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Kiss isn't just a kiss for Times Square sailor

By David Freedlander | amNewYork Staff Writer

August 14, 2007

Glenn McDuffie holds a portrait of himself as a young man, left, and a copy of Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic Life magazine shot of a sailor embracing a nurse in a white uniform, right, at his Houston home Tuesday, July 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan / August 13, 2007)

No way, no how, will Glenn McDuffie be lockin' lips Tuesday in Times Square.

McDuffie, 80, of Houston, was identified last week by a forensic artist as the man in the famous Life Magazine photo -- taken 62 years ago Tuesday -- of a soldier and a nurse smooching in Times Square to celebrate victory over Japan in World War II.

McDuffie says he wants nothing to do with the annual "Kiss-In" celebration Tuesday or with Edith Shain, 87, who has long been believed to be the woman in the photo, until she submits to the battery of polygraph tests that he has undergone over the years to prove his identity.

"I know the woman I kissed," McDuffie said. "And she ain't it."

In fact, McDuffie said he had tried to reach out to Shain through the years, but that she was far less receptive than she may have been on Broadway that day.

"She's been a smart ass about it all the time so I hung up on her," he said.

But Shain, of Santa Monica, was identified by the photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt, as the one in the photo.

Dozens of men through the years have made claims to have been her sudden suitor on Aug. 14, 1945, but now the evidence seems to point McDuffie.

"I passed five polygraph tests," McDuffie said. "She'd have to take at least three. And do it on TV. She's been riding the train all these years, I just can't see it how everybody believes her."

Attempts to reach Shain for comment were unsuccessful.

McDuffie said he was in the city that day to see his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield, who lived in Brooklyn, when word came that the war was over.

"I went over there and kissed her and saw a man running at us," McDuffie recalled. "I thought it was a jealous husband or boyfriend coming to poke me in the eyes. I looked up and saw he was taking the picture and I kissed her as long as it took for him to take it."

Before last week, most people thought the sailor in the photo to be Carl Muscarello, a retired New York City police detective who appeared with Shain at the Kiss-In two years ago. Muscarello maintains that in fact it was him in the photo, no matter what polygraph tests or forensic experts claim.

"All my life I've worked in law enforcement, and several times I've come across people who have beaten a lie detector test," he said.

The Times Square Alliance, which is expecting more than a hundred people Monday for the event, promises to remain neutral.

"I think a strong case can be made for Carl," said Tim Tompkins, president of the group. "But there were probably quite a few sailors kissing nurses in Times Square that day, and they all say the photo was them with complete conviction We'll leave it to the kissing gods to sort out."

While McDuffie won't agree to participate in any of the festivities today, he did agree to come last week to 42nd Street and Broadway to be interviewed by Diane Sawyer, who became the recipient of one of his famed smooches.

"She was a beautiful, nice, woman," he said. "Prettiest mouth in the world. I'm a big fan of hers."