“Here is a picture of the crowd at the Miss Jacksonville Contest of 1954. The contest was held in the Palace Theatre. Note the young photographer near center. People were pretty well dressed compared with today.” LS
Anyone recognize the young photographer wielding the Speed Graphic in the crowd?
Tags: audience, crowd, historic photographs, men, Miss Jacksonville, Palace Theatre, photographer, speed graphic, vintage photography, women
I think that’s Rocco Morabito in the photo? Mr. “Kiss of Life”
I agree with Jason. Here’s a link to info on rocco while he is holding a similar camera.
http://omnologos.com/tag/pulitzer-prize/
Richard, Thanks for the link. The color portrait on the page is one that I took of Rocco and was used by Time Magazine with his obituary. I need to contact his daughter and get her to look at this photo and get the definitive word. Bob
I finally showed this post to Rocco’s daughter to try to nail down if it was him or not and although not conclusive, I love her comments which she allowed me to share:
“I have to be honest, I cannot say for sure! My Dad was doing mostly doing sports before, and when, I was born (’53)– but he may have been doing some society stuff to supplement his take home pay–$4.00 a print!! It just almost has to be him because he was still so small right after the war and the coloring and nose just seem to fit. However, my Dad would have been running up and down the aisles, or backstage, unless forcibly retained! He was not one to sit in an audience and he knew enough people that would back him up. Everybody wanted him to put their picture in the paper. He always had to explain that he was the photographer and that other people decided which shots went in the paper.
I guess we’ll all have to keep guessing.
Thanks, it was fun to weigh in. Hope all the photogs are fine and enjoying their work
as much as he did.
Tina”