They're the unknown workers. They're the unsung heroes of construction.
 
Their attitude,
I think their casualness,
the indifference to the risk that they're taking is what
separates the photograph.
If you see the picture once,
you never forget it.
This photograph which is known around the world
Shows Eleven men sitting on a beam about 800 feet above the city of New York
You can see Central park in the background see buildings below
and they're casually sitting there one right next to the other eating their lunch and
They're all construction workers, and they came from all over the world. There are Irishmen, there are Mohawk Indians.
It's a mixed bag of people, and they're all working in 1931-32.
The image first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune [on] October 2nd
1932 the Herald Tribune was a major New York publication
And it I think [that] generated an enormous [amount] of excitement about what was going on
they were getting as much publicity as they possibly could in any office that was rented whether you were a dentist or a
Hairdresser or a major Corporation they would get you into the news
Rockefeller put a quarter of a million people's work in the middle of the [depression] there were truckers are people in quarries people making windows
Different kinds of people, but it really had a serious effect on the economy
And that was the attitude very very positive towards the future very positive Towards America very
positive Towards business
The funniest part about the photographs were they were done for publicity
So you'll have stunts
Like this fellow Joseph McCluskey holding a flag up that seems to be attached to the top of the Empire [State] building
The other pictures also show men riding the final block of stone up going to celebrate
putting the last stone in place
We do have a photograph taken the same day
And what I call the hats off picture shows them looking at the camera and saying look at us
They're so proud of themselves. You know there's a real sense of pride and accomplishment
[and] I think that's also what all the pictures show the pride the guys had in their work
There are a couple of photographers who were present that day
William Left Which Charles [Ebbets] and
Thomas Kelly, who had to have a death wish [and]
They would have on their back a leather container that contained the glass plates, and they would actually switch them out [I]
Think that they liked to show off next to the construction workers
Well you guys walk these beams, but so can we we take risks, [too]
The question of the names of all these men comes up frequently
[who] are these men because on the back of the photograph They're not identified
We have people who have claimed that. They're their uncle [or] their relative
But most of them are either good guesses or plain guesses [I]
think it's kind of sad that they're not recognized because everybody else gets a credit and
Yet the people who actually have built the building are forgotten
the fact that they are immortalized in this picture and
They are the guys who risked their lives building this building
And I think that's what's important [about] the picture is that it places them in history as being important in
the Development of New York City and Rockefeller Center, and
Gives a great deal of credit to a group that basically goes uncredited
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