{"id":6048,"date":"2015-11-04T00:07:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T05:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=6048"},"modified":"2015-11-12T13:56:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T18:56:27","slug":"the-streaker-who-looked-like-an-alien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/11\/04\/the-streaker-who-looked-like-an-alien\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh streaker who “looked like an alien”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A <\/a>
A young man showed up on the opening day of Engineer’s Week wearing a heavy coat and hat … and anything underneath? (Morris Berman\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The young man begins to strip. (Morris Berman\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Holding <\/a>
Holding his clothing, the streaker heads for a set of steps. (Morris Berman\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Streaker <\/a>
Streaker then bolts across campus. (Morris Berman\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is the picture as it ran in the next day’s Post-Gazette. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is the file of streaking pictures in our archive. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The “Steaking” folder contains mostly wire pictures. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"We <\/a>
We found one local picture in the “Streaking” file but no information was attached. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The year is 1973 and Pittsburgh Press photographer Don Stetzer, dapper as always in a suit and tie, is standing somewhere on the University of Pittsburgh lawn and taking pictures of an outdoor student event when something very strange happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

A blur of pink flesh darts across the grass. The gathered crowd gasps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Don raises a camera to his eye. He\u2019s an old-time news photographer who got his start in the late 1940s. Unexpected public nudity certainly qualifies as news, and Don epitomizes the conscientious photojournalist. Very little gets past him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Next day, the Press presents its readers with a picture of a naked young man running away from the camera and hoisting one of those plastic stadium horns popular at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Streaking had come to Pittsburgh. Almost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019s picture appeared in the typically prudish manner of the Press. A vital part of the streaker\u2019s anatomy had been removed by an artist\u2019s air brush.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey blocked out the crack in his butt,\u201d recalls Robert Pavuchak, one of Don\u2019s colleagues in the Press photo department. \u201cIt really looked stupid in the paper. We all had a good laugh. Somebody thought the picture was in bad taste, so they made it in worse taste.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andy Starnes, a long-time Pittsburgh photojournalist who recently retired as head of the PG\u2019s photo department, recalls some details of the picture, like the plastic horn. And he remembers the strangeness of seeing a man who lacked an intergluteal cleft. \u201cThe guy looked like an Alien,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such treatment of pictures was common in the \u201870s. \u201cThey also painted out cleavage,\u201d Andy says. \u201cA little bit of cleavage was OK, but if too much was showing, they\u2019d have the art department take it out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Among local newspaper photographers, the story of the man with the missing butt crack became legend, passed down from one generation of shooters to the next. It\u2019s a great tale, one we have long yearned to tell in the Digs. The only problem is this: We\u2019ve never located the original print or a clipping of the published picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don died in 2010 at age 82, so we can\u2019t ask him about the picture or the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

We searched our photo files and found a folder labeled, \u201cStreaking.\u201d Inside were mostly wire service photographs of naked running people of various sizes and shapes from around the globe. The folder contained one local photograph, which shows a police officer detaining a naked young man in an unidentified grassy area, but no information on the back of the image indicated where or when the picture was taken.<\/span><\/p>\n

We did find a strip of negatives labeled \u201cStreaker 3-11-74.\u201d This series of pictures, shot by PG photographer Morris Berman, show a young man stripping down and then bolting down a set of steps on opening day of Pitt\u2019s Engineer\u2019s Week.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those pictures made its way into the next day\u2019s edition of the Post-Gazette. The man\u2019s butt crack survived the publication process unmolested. We present those pictures here as a substitute for Don Stetzer\u2019s now legendary image.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we\u2019re not giving up. If you remember Don\u2019s picture, let us know. We\u2019re determined to get to the bottom of this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a legendary lost picture, man is missing an intergluteal cleft<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh streaker who “looked like an alien”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[948,946],"tags":[975,963,989,1025,1244,1050],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/digs.1974311Streaker013.jpg?fit=1296%2C863&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4705,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/01\/07\/pittsburghs-fallout-shelters\/","url_meta":{"origin":6048,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh’s fallout shelters","date":"January 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Allegheny County once nearly purchased a hole in the ground for 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