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Remembering George Kalinsky
20 January 2025
George Kalinksy, for many years the official photographer of Madison Square Garden, died last week at a senior living facility in Manhattan from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 88.
He was born in Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island, one of three children of Samuel and Fay (Rosen) Kalinsky, who owned a children's furniture business. He attended Hempstead High School before studying art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design in 1958.
He was employed as an art director for an advertising agency, marrying Ellen Wexelblatt in 1960. They had two children. Two years after she died in 1998, Kalinsky married June Azoulay, a psychotherapist. They later divorced.
He was on vacation in Miami Beach, where he'd gone to interview for a job as a newspaper cartoonish at The Miami Herald, when he noticed Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell walking down the street. He followed them to a boxing gym, his camera slung over his shoulder, and talked his way in by claiming to be a photographer for Madison Square Garden even though, he would later admit, "I was lucky to be the photographer for my own family."
Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, wasn't convinced but couldn't see the harm in a little free publicity. "OK, comedian," Mr. Dundee told him. "Come on in."
Kalinksy sold one of the photos to The Miami Herald and when he returned home to New York, he used the one roll of film he had shot of Ali, the world heavyweight champion, to score a freelance assignment from the Garden's boxing department.
That, as well as working Knicks basketball games and Rangers hockey games, turned into a regular gig. By the time a new Garden opened on the West Side of Manhattan in 1968, he had really become its first official photographer.
Over the next five decades, most of the big names who appeared there found themselves in front of Kalinksy's lens. They included presidential candidates during political conventions, Pope John Paul II in 1979, Frank Sinatra and his old friend Ali.
His photos appeared on television, in print and in museums, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. At Graceland, his images of Elvis Presley in his white jumpsuit during a 1972 Garden concert were displayed in 2008. In 2019, a Kalinsky collection was accepted into the Library of Congress. He also took photos for the New York Mets and Radio City Music Hall.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his daughter, Rachelle Kalinsky, and four grandchildren.