Bruce Springsteen on tour in 1976 | Photo by Joe Vitti/The Post
Award-winning photographer Joe Vitti remembers the night he encountered Bruce Springsteen in a small-town campus bar in 1976, ultimately capturing just one single shot. But what a shot it was of the rock star known as “The Boss.”
The release of the new Bruce Springsteen movie, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, on October 24 has triggered a flood of memories for many, including Vitti, of performances, rock history, and photos.
“I only shot one frame,” recalls Vitti, whose black-and-white image was published by his college newspaper and shared to a broader audience on social media decades later.
Springsteen and his band visited Athens, Ohio (population 24,824) for a concert on April 1, 1976, at Ohio University. The night before the concert, The Boss was spotted at a bar called Swanky’s, now defunct.
Student photographer Vitti ran the short distance from the college newspaper office to the bar. At Swanky’s, Vitti “lit up the place” with a bare-bulb Honeywell Strobonar flash on a Nikon F camera. With one exposed frame of Tri-X film in his camera, Vitti raced back to the darkroom to process his film at the college paper (The Post).
The Post published Vitti’s photo with an extended caption under the headline “Cruisin’ with Bruce.” The text was written by student Mary Beth Sofranec (now Mary Beth Bardin) based on a brief interview with Springsteen at Swanky’s bar, says Dan Sewell, editor of the college newspaper in 1976-1977.
Bruce Springsteen on tour in 1976 | Photo by Joe Vitti/The Post
The Boss was looking at Sofranec when Vitti took Springsteen’s picture, she says.
The following day, Vitti attended the Springsteen concert in Athens, Ohio, and “had a rockin’ good time” with friends from Cleveland.
Where Are They Now? After Vitti graduated from Ohio University in 1977, he worked for newspapers in Tucson (1977-1984), Los Angeles (1984-1990), and Indianapolis (1990-2014). The industry honored Vitti with the President’s Award from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) in 1996. 
Joe Vitti in 2025 | Photo by Charlie Nye Mary Beth Bardin became a leader in corporate communications; she was executive vice president for public affairs and communication at Verizon (1988-2004). Dan Sewell joined The Associated Press in Buffalo in 1977 and was later based in Miami, San Juan, Atlanta, Chicago, and Cincinnati, where he retired in 2021. The New Movie
Jeremy Allen White (Shameless, The Bear) stars as Springsteen in the new movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere based on Warren Zane’s book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
The theatrical release poster for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere | Credit: 20th Century Fox
The film focuses on Springsteen’s journey as he crafts his 1982 album “Nebraska.”
“From its earliest appearances in film festivals, Deliver Me From Nowhere has arrived preloaded with hype,” says music writer Ben Sisario at The New York Times. “Surely that has to do with its subject: Until now, Springsteen, 76, has never allowed his story to be dramatized in a feature film.”
About the author: Ken Klein lives in Silver Spring, Maryland; he is retired after a career in politics, lobbying, and media including The Associated Press and Gannett in Florida. Klein is an alumnus of Ohio University and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Scripps College of Communication. Professionally, he has worked for Fort Myers News-Press (Gannett), The Associated Press (Tallahassee), Senator Bob Graham, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA).