A closer look at a legendary image of men at work
Woke up this morning, on the eve of Labor Day, thinking about this photograph, which was taken on September 20, 1932.......
Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) was taken in 1932 CREDIT: Photo: Bettmann Collection/Corbis
Weren’t those workers from Ireland? From Donegal even?
Well, no one can prove they weren’t. We just don’t know, for sure.
All we know with some degree of certainty is that at least two (and maybe four) of the eleven men here pictured were Irish or of Irish descent. But those two were from Spanglish near Gort in County Galway, not Donegal. Matty O’Shaughnessy and Patrick (Sonny) Glynn were born there, their relatives say. Two documentary film makers from Ireland believe them. Their documentary Men At Lunch came out in 2012. If its available online, I couldn't find it. But this trailer for the doc is helpful.
“The pay was good. The thing was, you had to be willing to die.”
Best guesses as to who’s who taking a break from building the RCA skyscraper 69 stories above the streets of New York City: On the far left, Sonny Glynn from Shanaglish, Co Galway. (He must not have know smoking wasted for him.) On the far right with the empty bottle is Matty O’Shaugnessy, also from Shanaglish. (Conflicting reports say it’s Gustav Popovic.) In the middle of the eleven is Peter Rice of the Mohawk Nation. Supposedly, Stretch Donahue is seated fifth from the right with Francis Michael Rafferty on his right.
Thomas Kelley, one of four photographers taking pictures that day.”The revelations about the practices of early daredevil photographers will induce vertigo in all but the bravest psyches.”
They weren’t really just having lunch when a photographer came by
You may not be shocked to learn that this was a posed photograph. Which takes nothing away from the degree of difficulty defied and tremendous sense of balance displayed by these eleven men, and hundreds like them doing the same job. Were they working without a net? There were no helmets, and no harnesses, but it wasnt quite as dangerous as it appears in this photo, “...a finished floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza was probably just a few feet away… it was certainly not casual….it was among many such posed photos taken and distributed to the news media with the intention of promoting Depression-era real estate (albeit by photographers who were “absolutely mad,” said the Rockefeller Center archivist, Christine Roussel).
But who actually took the most famous shot that came out of the photo opportunity? No one knows. But the photographers on scene wanted to let the workers know they weren’t the only fearless ones. “I think they like to show off near the construction workers, ‘Well, you guys walk these beams but so can we.’ We take risks too,” according to Time Magazine.
See for yourself
Here are some sources.
NY Times - (Paywall) - “the casual recklessness of its subjects: The beam on which they sit seems suspended over an urban abyss, with the vastness of Central Park spread out behind them and nothing, seemingly below.
How the Mohawk Nation was involved.
The back story of the Irish documentary Men at Lunch or in Irish Lón sa Spéir.
