I read yesterday that Cecil Stoughton died Monday at the age of 88.
He was the White House photographer who shot the iconic image of Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office in the cramped cabin of Air Force One with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side.
The AP story quoted his son Jamie Stoughton saying, "He was under tremendous pressure, If his camera had failed, who knows what would have happened. It was the only proof that Johnson had been sworn in."
Photographer Peter Tobia just told me the story about how that almost actually happened. Margalit Fox says in the New York Times obit today that after barely making it to the airport, almost getting shot by the police as he rushed the tarmac, switching from color to black & white film (newspapers weren't using color then) as the swearing-in began, and standing on a couch at the back of the plane - nothing happened when he first pressed the shutter on his Hasselblad. But then he "jiggled" the camera.
I hadn't heard that story before.
