Tragedy by the Sea

File:Nineteen-month-old Michael McDonald.jpg

On April 2, 1954, a 19-month-old boy named Michael went missing along the shore in Hermosa Beach, California. His parents, John and Lillian McDonald, were photographed standing on the beach after the disappearance. According to Lillian, the boy had wandered out of the family's yard. She called the police, and authorities began searching for the boy. A woman named Beverly Murdock ran to a police station to report that she spotted a baby in the ocean, in a seaweed patch. She described the boy's clothing and it matched what Lillian had told police. John McDonald ran back and forth on the beach and Lilian restrained him from dashing into the ocean.{{cite news |title=Beach Scene of Tragedy as Surf Takes Tot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-peninsula-times-tribune-tragedy-by-t/140972374/ |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=The Peninsula Times Tribune |agency=Associated Press |date=3 April 1954 |pages=2}} The boy was not immediately found, and the search was suspended that night. John and Lillian refused to leave the beach even when it became too dark to search.

On the day of the boy's disappearance, Los Angeles Times photographer John L. Gaunt, Jr. was at his Hermosa Beach home when he heard a neighbor shout, "Something's happening on the beach!" Gaunt retrieved his camera, a Rolleiflex, and he ran to the beach. When he approached, he saw the young couple standing by the water's edge holding each other and he captured the image before the couple turned and walked away.{{cite news |last1=Thurber |first1=Jon |date=October 27, 2007 |title=John L. Gaunt Jr., 83; Times photographer |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-gaunt27oct27,1,1106416.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110811004415/http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-gaunt27oct27,1,1106416.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |access-date=January 1, 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times}}{{cite web |title=1955 Pulitzer Prizes |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1955 |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes |access-date=January 1, 2024 |language=en |archive-date=December 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218010715/https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1955 |url-status=live }} Gaunt stated that his recollection is that he captured the image from {{cvt|200|ft}} away and had his camera set at 1/250 of a second with the aperture set at f/16.{{cite news |title=Pulitzer Award Third for Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380945423/?terms=John%20L.%20Gaunt%2C%20Jr.&match=1&clipping_id=140975110 |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times |language=en}}

The image, which Gaunt titled Tragedy by the Sea,{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Heinz Dietrich |last2=Fischer |first2=Erika J. |title=Press Photography Awards, 1942–1998: From Joe Rosenthal and Horst Faas to Moneta Sleet and Stan Grossfeld |date=2000 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin, Germany |isbn=978-3-598-30184-1 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lace6Iu4cW4C&q=John+L.+Gaunt&pg=PA31 |access-date=January 1, 2024 |language=en |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306134555/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lace6Iu4cW4C&q=John%20L.%20Gaunt&pg=PA31#v=snippet&q=John%20L.%20Gaunt&f=false |url-status=live }} was printed in the Los Angeles Times on April 3, 1954. At that time, the newspaper speculated that the boy might have been swept out to sea.{{cite news |title=Beach Home Toddler Feared Drowned in Sea |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-beach-home-toddler/47839716/ |access-date=January 1, 2024 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=April 3, 1954 |pages=1 |archive-date=October 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005132135/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-beach-home-toddler/47839716/ |url-status=live }} The Pulitzer award earned Gaunt a {{US$|1,000|1955|long=no}} monetary award.{{cite news |title=Pulitzer Award Third for Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380945423/?terms=John%20L.%20Gaunt%2C%20Jr.&match=1&clipping_id=140975110 |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times |language=en}}

The search went on for days and continued into April 5.{{cite news |title=Hunt Continues for Baby Swept Away by Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-tragedy/137845871/ |access-date=January 1, 2024 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |agency=UPI |date=April 5, 1954 |pages=1}} The Los Angeles Mirror reported that John and Lillian kept a vigil on the beach for days.{{cite news |title=Tot's Body Given Up by Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-mirror-tragedy-by-the-sea/140974026/ |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=Los Angeles Mirror |date=12 April 1954 |pages=3}} Michael's body was not found until April 12, which was ten days after his disappearance. The boy was spotted near 4th Street in Manhattan Beach.{{cite news |title=Drowned Baby's Body Recovered |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-tragedy-by-the-sea/137846430/ |access-date=January 1, 2024 |work=Daily News |date=April 13, 1954 |page=15}}{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Heinz-Dietrich |title=Key Images of American Life: Pulitzer Prize Winning Pictures |date=2015 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |location=Berlin, Germany |isbn=978-3-643-90518-5 |page=194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wu_SBAAAQBAJ&dq=tragedy+by+the+sea+gaunt&pg=PA194 |access-date=January 1, 2024 |language=en}} On April 12, 1954, a woman spotted the boy's body bobbing on the surf near her home. Her home was more than {{cvt|1|mi|km}} away from where the boy had gone missing; she pulled the body from the water and called the police.{{cite news |title=Body of Baby Lost in Surf Finally Washed Ashore |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/33072912/ |access-date=January 1, 2024 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=April 13, 1954 |pages=1}}

The image won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. The Pulitzer jury called the photograph "poignant and profoundly moving". The image also won an Associated Press Award. The photo won first place in the 1954 Los Angeles Press Club's Honor Gallery of News Photos. It also won a special citation from the managing editors of the Associated Press.{{cite news |title=Times Man Wins AP Photo Award |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-john-l-gaunt-trag/137929013/ |access-date=3 January 2024 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=4 February 1955 |pages=2}} The Associated Press Best Spot News award occurred before the Pulitzer award and they referred to it with the title of Cruel Waves.{{cite news |date=10 May 1955 |title=Jack Gaunt Wins AP Photo Prize |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-asheville-times-john-l-gaunt/137927789/ |access-date=3 January 2024 |work=Asheville Times |pages=5 |agency=Associated Press}} In 2005 Sylvester Brown Jr. of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called it "Gaunt's haunting 1954 photograph".{{cite news |last1=Brown Jr. |first1=Sylvester |title=Pictures Speak Louder Than Marine General's Words |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-pictures-speak-l/140976404/ |access-date=15 February 2024 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=8 February 2005 |pages=B001}} When the photographer John Gaunt died in 2007, the Los Angeles Times began the obituary by identifying him as the man who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955.

{{Reflist}}

{{Pulitzer Prize}}

{{authority control}}

Category:1954 in California

Category:1954 works

Category:1954 in art

Category:Black-and-white photographs

Category:Pulitzer Prize–winning photographs

Category:1950s photographs

Category:Hermosa Beach, California

Category:Photographs of the United States

Category:Deaths by drowning in California