Weegee Wednesdays: Five Photos of People Blowing Bubbles

Weegee, [Girls watching movie, Palace Theater, New York], ca. 1943

Weegee, [Children watching movie, Palace Theater, New York], ca. 1943 (2117.1993)

Weegee, [Girl watching movie, Palace Theater, New York], ca. 1943 (7385.1993)

Weegee, Hawthorne, Radio MC, ca. 1949 (9194.1993) [Jim Hawthorne (November 1918 – 2007), “first freeform radio DJ.”]

Weegee, [Woman blowing a bubble in Greenwich Village], ca. 1956 (17332.1993)

Weegee, [Woman blowing a bubble], ca. 1956 (4689.1993)

Weegee Wednesday is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

Weegee Wednesday triptych: Celebrations and Thanks

On September 9th, in three different years, 1940, 1941 and 1943, Weegee had photos published in PM. Three posts will present these photos and stories… Three for 09/09, Part 3: Celebrations and Thanks.

PM, September 9, 1943, p. 14

Little Italy Celebrates and Gives Thanks
“Over Mulberry St., [perhaps over 121 Mulberry St.] on the Lower East Side, flags of America and Italy flutter side by side for the first time in 21 months after radios blared the news at noon yesterday that the two countries no longer were at war.” PM, September 9, 1943, p. 14

“Catching the spirit of the occasion from their elders, small fry abetted by news photographers – parade through Mulberry St. with flags handed out for free by a neighborhood candy store. (PM Photos by Weegee)” PM, September 9, 1943, p. 14

On September 8th, 1943, Italy’s surrender and armistice (Armistice of Cassibile) with the Allies was announced. “When the surrender was finally signed on 3 September in Sicily, it was agreed to keep it secret until the Allied invasion of Italy was well under way… But US President Franklin D Roosevelt has said it is too early to assume this is the end of war in the Mediterranean. In a broadcast from Washington he said: ‘The great news you have heard from General Eisenhower does not give you license to settle back in your rocking chair and say ‘Well, that does it. We’ve got ’em on the run. Now we start celebrating.’ The time has not yet come for celebration.'” BBC.com

Weegee Wednesdays is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

Weegee Wednesday triptych: Due to Increase in Murders The Photo League Presents 2nd Edition “Murder is My Business” by Weegee

On September 9th, in three different years, 1940, 1941 and 1943, Weegee had photos published in PM. Three posts will present these photos and stories… Three for 09/09, Part 2: “Due to Increase in Murders The Photo League Presents 2nd Edition “Murder is My Business” by Weegee”.

PM, September 9, 1941, p. 18 (2007.15.237)

PM’s Weegee Exhibits More of His Police_News Photos
Our Police Headquarters photographer, Weegee, got his name in all the camera magazines last month when the Photo League put on a show of his news pictures. Yesterday, prompted by gallery-visitor response to the first, the League opened a second edition of the exhibit in its clubroom at 31 E. 21st St. The new show, a complete change of pictures from the first, will run through Sept. 27 – 1 to 10 p.m. weekdays, 2 to 6 on Saturdays, no admission charge. Above, in a photo by one of the league members, Weegee puts finishing touches to the display. Typical comments in the visitors’ book: “Great pictures”… “Terrific”… “Could do better with a Brownie”… “Have gone away for the weekend to recuperate.”
PM, September 9, 1941, p. 18

Unidentified Photographer, [Weegee photographing the exhibition: “Weegee: Murder is My Business II” at the Photo League, New York], 1941 (19984.1993)

Weegee, [Installation view of “Weegee: Murder is My Business II” at the Photo League, New York]” 1941 (19982.1993)

Weegee Wednesdays is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

Weegee Wednesday triptych: “Loafer Shoots Cop in Tussle at Park Zoo”

Weegee, “John Shafran,” 1940 (2374.1993)

On September 9th, in three different years, 1940, 1941 and 1943, Weegee had photos published in PM. Three posts will present these photos and stories.

Three for 09/09, Part 1: “Loafer Shoots Cop in Tussle at Park Zoo”

At 2 PM on Sunday, September 8, 1940, at the zoo in Central Park, in Manhattan, John Shafran, described by the press as a loafer, a bum, a thug, a jobless, homeless knockabout, an unemployed laborer, and an unemployed vagrant, roughly dressed, wild-looking, and a short but powerfully built, single man, was arrested near the seal pool, by a pair of plainclothes police officers for annoying young girls. While they, the pair of plainclothes officers, a uniformed police officer, another recently arrested man and Shafran were entering the Central Park Zoo foreman’s office to await the patrol wagon, Shafran lunged at the uniformed police officer, fell on top of him and grabbed the officer’s gun, fired it three times, and one bullet struck the officer. Shafran was hit on the head with an oil can and the gun was taken from him. By the time Shafran left the zoo foreman’s office he was “manhandled” (PM) and his face was “battered and his shirt was covered in blood” (NY Times). Shafran, born in Pennsylvania, came to Manhattan from New Jersey, and told the Assistant District Attorney: “My sixth sense told me to do the shooting. Nobody is going to arrest me.”

