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Famous kissers weigh in on photo controversy

By Jacqueline Klimas – Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2012 18:55:29 EDT
Feminist bloggers are saying the iconic image of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day in Times Square depicts an act of sexual assault.

This famous photograph is the most iconic photograph in American History – perhaps in all history. Why? Because when people look at this picture V-J Day 1945, In Times Square they understand what it felt like when World War II ended. But until now, we knew very little about V-J Day, 1945, In Times Square. The attached article, in Shipmate magazine, examines the “Five Ps” beyond this American treasure, the Picture, the Place, the Publication, the People and the Proof.

Read the full Shipmate Magazine Article.

Two recent pieces in The Wall Street Journal inspired by Mark Owen’s No Easy Day (Owen West’s and Bing West’s Op-Ed, “Former SEAL Writes a Book; Cue Indignation,” August 30, A13, and Dion Nissenbaum and Siobhan Gorman, “Navy SEAL Memoir Exploits Market,” September 1-2, A3) do a good job in exposing the competing forces of security and entertainment such books put into play.

August 11, 2012 10:37 AM
Sailor, nurse from iconic VJ Day photo reunited
By Michelle Miller

(CBS News) NEW YORK – It’s rare when a single photograph defines an historic event.

But one of those photographs is “The Kiss.”

It’s from Aug. 14, 1945, the day Japan surrendered to end World War II, when a sailor and nurse locked lips in Times Square.

Edith Shain, left, and Carl Muscarello pose with Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Life Magazine V-J Day photo of a sailor kissing a nurse. For 30 years, both have claimed to be the people in the famous photo. Larry Verria, the co-author of a new book about the photo, tells CBS that new evidence rules out everyone except George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman as the kissing couple. (Read the Original Dallas News Post Here)

This story was originally published by the UK’s The Daily Mail – It is an image that captured an epic moment in U.S. history – a sailor locked in a passionate kiss with a nurse in New York City’s Times Square at the end of World War II.

And, after decades of dispute, the couple in the 1945 photograph were revealed to be 89-year-olds George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman.

As the Lifestyle section of OC Metro Business, the mystery behind the identity of the two people in Alfred Eisenstadt’s famous photograph has remained a mystery for decades.

George Galdorisi, co-author – with Larry Verria – of The Kissing Sailor will be interviewed about this book on San Diego’s XETV Channel Six on Thursday, August 16, during the 9:00AM to 10:00AM morning segment. The book, which was released less than three months ago, is already an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best seller and is in its fourth printing! Check back with us later for more information about The Kissing Sailor!

As you can see from the coverage of The Kissing Sailor in Toronto, Canada’s flagship newspaper, The Globe and Mail, sixty-five years after this picture was taken, it is not hyperbole to say that interest in this picture, this event, this moment, has not flagged, it has only intensified.

Annapolis, MD—Lawrence Verria, co-author of The Kissing Sailor:  The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II, along with the “Kissing Sailor” himself—Mr. George Mendonsa and the “nurse”—Ms. Greta Friedman, will be featured on CBS “This Morning Saturday” this Saturday (11 August) during the 8 to 9:00am segment.  CBS brought Mendonsa and Freidman together to meet in Times Square for the first time in 67 years since that fateful kiss took place there on 14 August 1945.  George Mendonsa’s wife, Rita—also featured in that famous photo—was interviewed as well.  This should be a wonderful segment on one of the most iconic photos of all time!