From Iconic Photos:
The photo was taken on May Day, 1947 at the bottom of the Empire State Building. Photography student, Richard Wiles, was across the street, and heard a loud crash. He rushed to the scene and took the photo four minutes after one Evelyn McHale jumped off from the Observation Deck. Like the movie said, the picture is sad, but it is simultaneously serene. It isn’t full of gore, and Evelyn looked as if she was sleeping. Her calm repose contrasted greatly from the grotesque wreckage of a bier she herself created beneath her.
Life magazine wrote at the time: “On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. ‘He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody,’ … Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb.”
On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.
“I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me.My fiance asked me to marry him in June.I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody.He is much better off without me.Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies.”
Read more from stories from the Empire State Building Observation Desk.
How terribly terribly sad. For her and those she left behind.
ReplyDeleteWe only die for one of three reasons:
ReplyDelete1) God believes we have done all we can,
2) God believes we will never do what we can,
3) We believe we can't.
It's true.
ReplyDeleteDouglas, what a load of rubbish.
ReplyDeleteThis photo is incredible..when i saw that photo ..i am very impressed..so sorry for you Evelyn..R.I.P
ReplyDeleteIf you want more info on Evelyn McHale please visit the Facebook Tribute Page I have created for her.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/EvelynFrancisMcHale
She does not have her shoes on and her stockings are down around her ankles. She committed suicide???? Why would she take her shoes off and have her stockings down close to her feet to kill herself by jumping from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building? Looks like she was getting undressed. Suicide...really?????
ReplyDeleteHave you ever fallen through the air at 120 miles per hour. Things unattached to your body don't stay where you put them.
ReplyDelete