V–J day in Times Square
Encyclopedia
V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt
that portrays an American sailor
kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day
in Times Square
on August 14, 1945. The photograph was published a week later in Life
magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the country that were presented in a twelve-page section called Victory. A two-page spread faces three other kissing poses among celebrators in Washington, D.C.
, Kansas City
, and Miami opposite Eisenstaedt's, which was given a full-page display. Kissing was a favorite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war
, but Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the announcement of the end of the war on Japan
was made by President Truman at seven o'clock. Similar jubilation spread quickly with the news.
The photograph is known under various titles, such as V-J Day in Times Square, V-Day, and The Kiss.
The official United States celebration is not on this date, however. V-J Day is instead celebrated on September 2
, the date of the formal signing of the surrender
. A special day of remembrance is marked in Japan and other countries on September 2.
Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either person involved in this embrace and several people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenue
converge. Soon afterward, throngs of people crowded into the square and it became a sea of people.
gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.
From Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt:
From The Eye of Eisenstaedt:
It became a cultural icon
overnight and by establishing his copyright, the photographer carefully controlled the rights to it, only allowing a limited number of reproductions which determined how it could be used. Since his death in 1995, the rights to the photograph have passed to the Getty Museum as part of their Life archives.
U.S. Navy photo journalist Victor Jorgensen
captured another view of the same scene, which was published in the New York Times the following day. Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye. It shows less of Times Square in the background, lacking the characteristic view of the complex intersection so that the location needs to be identified, it is dark and shows few details of the main subjects, and it does not show the lower legs and feet of the subjects.
Unlike the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright
, this Navy photograph is in the public domain
as it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty.
Edith Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt in the late 1970s claiming to be the woman in the picture. In August 1945, Shain was working at Doctor's Hospital in New York City
as a nurse when she and a friend heard on the radio that World War II
had ended. They went to Times Square where all the celebrating was and as soon as she arrived on the street from the subway, the sailor grabbed her in an embrace and kissed her. She related that at the time she thought she might as well let him kiss her since he fought for her in the war. Shain did not claim that she was the woman in the white dress until many years later when she wrote to Eisenstaedt. He notified the magazine that he had received her letter claiming to be the subject.
Since the identity of the nurse had been claimed, in its August 1980 issue, the editors of Life asked that the kissing sailor come forward. In the October 1980 issue, the editors reported that eleven men and three women had come forward claiming to be the subjects of the photograph. Listed in the October 1980 issue as claiming to be the nurse were Greta Friedman and Barbara Sokol as well as Edith Shain.
On June 20, 2010, Shain died at age 91, following a battle with liver cancer
.
Those claiming to be the sailor were Donald Bonsack, John Edmonson, Wallace C. Fowler, Clarence "Bud" Harding, Walker Irving, James Kearney, Marvin Kingsburg, Arthur Leask, George Mendonça, Jack Russell, and Bill Swicegood.
George Mendonça of Newport, Rhode Island
, 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. They made their determination after much study including photographic analysis by the Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who were able to match scars and tattoo spotted by photograph experts, and the testimony of one Richard M. Benson, a photograph analysis expert, professor of photographic studies, plus the former Dean of the School of Arts at Yale University. Mr Benson has stated that, "It is therefore my opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of certainty, that George Mendonça is the sailor in Mr. Eisenstaedt's famous photograph."
Mendonça, on leave from the USS The Sullivans (DD-537)
, was watching a movie with his date, his future wife, Rita, at Radio City Music Hall
when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. George and Rita took part in the partying on the street, but when they couldn't get into the packed bars decided to walk down the street. It was then that George saw a nurse walk by and took her into his arms and kissed her, "I had quite a few drinks that day and I considered her one of the troops—she was a nurse." In one of the four pictures that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonça claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple.
In 1987, George Mendonça filed a lawsuit against Time Inc. in Rhode Island state court, alleging that 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. After Time Inc. removed the case to federal court, Mendonça survived a motion to dismiss. Subsequently, when Mendonça had to prove that he was, in fact, the sailor in the photograph, he dropped his lawsuit.
