News Noir: New York Noir: Crime Photos From The Daily News Archive

4/6/2020 New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive - 1999, Page 5 by William Hannigan.
Hannigan. | Online Research Library: Questia
New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Archive
By William Hannigan
NEWS NOIR
William Hannigan
Shortly after 11 p.m. on the night of January 12, 1928, the convicted murderess
Ruth Snyder was led into the death house at Sing Sing Prison, the first woman
ever to face the electric chair. A small crowd of prison officials and reporters
who had been gathered to witness the historic execution watched in silence
while an ominous black hood was lowered over her head. Her eyes still peering
out, she was bound and shackled, and the electrodes were set. This was society's
price for the calculated bludgeoning, poisoning, and strangulation of a husband
she no longer cared for. At 11:06 the executioner threw the switch, sending the
retribution coursing through her body. At precisely the same moment, however,
another device was activated, one that would forever capture the moment and
blanket it in controversy. Unbeknownst to prison officials, Tom Howard, a
photographer from the Daily News, had covertly raised his pant cuff to uncover
a miniature camera linked to a shutter release that snaked up his leg and into
his pocket. "DEAD!" was the single word that accompanied the picture he
made, which ran on the paper's front page for the next two days, selling a
sensational half million extra copies (page 17).
During the first nine years of its existence, the New York Daily News -- or The
News, as it styled itself -- pushed the envelope of photojournalism to a level
some thought reprehensible. To those critics, the Snyder picture was proof
positive. The picture's publication unleashed a national furor. The News
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4/6/2020 New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive - 1999, Page 5 by William Hannigan. | Online Research Library: Questia
RUTH SNYDER EXECUTED JANUARY 12, 1928
Photographer: Tom Howard Print made from the original negative so famously
acquired by the News of Ruth Snyder's execution. Right: The camera strapped
to Tom Howard's ankle.
We doubt that many readers of THE NEWS want any apology from us for
having obtained and printed this picture. Considered a feat of newspaper
enterprise, the publication of the photograph was remarkable and will not soon
be forgotten. . . . the incident throws light on the vividness of reporting when
done by camera instead of pencil and typewriter. . . . We think that picture took
the romance out of murder. . . . Why other newspapers, which gave column
after column of infinitely more gruesome descriptive language to the Snyder
execution, should criticize THE NEWS for publishing a photograph thereof is
something we cannot understand.
Managing Editor Frank Hause, ignoring opposition from other department

heads who found the image too grisly, ran the picture in the absence of the
publisher, Joseph Medill Patterson, who, upon returning, backed Hause's
decision. That decision ended a heated war among New
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Publication information: Book title: New York Noir:Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive. Contributors: William
Hannigan - Author. Publisher: Rizzoli. Place of publication: New York. Publication year: 1999. Page number: 15
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or
transmitted in any form or by any means.

Archive
By William Hannigan
York's tabloids, which had been vying for position with sensationalist headlines
and photos that helped to fuel the national backlash led by "respectable
papers," religious figures, and other reformers. But despite this opposition the
influence that the tabloids had on America continued to grow and infiltrate
other cultural realms. The quintessential film noir, Double Indemnity ( 1944),
was one among many products of the Snyder case. Though it was produced
fifteen years after the publication of the Snyder photo, director Billy Wilder was
forced by the Hayes Commission to cut a twenty-minute conclusion that
depicted the execution of a convicted murderer. While Hause did not face an
established authority safeguarding public morals, he knew he would face a
reaction from self-appointed moralists in the community. He nevertheless
decided to run the photograph, standing on the no-holds-barred foundation the
News had established upon its debut as America's first tabloid newspaper.
Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson (foreground) in Double Indemnity.
On the twenty-sixth of June, 1919, the Illustrated Daily News hit the news
stands with little fanfare. ("Illustrated" was dropped on Nov. 20, 1919).The
News was the vision of Patterson and his co-founder and cousin Robert R.
McCormick. The two were co-editors of the Chicago Tribune, which had been
built by their grandfather Joseph Medill, but after he met Lord Northcliffe in
London and witnessed the popularity of his Daily Mirror, Patterson had
become convinced that the tabloid format (half the size of the standard
newspaper page) would be a success. Patterson, who had declared himself a
socialist in 1908, set out to build a paper for "the common people," and the
editorial of the premier issue defined a paper that sought to change the face of
American journalism:
The Illustrated Daily News is going to be your newspaper. Its interests will be
your interests. It is not an experiment, for the appeal of news pictures and brief,
well-told stories will be as apparent to you as it has been to millions of readers
in European cities. We shall give you the best and newest pictures. The story
that is told by a picture can be grasped instantly. The policy of the Illustrated
Daily News will be your policy. It will be aggressively for America and for the
people of New York. It will have no entangling alliance with any class whatever.
Patterson recognized the potential of the photograph not only as a device for
relaying the news, but also for its appeal to a semiliterate immigrant
population. While other newspapers of the day focused on serious issues such
as labor unrest and the approach of Prohibition, the first two feature items in
the Illustrated Daily News were its own beauty contest and a "new and original
series of detective stories by E. Phillips Oppenheim." Combined with a full-page
photograph of the Prince of Wales on horseback, it announced a New York
paper like no other.
The time was right. In New York, the effects of industrialization and
immigration had transformed the
-16-