PM, September 9, 1940, p. 9 (Photo by Weegee)

The Man Who Shot a Cop
Homeless, jobless, John Shafran was arrested for annoying children in Central Park. He seized a cop’s gun, shot him and was manhandled a bit himself.

Policeman Shot With Own Gun
Although still in serious condition in Roosevelt Hospital, Patrolman Thomas O’Sullivan, 38, is expected to survive a bullet in the groin inflicted yesterday when a man arrested earlier on a morals charge in Central Park grabbed the police officer’s revolver during a furious scuffle and shot him as he lay on the ground.
John Shafran, 29, an unemployed vagrant had been arrested on a charge of molesting young girls near the seal tank in the park zoo and taken to a park garage. Trying to escape, he lunged at O’Sullivan, guarding the door, and knocked him down. Then he snatched O’Sullivan’s revolver and fired three shots.
Police hit him over the head with an oil can to stop him from escaping, booked him for felonious assault.
PM, September 9, 1940, p. 9

New York Daily News, September 9, 1940, p. 4 (News Photo)

Loafer Shoots Cop in Tussle at Park Zoo
A Central Park bum, hustled away from the seal pond for annoying small girls, went berserk in an office near the Zoo’s giraffe pen shortly before 2 P. M. yesterday and shot and seriously wounded Patrolman Thomas O’Sullivan, 38.
Crowds mingled around the animal cages within earshot as the man – identified as John Shafran, 29, a jobless, homeless knockabout – tussled with the policeman, grabbed his revolver and wounded him in the groin.
Beaten into Submission
Two plainclothesmen – John J. Lynch and Francis O’Meara – were in the room in the Park Department garage when Shafran lunged at O’Sullivan, knocked him to the floor and came up shooting, O’Sullivan dropped and two bullets went wild before the man was beaten into submission…
New York Daily News, Sept 9, 1940. p. 4

The New York Times, Sept 9, 1940. p. 17 (Times Wide World)

Zoo Crowd Hears Policeman Shot
Widowed Father of 4 Wounded by Prisoner Who Seizes Revolver From Holster
Assailant is Subdued
Shooting Occurs as Police Honor Dead in Park Rites at Which 5 Were Shot in 1938

A peaceful Sunday afternoon in Central Park zoo was shattered yesterday when, within earshot though out of sight from thousands of visitors, Patrolman Thomas O’Sullivan, widowed father of four children, was shot and seriously wounded while assisting two plainclothes men in the arrest of two men on charges of molesting young girls.
The shooting, a stone’s throw from he giraffe pen and the alligator cage, where crowds of children were with their parents occurred when, on the Mall, thousands of O’Sullivan’s comrades were assembled at the annual service in memory of police heroes held by the Police Honor Legion…
Patrolman O’Sullivan was shot with his own service revolver by one of the prisoners, who wrested the weapon out of the holster and attacked him with maniacal fury. Only one of the three bullets fired took effect… The assailant, subdued by the plainclothes men, was identified as John Shafran, 29 years old, unemployed. He was booked on a charge of felonious assault…
Assistant District Attorney Rosenblum quoted Shafran as saying: “My sixth sense told me to do the shooting. Nobody is going to arrest me.”
The New York Times, Sept 9, 1940. p. 17

Weegee Wednesdays is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

On their deathbed, no one ever said: “I wish I spent more time at the office.”

Unidentified Photographer, [Butcher], ca. 1875 (2007.54.4)

Unidentified Photographer, [Iceman], ca. 1875 (2007.54.9)

Unidentified Photographer, [Waiters], ca. 1880 (2007.54.7)

Unidentified Photographer, [Man with Soldering Tools], ca. 1875 (2007.54.18)

Unidentified Photographer, [Mechanic], ca. 1875 (2414.2005)

Unidentified Photographer, [Wall Paper Hangers], ca. 1870 (2008.81.49)

This post was created for last year’s Labor Day, but I am such an inveterate and incurable slacker and an accomplished and perennial procrastinator that I didn’t finish it in time…

No, wait…Take two:
This post was created for last year’s Labor Day, but I was working so much and so hard on so many compelling projects that I missed the deadline… (That’s better.)

So, to display my industriousness and ingenuity, (or as a reflection of just plain laziness) I have refashioned and remade this post of amazing tintype portraits into something slightly relevant.

Work! I love work. I’m at work right now. I’m working.

