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Weegee Covers Christmas in New York, December 1940
“Early Christmas Eve I received a phone call from Wesley Price, one of PM’s picture editors. Price told me he wanted a good holiday picture, something with plenty of OOMPH.”
– Weegee, PM, December 1040
Founded in 1940, New York’s City’s newest tabloid newspaper, PM, needed a splash for the holiday season. The editors called Weegee, aka Ascher Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), the intrepid photojournalist and photographer who thanks to a sensitive nose for a story (and a police radio) was always first on the scene. Could he make the paper sing? PM clearly thought so. They did several stories on their photographers. including one with the title “Why Weegee won’t marry a Brooklyn girl.”
Before Weegee’s night out, a little on PM. The paper folded in 1948. Its publisher, Ralph Ingersoll (December 8, 1900 – March 8, 1985), a former managing editor at The New Yorker and then Time-Life publications, wanted a left-wing daily newspaper. Ingersoll’s PM started on June 18, 1940 with no advertising and a front-page editorial that demanded US support for the nations fighting Nazi Germany and its allies:
“We are against people who push other people around…
“PM starts off at the most critical moment in the history of the modern world. The news is too big, too terrible to seem for a second like a break for a newspaper coming into being. Instead it dwarfs us. It pitches us, without preparation, into the midst of horror. It means that we, who wanted time to grow, shall have no youth – shall be gray-haired from birth.”
Despite its desire to be independent of business – hence, no ads – PM relied on the financial backing of Chicago-based Marshall Field III (September 28, 1893 – November 8, 1956), one of the richest men in the country and heir to the to the Marshall Field department store fortune. On his involvement with PM, he declared, “I’m not supporting a newspaper, I’m supporting an idea.”
And so to December 26, 1940. Weegee speaks to PM’s readers:
Early Christmas Eve I received a phone call from Wesley Price, one of PM’s picture editors. Price told me he wanted a good holiday picture, something with plenty of OOMPH. Lots of Christmas spirit in it. in other words a masterpiece. Jokingly I replied you just couldn’t order a picture like that, like you would a box of cigars. It had to happen. However, I asked him if he had any suggestions. He suggested that I get the picture in for the first edition.
I left police headquarters in my car at 2:30 Christmas morning. I turned the two radios on. One the regular broadcast receiver, to get some holiday music to put me in the mood; and the other radio, a police short wave receiver to get the police signals so I would know what was going on.
The first police call I picked up was for West and Bank Sts. When I got there I found a car with a Jersey license, turned on its side, with a cop on top of it. Nobody seemed to be hurt. Soon a towing wagon arrived to take the car away. I made a shot of it and was on my way.
The Bowery mission in December 1940 by Weegee
Then I picked up six fire alarm signals. They were all false. I didn’t think Santa did that.
Then I stopped at the All Night Mission at No. 8 Bowery. Every night in the year about 100 hopelessly beaten and homeless men sit on benches and sleep as best they can. Except for a Christmas tree in front, everything was the same. The same despair and hopelessness.
I tiptoed in at 4 in the morning, being careful not to disturb anyone. Everyone was asleep. The place was as usual playing to “Sitting up” only. The same electric sign was lit with the illuminated big letters, JESUS SEES, the only source of light in the place. I wondered if He approved…
On the way out, along a big stove near the door, I noticed a pair of stockings, turned inside out, hung to dry.
The Bowery Savings Bank by Weegee
Next I picked up a police alarm for 102nd St. and Lexington Ave. When I got there I found a man had been stabbed to death and was lying on the corner. From the St. John’s Episcopal Church, on the opposite corner, came the sound of organ music and the singing of the Christmas worshipers. I made a shot of the scene and started back to police headquarters.
When I arrived at my home, in back of Police Headquarters, I found a package wrapped in fancy paper outside my door. It was a present from my Chinese laundry man, Willie Chu, of 95 Elizabeth St. It contained a pound of tea and a half pound of lichee nuts. I had been looking for the Christmas spirit all night long. And had found it, on my doorstep. Lichee NUTS to you, Santa Claus…
You can see more of Weegee’s brilliant stories of New York here.
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