Lifes October 1980 issue did not include Glenn McDuffie or Carl Muscarello, who are described below. These claims have been made much more recently.
Carl Muscarello is a retired police officer with the NYPD, now living in Plantation, Florida
. In 1995, he came forward and claimed to be the kissing sailor. He claimed that he was in Times Square on August 14, 1945, and that he kissed numerous women. A distinctive birthmark on his hand enabled his mother to identify him as the subject. Edith Shain initially said she believed Muscarello's claim to be the sailor and even dated after their brief reunion. But in 2005, Shain was much less certain, telling the New York Times, "I can't say he isn't. I just can't say he is. There is no way to tell."
Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department
forensic artist Lois Gibson. Gibson's forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photos with current-day photos of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets.
In the August 14, 2007 issue of AM New York
McDuffie said he passed five polygraph
tests confirming his claim to be the man. He says that on that day he was on the subway to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield. He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstaedt's recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstaedt could take the photo:
Gibson also analyzed photographs of other men who have claimed to be the sailor, including Muscarello and Mendonça, reporting that neither man's facial bones or other features match those of the sailor in the photograph. On August 3, 2008, Glenn McDuffie was recognized for his 81st birthday as the “Kissing Sailor” during the seventh-inning stretch
of the Houston Astros
and New York Mets
game at Minute Maid Park
.
The sailor in the white suit with the dark tie to the left of the kissing couple has been identified as H. Dean Browner of Columbia, SC. Mr. Browner is featured in an article in the Sandlapper Magazine Autumn 2011 edition. He didn't even realize he was in the famous photograph until the U.S. News & World Report reprinted the photograph for the 50th anniversary of V-J Day. His wife, Pat saw the photograph and immediately recognized him. His family has always known that he was in Times Square that day.
displayed a bronze life-size sculpture, Unconditional Surrender
, at an August 14, 2005 sixtieth-anniversary reenactment at Times Square of the event made famous in Eisenstaedt's photograph. His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Edith Shain, shown holding a copy of the photograph, and George Mendonça as participants. Shain refused to allow him to kiss her in the same fashion as in the image, however. Johnson also sculpted 25 feet (7.6 m)-tall versions in plastic and aluminum, which have been displayed in several cities, including San Diego (right) and Sarasota.
In the 2009 film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
, a life-size blow-up of the photograph plays an important role when characters Larry Daley (Ben Stiller
) and Amelia Earhart
(Amy Adams
) escape pursuers by jumping into it and emerging in a monochrome
1945 Times Square
, and losing a cell phone, which catches the attention of one of the background sailors, played by actor Jay Baruchel.
The picture is parodied in the 2009 film, Watchmen
which depicts alternate history versions of iconic moments in American history. During the opening credits, The Silhouette
, a female "costumed hero", replaces the sailor in the famous picture after coming upon the nurse in Times Square during the VJ Day celebrations. In a later scene, the pair are found brutally murdered.
In the 2010 film, Letters to Juliet
, the Eisenstaedt photograph is featured in a scene where an editor of the New Yorker
questions Sophie about her fact-checking (her job there) of the image as if it would be published in that magazine as a full-page feature. He questions her closely about whether the photograph was staged and most importantly whether it truly was "spontaneous and romantic." Sophie gives him several pieces of information obtained from a sailor in the background of the photograph. She assures the editor that all of these facts were thoroughly checked and found to be correct, so he need have no concern.
The kiss was parodied in the The Simpsons
episode, 'Bart the General'. As celebrations ensue following victory for Bart in a battle against the school bully, a young boy dressed as a sailor kisses Lisa as a photograph is taken. After the photo is taken, Lisa rebukes the boy, telling him to 'knock it off' and slapping him in the face.
Green Lantern
features a reference to the photo in which Guy Gardner
re-unites with his old girlfriend Ice
.
