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'The Kiss' Sailor Identified?


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http://news.aol.com/story/_a/has-kissing-s...S00010000000001

 

NEW YORK (July 28) -- Yet another man has come forward claiming to be the sailor in the famous 1945 Life magazine photograph, "The Kiss." This time, though, experts say he's the one

 

Glenn McDuffie, who joins the ranks of more than 10 other men who also claim to be the sailor, said he got photographed kissing the nurse, and has even taken lie detector tests to prove it.

 

The photograph was taken in Times Square Aug. 14, 1945, Victory over Japan Day, by the late Life photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt and has since become the single most reproduced image in the magazine's collection.

 

Despite this, the identities of the sailor and the nurse remain a mystery.

 

Life has never taken a position in any of the identity disputes regarding the identities of the sailor or the nurse, a Life spokesperson told ABC News in an e-mail, and said Eisenstaedt took no notes or names the day he snapped the photo.

 

Today, on the verge of his 80th birthday and the 62nd anniversary of the photograph, McDuffie said he wants the truth to come out once and for all.

 

The mystery kiss occurred amid the impromptu celebration in New York's Times Square following the news that World War II had finally ended. The image has since been referred to by many as a "manifestation" of the nationwide celebration.

 

McDuffie, who was 18 years old when the photo was taken, said he was traveling to Brooklyn from his naval base in Kannapolis, N.C., when he heard the news.

 

"When I got off the subway I got to the top of the stairs and the lady up there said, 'Sailor, I'm so happy for you,'" said McDuffie. "I asked her why and she told me the war was over and I could go home. I ran into the street jumping and hollering."

 

It was then, McDuffie said, he kissed the nurse.

 

"That nurse was out there and she turned around and put her arms out and that's when I kissed her," said McDuffie. "Then I heard someone running and I lifted my head and it was that photographer."

 

"She had the biggest mouth I've ever kissed," said McDuffie.

 

McDuffie has taken numerous polygraph tests and even let one forensic specialist recreate the photo pose, take his measurements, and compare them with the original all in an effort to prove that he is the real kissing sailor.

 

A polygraph test administered by polygraph examiner David Rainey and obtained by ABC News said that "no deception was indicated" in McDuffie's test.

 

Even so, this doesn't necessarily mean he's the sailor.

 

Criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, who was also the host of the show "Lie Detector" on which McDuffie appeared and took yet another polygraph test, said that he could have passed based on the fact that he genuinely believes himself to be the sailor, rather than because he actually is.

 

"If you honestly believe something you won't flunk a polygraph," said Bailey.

 

But McDuffie didn't stop at polygraph tests, and went as far as to recruit the help of Lois Gibson, the Guinness Book of World Record's "Most Successful Forensic Artist" and facial expert.

 

Just more than three weeks ago, Gibson photographed McDuffie in the same pose seen in the photograph (the nurse was replaced by a large pillow), and then recorded all of McDuffie's measurements.

 

Using the U.S. Navy hat to establish a scale, Gibson compared the measurements of McDuffie's wrist, hand, ear and hairline in the new photograph with those from the original.

 

A self-proclaimed skeptic, Gibson said she's certain McDuffie is the right guy.

 

"I have looked at all the claimants that have pictures and the ears are way off or the skull shape is way off or the bridge of the nose is way off," said Gibson. "It's the right shape on [McDuffie.]"

 

McDuffie is also the only claimant that has a good explanation for the sailor's awkwardly twisted wrist.

 

"I was keeping my hand from blocking the view," said McDuffie. "I wanted to let him take the picture of her face."

 

While the identity of the nurse has also never been confirmed, a little more headway has been made.

 

Life told ABC News that in 1980, a Californian woman named Edith Shain came forward, claiming to be the nurse in the photograph. Photographer Eisenstaedt met with Shain and even did a piece on her for the magazine.

 

McDuffie said he's 99 percent sure Edith Shain is the nurse in the photograph.

 

"She's the one I kissed," said McDuffie of Shain. "I'm the only one who really knows who the nurse is."

 

Despite his intuition, McDuffie said he refuses to meet with Shain until she too takes a lie detector test.

 

McDuffie, who is now battling lung cancer, said that he tried to meet the photographer at one point -- Eisenstaedt was giving a talk at a local university -- but had no luck.

 

"I went down [near the stage] to talk to him and all [Eisenstaedt] said was 'not my sailor," said McDuffie.

