NOTES
In addition to relying on the sources listed below, this book was vetted and corrected by a number of experts in different areas, as well as by some whose involvement with the film is reflected in my account. I am extremely grateful to them for their help. They include Joseph Barabe, ChaeRan Freeze, Dana Freyer, Doug Hall, Adam Hauser, Paul Hoch, Bill Hooper, Chip Lord, David Marwell, Jamie Silverberg, Dick Stolley, Judge John Tunheim, and Beth Gates Warren.
Introduction
Description of Abraham Zapruder’s experiences on the day of the assassination from William Manchester, The Death of a President: November 1963 (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).
Quote from José Saramago, The Cave (New York: Harcourt, 2002).
Prologue: Home Movie
The description of the events that took place in the Zapruder home on the evening of November 22, 1963, comes from Myrna (Zapruder Hauser) Ries interview conducted by the author on February 24 and 25, 2011.
Quotes and descriptions of JFK’s assassination from Abraham Zapruder’s perspective came from a variety of sources, including family accounts; a televised interview with Jay Watson on WFAA-TV on November 22, 1963; his testimony in Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, vol. 7 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1964), pp. 569–571; William Manchester’s interview notes for The Death of a President (from the William Manchester Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT); “Marvin Scott Interviews Abraham Zapruder, 1966” (Marvin Scott Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza); and Abraham Zapruder’s testimony in State of Louisiana v. Clay L. Shaw, on February 13, 1969, in New Orleans.
Other sources include Kodak technician Phil Chamberlain’s recollections about developing the film, as included in Roland J. Zavada, Analysis of Selected Motion Picture Photographic Evidence: Kodak Technical Report (Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak, 1998); Abraham Zapruder’s home movies from 1934 to 1970; Marilyn Sitzman interview conducted by Marjorie Zapruder and Myrna Ries on June 10, 1993; and Henry Zapruder, Rebuttal Affidavit prepared for the Zapruder film arbitration hearing, February 11, 1999.
Chapter 1: Assassination
Quotes and descriptions of the Zapruder family’s experiences before, during, and immediately after President Kennedy’s assassination come from previously cited written accounts and interviews with Myrna Ries, Henry Zapruder, and Marilyn Sitzman. Additional information comes from Marjorie Zapruder interview conducted by the author on October 17, 2013, and interviews with Marilyn Sitzman (conducted by Wes Wise with Bob Porter on June 29, 1993) and Erwin Schwartz (conducted by Bob Porter on December 30, 1997), both courtesy of the Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
General information about President Kennedy’s visit to Dallas and the events of the assassination came from relevant sections in Richard B. Trask, National Nightmare on Six Feet of Film: Mr. Zapruder’s Home Movie and the Murder of President Kennedy (Danvers, MA: Yeoman Press, 2005); Vincent Bugliosi, Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008); William Manchester, The Death of a President: November 1963 (New York: Harper & Row, 1967); Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Knopf, 2012); and articles in the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald in November 1963.
Information about the reactionary climate in Dallas came primarily from Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, Dallas 1963 (New York: Twelve, 2013).
Details about Abraham Zapruder filming the assassination of President Kennedy and quotes come from previously cited interviews and testimonies.
List of other photographers and their locations on and around Dealey Plaza comes from Richard B. Trask, Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy (Danvers, MA: Yeoman Press, 1994), and Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1967).
Information and quotes from Harry McCormick’s encounter with Abraham Zapruder come from his account in Memoirs of Dallas Morning News Reporters and Photographers Covering the JFK Assassination (The Dallas Morning News Collection, Belo Records, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University), and from an unpublished letter McCormick wrote to his family on December 8, 1963, provided to the author by McCormick’s grandson, Jamie Henderson.
Details and quotes about Darwin Payne’s encounter with Abraham Zapruder come from Darwin Payne interview conducted by Bob Porter on January 19, 1995 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza), and from two sets of handwritten notes he took that day (Darwin Payne Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza).
Information and quotes from Forrest Sorrels come from his testimony in Hearings, vol. 7, p. 352, and from a memorandum on file at NARA that Sorrels wrote to Inspector Thomas J. Kelley on January 22, 1964.
Abraham Zapruder interview with Jay Watson, WFAA-TV, November 22, 1963.
Information and quotes from Bert Shipp come from an interview conducted by Wes Wise with Bob Porter on November 17, 1992 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza).
Information and quotes from Phil Chamberlain come from an interview conducted by Bob Porter with Gary Mack on September 21, 1994 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza).
Chapter 2: Exposure
Information and quotes regarding the processing of the original film at the Kodak Lab in Dallas come primarily from interviews with John Harrison (conducted by Bob Porter with Gary Mack on August 30, 1994) and Bert Shipp (conducted by Wes Wise with Bob Porter on November 17, 1992), both courtesy of the Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, as well as previously cited Phil Chamberlain interview and his written recollection in Zavada, Analysis of Selected. Additional information and quotes drawn from previously cited interview with Erwin Schwartz and written accounts by Harry McCormick.
