 The Journal recently tracked down the "Dancing Man" whose famous pirouette following Japan's World War II surrender symbolised Sydney's joy.
The elegant twirl and hat doff captured by a camera crew as Sydney rejoiced 60 years ago on Wednesday, August 15, 1945 was that of Westmead resident ERN HILL.
After his boss closed his city workshop to celebrate the news, the 17-year-old electrical fitter pedalled his bicycle home to Ashfield, donned his best clothes and returned by train for the celebrations and his date with destiny.
 Re-enacting his famous jig for The Journal - on the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets - Mr Hill, now 77, reminisced about the sheer joy that swept Sydney on that historic occasion.
"Everybody was carrying on no end - there was just one mass of people," he said, pointing south along Elizabeth St.
"There used to be tram lines there but that day they could not run because the paper (dropped from office windows) had insulated the tracks."
Mr Hill spent the afternoon soaking up the euphoria with mates Ron Andrews and Les Wills before heading to Strathfield to dance the night away at Vic's Cabaret.
"As far as I was concerned it was a spontaneous one-off thing," he said of his iconic dance. "I had just come here to meet my mates and it just happened."
By the time he and his buddies were heading home the following morning, Sydney's presses were producing their accounts of Australia's biggest party.
"Greatest Celebrations in Sydney's History," hailed the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald August 16.
"Japan has surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers and the war is over."
"Million People Celebrate: City's Biggest Night Crowd," declared The Daily Telegraph on August 16. "The official police estimate of the crowd in the city last night, including the Domain and King's Cross, was one million. This was the largest crowd ever to assemble in the city at night and it behaved in a most orderly manner."
When asked whether he and his friends enjoyed a tipple or two despite their young age, Mr Hill replied emphatically in a tone suggesting The Journal had completely missed the significance of the day.
"There was no alcohol," he said. "You did not need it - it was just the adrenaline pumping."
Early in the morning of what came to be known as VP Day (for victory in the Pacific), Prime Minister Ben Chifley had declared a two-day holiday after announcing the surrender in a nationwide broadcast.
Following the war, Mr Hill enjoyed relative obscurity, including a three-year stint as a professional fisherman at Bermagui, until a Woman's Weekly article emerged in 1995 ahead of the 50th anniversary of VP Day.
"They put out an article about all this and said that the person had never been found," he said, with an air of lamentation.
"And Veterans' Affairs had been trying for sometime to find this person through various RSL Clubs."
After 10 others claimed to be "the dancing man", Mr Hill endured endless scrutiny only to be confirmed by countless experts and media commentators as the real McCoy.
Debate resurfaced again late last year when the Royal Australian Mint named him as the dancing man on a commemorative $1 coin.
The tribute angered the wife of former Sydney barrister Frank McAlary, for whom the famous dance had become a family heirloom.
"They have made a dreadful, dreadful mistake," Patricia McAlary fumed to The Sydney Morning Herald on December 8. "I was upset for my children and grandchildren."
While Mrs McAlary demanded a public apology, her husband was less inclined to engage in such a trivial dispute.
"If she wants the Mint to apologise, I want the mint to apologise," he assured Herald. "I am not silly enough to disagree with my wife on such an inconsequential matter. She is upset and I think the children are upset. I think everyone is more upset than I am."
As the 60th anniversary of VP Day approaches, Mr Hill has long since grown weary of the attention and bickering surrounding his immortality. He loathes the thought of going through it all again.
"It is a monkey on the back," he said.
"I will be glad when it all goes away."
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St George Leagues Club
LEAGUES CLUB JOURNAL
