A photo mystery

[thecatspajamas]

A little late to the party, but here's my take:

The OP's photo is dated 1955, and as others have stated, appears to have been issued in conjunction with a retrospective of the original event. The date stamping and notation of "wirephoto" on the paper caption are consistent with the photo having been sent "over the wire," with the OP's print being what came out on the other end of the wire. This would make it a Type IV photo: a duplicate photo printed more than 2 years after the image was shot. If the OP's photo is examined closely under magnification, the striations or "lines" that form the image should be able to be discerned. For more info on wirephotos, there is a ca. 1937 film on the wirephoto process here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LetlcmqZFyA

The photo on eBay has a dated paper caption and back stamping consistent with what the Associated Press used circa 1939. It would be considered a Type I photo, produced from the original negative within a short period after the image was shot.

Since both photos were issued by the Associated Press, and the cropping varies on each, it would seem reasonable that the AP held the original negative. They cropped/enlarged a portion of the image for the original photo on eBay which was sent to subscribers through the mail or by courier. About 16 years later, they pulled the negative out of the files, produced another print from it (utilizing more of the available image area to do so), and sent that image out "over the wire" to their subscribers to use with the retrospective story. The editor at the receiving end then added crop marks to the OP's photo to indicate what portion of the image he wanted to run with the story for that particular publication.