A Belfast musician has put forward his theory about the identity of the sailor in the famous Times Square kiss captured by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt 70 years ago on August 14 1945.
The Kiss was taken during street celebrations at the end of the second world war on Victory over Japan day when a young sailor grabbed a nurse in white uniform and kissed her on the lips. It became one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.
There has been ongoing speculation about the identity of the sailor, with 11 different men over the years claiming to be the mystery sailor- most of these claims were later discounted. The two main contenders are now regarded to be war veterans George Mendonsa, now in his 90s, and Glenn McDuffie who died last year.
After researching the various accounts of what happened that day, musician Paul Bowen believes McDuffie is the sailor, not Mendonsa who filed a lawsuit against Time Inc in 1987 alleging he was the sailor in the photograph and that both Time and Life had violated his right of publicity by using the photograph without his permission.
Mendonsa was identified by a team of volunteers from the Naval War College in August 2005 as “the kisser”. His claim was based on matching his scars and tattoos to scars and tattoos in the photograph. However, Glenn McDuffie was verified as the sailor in 2007 by Houston Police Department’s forensic artist, Lois Gibson.
However while both men have convincing claims, Bowen says that the two sailors to the left of the photo (one dressed in a dark uniform and one in white) are key to unravelling the mystery. They have been identified as Jack Holmes and Bob Little who served on the SS Alexander Lillington, the same boat as McDuffie. However , Bowen says McDuffie never mentioned them in interviews and his account of what happened was somewhat at odds with that of the nurse in the photo.
“I first saw that photo as a boy in Belfast. I wondered who the sailor was, who the nurse was. ,” says Bowen who has written some songs to commemorate the anniversary that can be downloaded on his website thelonestarjet.com.
His interest was piqued in August 1987 when The London Evening Standard had a piece about Mendonsa.
Mendonsa’s account of the photo seemed to tally with the detail of the photo. “We went to Radio City Music Hall. There was pounding on the doors from outside on the street. They put the lights on and stopped the show and said, ‘The war is over, and the Japanese have surrendered. Everyone rushed out to celebrate. Rita and I got bombed in a bar called Child’s. The bartenders had lined up glasses all along the bar and just kept pouring. I popped quite a few drinks. Then we walked a couple of blocks to Times Square. Another girl walked by, a nurse. The excitement of the war being over, plus I had a few drinks. So when I saw the nurse, I grabbed her, and I kissed her. I grabbed the nurse because I saw what the nurses did on the hospital ships out there in the Pacific.”
He has a witness, his girlfriend and future wife Rita Petry . He claimed that Rita was just over his right shoulder in the photo.
In one of his accounts of taking the photograph, Alfred Eisenstaedt said:
“In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw 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. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds. Only one is right, on account of the balance. In the others the emphasis is wrong - the sailor on the left side is either too small or too tall. People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture.”
McDuffie served onboard the Liberty Ship, SS Alexander Lillington and happened to be in Times Square that day. Some excerpts from the many interviews Glenn gave include:
“I was on a subway train on VJ Day, heading to Brooklyn to see my girlfriend Ardith Bloomfield. At Times Square, this woman ran up to me and said, ‘Sailor, I’m so happy for you!’ I asked her why? She said the war was over... I was so happy. I ran out in the street. And then I saw that nurse. 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. Afterward, I just went on the subway across the street and went to Brooklyn.”
“I ran into the street jumping and hollering. That nurse was out there and she turned around and put her arms out and that’s when I kissed her. Then I heard someone running and I lifted my head and it was that photographer.”
However the nurse captured the famous photo had a different account. Greta Zimmer Friedman was 21 years old, a Jewish refugee from Austria. A dental assistant on Lexington Avenue, she’d gone to Times Square in her lunch break. She said:
“I went straight to Time’s Square where I saw, on the lighted billboard that goes around the building, ‘V-J Day, V-J Day!’ Suddenly, I was grabbed by a sailor. That man was very strong. I wasn’t kissing him. He was kissing me. He was just holding me tight. I’m not sure about the kiss... it was just somebody celebrating. It wasn’t a romantic event. It was just an event of ‘thank God the war is over.”
Bowen says if you look at the photo and her body language,she looks taken by surprise. “She’s been grabbed out of the blue, almost lifted off her feet, kissed. She clutches her purse tightly. Her left hand holds down her skirt defensively. No way did she see our dashing young mariner approach.”
Bowen’s theory is that the three sailors McDuffie, Holmes and Little, may have had too much to drinkat day.
“And for a bet, for a laugh, for a dare, our Glenn, egged on by Jack and Bob, starts grabbing and kissing every woman in sight.
“Glenn painted a picture of the devoted boyfriend, who, got a come-on from a pretty nurse, happily obliges, then without a word, scuttles back down the Subway like a little mole, leaving behind his two shipmates, who, of all the Times Squares in all the world, just happen to be standing a few feet from him and just happen to get included in one of the most famous photos of the 20th century.”
So why woudMcDuffie change his story? Bowen believes he may have been embarrassed.
“He’d been married, had kids. A respectable family man, who didn’t want the world to know about his exploits 60 odd years before.”
Whatever the truth, this latest theory adds yet another dimension to this intriguing story as it approaches it’s 70th anniversary.