Archive
By William Hannigan
city into a congested and fast-paced metropolis. As the city spilled into the outer
boroughs and the subway system expanded, people were travelling greater
distances between work and home. Large headlines, pictures, and condensed
coverage, coupled with the tabloid format, made the News an ideal commuter
paper. It soon took its place among the many new wonders of the rising city --
the movie house, the skyscraper, jazz -- and captured the attention of readers
with lurid and sensational stories. In the era of Prohibition and the Depression,
there were plenty.
During Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, the murder rate in New York rose
significantly, reaching a peak that would not be equalled until the early 1960s.
In tandem with this growth, the News increased the space allocated to crime. In
1920 it devoted only six percent of its space to crime; by 1930 crime coverage
had expanded to twenty-three percent. Crime paid, and pictures of crime paid
even better. Circulation soared to over a million by December of 1925; only six
years after its inception, the News was the largest-selling paper in the nation.
This made it the most widely viewed forum not only for photojournalism, but
also for photography in general. Like the city it covered, the News continued its
phenomenal growth, reaching a peak of nearly five million Sunday circulation
in 1948.
Sensational block headlines and accompanying photographs led to a trail of

imitators -- the Daily Mirror
-17-


Archive
By William Hannigan
and the Evening Graphic in particular -- and to unceasing attacks against its
editorial morals and ethics. But nothing sold papers like a good love triangle
that ended in murder, and in the News, "sex was happily blended with
homicide," as a New Yorker writer observed in 1938. This editorial focus,
coupled with an emphasis on photography, brought forth relentless efforts at
"getting the shot." The concentration on pictures established a standard, and an
aesthetic, unique to the News.
In the early days of "New York's Picture Newspaper," Eddie Jackson was hired
as its first photographer, and he, along with Hank Olen and Louis Walker,
formed a department that would come to shape the character and content of the
young daily. Jackson would provide the News with its first big scoop when he
captured the carnage caused by an anarchist's bomb outside the J. P. Morgan
offices on Wall St. in September 1920. The staff existed as a collective of
versatile and innovative photographers who were able to adapt to any
assignment. A survey of available credit lines illustrates the democratic
approach to assignments and the presence of a strong editorial focus. Outside
the studio, it was not until the 1960s that specialists emerged at the News
The crime photographs produced in the 1920s and early thirties were unique in
form from all that would follow, the most notable distinctions being that in the
early years few of the images were shot outdoors, and none were shot outdoors
at night. The photographers were bound by their medium. Flash bars, lenses,
and film speeds were neither powerful nor fast enough to capture images that
could be reproduced on newsprint. This constraint profoundly contributed to
the developing aesthetic of the images. It produced the softness and glow
inherent inyou
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as the blurring of subjects or
settings that lent them a mysterious, unearthly feel. However, the subjective
gaze of the photographer was also a defining factor. Driven by a rising demand
from editors and readers. and by competition among themselves, the
photographers sought new ways to relay the story and portray the players. The
images of courtroom scenes from this period illustrate both the technical
characteristics and subjective characteristics of News photography. The
efficacious components of these images are, first, their immediacy, the simple
fact that photographers were allowed such close access to the court
proceedings, and, secondly, the lack of flash. (Although photographers were
permitted in the courtroom, they were prohibited from using their flash bars.)
But, as is inherent in photography, the subjective decision of when to release
the shutter and how to frame the subject completes the image and thus sets the
News apart.
In the image of D. A. Frank Coyne on page 25, for example, the photographer
shoots from the perspective of the man who sits accused of killing his wife,
-18-


Archive
By William Hannigan
behind the witness stand, as Coyne presents a photo of the key piece of evidence
that would convict the murderer. The power of this image lies in the
combination of these factors.
Between 1930 and 1935, News photography was transformed by technical

