I, Witness
Award winning photojournalist, Gene Barnes shares his life and times as a cameraman for NBC News during the radical 50's & 60's. His stories are ironic, iconic, historical and things we still talk about to this day. All copyrights to images and stories are owned by his daughter, Christina Barnes. Please ask permission for use and respecting copyright laws will be very much appreciated.
Salinger and Stevenson…
Press Representative and Former Illinois Governor
Pierre Salinger & Adlai Stevenson
Downtown Los Angeles – 1959
In his last attempt at the presidency, Stevenson ran as a candidate for the Democratic party against John F. Kennedy, who appointed Stevenson U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations after the doomed campaign effort. Salinger then became JFK’s press secretary.
X-15 Rocket Plane & Scott Crossfield…
The X-15 Rocket Plane
Los Angeles International Airport – 1959
In its initial roll out at North American Aviation.
Chief Test Pilot, Engineer,
Scott Crossfield
North American Aviation – Los Angeles International Airport – 1959
Seen here by the X-15, Crossfield started with the project from blueprint stage to the initial launch without an engine. Strapped to the belly of a B-52 mothership, Crossfield manned the X-15 as it was dropped from an altitude of 30,000 feet above Edward’s Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert for an historic dead stick landing.
Frank McGee…
NBC Reporter
Frank McGee
Florida – Circa 1957
The native Oklahoman correspondent received national recognition during the Freedom March in Mississippi, seen here waiting for the Vanguard missile shot countdown in a news vehicle at Cape Canaveral. He later became host of THE TODAY SHOW.
Sukarno…
President of Indonesia 1945-1967
Achmed Sukarno
Burbank, California – 1961
Inspecting U.S. military turboprop aircraft at Lockheed during a tour.
Rebellious World War II Ace…
Pappy Boyington
Los Angeles – 1959
Boyington led the Flying Tiger Squadron Pacific Theater, authored Baa Baa Blacksheep- depicting stories of his squadron; tales of heroism surrounding a band of misfits and renegades. Seen here on a book tour.
Eisenhower…
Former President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
California – 1961
Seen here at a Pamona, California train stop en-route to Palm Springs and
retirement.
Margaret Mead…
Margaret Mead
Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel – 1961
The prominent U.S. Anthropologist, Psychologist & Author during promotional tour for a new book.
Atom Bomb…
The Atom Bomb Bursts
Frenchman Flats, Nevada – 1955
Shot during a test at Frenchman Flats, Nevada. First color footage to air the same day on network TV. (He won an award for this shot.)
The Atlas Missile…
The Atlas Missile
Cape Canaveral, Florida – 1957
From a distance of two miles where we bootlegged news coverage of the test. With the use of telephoto lenses, tracked the erratic 1,000 mph flight from lift-off to its destruction at 7,000 feet when it went wild. Defense Department officials classified the film as “Top Secret” after thirty million people viewed it on TV.
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I, Witness 
The End of the World, 2 Artists…
Renowned Artist
Niki de Saint Phalle
Westwood, California 1962
Renowned French sculptor and painter in front of one of her works on display at the Dawn Gallery. (Check out her website, http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com – She passed away in 2002 leaving behind incredible creations in public places, one taking 20 years to complete, worked on it until her death, a tarot card garden, very accomplished.)
Renowned Sculptor of Automation
Jean Tinguely
Nevada- 1962
Swiss born master of automation, seen with the horn’ of plenty, one of the components Tinguely gathered at the Flamingo Hotel then trucked out to a dry lake bed near Las Vegas. The assemblage was his interpretation of a spendthrift, all consuming, opulent society addicted to television, bent on a course of self-destruction. After mobilizing the massive work he detonates the explosives creating The End of The World for NBC’s David Brinkley’s Journal.
Jean and Niki eventually married. Here he is working on his End of the World in the desert.
Jean Tinguely with Niki de Saint Phalle at the dry lake walking through his collection of castoffs of humanity from junk yards and the city dump: TV set, easy chair, burgeoning refrigerator, baby buggy, shopping cart filled with beach balls, a dented water tank with a mangy tree trunk that moves obscenely in and out of the vent. Nevada – 1962
Jean Tinguely strategically places 50 sticks of dynamite and plastic explosives around his desert masterpiece. Nevada- 1962