PM Daily, January 13, 1941, Vol. 1, No. 149, p. 32
Fire Lieutenant Rescues Woman from Fourth Floor of Burning Building
“This is how Weegee got these pictures…”
“This is how Ceegee got these pictures…”
Weegee Daily Map!
(To be continued…)
PM Daily, January 13, 1941, Vol. 1, No. 149. p. 19
“Times” Reporter Retires After 34 Years at Police Headquarters
Photographs and Words by Weegee
…”John Gordon leaves the ‘Block,’ the dingy alley behind Police Headquarters. He’s off to Florida to fish, golf, and play poker. Good luck to you, John. And ’30.'” – Weegee
Weegee Daily, January 13, 2013
An early publication of Weegee’s words… (From December 1940 there was The Christmas Story, Ermine Wrapped Patrons… And of course Coney Island, in July)
The text is heavily edited, yet retains some of the Weegee charm: “(I’ve often wondered what a Times editorial writer looks like. Personally, I prefer Winchell. The Times editorials are all double talk to me.)”
Photographs and words by Ceegee
(To be continued…)
Ticking of the clock brought on police investigation. PM Photo by Weegee
“Police Solve Mystery of Ticking Suitcase
But Virtually Ruin Contents By Soaking It in Oil.
An attendant at the Pennsylvania Station parcel-checking room wasn’t taking any chances yesterday when he picked up a suitcase and heard a ticking noise inside it. He called the police.
Bomb squad detectives took the suitcase to a nearby parking lot, soaked it in oil and opened it. They found an alarm clock, the hands indicating 5:28; three pairs of women’s shoes, a raincoat, a meat chopper, two flatirons, two brushes and woman’s undies.
The suitcase was returned to the checkroom, the contents a bit the worse for the oil.”
Ticking of the clock brought on photographer’s investigation… WD Photos by Ceegee
Our intrepid photographer went to the Pennsylvania Station/Madison Square Garden parking lot and found a sidewalk soaked in oil, two K-9 police patrol cars, 3 Port Authority police cars, and many barricades…
PM Daily, December 3, 1941
You’ve Often Wondered What It Would be Like If One of Those Things Fell…
This is what… Rigging used to lift a boiler from a truck pulled the fire escape from the wall..
…yanking a big hunk of masonry out of the side of the house at 61st St. and Second Ave…
…allowing the boiler to crash to the sidewalk. Nobody was hurt.
PM Photos by Weegee
WD Daily, December 3, 2012
WD Photos by Google Street View
61st St. and Second Ave…
Weegee, PM Daily, November 24, 1941, p. 13
Cop Kills Holdup Man: A few minutes after he had held up an Essex Street lunchroom on the Lower East Side and shot a patron, Vincent Mannuzza, 31, was lying dead at the feet of the cop who shot him. Patrolman Laurence Cramer, right, shot and killed Mannuzza, after a two-block chase and is shown handing the gunman’s revolver to Sgt. Eugene Morland. The $20 loot taken from the restaurant lies in Mannuzza’s hat at his side. An ambulance surgeon crouches over the dead man who was shot in he head and back. Mannuzza shot a customer, Adam Zayko, 50, when he refused to go into the back room with two other customers and the mangaer of the lunchroom.