advances. In 1930 came the introduction of the bulb flash, which allowed for
faster shutter speeds. At about the same time, the staff gradually switched from
glass plates to acetate-based films, which allowed for faster film speeds. When
coupled with the new, faster optics, this meant sharper images and fewer
limitations. The photographer could now shoot almost anywhere, in any or no
light. But the single biggest advance of the time may have been the Speed
Graphic, a camera that would become the quintessential press camera from the
1930s through the 1960s. Primarily using a four-by-five-inch film format, the
lightweight Speed and the later Crown Graphics replaced the German-made Ica
which used four-by-sixinch glass plates. Folding into a compact box and easy to
use, the handheld Speed Graphic incorporated all the newest technical
developments, and by liberating the photographer from cumbersome
equipment and highlighting the element of speed, it helped to shape a new
aesthetic.
The crime image in the News continued to evolve. The introduction of the flash
gun (battery case, flash bulb, and reflector), all attached and synchronized with
the shutter release, added the most significant component -- greater depth of
field with heavy shadow. Images gained a heightened focus and deep, sensuous
blacks that, like the development of stage lights in the theaters along the
Bowery, induced a visceral sense of drama. In the image of William Turner
(page 21), an early bulb flash photo from late 1932, all these elements are
apparent; the sharp focus and the heightened shadows adding vitality to this
undoubtedly posed photograph.
This new style of photography was not always treated generously by critics. In
his history of photography, Beaumont Newhall described the effect of the flash
gun as being, "for the most part, grotesque, because the harsh light flattened
faces, cast unpleasant shadows, and fell off so abruptly that backgrounds were
unrelieved black." Subsequent critics have understood that the introduction of
flash photography brought something new to photojournalism. John
Szarkowski noted, in Photography Until Now ( 1989), "The flash did more than
provide light; it defined a plane of importance, in which the subject was
described with posterlike simplicity and force, and beyond which the world
receded quickly into darkness. The lack of naturalness in these pictures was not
a shortcoming but a source of their melodramatic power. It is as though terrible
and exemplary secrets were revealed for an instant by lightning." Nevertheless,
as evidenced by Newhall's comment, the tabloid photog-
-19-


Archive
By William Hannigan
rapher's pictures, with the possible exception of those made by the self-
promoting Weegee, were not, until fairly recently, considered significant in the
history of photography. But their influence is undeniable.
Victor Powell (blindfolded) in Murder My Sweet ( 1945), directed by Edward

Dmytryk.
The images published by the News and by the tabloids that followed were
everywhere. On
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By using
headlines and graphic cover photos left an indelible mark on the city, altering
the way it viewed itself, and how it was viewed by the rest of the country. These
images became signifiers of the Big City, and the crime photograph was
projected onto the public psyche.
The other significant factor in the evolution of the tabloid crime image is
subjective -- the editorial choices made by a photographer (and his editors) in
representing a crime, the crime scene, the criminal, and the victim. As opposed
to the forensic photograph, the images in the pages of the News fed on drama.
The photographers at the News developed a distinctive visual language as they
investigated components of explanation. In it roles were defined: criminals,
cops, D.A.'s, politicians, and marginal cast members became associated with
certain codes that enabled the reader to understand the story at a glance. Body
language and dress were the most immediate. At its height, during Prohibition,
an era that saw the invention of the public enemy and the celebrity gangster, the
News worked within this set of signifiers and helped define the roles of criminal
life. Each player, caught up in his or her part, invariably utilized that language
to manufacture the personae captured for the paper. The Turner image shows
the triangulation of criminal, cop, and photographer, all contributing to the
message the reader received.
WAITING FOR A GRILLING JANUARY 8, 1932
Photographer: Costa
Holdup and Murder. Confessed killer William Turner handcuffed to Detective
Jacobs, waiting for a grilling in the District Attorney's office.
In this 1932 photograph, we see in place certain elements that, as they flooded
the public imagination, aided in establishing this visual code, which would in
turn come to define the look of the gangster film, and the aesthetic that would
become known
our website, astofilm
you agree noir.
the use Although
of cookies theinnoir
as described lookPolicy
our Privacy is conventionally
understood to have grown out of German Expressionism, there can be little
doubt that tabloid photography provided the raw visual data at the heart of
noir. The News helped define the dangerous big-city streets that were its
setting, and the photographs of what transpired in this dark world, with its
ubiquitous criminality and unyielding sexuality, were a part of the public's
visual language years before the films now associated with this style. Using dark
shadows and high contrast lighting, the News expressed the real and imagined
aspects of the city that are the vocabulary of noir.
The photographs that follow of Harry F. Powers (page 41), David Beadle (page
43). Hope Dare (page 45), and William Turner, none taken later than 1941,
show direct similarities with films noir of the forties and fifties. The still from
Murder, My Sweet ( 1944) repro-
-20-


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4/6/2020 New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive - 1999, Page 5 by William Hannigan.

Hannigan. | Online Research Library: Questia

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

RUTH SNYDER EXECUTED JANUARY 12, 1928

Managing Editor Frank Hause, ignoring opposition from other department

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson (foreground) in Double Indemnity.

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Sensational block headlines and accompanying photographs led to a trail of

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Between 1930 and 1935, News photography was transformed by technical

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News

Victor Powell (blindfolded) in Murder My Sweet ( 1945), directed by Edward

WAITING FOR A GRILLING JANUARY 8, 1932

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

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