This text will go in Part II of the finished book.
It was a busy day on March 30th 1961 as Avedon did an ad for Spring cigarettes, a fashion session for Harper’s Bazaar, and some reportage for a future project. Still tired the next morning, Dick, Suzy and I dashed off to the airport for an early flight to Newport News, Virginia to photograph the three original astronauts at Langely Field, home of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The astronauts were:
- Alan Shepard (1923-98), the first American into space, riding the Mercury-Redstone 3 on May 5th, 1961 (photo, right).
- Gus Grissom (1926-67), the second American into space, riding the Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21st, 1961.
- John Glenn (b. 1921), first to orbit the Earth, aboard Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20th, 1962.
Since this was on a military base, Dick had the good sense to bring along supermodel and actress Suzy Parker to keep the boys interested. By this time Suzy had already starred in four major Hollywood movies, one of which — Kiss Them for Me, co-starring Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield — was a comedy about navy pilots on leave. Suzy was by now a favorite among the military and later made another film, Flight from Ashiya, along a similar but more serious theme.
Upon arrival at Newport News, I rented a car and the three of us drove out to the Air Force base. We were met at the gate by a colonel who discussed the arrangements and then escorted us to the mess hall for lunch, where Suzy was the center of attention. Was she ever the center of attention!
This should have been a very easy job as Dick and I set up a white paper background and Balcar studio strobes in a hanger, right next to a practice Mercury capsule. Then things went terribly wrong. A huge thunderstorm was brewing outside, with lightning striking around the hanger. I turned on the strobes and BANG! No more electricity. Darkness prevailed. Whether this was the fault of the strobes or the storm I don’t know. Astronaut Alan Shepard (photo, right) came to the rescue and showed me how to tap into emergency circuits. That did the trick, and the session continued without further problems.
But there were problems outside. The storm had become so severe that all flights were cancelled and we were stuck there. Avedon had appointments in New York the next day, so we decided to drive instead. Since Dick was a terrible driver, Suzy and I agreed to take turns at the wheel heading up through Washington D.C. (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel had not yet been built), Maryland, Delaware, and finally New Jersey. The storm continued all the way. Very late that night the lit-up skyline of Manhattan came into view as we entered the Lincoln Tunnel. Home at last.
Avedon’s connection with the space program actually began in late 1959 (while I was still in the Army), when he did fashion photography at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It continued when Dick, his young son John, and I were given a private tour of Cape Canaveral, including the control rooms, in early 1962. This was before the base was opened to public touring. The April 1965 issue of Harper’s Bazaar (see page 000) was filled with space references, including a head shot of supermodel Jean Shrimpton in a genuine NASA space helmet with a starry drawn background by artist Roy Lichtenstein. That same spacesuit accompanied me to London in January 1965, where Beatle Paul McCartney posed in it for the same issue of Bazaar.
Text copyright © 2009 by Earl Steinbicker
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