{"id":1402,"date":"2012-09-20T18:26:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T18:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/news\/specialcollections\/?p=1402"},"modified":"2012-09-20T18:26:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T18:26:49","slug":"1402","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/2012\/09\/20\/1402\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic photo may have been a publicity stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just a publicity stunt? As iconic\u00a0 photo \u2018Lunch Atop a Skyscraper\u2019 turns 80, questions arise about its\u00a0 origin<\/h3>\n

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Unknown\/\u00a9 Bettmann\/CORBIS\u00a0Intrepid steel workers atop the RCA Building \u2013 now known as the GE\u00a0 Building \u2013 on Sept. 29, 1932. An archivist for the photo agency that\u00a0 owns the photo rights says the shot was staged to promote the new Rockefeller Center\u00a0and not a candid.<\/h4>\n

As the 80th anniversary of the iconic Depression-era photo showing hard hats\u00a0 lunching atop Rockefeller Center approaches, one archivist is saying the snap\u00a0 wasn\u2019t as candid as it seems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Known as “Lunch atop a skyscraper,” the breathtaking photo shows 11 fearless\u00a0 laborers taking a sky-high siesta on a girder 69 stories above Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The shot’s appeal was always in the men’s demeanor, casually munching\u00a0 sandwiches and puffing smokes 850 feet above 41st Street.<\/p>\n

But now, a historian for Corbis Images, which owns the photos rights, says\u00a0 the shot was staged and probably not taken by famed photographer Charles C.\u00a0 Ebbets.<\/p>\n

“The image was a publicity effort by the Rockefeller Center,” Ken Johnston,\u00a0 Corbis’ chief historian, told British newspaper The Independent.<\/p>\n

“It seems pretty clear they were real workers, but the event was organized\u00a0 with a number of photographers.”<\/p>\n

The photo was taken on Sept. 29, 1932 and appeared in the New York Herald\u00a0 Tribune on Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

\"ROCKEFELLER21N_2_WEB\" <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Bettmann\/CORBIS\u00a0A second photo showed the workers taking a post-lunch nap.\u00a0 Corbis says several photographers were on the scene, and it can’t be sure who\u00a0 took which photo.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

The workers were toiling on the RCA Building, the signature colossus of\u00a0 Rockefeller Center now known as the GE Building. At the time, it was billed as\u00a0 the largest office building in the world.<\/p>\n

It was decades before Ebbets was identified as the shooter, but Johnston\u00a0 told The Independent there were several shutterbugs on the scene, and Corbis can\u00a0 no longer be sure who took it.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the photo was “a piece of American history,” Johnston said, and\u00a0 remains Corbis’ biggest selling historical snapshot.<\/p>\n

A second image from the series shows the men taking a post lunch snooze on\u00a0 the girder.<\/p>\n

The workers\u2019 identities has always been a mystery \u2013 Corbis tried\u00a0 tracking them down 12 years ago but had no luck \u2013 but an Irish\u00a0 filmmaker’s new movie claims to know the stories behind two of them.<\/p>\n

The documentary, \u201cMen at Lunch,\u201d produced by Sean O’Cualain, tells the story\u00a0 of Pat Glynn, 75, and Patrick O’Shaughnessy, 77, who say their fathers are the\u00a0 men on the far left and far right of the photograph.<\/p>\n

\"ROCKEFELLER21N_3_WEB\" <\/p>\n

Photodisc\/Getty Images\u00a0The GE Building — commonly known as 30 Rock — at present\u00a0 day Rockefeller<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/new-york\/a-publicity-stunt-iconic-photo-lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-turns-80-questions-arise-origin-article-1.1163687#ixzz272GQCHB5<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2206050\/The-picture-proves-iconic-photograph-workers-eating-lunch-Rockefeller-beam-publicity-stunt.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/photography\/9550389\/Lunch-Atop-a-Skyscraper-iconic-American-photo-is-80-years-old.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/art\/news\/a-casual-lunchtime-snap-or-the-worlds-most-iconic-publicity-stunt-8157380.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a publicity stunt? As iconic\u00a0 photo \u2018Lunch Atop a Skyscraper\u2019 turns 80, questions arise about its\u00a0 origin Unknown\/\u00a9 Bettmann\/CORBIS\u00a0Intrepid steel workers atop the RCA Building \u2013 now known as the GE\u00a0 Building \u2013 on Sept. 29, 1932. An archivist for the photo agency that\u00a0 owns the photo rights says the shot was staged to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-archives-in-the-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libnews.binghamton.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}