Las Vegas Sun

December 3, 2009

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Sun Flashbacks: Photographer has memories of old days

Saturday, July 1, 2000 | 2:36 a.m.

Rene Germanier, photographer from 1958-68, on his photo coverage of local disasters:

"I was assigned to cover the crash of a jet from Nellis Air Force Base. As I approached to take the picture, a military policeman pointed his M-16 at me and threatened to shoot me, so I told him I would take a picture of him doing it.

"He backed off and I shot the photo of the crash site. I went back to the office and told City Editor Noel Greenwood (who later worked for the Los Angeles Times) I was mad about being threatened like that. He said he would take care of it.

"Two days later, I got a letter from the general in charge of Nellis apologizing for the behavior of his MP, who had no authority to threaten me because the crash was not on Nellis property.

"When the Orbit Inn blew up downtown, cops were everywhere when I arrived. Cops used to love it when the press showed up to photograph a crime scene because the police had only one Speedgraphic (camera) and none of them knew how to operate it. (Photographers used to give police copies of photos after they ran in the paper.)"

Rene Germanier went on to work for the Las Vegas Review-Journal for 24 years and retired in 1992.

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