Information about the Bell and Howell Director Series camera comes from close observation and examination of Abraham Zapruder’s replica camera; Instructional Booklet: Bell and Howell Director Series, 8mm Movie Camera, Model 414-414P; and from previously cited Zavada, Analysis of Selected. Quote from Modern Photography taken from Trask, National Nightmare, pp. 24–25.
Facts and quotes about duplicating the film at Jamieson Film Company came from Bruce Jamieson interview conducted by Bob Porter on February 23, 2000 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza), and previously cited interviews with Kodak technicians and Erwin Schwartz.
Affidavits certifying the processing of the original film at Kodak, the duplication of three copies at Jamieson Film Company, and the processing of those three duplicates at Kodak exist in the Time Inc. Archives. Copies of the affidavits were reprinted in the appendices in David R. Wrone, The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK’s Assassination (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2003), pp. 281–283.
Additional general information about processing the in-camera original film at Kodak, duplicating it at Jamieson, and developing the three first-day copies at Kodak, and technical details regarding the edge print markings come primarily from relevant sections of Trask, National Nightmare, and Zavada, Analysis of Selected.
Details about bringing the duplicate copies of the film to the Secret Service come from previously cited interview with Erwin Schwartz. Confirmation of the transmittal of first-day copies of the film to the Secret Service come from previously cited memo by Forrest Sorrels to Inspector Thomas J. Kelley on January 22, 1964 (with a mistaken recollection by Agent Sorrels that he picked up the film from Zapruder’s office), and from a memo written by Chief of Secret Service James Rowley to Henry Suydam, LIFE Washington bureau chief, on January 27, 1964, both on file at NARA. This account is commonly accepted as the accurate chain of possession for the two first-day copies and is repeated in Trask, Zavada, and multiple other sources.
Additional confirmation of the processing of the original film and the duplication of it comes fro
m a letter written by Abraham Zapruder to C. D. Jackson, publisher of LIFE magazine, on November 25, 1975. This letter served as a statement of authenticity for the film, and accompanied the signed contract with LIFE and the affidavits from Kodak and Jamieson.
Zapruder family background comes from interviews with Myrna Ries and Marjorie Zapruder conducted by the author; with Lillian Rogers and Marilyn Sitzman conducted by Marjorie Zapruder and Myrna Ries; with Marilyn Sitzman and Erwin Schwartz from the Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza; and with Lillian Zapruder conducted by Miriam Creemer on April 1, 1981, from the collections of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society. Additional background and anecdotes came from interviews conducted by the author with Alice Feld on May 7, 2011, and Ada Lynn in November 2013.
Birth, marriage, and death records for the Zapruder family; immigration and census documents, voter registration, draft registration, and naturalization certificate for Israel Zapruder; and emergency passport application for Chana Zapruder came from JewishGen.org. Ship manifests showing Israel Zapruder (1909) and Chana Zapruder with children (1920) came from the Ellis Island website, LibertyEllisFoundation.org.
Background on Jewish life in Imperial Russia came from correspondence with ChaeRan Freeze, associate professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, and from relevant portions of her published work, including Jewish Marriage and Divorce in Imperial Russia (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2001) and Everyday Jewish Life in Imperial Russia: Select Documents, 1772–1914 (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2013).
Information about Kovel came from a translation of Kowel; sefer edut ve-zikaron le-kehilatenu she-ala aleha ha-koret (Kowel; Testimony and Memorial Book of Our Destroyed Community), edited by Eliezer Leoni-Zopperfin (Tel Aviv: 1957) on JewishGen.org, and from correspondence with ChaeRan Freeze (including a translation of the Kovel entry in Evreiskaia entsiklopediia, vol. 19, pp. 577–579).
General information about Jewish life in Dallas came from Rose G. Biderman, They Came to Stay: The Story of the Jews of Dallas, 1870–1997 (Fort Worth, TX: Eakin Press, 2002); Gerry Cristol, A Light in the Prairie: Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, 1872–1997 (Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University, 1998); and David Ritz, “The Jews Who Built Dallas,” D Magazine, November 2008.
Some information about Ben Gold and Nardis came from Paula Bosse, “Nardis of Dallas: The Fashion Connection Between ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ and the Kennedy Assassination” on flashbackdallas.com.
Information about the Chalet union dispute can be found in “Decision and Order in Chalet, Inc. and International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, AFL, Cutters Local no. 387. (Case No. 16-ca-596. November 19, 1953.)”
Letters from Henry Zapruder to John F. Kennedy (September 1, 1960, and February 3, 1962) from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA.
Chapter 3: First Glimpses
Myrna Ries’s story and quotes come from her previously cited interview with the author.
