from 1986 News Photographer

photo caption: 1926 – Pictured above, (Standing) – Harry Simard, Bill O’Connor. (Seated, back row) – John Hare, Bert Vowells, (unidentified), Joe Parodi, Jack Nugent, Arthur Furley, Morris Ostroff, Walter Jordan, Charles McCormack, Bob Kellar, Robeson Nelson, Don Robinson Sr., George Woodruff, Jimmy Jones, James Callahan, Charles Snyder, Joe Toye, Les MacLellan. Middle row – (Unidentified), Edward Scanlon, Arthur Egan, Fred Dresser, George Hill, Ernest Hill, Les Jones, Maynard White, Frank Dart. Front row – Tom Watson, James Devlin, Hugh O’Donnell, Harvey Glew, Bill Jones, Jack Williams, Roy Jacoby, Herb Stier, Anthony Cabral.

And The Beat Goes On
The date was March 11, 1926. The location, the Hotel Avery in Boston, Massachusetts.

It was a cold, blustery day. The temperature hovered in the mid twenties.

Assembled in one of the hotel function rooms were thirty eight news photographers, representing the various media of the day.

Prohibition was law, but bootlegging and prosperity flourished. Cal Coolidge occupied the White House. The “Babe” was doing his thing for the NY Yankees – much to the chagrin of Boston baseball fans.

“It all began here,” said James A. Jones, staff photographer with the Boston Post. “It would have been a much larger turnout if it were not for the weather, and the fact some of the guys had to mind the store.”

Through the years, these thirty eight news cameramen and the “guys that had to mind the store”, are considered the Founding Fathers of the Press Photographers Association of Boston, now the Boston Press Photog­raphers Association.

Jimmy Jones was elected as the first President. Before he retired, he was to add another first.

In 1939 he won the coveted Edwin T. Ramsdell Trophy. (Ed. Note:­The history of this award appears elsewhere in The News Photographer). It was a photo of the submarine Squalus disaster. The sub had sunk in about 240 feet of water, while on maneuvers, off the Isle of Shoals, Portsmouth N.H. Thirty three members of her crew were rescued via the use of the Navy’s conning tower diving bell. Twenty six perished. Salvage workers had just managed to return the sub to the surface, when suddenly she broke away, and plunged back to the bottom of the ocean. For a split second her bow pointed skyward, and, at that moment, Jim made his re­markable picture. This, in the era of the single shot, “you-do-or-don’t.” Jim was equal to the occasion-the proof of which, appears below.

In 1969, at age 81, James A. Jones, Founding Father, First President, First Ramsdell Memorial Trophy winner, passed away.

Since that cold, blustery day in March, half a century ago, close to four hundred news photographers have followed in the footsteps of the 1926 Founding Fathers of this association.

Each, in his own way, leaving just a little bit of himself, for the historians of the future.

And the beat goes on.

JAMES A. JONES – SQUALUS DISASTER
Selected the outstanding news photo of 1939. Many feel this would have won the Pulitzer Prize in photography had such an award been in existence at the time.