Ralph Morse!

The most famous shooter I have ever met.

Several years ago, I got a chance to meet, and interview, Ralph Morse.

I was doing the afternoons at a Jazz radio station in Denver, Colorado, and Ralph was brought in for an interview by the station’s art consultant, Hilary Dipolo.

Ralph, had just signed representation deal with Gallery M, in Cherry Creek, and Hilary had brought him by to talk about his work.

Ralph was in his mid-to-late 80’s, retired, but sharp as a tack. While we were waiting for my musical selections to play out, so that we could start the interview, I brought up a gallery of his work and he started telling stories about each one.

I have been wanting to write about Ralph for a few months, ever since I came across this article, from life.com.

Photographer and war correspondent Ralph Morse in Army uniform, on assignment. (Photo by Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Ralph Morse, shot for Life Magazine for something close to, or over, 30 years. He covered the Mercury space program as the exclusive photographer for Life. Ralph’s presence with America’s first seven astronauts was so ubiquitous, that John Glenn, nicknamed Ralph the “Eighth Astronaut”.

Ralph, had great stories about all of the shots that he took. One that I enjoyed most was the story behind this shot.

Photo Credit: Ralph Morse

Ralph took this shot on George Bernard Shaw’s 80th (?) birthday. He was in Europe after the war, shooting assignments for Life. His editors told him that they were sending a reporter to do a story on GBS, and they wanted him to shoot pics.

Ralph said that he asked around Fleet Street, in London, about how best they should approach GBS. He was told to forget it, GBS hated the press, and Ralph would be lucky if he and his writer weren’t run off with a shotgun. Not to be deterred, Ralph asked around as to what GBS really liked, did he have any favourite things? Ralph was told that GBS was a chocoholic. So, Ralph wired his editors, told them to go down 5th avenue, in New York City, and buy a pound of chocolate at every candy store, put it all in a box, mark it, “WAR FILM - URGENT” and send it to him.

On the appointed day, Ralph and the writer, showed up (unannounced) at GBS’s doorstep. Ralph opened the box to show the chocolates inside and knocked on the door. GBS answered the door, and Ralph announced that he was there, representing Life magazine, and that they wanted to show their appreciation, on his birthday, by presenting to GBS, all of this quality chocolate.

Rather than getting the business end of George’s shotgun, Ralph said that GBS smiled, thanked them for the delightful gift, and invited them in. The writer got the interview, and Ralph got the shot. The picture is GBS, standing outside of his writing hut, in the back garden. Many of GBS’s great works were written there.

In every biography of Ralph Morse that I have read, Ralph is described as doing excellent research about his subjects before he went to shoot them. Research pays off.

The shot that I really want to talk about though is the one.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When Jackie Roosevelt Robinson, came to Major League Baseball, in 1947, Life Magazine was interested in doing a series on Jackie’s home life during that first year. Ralph was assigned to shoot Jackie, and his family, during that year. Ralph got to know the Robinson’s very well.

In 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers, got to the World Series. It was a cross-town rivalry, with the New York Yankee’s representing the American League. Jackie, had been to five previous World Series, but the Dodgers had never won; this sixth series was widely believed to be Jackie’s last chance to win a World Series title.

Ralph was assigned to shoot the series (along with many other photographers) and Ralph had the shot he wanted in mind, before the first game started. He wanted the shot you see above.

Knowing Jackie as well as he did, he figured that if Jackie ever got to third base, that he’d dance around, on the third base line, to try and distract the pitcher. Of course Jackie did get to third, he DID dance around, and he STOLE home in the first game of the series. The picture above if from Game 3.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what I have just described, here is a film reel of the event.

Stealing home is not easy, it’s rarely attempted because it rarely succeeds. Shooting it is also a challenge. Here is what Ralph told me about getting this shot, and the more famous shot, above.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

It is 90 feet (27.4 meters) between third base and home plate. The distance from where the pitcher stands, to the front of home plate is, 60 feet 6 inches (18.4 meters). While it was not unusual for a runner to try and distract a pitcher while standing on the third base line, stealing home, on 37 year old knees, was. This is what Ralph Morse was hoping for, and here is what he did to capture these shots.

First, Ralph took one of Life’s special cameras and modified it so that he could shoot multiple frames, continuously. The camera that he used was a mission-specific camera that Life Magazine used for missile shots at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It had a long lens and a motor wind for the film. Ralph modified it so that he could run film through it by pressing on a foot switch; as long as his foot was down, the camera took pictures. Ralph pointed the camera down the third base line, from up in the press box, and sat with one leg on each side of the camera rig, it was a good-sized camera! I think that he said something about 100 feet of film in the camera.

As Ralph described it, “What did I know about shooting sports?” He sat in-between two regular sports photographers for two different papers in New York. For most of the series, he simply pointed his (handheld) camera at what the other two were looking at, shooting what they shot.

In the first game of the series, Jackie got to third base, and stole home. Although the Dodgers lost that first game, the steal electrified the whole series; everyone was buzzing with excitement. You can imagine what was going through everyone’s mind (most especially the pitcher’s) when Jackie made it to third base in the third game.

Jackie, was certainly aware of the effect of him standing along the third base line for a second time in the series had on the opposing pitcher. He did not steal home during this game, but he did make himself VERY noticeable dancing along the base line. Ralph took a series of shots with his rig, at this point. When looking at all of the pictures in the series, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the pitcher: Jackie was a master of distraction!

When we look at the difference between the first picture of Jackie actually stealing home, you can see that it’s not the best picture Ralph ever took, Just about every person in the frame is out of focus. The second set of pictures, from Game 3, is much different, and I am assuming here (after the fact, having not actually asked Ralph about this point) that Ralph adjusted the angle of his shot, and decided to highlight the distracting dancing of Jackie’s.

What I think is important to note here is, Ralph might have gone through the trouble of getting his camera set-up and in place, and Jackie might never have reached third base. But, Ralph had knowledge of his subject and planned accordingly, he got what he came for, and every photographer can learn a lesson from him.

The pictures of Jackie came from this Life.com article.