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt 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...
that portrays an American sailor
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event...
in Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
on August 14, 1945. The photograph was published a week later in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the country that were presented in a twelve-page section called Victory. A two-page spread faces three other kissing poses among celebrators in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Kansas City
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
, and Miami opposite Eisenstaedt's, which was given a full-page display. Kissing was a favorite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the announcement of the end of the war on Japan
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
was made by President Truman at seven o'clock. Similar jubilation spread quickly with the news.
The photograph is known under various titles, such as V-J Day in Times Square, V-Day, and The Kiss.
The official United States celebration is not on this date, however. V-J Day is instead celebrated on September 2
, the date of the formal signing of the surrender
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
. A special day of remembrance is marked in Japan and other countries on September 2.
Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either person involved in this embrace and several people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenue
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
converge. Soon afterward, throngs of people crowded into the square and it became a sea of people.
Discussion by Alfred Eisenstaedt
In two different books he wrote, Alfred EisenstaedtAlfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt 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...
gave two slightly different accounts of taking the photograph and of its nature.
From Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt:
- In Times SquareTimes SquareTimes Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
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.
From The Eye of Eisenstaedt:
- I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all — young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I'd hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her. Now if this girl hadn't been a nurse, if she'd been dressed dark clothes, I wouldn't have had a picture. The contrast between her white dress and the sailor's dark uniform gives the photograph its extra impact.
It became a cultural icon
Cultural icon
A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group...
overnight and by establishing his copyright, the photographer carefully controlled the rights to it, only allowing a limited number of reproductions which determined how it could be used. Since his death in 1995, the rights to the photograph have passed to the Getty Museum as part of their Life archives.
Another view
Victor Jorgensen
Victor Jorgensen is a former Navy photo journalist who probably is most famous for taking a photograph of an impromptu scene in Manhattan on August 14, 1945, but from a different angle and in a less dramatic exposure than that of a photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Both photographs were of...
captured another view of the same scene, which was published in the New York Times the following day. Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye. It shows less of Times Square in the background, lacking the characteristic view of the complex intersection so that the location needs to be identified, it is dark and shows few details of the main subjects, and it does not show the lower legs and feet of the subjects.
Unlike the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, this Navy photograph is in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
as it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty.
Identity of the kissers
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as a nurse when she and a friend heard on the radio that World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
had ended. They went to Times Square where all the celebrating was and as soon as she arrived on the street from the subway, the sailor grabbed her in an embrace and kissed her. She related that at the time she thought she might as well let him kiss her since he fought for her in the war. Shain did not claim that she was the woman in the white dress until many years later when she wrote to Eisenstaedt. He notified the magazine that he had received her letter claiming to be the subject.
Since the identity of the nurse had been claimed, in its August 1980 issue, the editors of Life asked that the kissing sailor come forward. In the October 1980 issue, the editors reported that eleven men and three women had come forward claiming to be the subjects of the photograph. Listed in the October 1980 issue as claiming to be the nurse were Greta Friedman and Barbara Sokol as well as Edith Shain.
On June 20, 2010, Shain died at age 91, following a battle with liver cancer
Liver cancer
Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver . Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant...
.
Those claiming to be the sailor were Donald Bonsack, John Edmonson, Wallace C. Fowler, Clarence "Bud" Harding, Walker Irving, James Kearney, Marvin Kingsburg, Arthur Leask, George Mendonça, Jack Russell, and Bill Swicegood.
George Mendonça of Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, was identified by a team of volunteers from the Naval War College
Naval War College
The Naval War College is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy. The college is located on the grounds of Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island...
in August 2005 as "the kisser". His claim was based on matching his scars and tattoos to scars and tattoos in the photograph. They made their determination after much study including photographic analysis by the Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who were able to match scars and tattoo spotted by photograph experts, and the testimony of one Richard M. Benson, a photograph analysis expert, professor of photographic studies, plus the former Dean of the School of Arts at Yale University. Mr Benson has stated that, "It is therefore my opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of certainty, that George Mendonça is the sailor in Mr. Eisenstaedt's famous photograph."
