Astronomers analyze "The Kiss"
Shadows and defacto sundials may finally identify the couple in the famous V-J Day "Kiss" photo of a sailor and nurse smooching taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945. The memorable photo, published by LIFE magazine seventy years ago, captured the air of jubilation and celebration of the end of World War II when Japan surrendered.
In an article published in the August issue of Sky & Telescope, researchers at Texas State University analyzed the angle of shadows in the photo, using Manhattan's buildings as defacto sundials, to calculate the time of day the photo was taken. The telltale clue was a shadow cast on a building in the top right of the image which helped determine the photo was taken at precisely 5:51 pm, throwing many theories and claims about the identity of the mysterious couple out the window.
"The Kiss" - unknown sailor and nurse
The image published by LIFE magazine summed up the national mood -- a jubilant American sailor clutching a white-uniformed nurse in a back-bending, passionate kiss as he vents his joy while thousands jam Times Square to celebrate the long awaited-victory over Japan, August 14, 1945.
Americans began celebrating "as if joy had been rationed and saved up for the three years, eight months and seven days since Sunday, December 7, 1941", as Life magazine later reported.
Eisentaedt's contact sheet
Alfred Eisenstaedt's contact sheet of images of Times Square V-J Day celebrations shows a sequence of four images of the unidentified sailor and nurse kissing.
Frame #23 (top) shows people celebrating near the New York theater just before he spotted the couple. Frame #25 (bottom) is the one that was published by LIFE magazine.
Eisentaedt's contact sheet
Alfred Eisenstaedt's contact sheet of images of Times Square V-J Day celebrations shows a sequence of four images of the unidentified sailor and nurse kissing...these are the last two in the sequence.
Lt. Victor Jorgensen's kiss photo
The kissing couple caught the eye of Lt. Victor Jorgensen at nearly the exact same moment as the second of Eisenstaedt's four images, from a position just a few feet to Eisenstaedt's right.
Furthering the proof of time of day for the famous photo is the fact that Jorgensen didn't reach New York City's Penn Station by train until 3:00pm that day.
Gloria Bullard has identified herself as the nurse in the background, under the "W" of "Walgreen Drugs" at the extreme left of Jorgensen's photograph.
"New York City celebrating the surrender of Japan. They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square," said Lt. Victor Jorgensen, describing the scene on August 14, 1945.
Manhattan's grid - Times Square
True north is "up" for this map of Times Square in 1945, with "X" marking the spot of the famous Kiss photographed by Eisenstaedt ("E") and Jorgensen ("J"). Although printed maps of Manhattan often show the avenues running vertically and the numbered streets running horizontally, the Manhattan street grid is actually tilted 29° away from true north.
Texas State University astrophysicist Donald Olson, along with his colleague Russell Doescher and Iowa State University astrophysicist Steven D. Kawaler, studied hundreds of photos and maps of Times Square in the 1940s to identify the source of a cast shadow in Eisenstaedt's photo.
VJ Day - Times Square
By coincidence, this amateur V-J Day photograph of the Bond Clothes clock shows the exact time of Manhattan's sunset -- 7:56 p.m. Unlike the prominent minute hand, the short hour hand of the Bond clock is hard to make out in the oblique views of Eisenstaedt's Kiss series.
For decades, it was assumed the photo was taken soon after President Harry S. Truman announced Japan's surrender. The announcement from the White House appeared on the electric sign in Times Square at 7:03 p.m. In 2010, however, Gloria Bullard, who identified herself in the background of Jorgensen's photo, gave an account of witnessing the Kiss that placed the time closer to 6 p.m, indicating people were in a joyous, kissing mood as the news spread, but well before Truman's official announcement.
Hotel Astor
The research team determined the cast shadow in the Eisenstaedt photo came from a large sign on the top of the Hotel Astor. They were able to determine that top of the shadow was 94 feet above the street on what was the Loew's Building at West 45th Street and Broadway. They confirmed their analysis by recreating the scene in a scale model. By figuring on what caused the shadow the researchers could then determine the position of the sun and time of the photo.
This 1950s postcard of the Astor Hotel shows the hotel as seen from the Loew's Building. The hotel sign projects above the roof at the corner of Broadway and 45th Street. The sign's illuminated letters read "Hotel Astor" in the cooler months and "Astor Roof" in the warmer months when the roof garden was open.
On August 14, 1945, the Sun's path through the late afternoon sky caused the solar disk to disappear behind the sign on the Astor roof.
Times Square
This detail from a postcard photograph shows the relationship between the Hotel Astor roof sign and the windows of the Loew's building's 8th floor, which is the floor just above the prominent ledge, even with the bottom of the Loew's State theater sign.
This pre-war view includes signs for Chevrolet, Planters Peanuts, and Coca-Cola, which by 1945 had been replaced by signs for Kinsey Whiskey, Ruppert Beer, and Pepsi-Cola. The enormous sign at the right advertised Wrigley's Spearmint in the pre-war days and Schlitz Beer in 1945.
Edith Shain
Edith Shain, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, and Carl Muscarello, a former police officer who died in 2014 at age 86, were among those that laid claim to being the famous couple in the photo.
Here, eighty six-year-old Edith Shain stands in Times Square to welcome a statue replicating the famous Kiss with a sailor for V-J Day at the end of World War II in New York City on August 11, 2005. The unveiling of the statue of "The Kiss", photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt, coincided with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II on August 14, 1945.
Edith Shain and Carl Muscarello
Edith Shain and Carl Muscarello, who claimed to be the nurse and sailor in the famous photograph taken on V-J Day, kiss next to a sculpture based on the photo in New York City's Times Square to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, August 14, 2005.
Another couple who gets the lion's share of the credit in history for being the famous couple is George Mendonsa and Greta (Zimmer) Friedman. "The Kissing Sailor," a book published in 2012 by Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, that tells their story states Mendonsa was coming out of a 1:05 pm movie at Radio City Music Hall that was interrupted only minutes into the film by the rumor of a Japanese surrender. Friedman said she was on a lunch break when she was kissed. This version of the story put "The Kiss" at around 2pm.
Edith Shain and Carl Muscarello
"Kisses were common in Times Square on V-J Day, " as Donald Olson said and dozens of couples claimed to be Eisenstaedt's couple.
"I can tell you some things about the picture, and I can rule some people out based on the time of day," Astronomer Donald Olson said. "We can show that some of the accounts are entirely inconsistent with the astronomical evidence."
"The Kiss" sculpture in Times Square
Donald Olson used similar techniques to explore the reason the Titanic sunk and in a February 2004 issue of Sky & Telescope he and his colleagues reported how they determined Edvard Much's exact location when he felt the emotion depicted in his 1893 painting, "The Scream," connecting it to the blood-red sky created by the eruption of Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia.
Perhaps in the end we will never know the true identities of the unknown nurse and sailor seventy years on and the mystery will continue to fascinate and endure. Olson and his team have added a new layer to the story.