PM Photo by Weegee
Weegee Daily, November 24, 2012, – Approximate location
WD Photo by Ceegee
Footnote, or, after a few minutes of Googling, two similar, yet slightly different accounts:
The Herald Statesman, Yonkers, N.Y., Monday, November 24, 1941, p. 5
The Niagara Falls Gazette, Monday, November 24, 1941, p. 22
Weegee Daily, November 24, 2012 – Approximate location
WD Photo by Ceegee
PM Daily, July 22, 1941, p. 20
Dancers Moved Out to 35th Street when Manhattan Center was forced to close its doors on a terrific crowd. Music was piped to sound trucks and the crowd in the street held its dance right there. Dancing was mixed with horseplay as aluminum pots sailed through the air in every direction. It took 50 cops to send the enthusiasts home, but it was all good fun. OPM told housewives that 5000 dishpans mean the U.S.A. can build one fighter plane, 2000 roasters and 2500 double boilers build two more planes. PM Photo by Weegee
Weegee Daily, July 22, 2012
No One Moved Out to 35th Street when Manhattan Center opened its rear stage doors on a terrific religious crowd. An enormous crowd left Manhattan Center and flowed east and west on 34th Street after a religious service ended. A few pedicabs made circles in the street, and parked in the pedicab garage…
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Where the photo was made, and a cheap imitation:
The uncommon circular decoration on the corner of the fire escape, in the forground of the Weegee photo, made the exact location of this photo easy to find. Weegee must have climbed up to the (perhaps) third floor of 327 (or perhaps 329) 35th St., and facing west, or away from Manhattan Center, and very close to NYPD’s Midtown Precinct South, made the photo that was published…
PM, July 31, 1941, pp. 16-17
An on-going collection of images from publications of “Rocco Finds His Pal Stabbed” (Published July 31, 1941) and variants…
Surprisingly, this image isn’t in Naked City. It’s slightly interesting to ask and examine how many variant images there are for each well-known image, or how many exposures, how many different negatives did Weegee make of each scene. Of course every “crime scene” or the setting of each photo is different; for the “Rocco Finds His Pal Stabbed” image (corpse and dog), there were at least two negatives made. And one of the negatives was sometimes cropped significantly when it was published. Even though the corpse is, of course, not going to move, Rocco was moving, Rocco was walking across the floor and frame, we guess that Weegee took the photo that was published in PM first, somewhat hastily, after he recognized the poignancy and novelty, and the possibility of a great caption, something like, “Dead man and his best friend…” and then as the man was walking toward the corpse and dog, Weegee quickly changed film, replaced the exposed sheet of 4×5 negative film with an unexposed one, and then after the man walked over to the dead body and live dog, then Weegee took a slightly more thoughtful or composed image… How many images did Weegee make for each story, how many images were made for context, to illustrate the story. Was Weegee consciously creating photo essays? For the Rocco image, he took at least four total negatives, two of the corpse and dog, one of Rocco outside, at the door, and one of the bar, with the warm glasses of beer. And then he (presumably) looked across the street and saw the crowd of people in front of the synagogue, made an exposure, and then walked over and took another picture…
“He looked like a sullen surly, snarling animal,” Weegee reported. “He stumbled and sagged over to one side like a drunk.” PM Daily, January 16, 1941.
Several Sunday’s ago in a pile of old books we found a card that read: “San Rocco, pregate per noi” with a picture of a Jesus-like man, with shells on his shoulders, pointing to a drop of bright, red blood on his thigh; next to him was a fairly large dog, with something in its mouth. The dog is looking up at the man and the man is looking up, perhaps at or for god… Blood, a dog, and someone named Rocco reminded us of the great Weegee photo: “Rocco Finds His Pal Stabbed.” So we hopped on the subway and tried to find Rocco and his pal…
PM, July 31, 1941, pp. 16-17
The photo was was taken at 62 Stanton St. It was published in PM on July 31, 1941, p. 17…
Unfortunately, the entire block that housed the Italian restaurant at 62 Stanton St., and Rocco, and Rocco’s pal, Luigi Rivieccio, are gone. Replaced by the … Housing projects… The banality of progress…
A few bits of trivia we learned after googling Saint Rocco: Saint Rocco is believed to be “the protector against the plague and all contagious diseases.” The story of Rocco takes place at the end of the 1300s. Rocco was wandering around France and Italy, curing plague victims and eventually contracted it himself. “…Miraculously a dog that refused to eat, faithfully brought him bread as a means of sustenance. The dog used to leave a nearby castle and the Lord of this castle having a curious nature followed this dog into the woods and discovered Rocco. The nobleman had pity on Rocco and brought him to his castle where Rocco was cured.” http://www.sanrocco.org. The 83rd annual San Rocco festival will be held this summer, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. See http://www.sanrocco.org for more details…
WEEGEEWEEGEEWEEGEE 