Mother Cat stops Traffic
It was a sunny summer afternoon, July 29, 1925. Harry Warnecke, a photographer for the New York News, got a phone tip that a cat trying to carry its kittens home was tying up traffic because a policeman had stopped the cars on a busy street (Centre Street) to allow it to cross. Warnecke arrived after the event was over, but he convinced the policeman and cat’s owner to allow him to recreate the scene. Despite the policeman’s initial reluctance, the cat’s inclination to cross the street diagonally instead of in front of the cars, and furious honking motorists, Warnecke finally got his shot — after three attempts.
When the picture ran, the New York News was besieged with letters and requests for prints. A few days later, the helpful policeman received a letter of commendation from the Police Commissioner.
excellent – interesting stories behind these photos
John McGerr
June 1, 2009 at 6:41 pm
[...] too much time reading it tonight when I should be in bed, I might as well share it with you too. This is most definitely not the most iconic photo on the blog, but it’s the one I’m linking [...]
Iconic Photos | syntaxfree
October 20, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I believe Harry Warnecke is the same that invented a three color seperating camera (createing pre-press negatives) that allowed the New YOrk Daily News the ability to publish color photo’s in their Sunday edition well ahead of George Eastman’s color photographic film based process.
A.G. Westerman
January 2, 2011 at 5:48 am
That was America.Dreamland full of good people.now that cat would be ran over by school bus!
Andrew
April 30, 2012 at 2:03 am