Mendonça, on leave from the USS The Sullivans (DD-537)
USS The Sullivans (DD-537)
USS The Sullivans is a Fletcher-class destroyer. She is the first United States Navy ship to be named in honor of the five Sullivan brothers aged 20 to 27 who lost their lives when their ship, USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on...
, was watching a movie with his date, his future wife, Rita, at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. George and Rita took part in the partying on the street, but when they couldn't get into the packed bars decided to walk down the street. It was then that George saw a nurse walk by and took her into his arms and kissed her, "I had quite a few drinks that day and I considered her one of the troops—she was a nurse." In one of the four pictures that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonça claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple.
In 1987, George Mendonça filed a lawsuit against Time Inc. in Rhode Island state court, alleging that 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. After Time Inc. removed the case to federal court, Mendonça survived a motion to dismiss. Subsequently, when Mendonça had to prove that he was, in fact, the sailor in the photograph, he dropped his lawsuit.
Lifes October 1980 issue did not include Glenn McDuffie or Carl Muscarello, who are described below. These claims have been made much more recently.
Carl Muscarello is a retired police officer with the NYPD, now living in Plantation, Florida
Plantation, Florida
Plantation is the name of the following places in the U.S. state of Florida:*Plantation, Florida, a city in Broward County; the largest of the places named "Plantation" in Florida*Plantation, Sarasota County, Florida, a census-designated place...
. In 1995, he came forward and claimed to be the kissing sailor. He claimed that he was in Times Square on August 14, 1945, and that he kissed numerous women. A distinctive birthmark on his hand enabled his mother to identify him as the subject. Edith Shain initially said she believed Muscarello's claim to be the sailor and even dated after their brief reunion. But in 2005, Shain was much less certain, telling the New York Times, "I can't say he isn't. I just can't say he is. There is no way to tell."
Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department
Houston Police Department
The Houston Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. Its headquarters are in 1200 Travis in Downtown Houston....
forensic artist Lois Gibson. Gibson's forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photos with current-day photos of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets.
- She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles and hand, and compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's picture.
- "I could tell just in general that yes, it's him," said Gibson, a 25-year department veteran. "But I wanted to be able to tell other people so I replicated the pose."
In the August 14, 2007 issue of AM New York
AM New York
amNewYork is a morning free daily newspaper , published in New York City by Cablevision. According to the company, average daily distribution as of December 2008 was 345,053, according to MondoNewspapers.com. When the newspaper launched October 10, 2003, amNewYork was the first newspaper of its...
McDuffie said he passed five polygraph
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
tests confirming his claim to be the man. He says that on that day he was on the subway to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield. He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstaedt's recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstaedt could take the photo:
- I went over there and kissed her and saw a man running at us...I thought it was a jealous husband or boyfriend coming to poke me in the eyes. I looked up and saw he was taking the picture and I kissed her as long as took for him to take it.
Gibson also analyzed photographs of other men who have claimed to be the sailor, including Muscarello and Mendonça, reporting that neither man's facial bones or other features match those of the sailor in the photograph. On August 3, 2008, Glenn McDuffie was recognized for his 81st birthday as the “Kissing Sailor” during the seventh-inning stretch
Seventh-inning stretch
The seventh-inning stretch is a tradition in baseball that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of any game – in the middle of the seventh inning. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their arms and legs and sometimes walk around. It is a popular time to get a late-game snack as...
of the Houston Astros
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
and New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
game at Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park is a ballpark in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that opened in 2000 to house the Major League Baseball Houston Astros....
.
The sailor in the white suit with the dark tie to the left of the kissing couple has been identified as H. Dean Browner of Columbia, SC. Mr. Browner is featured in an article in the Sandlapper Magazine Autumn 2011 edition. He didn't even realize he was in the famous photograph until the U.S. News & World Report reprinted the photograph for the 50th anniversary of V-J Day. His wife, Pat saw the photograph and immediately recognized him. His family has always known that he was in Times Square that day.
