Lunch atop a Skyscraper

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper is an iconic photograph taken on September 20, 1932, of eleven ironworkers sitting on a steel beam 840 feet (260 meters) above the ground on the sixty-ninth floor of the RCA Building in Manhattan, New York City. It was arranged as a publicity stunt, part of a campaign promoting the skyscraper. The photograph was first published in October 1932. It was later acquired by Corbis Images in 1995. Often misattributed to Lewis Hine, the identity of the photographer is unknown, although it is speculated to be Charles C. Ebbets. Many claims have been made regarding the identities of the men in the image, though only a few have been definitely identified. Ken Johnston, manager of the historic collections of Corbis, referred to the image as "a piece of American history." The film Men at Lunch is based on the photograph.

Overview

The RCA Building in December 1933

The photograph depicts eleven men eating lunch while sitting on a steel beam 840 feet (260 meters) above on the sixty-ninth floor of the near-completed RCA Building (now known as 30 Rockefeller Plaza) in Manhattan, New York City, on September 20, 1932. These men were immigrant ironworkers employed in the construction of the RCA Building in the Rockefeller Center. They were accustomed to walking along the girders. The photograph was taken as part of a campaign promoting the skyscraper. Other photographs taken depict the workers throwing a football and pretending to sleep on the girder. Central Park is visible in the background.

The photograph was first published in the Sunday supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932, with the caption: "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper".

History

In 1995, Corbis Images, a company that provides archived images to professional photographers, bought a collection of over eleven million images called the Bettmann Archive. The Lunch Atop a Skyscraper photograph was in the Acme Newspictures archive, a part of the Bettmann Archive collection, although it was uncredited. According to Ken Johnston, manager of the historic collections of Corbis, the image was initially received in a Manila paper envelope. The original negative of the photograph was made of glass, which had broken into five pieces. It is stored in a humidity and temperature-controlled preservation facility in Iron Mountain storage facility, Pennsylvania.

Identification

Photographer

The identity of the photographer is unknown. It was often misattributed to Lewis Hine, a Works Progress Administration photographer, from the mistaken assumption that the structure is Empire State Building. In 1998, Tami Ebbets Hahn, a resident of Wilmington, noticed a poster of the image and speculated that it was one of her father's (Charles C. Ebbets; 1905–1978) photographs. In 2003, she contacted Johnston. Corbis hired Marksmen Inc., a private investigation firm, to find the photographer. An investigator discovered an article from The Washington Post, which credited the image to Hamilton Wright. The Wright family, however, was not familiar with the photograph. It was common for Wright to receive credit for photographs taken by those working for him; Hahn's father had worked for the Hamilton Wright Features syndicate. In 1932, Ebbets had been appointed the photographic director of the Rockefeller Center, responsible to publicize the new skyscraper. Hahn found her father's $1.50 per hour (equivalent to $33 in 2023) paycheck, the ironworkers's photograph, as well as an image of her father with a camera which appeared to be of the same place and time. Analyzing the evidence, Johnston said: "As far as I'm concerned, he's the photographer." Corbis later acknowledged Ebbets's authorship. It was later found out that photographers Thomas Kelley, William Leftwich, and Ebbets were present there on that day. Due to the uncertain identity of the photographer, the image is again without credit.

Ironworkers

According to a New York Post survey, numerous claims have been made regarding the identities of the men in the image. The film Men at Lunch, based on the photograph, traces some of the men to be of possible Irish origin, and the director reported in 2013 that he planned to follow up on other claims from Swedish relatives. The film confirms the identities of two men: Joseph Eckner, third from the left, and Joe Curtis, third from the right, by cross-referencing with other pictures taken the same day, on which they were named at the time. The first man from the right, holding a bottle, has been identified as Slovak worker Gustáv (Gusti) Popovič. The photograph was found in his estate, with "Don't you worry, my dear Mariška, as you can see I'm still with bottle" written on the back. The second worker from the left has been identified as Natxo Ibargüen Moneta, a native of Spain.

Legacy

The photograph has been referred to as the "most famous picture of a lunch break in New York history" by Ashley Cross, a correspondent of the New York Post. It has been colorized and a 40 feet (12 meters) long statue of the photograph has been created by Sergio Furnari. The image has been a best seller for Corbis. Although critics have referred to the photograph as a publicity stunt, Johnston referred it to as "a piece of American history." Taken during the Great Depression, the photograph became an iconic emblem of New York City and is often re-created by construction workers. Time included the image in its list of 100 most infuential images of all time. Discussing the significance of the image in 2012, Johnston said:

There's the incongruity between the action – lunch – and the place – 800 feet in the air – and that these guys are so casual about it. It's visceral: I've had people tell me they have trouble looking at it out of fear of heights. And these men – you feel you get a very strong sense of their characters through their expressions, clothes and poses.

