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UPI and the strange case of filmic amnesia - Paul Rigby - 03-10-2008
The Valley Independent, (Monessen, Pennsylvania), Tuesday, November 26, 1963, Page 5
Film Showing Assassination Is Released
NEW YORK (UPI) — United Press International Newsfilm early today was first on the air with exclusive film showing the assassination of President Kennedy.
The film is 16mm enlarged from 8mm. It was shown on a New York City television station.
The sequence, shot by an amateur photographer in Dallas Friday, begins with motorcycle police coming around the corner followed by the Kennedy motorcade.The President is then seen leaning over when the bullets strike. Mrs. Kennedy puts her right arm around the President and he slumps out of view. The film then shows a Secret Service agent running toward the car.
The film was shown in slow motion and also stopped at key points in the assassination. The scene was shown four times at different speeds and under different magnifications.
Copies have been rushed to United Press Newsfilm clients all over the world.
Same despatch: “Exclusive Films Show Shooting of Kennedy in Dallas,” Logansport Pharos-Tribune, (Logansport, Indiana), Tuesday, November 26, 1963, Page 2
http://www.kennedyassassinationarchive.com/Viewer.aspx?img=76014808_clean&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=5¤tPage=0
Kingsport News (Tennessee), 8 October 1964, p.19
JFK Assassination Film Holds Guests Spellbound
Marlyn E. Aycock (UPI)
WASHINGTON (UPI) – Four days in November numbed an unbelieving world last year.Tuesday night, the premiere of a film on President John F. Kennedy's assassination had almost the same hypnotic effect on 1,600 invited guests.
The first showing of "Four Days in November" was at Keith's Theater here, a short block from the While House which figured so prominently in the two-hour documentary. Producer David L. Wolper combined a skillful blend of newsfilm, still photographs, amateur movies and recreated scenes into a searing record of those four days.
The United States and much of the world lived those days as they unfolded on television and in print. Wolper's production, in cooperation with United Press International, brought those tragic events back in a chronological, cohesive account for the first time.
Drama Increased
The assassination came near the midway point. For an hour, the drama built up until the presidential car turned a Dallas street corner and a shot rang out. The screen went blank for several seconds, symbolizing the inability of the mind to grasp what had happened. Then the camera recaptured the frenzy in the Dallas streets — Mrs. Kennedy pulling the Secret Service agent onto the rear of the car, the dash to Parkland Hospital, the blindman's buff search for a culprit. And then the grief.
The following days of nation al sorrow in Washington were interrupted by sudden switches to the confusion in the halls of the Dallas police station and the incredible murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. The film made no attempt to interpret Oswald's motives. It assumed his guilt on the evidence available just as the Warren Commission did 10 days ago in concluding that Oswald acted for reasons known to him alone and without help.
Audible Effect
The affect of reliving those four days was clearly audible among the guests from the White House staff, executive UPI Editors and Conference here.. None of the Kennedy family vas present although a number of the late President's friends accepted invitations. The film was being released today for world-wide exhibition. Wolper and his associates edited some 2 million feet of film, much of it not shown publicly before, into the 120-minute final product. The narrative script was read for accuracy by the Warren Commission counsel. And in spite of the emotional drain the film creates it surely must rank among the most valuable historical documents ever put together