Famously celebrating Irish heritage, New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is the oldest (since 1762) and largest in the world, and every year Rockefeller Center sits at the heart of it as marchers pass by on Fifth Avenue on their way uptown. Yet revelers could simply look up to see the impact the Irish have had on the city. They and other groups of immigrants (and their descendants) are responsible for the modern skyline of NYC, including Rockefeller Center. And no image has symbolized that contribution better than one of the most recognizable photos of the 20th century, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” originally titled “Builders of The City Enjoy Luncheon.”
This portrait of 11 ironworkers casually eating lunch while sitting precariously on a steel beam 850 feet in the air captured the imagination of millions almost as soon as it was published in The New York Herald-Tribune on October 2, 1932—yet any information that once was known about the subjects and the photographer was soon lost over time. While it’s most commonly known as “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” the image has been called different names over the years, including “Lunch on a Beam” and “Men on a Beam.”
Even the location was once debated: Some thought it was the Empire State Building, when it’s in fact a publicity shot taken during the construction of the 69th floor of Rock Center's RCA Building—now known as 30 Rock—but thanks to the detective work of two Irish filmmakers, this and other information about the photo has since come to light.
