Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Maxine Sullivan 2: the Famous Great Day In Harlem Photo

Maxine is one of 3 women in this photo. I went back to the spot to see what it looks like now. It's at 17 East 126th Street.
"A Great Day in Harlem or Harlem 1958 is a 1958 black and white group portrait of 57 jazz musicians photographed on a Harlem street. Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the picture at around 10 a.m. in the summer of 1958. The musicians had gathered on 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem, New York City.
Esquire published the photo in its January 1959 issue. Jean Bach, a radio producer of New York, recounted the story behind it in her 1994 documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem. The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The photo was also the centre of the plot for Steven Spielberg's film, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, who comes to the United States in search of Benny Golson's autograph to complete his father's collection of autographs by the jazz musicians pictured in the classic 1958 photo.

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