Donald and Ivana at K-Mart

     One of my most memorable photo assignments from the black and white darkroom days is of Donald and Ivana Trump shopping at a local K-Mart. It's one of the top ten pictures that I've taken for the newspaper. The photograph caused a media frenzy.
     The Mercury received a news tip about them shopping for school supplies for their son Donald Jr. at the discount store. I drove around the parking lot and found a Mercedes with New York licence plates and waited until they exited the store.
     They were pushing a cart loaded with bags and Trump walked up to me and asked who I was, where I was from and what I wanted. I told him my name, I was from The Mercury and I was there to get his picture. He walked behind his car and that's when I shot the photo of the Trump's with the K-Mart sign directly behind them.

Ivana and Donald Trump at K-Mart

     The Associated Press picked up the photo and ran it worldwide. Within hours, the photo desk phone rang off the hook. I talked to People Magazine, Newsweek and newspapers across the country.
     The photo was the top story in the 'Big Apple' the next day and I received papers from Newsday and The New York Post with the photo taking up the entire front page. After things settled down, I watched Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. I was surprised that he started his monologue with the Trumps at K-Mart. In all the years that followed I haven't had a reaction like that over any other photo.