Buster the skating rooster
Posted By: Scott Harrison
Posted On: 12:54 a.m. | October 25, 2011
It's a pretty interesting little story. CLICK HERE to see more of Weiner's photography.
Aug. 17, 1952: Buster, a roller skating rooster, navigates between a girl’s legs during a photo session with former Los Angeles Times staff photographer Leigh Wiener.
Years later, Wiener wrote about Buster:Because of an incident that happened to me when I was a photographer for the Los Angeles Times, I now have a surefire method of dealing with strangers who approach me on the street and ask me to take their picture.
A reporter and I were sent to a run-down part of town on South Alvarado Street to cover an apparent hit-and-run auto accident. Arriving on scene, we discovered that what had happened wasn’t much of a news story. There were no deaths, no injuries, and no damage to speak of .…
As we were about to get back into our car and leave, a man who fit the stereotypical “wino” image stepped out of the small crowd and came over to me .…
In a voice that was soft and cultured, he said, “Mister, will you take my picture? I’m Billy Lehr.” I was about to tell him to get lost when I suddenly remembered a phone conversation I had had three weeks before with a New York picture agent. The agent told me that he had heard there was a dog in California that could roller skate. If I could find that dog and photograph him, I could make a lot of money.
I looked at Lehr and said, “Sure I’ll take you picture, mister, if you have a dog that can roller skate.”
