Iconic World War II Times Square Kiss Photograph Recreated

A nurse who witnessed one of the most iconic photographs in American history helped to recreate the World War II Times Square kiss, 67 years after it occurred.

Gloria Bullard, who is now 87-years-old, was a key witness to the kiss that took place on Victory over Japan Day, and she now commemorated the occasion by posing for the incident.

Jerry Yellin, a World War II fighter pilot, helped to recreate the moment on Wednesday by pretending to kiss Bullard, who stepped in because the woman who claimed to have been the nurse in the original image, Edith Shain, died in 2010.

Yellin and Bullard recreated the kiss to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the celebration. Around them, countless other photos of couples kissing on that day were erected, and they then came together to form Shain’s kiss with the solider. The caption, “Keep the spirt of ’45 alive!” was also added.

Back in 1945, Bullard was stood directly next to the soldier who swept Shain off her feet and then planted a kiss on her whilst the pair were surrounded by thousands of other people in New York’s Time Square.

Alfred Eisenstaedt took the infamous picture and it then appeared in TIME magazine’s end of the war issue.

Discussing the kiss, Mrs Bullard told New York Time in 2010, “We decided to walk over to Eighth Avenue to take the bus home. That’s when we got caught in Times Square.” Bullard, who had just left her class at New York medical college, then decided to join in the festivities too. Bullard added, “It was so exciting. Horns, church bells, all kinds of noises.”

Bullard added that Shain enjoyed the embrace, noting, “It looked to me like she was trying to keep her skirt down. I got the impression she was enjoying it.”

[Image via Lt. Victor Jorgensen/Wikimedia]