Richard Stolley’s background, experiences during the Kennedy assassination, and interactions with Abraham Zapruder come from a variety of published and unpublished sources. Most important was an interview conducted by the author on March 5, 2013, in New York, NY, and follow-up conversations and e-mail correspondence. Further information came from interviews with Richard Stolley on November 22, 1996; November 21, 2003; October 15, 2008; and November 19, 2011 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza). Published accounts written by Richard Stolley include “LIFE Is on the Story,” in The Day Kennedy Died: Fifty Years Later LIFE Remembers the Man and the Moment (New York: LIFE Books, 2013), pp. 72–79; “Zapruder Rewound,” LIFE, September 1998; “Shots Seen Round the World,” Entertainment Weekly, January 17, 1992; “Four Days in Dallas: 25 Years Later,” Columbia, the Magazine of Columbia University, October 1988, p. 57; and “What Happened Next…” Esquire, November 1973.
Patsy Swank interview conducted by Bob Porter on June 11, 1996 (Oral History Collection, Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza).
General history of LIFE magazine comes from Loudon Wainwright, The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of LIFE (New York: Knopf, 1986).
Description of the events of Saturday morning, November 23, 1963, and quotes come from previously cited interviews with Lillian Rogers and Erwin Schwartz, and interviews and written accounts by Richard Stolley.
Information about the chain of possession of the original Zapruder film (edge print marked 0183) and the first-day copy that Abe Zapruder retained (edge print marked 0186) over the weekend of the assassination is well documented in Trask, National Nightmare; Zavada, Analysis of Selected; on the website of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, jfk.org; and verified by Abraham Zapruder testimonies and documents in Time Inc. Archives, and by Secret Service documents, as previously cited.
Information about the review and chain of possession of first-day Copy 1 (edge print number 0185) by the Secret Service and the FBI comes from documents on file in the JFK Assassination Records Collection at NARA, including two memos from C. D. DeLoach to Mr. Mohr on November 23, 1963; transmittal documents and letters from the Dallas FBI field office to Washington HQ; and a short interview with Abraham Zapruder and other FBI correspondence regarding the handling of the film. Confirmation of these facts and additional details come from previously cited Zavada, Analysis of Selected, and Trask, National Nightmare.
Information about the reporting and coverage of the JFK assassination at LIFE comes from previously cited Wainwright, The Great American Magazine, and from “The Man Who Shot JFK Being Shot,” in Roy Rowan, Powerful People: From Mao to Now (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1996).
Max Holland, “The Truth Behind JFK’s Assassination,” Newsweek, November 20, 2014.
For a comparison of the Zapruder film, the Challenger explosion, and the Rodney King beating, see chapter 1 of Marita Sturken, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
Quotes from Forrest Sorrels come from previously cited memorandum to Inspector Thomas J. Kelley, January 22, 1964, in JFK Assassination Records Collection at NARA.
Abraham Zapruder quote from previously cited William Manchester interview.
The description of Henry and Marjorie Zapruder’s experiences the weekend of the assassination comes from previously cited Marjorie Zapruder interview with the author.
Information about President Kennedy’s funeral and burial comes from previously cited published sources about the Kennedy assassination, newspaper coverage, and previously cited The Day Kennedy Died.
Chapter 4: All Rights to LIFE
Myrna Ries and Richard Stolley recollections come from previously cited sources.
Information and quotes from Sam Passman regarding the sale of the moving picture rights to the film come from Sam Passman interview conducted by Marjorie and Henry Zapruder on November 5, 1994, and legal records from the offices of Passman & Jones, provided by Robert Trien and James L. Silverberg.
Information and quotes from Dan Rather’s experiences during the weekend of the Kennedy assassination and his involvement with the Zapruder film come from Dan Rather with Mickey Herskowitz, The Camera Never Blinks: Adventures of a TV Journalist (New York: William Morrow, 1977), and from an interview conducted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on February 11, 2003 (transcript available online at archive1.jfklibrary.org). A third account, consistent with his written and recorded interviews, comes from “Dan Rather Discusses the Zapruder Film” on EmmyTVLegends.org, www.YouTube.com/watch?v=PIBNuxzN15M. Multiple versions of Dan Rather’s television broadcast on CBS on November 25, 1963, can be found on YouTube.
Additional information came from relevant sections in Trask, National Nightmare. In fact, the timeline and events of that day are difficult to pinpoint. Trask points out that it is not clear how many times Rather delivered his spoken
recollections of the film on the air, but that he believes he first spoke on CBS radio, interviewed by Hughes Rudd and Richard C. Hottelet, and then, that afternoon, went on CBS News with Walter Cronkite to describe it again. Rather’s own account does not mention the radio and says simply that he went on the air immediately. In addition to defending his misreporting of the direction of the president’s head at the moment of the bullet’s impact, he explained how he described Jackie Kennedy’s movements in the film and his bosses’ urging to do another take with a more dignified account of the first lady’s actions.
Don Hewitt quote is from Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television (New York: Public Affairs, 2001).
Details about LIFE’s acquisition of all rights to the Zapruder film are from previously cited interviews and written accounts by Richard Stolley.
The contract terms between Abraham Zapruder and LIFE magazine come from the LIFE contract and accompanying documents in the LIFE magazine archives.
Information about the donation to Mrs. Tippit comes primarily from previously cited interview with Sam Passman and legal files from Passman & Jones.
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