Is it lunch time yet? (I’m not thinking about what I’ll do this evening, in 4 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds, when I can finally go home. I’m not thinking about the last or planning for the upcoming weekend, or my next vacation…) Anyway, we work so much in the archive (or just the Imaging Department); we love our work that for us, everyday is a celebration; everyday is Labor Day!

In the U.S., as of August 4, 2015, the current unemployment rate is 5.1 percent, the lowest rate in seven years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. To dive into the data a little deeper they also report: Thus far in 2105 the employment has risen by 457,000 in health care and by 107,000 in social assistance; employment in financial activities has grown by 170,000. Employment in professional and business services has increased by 641,000. Employment in food services and drinking places enjoyed an average monthly gain of 31,000 jobs over the prior 12 months. In the U.S. it’s not good news for manufacturers and miners. In August, 2015: manufacturing employment decreased by 17,000 and employment in mining fell by (-9,000). The average nonfarm work week in August was 34.6 hours. The average hourly earnings for private nonfarm work rose by 8 cents to $25.09. This info is from “The Employment Situation — August 2015.” No national museum, artist or tintypist (note to self: tintypes of cultural and museum workers, tintypes of job – “Why do the righteous suffer?”) information was found on a very, very quick look at the Bureau of Labor Staistics website, bls.gov… Labor Day music.

Have great and fruitful Labor Days!

Unidentified Photographer, [House Painter], ca. 1875 (2008.81.52)

Why do Americans call tomorrow 'Labor Day' when any kind of labour is exactly what they are avoiding ? Why not name it 'Day Off Day' ?

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) September 6, 2015

The bad Photoshop portion of this blog post:

[Workers of the World Unite…]

[It Ain’t Just Paint…]

“For Nell Dorr, life itself is the work of art, photography, the means of revealing life.”

Nell Dorr, Rosa- Alone with the sea, 1929 (28.1982)

Nell Dorr, Mother and child, 1940 (33a.1982)

Nell Dorr was immersed in the field of photography from a young age by her father Jon Jacob Becker, who ran a large portrait studio in Cleveland. It was not until 1923, when she moved to Florida with her husband and three daughters that Nell Dorr founded her own studio. She focused on her personal work and had a strong interest in photo murals, which she presented in a one-person show at Merle Sterner Gallery in New York in 1932. In New York, where she had moved to that same year, Dorr met photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen and became fully involved with the pictorial views of photography. Several years later her work was included in Steichen’s significant exhibition The Family of Man at The Museum of Modern Art.

Nell Dorr, Nude, ca. 1939 (26.1982)

Nell Dorr, Lillian Gish, 1908 (24.1982)

The death of her youngest daughter in 1954 brought for Dorr a focus on the relationship of mother and daughter. The publication Mother and Child, which she published that same year, reveals the deep connection between mother and child and Dorr’s talent of capturing the unspoken bond of that love. As Margaretta Mitchel phrased it in 1981: She is a story teller. The photography of Nell Dorr is an impressionistic journal of a woman’s inner journey, of her many aspects and archetypes: child, maiden, bride, mother, matriarch, and muse. She does not confront her subject with her camera; she reveals it. Her pictures are windows onto a world of dreams and memories.  For Nell Dorr, life itself is the work of art, photography, the means of revealing Life.

Nell Dorr, Baby in big bed, 1943 (37.1982)

Nell Dorr, Abstract, 1968 (42.1982)

In May of this year the Gunn Memorial Library and Museum opened a retrospective of Nell Dorr’s work in her hometown Washington, Conn, a traveling exhibition that was first organized by The Massillon Museum in 2011. In it a series of oral histories with people who knew the photographer, talk about her work and life. The stories weave a picture of a deeply sensitive and caring woman.

Nell Dorr would have turned 122 today, August 27, 2015.

The Nell Dorr Estate is part of the photography collection at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas.

Weegee Wednesday: Dancing is Free at a Summer Barn Dance in Central Park

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (644.1993)

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (14854.1993)

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (645.1993)

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (649.1993)

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (242.1996)

Weegee, Dancing is Free in Central Park, July 1945 (16709.1993)

At 1 PM on Saturday, July 14, 1945, at the Mall in Central Park, in front of the bandshell, in Manhattan, the Seventeen Summer Barn Dance was held. Fortunately, (as the bombing of Japan intensified and a few days before the Potsdam Conference) a few days before Naked City was published, Weegee was there… Apparently the Seventeen Magazine sponsored dance was held, in part, because the U.S. armed forces were using a lot of the trains for World War Two troop transportation and many young people couldn’t get to summer camp.

“While Ed Durlacher’s band played old-time tunes, hundreds of young folks joined in the square dancing and in playing country games at a Summer Barn Dance held on the Mall in Central Park last Saturday afternoon.” PM, July 22, 1945, pp. m1-m3. Josh White and his four year old son, Josh Jr., also performed. According to Billboard Magazine, Maurine Cannon and Bob Field were also featured in the Barn Dance.