The photograph in popular culture
In 2005, John Seward Johnson IIJohn Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I ....
displayed a bronze life-size sculpture, Unconditional Surrender
Unconditional Surrender (sculpture)
Unconditional Surrender is a series of sculptures by Seward Johnson resembling a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V–J day in Times Square, but said by Johnson to be based on a similar, less well known, photograph by Victor Jorgensen.-Creation:...
, at an August 14, 2005 sixtieth-anniversary reenactment at Times Square of the event made famous in Eisenstaedt's photograph. His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Edith Shain, shown holding a copy of the photograph, and George Mendonça as participants. Shain refused to allow him to kiss her in the same fashion as in the image, however. Johnson also sculpted 25 feet (7.6 m)-tall versions in plastic and aluminum, which have been displayed in several cities, including San Diego (right) and Sarasota.
In the 2009 film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is an American adventure comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, and starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, and Steve Coogan. The film is a sequel to Night at the Museum...
, a life-size blow-up of the photograph plays an important role when characters Larry Daley (Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
) and Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
(Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
) escape pursuers by jumping into it and emerging in a monochrome
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
1945 Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, and losing a cell phone, which catches the attention of one of the background sailors, played by actor Jay Baruchel.
The picture is parodied in the 2009 film, Watchmen
Watchmen (film)
Watchmen is a 2009 superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson. It is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons...
which depicts alternate history versions of iconic moments in American history. During the opening credits, The Silhouette
Characters of Watchmen
Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins, published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987. Watchmen focuses on six main characters: the Comedian, Doctor Manhattan, the Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Rorschach, and the Silk Spectre...
, a female "costumed hero", replaces the sailor in the famous picture after coming upon the nurse in Times Square during the VJ Day celebrations. In a later scene, the pair are found brutally murdered.
In the 2010 film, Letters to Juliet
Letters to Juliet
Letters to Juliet is a 2010 American romantic comedy drama film starring Amanda Seyfried, Chris Egan, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael García Bernal, and Franco Nero. This was the final film of director Gary Winick before he died of brain cancer. The film was released theatrically in North America and other...
, the Eisenstaedt photograph is featured in a scene where an editor of the New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
questions Sophie about her fact-checking (her job there) of the image as if it would be published in that magazine as a full-page feature. He questions her closely about whether the photograph was staged and most importantly whether it truly was "spontaneous and romantic." Sophie gives him several pieces of information obtained from a sailor in the background of the photograph. She assures the editor that all of these facts were thoroughly checked and found to be correct, so he need have no concern.
The kiss was parodied in the The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode, 'Bart the General'. As celebrations ensue following victory for Bart in a battle against the school bully, a young boy dressed as a sailor kisses Lisa as a photograph is taken. After the photo is taken, Lisa rebukes the boy, telling him to 'knock it off' and slapping him in the face.
Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
features a reference to the photo in which Guy Gardner
Guy Gardner (comics)
Guy Gardner is a fictional character, a comic book superhero published by DC Comics. He is a core member of the Green Lantern family of characters, and for a time was also a significant member of the Justice League family of characters.He was created by John Broome and Gil Kane in Green Lantern...
re-unites with his old girlfriend Ice
Ice (comics)
Ice is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in publications from DC Comics. Created by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire, she first appeared in Justice League International #12 ....
.
External links
- WWII: Victory Over Japan - Images
- V-J Day – Is He The Real McCoy? (The Art Quarterly article from 2007)
- A Sailor, a Nurse, a Legendary Kiss - slideshow by Life magazine
- Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville, 'Another famous kiss' photographed by Robert DoisneauRobert DoisneauRobert Doisneau was a French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris; together with Henri Cartier-Bresson he was a pioneer of photojournalism...
and published in 1950 by Life magazine, (Kiss by the Hôtel de VilleHôtel de Ville, ParisThe Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...
, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
)