See also

• List of photographs considered the most important

Works cited

English sources

• Tauranac, John (2018). Manhattan's Little Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in Brick and Mortar, Glass and Stone. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 978-1-4930-3048-4.
• Cross, Ashley (October 26, 2003). "Up in the Air; Mystery Deepens in Old Pic". New York Post. Retrieved May 6, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Perkins, Corinne (September 20, 2012). "Protecting an Iconic Image". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• Gambino, Megan (September 19, 2012). "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper Photograph: The Story Behind the Famous Shot". Smithsonian. ISSN 0037-7333. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• Hotz, Amy (November 10, 2003). "A Photo Finished". Star-News. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• Parente, Audrey (March 5, 2012). "Ormond Woman, Daughter Document Legacy". The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• Lee, Jennifer (January 18, 2007). "A Mobile Work of Art Is Missing an Ironworker". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
• Pollak, Michael (March 9, 2012). "Answers to Questions About New York". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• Anderson, John (November 8, 2012). "How a Galway Pub Led to a Skyscraper". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
• "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper: Iconic American photo is 80 years old". The Telegraph. September 20, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
• Contrera, Jessica (September 1, 2019). "One of the most iconic photos of American workers is not what it seems". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
• Lunch Atop A Skyscraper: The Story Behind The 1932 Photo (Video). Time. November 28, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2022 – via YouTube. The image first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on October 2nd, 1932.
• 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time. Time Inc. 2016. ISBN 978-1-61893-507-6. Retrieved May 6, 2022 – via Google Books.

Non-English sources

• "Un vasco, entre los trabajadores de la icónica foto del Rockefeller Center [A Basque, among the workers of the iconic photo of Rockefeller Center]". EITB (in Spanish). March 10, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2022. Natxo Ibarguen Moneta es uno de los trabajadores que aparecen en la famosa foto de 1932 'Lunch atop a skyscraper' (Almuerzo sobre un rascacielos) [Natxo Ibarguen Moneta is one of the workers who appears in the famous 1932 photo 'Lunch atop a skyscraper']
• Bergström, Håkan (January 5, 2013). "Högt över New York satt bondpojkarna från Okome [High above New York sat the peasant boys from Okome]". Hallandsposten (in Irish). Retrieved May 6, 2022. Irländaren Seán Ó Cualáin har precis gjort en film om bilden, Men at Lunch, där han med olika grad av visshet har identifierat några av byggjobbarna som irländska immigranter ... Vi mejlar honom ... Svaret kommer rätt omgående: 'Nej, de två du nämner har vi ingen aning om vilka de är. Stålarbetarna var ofta irländare, indianer (Native Americans), skandinaver och newfoundländare. Så ett svenskt anspråk är trovärdigt.' ... Vi vill gärna åka till Sverige och träffa dina kontakter, förmodligen i slutet av 2013 eller början av 2014. [The Irishman Seán Ó Cualáin has just made a film about the film, Men at Lunch, where he with varying degrees of certainty has identified some of the construction workers as Irish immigrants ... We email him ... The answer comes right away: 'No, the two you mention, we have no idea who they are. The steelworkers were often Irish, Native Americans, Scandinavians and Newfoundlanders. So a Swedish claim is credible.' ... We would like to go to Sweden and meet your contacts, probably at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014.]
• "Oběd na vrcholu mrakodrapu: jak to opravdu bylo [Lunch at the top of the skyscraper: How it really was]". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Mafra. October 1, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2022. Také Popovič má totiž důkaz in memoriam. V pozůstalosti po něm zůstala právě ta fotka, o níž je řeč, a na zadní straně bylo napsáno: 'Nič še ty neboj, moja milá Mariška, jak vidziš, ta ja furt s fľašečku. Tvoj Gusti.' [Popovič also has proof in memoriam. The picture in question remained in his estate, and it was written on the back: 'Don't worry, my dear Mariska, as you can see, I'm still with a bottle. Your Gusti.']
• Perrier, Frédéric (2013). "« Lunch Atop a Skyscraper » : le cliché mythique fête ses 80 ans ['Lunch Atop a Skyscraper': the mythical cliché celebrates its 80th anniversary]". Transatlantica (in French) (1). doi:10.4000/transatlantica.5788. ISSN 1765-2766. Retrieved May 7, 2022 – via Journals.openedition.org. C'est l'image la plus vendue de l'agence fondée en 1989 par Bill Gates, Corbis Image, qui, pour l'occasion, a fait de surprenantes révélations. [This is the best-selling image from the agency founded in 1989 by Bill Gates, Corbis Image, which, for the occasion, made some surprising revelations.]