The Barn Dance was broadcast on WNYC radio, on a program called “Modern Music Barn Dance Central Park” (1-2 PM), after an hour long program called “Music at Work for defense workers” (12-1 PM) and before a Symphonic Matinee broadcast of the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A-minor (2-3 PM), and a few hours before a program called “Music to Swim By” (5-6 PM), according to a Sunday, July 15, 1945 radio schedule, printed in PM.

It’s not known if Weegee’s photos were published in newspapers at the time. PM published six photos of the Barn Dance by Skippy Adelman, on Sunday July 22, 1945. The photos, perhaps their first time in print, make a delightful page spread in Weegee’s People (1946).

Weegee, Weegee’s People, 1946

Weegee Wednesdays is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

Weegee Wednesdays: Everybody’s Happy!

Weegee, Tuesday Morning, Times Square, August 1945 (15627.1993)

Weegee photographed the celebrations that marked the end of the Second World War 70 years ago this week.

On Friday, August 10, 1945 (a few days after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan), Japan made its first intention to surrender. Weegee photographed the resulting spontaneous and euphoric celebrations in the Garment District.

Weegee, [Celebration in the Garment Center after the Japanese offer to surrender], August 10, 1945 (15619.1993)

Weegee, Celebration in the Garment Center on Japanese offer to surrender, August 10, 1945 (15617.1993)

Weegee wrote on the back of the photo above: “Photo made Friday Aug 10, about 2:20 P.M. on 8th Ave and 35th St. looking north. Celebration in Garment Center, as Japanese offer to surrender.” (This is the closest thing we have to Exif data, it’s rare for prints to have this specificity, it would be a dream come true if all Weegee photos had this type of info written on them.)

Weegee, Garment Center, August 1945 (15614.1993)

On Tuesday, August 14th, after news of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration reached New York (Wikipedia) and as the 14th turned into the 15th, Weegee photographed the end of World War Two celebrations, perhaps first downtown, in Little Italy and Chinatown, and then concluding in Times Square.

Weegee, [War Over!], August 1945 (15629.1993)

Weegee, Little Bobby De Marco, age 7 months, at Second Ave. and 9th St., East Side, Tuesday night, after 7 PM, August 1945 (15670.1993)

Weegee, Tuesday Morning, Times Square, August 1945 (2095.1993)

Weegee, Everybody’s Happy, August 1945 (15648.1993)

Weegee, [Dog at end of war celebrations], August, 1945 (15615.1993)

Weegee Wednesdays is an occasional series exploring, or just enjoying, the life and work of Weegee.

World Elephant Day

Marilyn Bridges, Elephants, Zambia (2013.111.15)

Yes, every day is a day, (and many days are many days). For example, there’s Croissant Day and Fun at Work Day (?) (January 30), Darwin Day (February 12), Imaging Technician’s Day (February 30), Pinhole Photography Day (the last Sunday in April), International Jazz Day (April 30), International Museum Day (May 18), World Turtle Day (May 23), National Doughnut Day (June 3), there’s even a New Jersey Day (June 24), Take Your Dog to Work Day (June 24 or 26), World UFO Day(s) (June 24 and July 2), National Ice Cream Day (July 19), Photography Day (August 19), National Honey Bee Day (third Saturday in August), Vesuvius Day (August 24), National Coffee Day (September 29), International Sloth Day (October 19th), World Chocolate Day (October 28), National Cat Day (October 29), and more… Nevertheless, few animals are more deserving of a day of awareness than elephants.

Arthur Rothstein, “With a 500mm telephoto lens, I caught this herd of elephants in a remote area of Kenya. Poaching and environmental hazards are making this a rare sight.” 1970 (216.1989) [45 years later, that’s even more tragic and true.]

“On August 12, 2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. The elephant is loved, revered and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.”

August 6, 1945

Carl Mydans, Hiroshima, directly after the fog cleared. Catholic Church in foreground, 1945 (1395.2005)

Bernard Hoffman, [Residents wander cleared streets bisecting the ruins of buildings reduced to piles of rubble by the atomic bomb, dropped a few months earlier], 1945 (1784.2005)

Unidentified Photographer, [Charred boy’s jacket found near Hiroshima City Hall], November 5, 1945 (2006.1.406)

Unidentified Photographer, [Damaged turbo-generator and electrical panel of Chugoku Electric Company, Minami Sendamachi Substation, Hiroshima], November 18, 1945 (2006.1.96)

Seventy years ago today, on Monday morning, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 AM, the United States dropped the first of two atomic bombs on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later the second bomb hit Nagasaki, officially ending World War II only nine days after the first bomb was dropped and Japan surrendered. Due to the chaos and devastation after the explosions, an official death toll was impossible, but it is estimated that the number of people killed exceeds 200,000.