'President Nixon in San Francisco' - Limited Edition 1 of 20 Photograph

In summer 1969, President Nixon and wife Pat, stayed at a famous San Francisco hotel as the President toured the historic waterfront city. Long before Watergate was a major news story, and when the US was engaged in war in Vietnam, Nixon was at the height of his popularity, as shown here with an impromptu crowd as he walked on his visit. He, wife Pat (gloved hands), and a seriousness of Secret Service had just alighted from a Fisherman's Wharf cable car at block's end and this unscheduled entourage was heading for the entrance of Powell Street's historic and luxurious St. Francis Hotel, a plush place to stay, and where presidents historically slept when in San Francisco. Prior to Nixon's visit, police swept drunks and derelicts from the streets, lest the visiting president see something distressing. San Francisco tired to put its best foot forward there in summer 1969. Just before this photo was taken, something distressing occurred that forever has changed security for presidents and mostly has gone unrecorded, except for a front page photo I took of that event. This photo here was never published prior to posting on the Internet on a 'host' site in 2004. Nixon and entourage were on the sidewalk just before this, when one of those 'sidewalk freight elevators' opened its two steel coverings and up on the unguarded freight elevator from the basement of the hotel came elevator platform and deliveryman. The man on the elevator platform was halfway to ground level from the bowels underneath the sidewalk where he had been delivering freight, looked up and there was the President of the United States. He could have been carrying an uzi, and history would have changed. But instead the man reached above him to shake the hand of the president as the metal sidewalk elevator doors opened, as the entourage was strolling by. I photographed the scene. I was 'incognito' as an Associated Press newsman walking to work in the afternoon for my evening reporting shirt. I happened on this scene by accident but had been carrying my camera per habit as I do now. Union rules with the Newspaper Guild prevented me from taking photos and writing news, so I hid my name from all but the AP photo editor who put that security failure photo on the wire, and it ran on front pages.. If you have a copy, please contact me, as I cannot find a copy. From that day to this, the Secret Service has routinely welded shut manhole covers and other possible 'surprise' openings on planned presidential paths. Secret Service picked me up by the armpits and carried me down the street, and immediately along came the entourage as I stood at street's edge wedged against a sidewalk planter of something. I was standing at ground level, but sensing the possibilities of the scene, held out my camera and then super wide angle lens high over my head. It would have captured the back of my head, and I leaned my head hard to the left and fired avoiding a 'selfie'. The cameraman with the older 'news photo' Graflex is looking at my odd figure, but probably then realized I had 'the shot'. I kept this photo and 14 years agim on first showing pronounced it 'probably too busy'. The reply from a critic is 'busy is for wall paper.' This, the critic said, may be one of the most historic photos of its sort in the 20th Century. The critic pointed out figure placement and separating notingand that each individual was a separate figure, nearly each engaged in something different. The photo, he said, found coherence in the placement and the individual actions of each actor. He pointed out the camera models and their holders, then noted the loving touch from wife Par as her gloved hands held onto the Presidential torso. I tend to agree now, 15 years after this 1969 photo first was shown with the critic who held it in hgh regard, but you may feel differently. Busy or great is a subjective evaluation, and you are entitled to yours. I will not quibble. Nixon, a native Californian hated the news and news people, but probably would have liked this photo which showed him in a good light. Fabulously profane as captured in the 'Nixon Tapes' which sealed the end of his presidency and which disclosed caused him to resign, press-hater Nixon can be heard conspiring with his aides to order the IRS to audit each member of the Chandler family which then owned the LA Times which he hated. He also wanted an investigation of their gardener, because Nixon says clearly 'I heard he's a wetback' in the most derogatory manner. He orders his aides to use the government and presidential powers to punish his enemies and go slow and easy on his friends. Source, Nixon Tapes, audio recording. He lost his California law license after resigning;; as an attorney he full well knew and admitted on those tapes that he was the 'crook' that he implored the nation that he was not. His 'White House' taping system, when disclosed showed a different side of him that this, and his presidency tumbled. His successor, Gerald Ford, on practically this very spot, survived an assassination attempt by Sarah Jane Moore, who fired on Nixon's successor President. Her arm was diverted by a passerby, a man who received unwanted fame and an unwelcome 'outing' of his sexuality that came for his celebrity when he performed essentially a 'heroic' act that resulted in the assassination bullet's whizzing over President Ford's head, instead of into it, at almost this same spot. If that sidewalk elevator, had