thedrifter
08-28-06, 06:42 AM
August 28, 2006
Camera made here brought war effort home
It didn't take long last week for the death of Joe Rosenthal to resonate in Rochester.
Rosenthal was the Associated Press cameraman who photographed the Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during World War II. It may be the "most widely reproduced photo in American history," according to The New York Times.
Rosenthal took the picture with a made-in-Rochester Speed Graphic camera — the workhorse press camera of that era, made by the Folmer-Graflex company. The camera Rosenthal used on Feb. 23, 1945, is now part of the George Eastman House collection and has been on display there. Last Monday, however, after Rosenthal's death at age 94, it was put on special exhibit near the museum's entrance.
Rochester's connections to Rosenthal's photograph do not end with the camera he used to take it.
The value of Rosenthal's powerful image to the war effort back home was instantly recognized. Even as the fighting continued to rage in the Pacific, Rosenthal's photograph became the centerpiece of the nation's seventh war loan drive.
Stecher-Traung Lithograph Corp. on North Goodman Street, which had been cranking out millions of top-secret, coded bomb charts and artillery maps, used the photograph on more than 2 million posters it produced for the Treasury Department to promote the war loan drive. The posters were distributed in war factories and other workplaces and public areas across the country.
And what of the men who raised the flag in the first place?
Three of them did not survive the fighting on Iwo Jima. The three who did — Pfc. Ira Hayes of Bapchule, Ariz.; Pfc. Rene Gagnon of Manchester, N.H.; and Navy Pharmacist's Mate John Bradley of ******on, Wis. — were sent back to the states to travel from city to city, promoting the war bond drive. They arrived in Rochester on May 16, 1945.
"They give you the impression that they feel a bit guilty about their jobs as bond salesmen, ... sleeping in soft beds, eating the best of foods ... and telling people why they should buy War Bonds" while their comrades continued to fight in the Pacific, the Rochester Times-Union noted.
Nonetheless, their impending arrival was ballyhooed in newspaper stories. They did a whirlwind tour of local war plants — visiting Bausch and Lomb, for example, where they were given sunglasses, and Kodak, where they lunched on steak. And then it was off to another steak dinner, this one at the Chamber of Commerce. Given the rationing then in effect, "officials admitted they had to hustle around to find four steaks in the city. Others at the dinner ate ham and liked it."
The public reaction to all of this, however, appears to have been rather muted. The grand kickoff for the fund drive was a parade, with the three Iwo Jima heroes in an open convertible bringing up the rear.
As the cavalcade made its way from East Avenue and Goodman Street toward Main Street, long stretches of sidewalk were deserted. It was almost as if Rochester were an "evacuated city," one reporter noted.
Maybe it was the rain and unseasonable cold that kept the number of spectators down. There certainly did not appear to be any lack of enthusiasm for yet another war bond drive. By mid-June, Monroe County had exceeded its $25.5 million goal by more than $400,000.
Perhaps Rosenthal's stirring photograph of six soldiers raising that flag on Iwo Jima had something to do with it. One thing is certain: Six decades later, an image captured with a Rochester camera still resonates, not just in our city but in the national psyche.
Ellie
Camera made here brought war effort home
It didn't take long last week for the death of Joe Rosenthal to resonate in Rochester.
Rosenthal was the Associated Press cameraman who photographed the Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during World War II. It may be the "most widely reproduced photo in American history," according to The New York Times.
Rosenthal took the picture with a made-in-Rochester Speed Graphic camera — the workhorse press camera of that era, made by the Folmer-Graflex company. The camera Rosenthal used on Feb. 23, 1945, is now part of the George Eastman House collection and has been on display there. Last Monday, however, after Rosenthal's death at age 94, it was put on special exhibit near the museum's entrance.
Rochester's connections to Rosenthal's photograph do not end with the camera he used to take it.
The value of Rosenthal's powerful image to the war effort back home was instantly recognized. Even as the fighting continued to rage in the Pacific, Rosenthal's photograph became the centerpiece of the nation's seventh war loan drive.
Stecher-Traung Lithograph Corp. on North Goodman Street, which had been cranking out millions of top-secret, coded bomb charts and artillery maps, used the photograph on more than 2 million posters it produced for the Treasury Department to promote the war loan drive. The posters were distributed in war factories and other workplaces and public areas across the country.
And what of the men who raised the flag in the first place?
Three of them did not survive the fighting on Iwo Jima. The three who did — Pfc. Ira Hayes of Bapchule, Ariz.; Pfc. Rene Gagnon of Manchester, N.H.; and Navy Pharmacist's Mate John Bradley of ******on, Wis. — were sent back to the states to travel from city to city, promoting the war bond drive. They arrived in Rochester on May 16, 1945.
"They give you the impression that they feel a bit guilty about their jobs as bond salesmen, ... sleeping in soft beds, eating the best of foods ... and telling people why they should buy War Bonds" while their comrades continued to fight in the Pacific, the Rochester Times-Union noted.
Nonetheless, their impending arrival was ballyhooed in newspaper stories. They did a whirlwind tour of local war plants — visiting Bausch and Lomb, for example, where they were given sunglasses, and Kodak, where they lunched on steak. And then it was off to another steak dinner, this one at the Chamber of Commerce. Given the rationing then in effect, "officials admitted they had to hustle around to find four steaks in the city. Others at the dinner ate ham and liked it."
The public reaction to all of this, however, appears to have been rather muted. The grand kickoff for the fund drive was a parade, with the three Iwo Jima heroes in an open convertible bringing up the rear.
As the cavalcade made its way from East Avenue and Goodman Street toward Main Street, long stretches of sidewalk were deserted. It was almost as if Rochester were an "evacuated city," one reporter noted.
Maybe it was the rain and unseasonable cold that kept the number of spectators down. There certainly did not appear to be any lack of enthusiasm for yet another war bond drive. By mid-June, Monroe County had exceeded its $25.5 million goal by more than $400,000.
Perhaps Rosenthal's stirring photograph of six soldiers raising that flag on Iwo Jima had something to do with it. One thing is certain: Six decades later, an image captured with a Rochester camera still resonates, not just in our city but in the national psyche.
Ellie