous photograph is of an American sailor kissing a young woman on August 14, 1945 in Times Square. (The photograph is known under various names: V–J day in Times Square, V–Day, etc.) Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the V-J Day celebrations, he stated that he didn't get a chance to obtain names and details, which has encouraged a number of mutually incompatible claims to the identity of the subjects.
Life magazine
The pretty arc of the nurse and the seaman's stylish stance made a "one in a million" composition, says Eisie. "They were very elegant, like sculpture."
For millions of Americans, Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 LIFE photograph of a sailor stamping a masterly kiss on a nurse symbolized the cathartic joy of V-J Day. After a celebrated five-decade career, Eisie now 81, (actually 96 in 1995) calls V-J Day, Times Square his most memorable photograph. "People tell me, 'Oh, you have taken pictures of Loren and Monroe!' But this is what they know me for." His most famous couple has long been nameless, but when the nurse recently wrote to him, a delighted Eisie visited her and took the pictures that follow.
Life magazine
It seems as if everybody's claiming to be the sailor -- or the nurse he's kissing -- in the famous photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for LIFE magazine 50 years ago on V-J Day, August 14, 1945.
The most recent claimant is Carl "Moose" Muscarello, an ex-cop from New York, who has been identified by the self-proclaimed then-nurse, Edith Shain as the man who kissed her in Times Square. They've appeared on television last week to broadcast their claims. But LIFE magazine has never identified the couple in the historic embrace--and probably never will.
About.com: Art History
August 13, 2005
New Sculpture Commemorates V-J Day Kiss
60 years after the fact, a world-famous kiss has been immortalized with a sculpture in New York's Times Square. J. Seward Johnson, Jr., known for his life-sized, intricately realistic, bronze human figures, has recreated the iconic 1945 shot - of a U.S. Navy sailor passionately kissing a white-clad nurse - taken by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
NPR
All Things Considered, August 13, 2005 · New York has unveiled a life-sized statue in Times Square, based on a famous Life magazine photo of New Yorkers celebrating the end of the war with Japan on Aug. 14, 1945. Edith Shain, the woman in the photo, was on hand for the unveiling.
New York (NY) Times
Edith Shain, Who Said Famous Kiss Came Her Way, Dies at 91
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: June 23, 2010
Edith Shain, who became something of a celebrity decades after World War II, asserting that she was the nurse kissed by a sailor in Life magazine’s memorable photograph of V-J Day in Times Square, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.
(...)
Mr. Eisenstaedt visited Mrs. Shain, and Life reproduced her letter to him in its August 1980 issue, along with pictures he took of her with her family and her students. Mrs. Shain said she had recognized herself in the photo but had kept silent over all those years. “I didn’t think it was dignified, but times have changed,” she told Life.
Two months later, Life published photos of 10 men who had come forward to say they were the sailor in that photo, and a picture of yet another man, no longer alive, whose family had put in a claim. It also ran pictures of two other women who said they were the nurse.
CBS New York
Sailor In Iconic V-J Day Times Square Kiss Photo Laid To Rest In Rhode Island
February 22, 2019 at 8:18 pmFiled Under:George Mendonsa, Local TV, New York, Times Square Kiss
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The sailor photographed kissing a woman in Times Square at the end of World War II was mourned Friday at a funeral in Rhode Island.
George Mendonsa’s funeral was held at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, and he was buried at St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown.
Mendonsa died Sunday after he fell and had a seizure at an assisted living facility, his daughter said. He was 95 and leaves behind his wife of 72 years.
Mendonsa kissed Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered.
The two had never met.
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo of the kiss became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. First published in Life magazine, it’s called “V-J Day in Times Square,” but is known to most as “The Kiss.”
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