 

McDuffie's evidence seems convincing, but without Eisenstaedt's side of the story it's likely the sailor's identity will always be shrouded in mystery.

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I always like to hear about this story . The most interesting part is photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt . A veteran of World War one …in the German Army!!!!

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I always like to hear about this story . The most interesting part is photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt . A veteran of World War one …in the German Army!!!!

Damn. I didn't know that.

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Damn. I didn't know that.

 

Finally found my old copy of Life Magazine for June 5 1964, in which Eisenstaedt photographed a series of articles on the First World War. He was drafted into the German Army in 1916 at 17 years old and served as a gunner in an artillery battery . He was involved in the battles at Passchendale and Arras and was wounded during the Lys offensive when shrapnel almost tore off his legs. Friends bandaged his wounds and left him behind until the Red Cross picked him up later and took him to a field hospital were he learned the rest of his battery was wiped out – he was one of only two survivors.

These series of Life magazine articles first sparked my interested in the First World War and lead to my lifelong fascination with Great War collecting.

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  • 1 year later...

And the debate still rages on! Saw this last month on an AP site and it's still up at this site Nurse in Times Square photo reunites with Navy

 

 

NEW YORK — A 90-year-old who says she's the woman being kissed by a sailor in Times Square in one of World War II's most famous photographs reunited in town with the Navy on Sunday _ days before she is to serve as grand marshal of the city's Veterans Day parade.

 

Edith Shain of Los Angeles, donning a white nurse's uniform like the one she wore back in 1945, went to see the musical revival of "South Pacific" and posed for pictures, being hoisted off her feet on stage by five of the actors in their Navy whites.

 

On Tuesday, she'll ride in the parade at the head of a contingent of World War II veterans.

 

The "South Pacific" event was a touching reminder of history, but very different from Aug. 15, 1945, the day Shain recalls that she joined thousands of people whooping it up after Japan surrendered. Right there on Broadway and 45th Street, a sailor suddenly grabbed and kissed her _ and the moment was caught by Alfred Eisenstaedt, a Life magazine photographer.

 

His picture from V-J Day became one of the 20th century's most iconic images. But Eisenstaedt didn't get the names of either party, and efforts years later by Life to identify them produced a number of claimants, says Bobbi Baker Burrows, a Life editor with deep knowledge of the subject.

 

About 1980, Shain recalls, she wrote a letter to Life, identifying herself as the woman in the nurse's uniform. Eisenstaedt wrote back and later visited her in California and gave her a copy of the photo. But Eisenstaedt, who died in 1995, was never sure that Shain was the woman in the photo, Burrows said.

 

Because of renewed interest in the subject, she recalled, "Life decided to run an article saying, `If you are the sailor or the nurse in the picture, please step forward.'"

 

"We received claims from a few nurses and dozens of sailors, but we could never prove that any of them were the actual people, and Eisenstaedt himself just said he didn't know," she said.

 

Even the fact that Shain stands only 4 feet 9 isn't helpful in analyzing the photo, in which the sailor has her in what looks more like a death grip than an embrace, with both of their faces obscured.

 

By her own account, Shain said she could not identify the bussing boy in blue.

 

"I went from Doctors Hospital to Times Square that day because the war was over, and where else does a New Yorker go?" she said. "And this guy grabbed me and we kissed, and then I turned one way and he turned the other. There was no way to know who he was, but I didn't mind because he was someone who had fought for me."

 

At least three veterans still lay claim to being the kissing sailor, and at least one other woman has claimed to be the nurse. But Shain, who left nursing to become a kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles for 30 years, appears to hold the edge _ by virtue of persistence, an effervescent charm and unabashed patriotism.

 

"As for the picture," she says, "it says so many things _ hope, love, peace and tomorrow. The end of the war was a wonderful experience, and that photo represents all those feelings."

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post-467-1229819392.jpg

NEW YORK - AUGUST 11: Eighty six-year-old Edith Shain stands in Times Square to welcome a statue of her famous kiss with a sailor on V-J Day at the end of World War II August 11, 2005 in New York City. The famous kiss was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt and the unveiling of the statue coincides with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II on August 14, 1945. The sailor in the photograph has never been positively identified. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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  • 2 years later...

I always aksed myself why they did never ask who were the Nay sailors behing the kissing couple ?

 

They for sure would have said "wooo this is a guy from my ship, i am on this pic behind"

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