Charles C. Ebbets Views

General Goods

Ebbets' two most famous photos were taken during the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York in 1932. Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper depicts eleven men sitting on a girder eating lunch, their feet dangling from the beams hundreds of feet above the New York streets below was snapped on September 29, 1932, and appeared in the New York Herald Tribune shortly after. The photo was taken on the 69th floor in the last several months of construction. Men asleep on a Girder is a picture of the same workers lying down on the beam taking a nap. It wasn't until October 2003 that Charles C. Ebbets was officially recognized by the Bettman Archive as the photographer of Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper and dozens of other famous Bettman Archive photos which had previously been mis-marked or were marked as photographer unknown .

The copyright owner of the photograph, the Bettman Archive, did not recognize Charles C. Ebbets as the photographer until October 2003 (reportedly after months of investigation by a private investigation firm). However, authorship of the photograph, popular as a poster, was listed as 'Unknown' on many prints. The photograph has also been frequently misattributed to Lewis Hine, whose earlier work documenting the construction of the Empire State Building in 1931 (see, e.g., Hine's Icarus atop Empire State Building) Lunch atop a Skyscraper bears compositional, though arguably not thematic, resemblance to.[2] [3] [4]

A year later, Ebbets moved permanently to Florida, remaining there for the rest of his life. His familiarity with the Everglades led to a unique friendship with members of the Seminole Indian Tribe, and over time he became the first ever non-native American man ever allowed to witness and document their sacred Green Corn Dance rituals. Throughout the rest of his life, Charles C. Ebbets continued to photograph life in the South Florida region, up until his death in 1978.

Charles C. Ebbets, her late husband, an adventurous hunter, fisherman, one-time actor, auto racer, wrestler, pilot and photographer was hired to chronicle the Rockefeller Centeraacute;s construction during the Depression era. The photo first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune in 1932 and has continued to be a sought-after poster.