KissOn the day that World War II ended, Life photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt made one of the most famous pictures the magazine ever ran. The nurse being kissed by a passing sailor in New York's Times Square was Edith Shain. A retired L.A. Unified teacher, she has lived in Los Angeles now for a long time. Dennis McCarthy writes in the Daily News that she will ride as grand marshal in this year's Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade.

She was just finishing her shift at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan when the news came over the radio. The war was over.

"If you were a New Yorker, you knew exactly where you had to go to celebrate -- Times Square," Edith says. "I grabbed one of the other nurses, and we jumped on the subway downtown.

"We got off at Times Square, and had walked only a short distance when this sailor grabbed me, spun me around, and kissed me. I let him. I thought this guy had been fighting for our country. He deserved a big kiss."

She didn't tell her parents or friends about it for years, but Eisenstaedt later flew to Los Angeles and confirmed she was the nurse in the photograph. The image ran inside the first time it was published, but later appeared on several Life covers.

More: Los Angeles
© 2003-2009   •  About LA Observed  •  Email the editor
LA Biz Observed
4:03 PM Fri | CBS and ABC have far bigger fish to fry - namely whether their stations can get back the auto and retail advertising that fell off a cliff in 2009.
Native Intelligence
Jenny Price | Recycling!
Veronique de Turenne | And there's still time to take part!
Phil Wallace | Searching for answers after a third loss this year.
Deanne Stillman | Jihad and cash offers meet American soldiers during the Gulf War, and beyond.
Iris Schneider | After a tough year financially, the Museum of Contemporary Art put on a gala party to celebrate with 1,000 of its closest friends.
Jenny Burman
Thinking more about buying less.
Here in Malibu
Seriously -- turn out the lights.
Sponsors
Jewish Journal logo
The California Wellness Foundation
Playa Vista ad
Blogads

Blogads Los Angeles network

Get RSS Feeds
of LA Observed
LA Observed publishes several Real Simple Syndication feeds for easy scanning of headlines. If you wish to subscribe to a feed, most popular RSS readers will do it for you. You can also enter the web address from the XML button below or click on a specific feed. For more help with RSS, try here or here.




Add to Google