John Loengard, former picture editor for Life magazine, wrote me that
he was in a General Assembly booth, along with 10 or so photographers
from New York city dailies and national wire services. Loengard is
certain that Khrushchev did not bang his shoe on the desk, but
that he certainly meant to do so. According to Loengard,
Khrushchev reached down and took off a brown loafer from his right
foot and put it on the desk. He grinned to delegates from the United
Arab Republic who sat across the aisle and mimed (with an empty hand)
that the next time hed use the shoe to bang. I can assure you that
every camera in the booth was trained on Khrushchev, waiting for him
to use the shoe. He only put it on again and left. None of us missed
the picture which would have been a serious professional error. The
event never occurred. A woman whose parents emigrated from Ukraine
wrote to say that her husband, who was getting ready to go to work,
happened to see it as he was walking past the TV. He told me to run
quickly to watch, and we stood there transfixed, she wrote. We had
a house guest at the time my cousin Sonia, who was here from the
Soviet Union on a visit. When we told her what had happened she didnt
believe us. Eventually, other relatives who had also been watching
told her they had seen it, too, so she finally conceded he must have
done so.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=148670
