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Sailor defends kiss for history |
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Written by Toluse Olorunnipa, MCT
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Wednesday, 08 August 2007 |
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Carl Muscarello is convinced he is the U.S. Navy sailor who locked lips with a nurse on V-J Day and ended up in one of Life magazine's most memorable photos.
But a recent investigation by a renowned forensic artist from the Houston Police Department says otherwise.
"I looked at him, and his frontal bone is not right, and the bridge of his nasal bone is different," said Lois Gibson, who studied a photo of Muscarello from the Internet.
She also examined the pictures of 10 other men who had gone to Life magazine in the past, claiming to be the sailor in the 1945 photo.
After ruling out Muscarello, 81, of Plantation, Fla., Gibson found Glenn McDuffie of Houston to be the smooching sailor.
In determining McDuffie to be the man, Gibson had him re-create the famous pose with a pillow standing in as the nurse, and took more than 100 pictures. Gibson, who is in the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful forensic artist, measured McDuffie's ears, wrists, knuckles and facial bones.
These findings mean little to Muscarello, who said he is 100 percent certain that he is the man in the photo.
Though photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt never identified the sailor before he died in 1995, Muscarello's account of the day matches one given by Eisenstaedt in a 1985 book:
"I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make any difference. ...
Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse."
Muscarello, who was 18 at the time, said he had disregarded his two-beer limit that day and downed 12, courtesy of a generous civilian.
Elated and drunk, he stumbled through Times Square and joined the festivities.
"I kissed several women that day," he said. "I kissed just about every girl that would stand still long enough."
Muscarello didn't publicize himself as the man in the photo until a family friend persuaded him to in the early 1990s, as the 50th anniversary of V-J Day approached.
His friend put him in touch with Edith Shain of Santa Monica, Calif., who is widely believed to be the nurse in the photo. Shain, now 89, had been contacted by more than 100 men claiming to be the sailor and had her doubts about Muscarello when they spoke by phone.
However, she agreed to meet him. And when she did, she needed to ask him a few questions:
"Why didn't you ever call me after I gave you my number?"
"Where did we go out to dinner that night?"
"How long did the kiss last?"
"What did you say to me after we kissed."
These questions seemed strange to Muscarello.
`I said, `Lady, you never gave me your number, and we never went out to dinner. After we kissed, I didn't say nothing. We just parted and faded back into the crowd.'"
Muscarello said after this round of questioning Shain was convinced he was the one.
Days later, Muscarello was appearing with Shain on TV shows, including "Good Morning America" and "Today."
A retired New York cop, Muscarello works part time at Plantation Preserve Golf Course. He has given motivational speeches and reproduced and signed thousands of copies of the photo. Muscarello, who has eight grandchildren, has grown accustomed to retelling the story and says it's one of his fondest memories.
"You had to have been there," he said of the impromptu Times Square celebration. "I mean New Year's Eve looked like a funeral procession compared to this place." | Only registered users can write comments.
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