carried an assassin or terrorist, that person would have had a surprise, close and unimpeded shot at this President. The Secret Serviced was caught flatfooted, but their uzis came out nevertheless, but immediately were tucked out of view before I could recock the shutter. As soon as Nixon seemed out of danger, the presidential promenade continued, and I took this photo from where Secret Service carried me to by my armpits. President Nixon here is seen reaching right around me to shake a hand from beside or behind me. I had been walking from my downtown S.F.apartment to my afternoon-evening shift as a newsman at Associated Press S.F., bureau when I was drawn to the crowd, the Nixons, and this entourage. When I saw that I immediately took out my ever present Nikon and placed a super wide angle lens on it. I once lost what I am sure would have been a Pulitzer Prize winner or high contender when in 1968, when first I was shot on a train and after hospital, ended up being driven through a riot to the police station in that NJ town. When cops emptied the station, they left only me and oe cop. Suddenly rioters invaded and screaming 'Kill' started up steps towards me and the cop. I had stood next to that lone cop inside the station at the station's second floor, I could have photographed his heroism as with a shotgun he held off screaming, threatening rioters with a shotgun almost on us, murder i n their eyes. I was in a perfect place for the action shot of a lifetime as this cop stood off rioters who showed murder in their eyes charging up the steps almost to us before backing off. Reason you will never see that photo? It was never taken though I had my Nikon around my neck. Why? No film. I had been bound for Washington D.C. shut down then by rioters after MLK Jr. was assassinated. I was intent on saving money by buying film in Washington D.C., rather than expensive film in downtown Manhattan where I boarded that train. I never got to Washington. A racial incident occurred on that coach, and I broke up a fist fight between two passengers. That allowed one fighter to grab his gun, from inside a paper bag on the train seat. Both the other man and I ended up shot by the same bullet from the shooter's .38 snub nose Smith and Wesson police special revolver. I was taken to hospital with a wound that at first healed quickly then got infected, and I almost lost my leg as a result. I was taken to the station just for a statement before release home. The lesson: always have film, and preset your camera as well. Ever since, I always carried one or two cameras with both loaded and preset for any circumstance. In San Francisco, here, I photographed the man on the sidewalk elevator, hand outstretched with Nixon reaching down to shake his hand. Secret Service placed me at curbside after carrying me there, by the armpits. I moved to the side of the sidewalk as Nixons and encourage came my way. Holding my Nikon over my head, I was approached by the President, who reached around my waist, here, to shake a well wisher's hand. Because my camera was overhead and Nixon so close with my very wide angle lens, I had to duck my head far to the left as I framed this shot, and luckily escaped taking a photo of my head and the President. All was over in seconds. I took this photo (and others). The one of Nixon's encounter with the sidewalk elevator man ran on front pages nationwide. This photo, never was published but records the popularity in 1969 of Nixon, but also shows the President and his wife, with his wife's gloved hand touchingly embracing and holding on to her husband. If the man on the suddenly rising sidewalk elevator had been armed with evil intentions, history right there would have changed. This image depicts the happy aftermath just a few feet away from the elevator 'incident'. From that date forward, Presidential trips have been painstakingly mapped out weeks ahead and things that can give sudden, unexpected access to a walking president or his vehicle are literally now welded shut and inspected on the presidential route, to prevent a repeat of that day's danger. Manholes and sidewalk elevators are among things now scheduled to be welded shut before the president passes and that takes place far in advance of a presidential visit. The incident that occurred less than 90 seconds before is the reason for that caution. Nixon later went on to engage the (then) North Vietnamese in peace talks and eventually the US withdrew in great haste from a falling Vietnam. Nixon was the first and only president to resign, after proof became known of his instigation and involvement in the Watergate burglary of the Democratic National Committee He had denied involvement but his famous 'tapes' and other evidence proved otherwise. That occurrence has since been known as 'The Watergate Affair' or simply 'Watergate' -- the name of the building that housed the burglarized DNC offices where Republican operatives, including a member of the White House security staff, had been involved in trying to engage in espionage on Democratic Party Leadership. The burglars' goal had been 'political espionage', a theme that may sound familiar in this troubled time. Despite the later crisis that developed from that burglary, Nixon went on to win re-election for a second term before his forced resignation before certain impeachment. john (John Crosley)

Photography:Black & White on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:1

Size:36 W x 26.2 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.