06-11-2013, 05:56 PM
Tracy Riddle Wrote:Pamela McElwain-Brown Wrote:I attended a screening of the Zapruder film in NYC in the late fall of 1964. At the time, I knew that this was unusual, but had no idea that it would be virtually unheard of. I included a reference to this event in my esay "SS-100-X" in CAR CRASH CULTURE, Palgrave,2002. The film was shown following the David Wolper b+w documentary on the JFK administration called "1000 days". I sat in the front row, and watched this clear copy. My impression was that all the debris flowed to the rear, and there was no 'blob'. Having this experience has influenced everything I believe about the Zapruder film(s). When I tried to track down the theatre, I initially thought it might have been the Bleeker. However, I contacted the grandson of the owner at that time, and he said he didn't think so. He pointed me to someone else who said he thought it was shown at the Charles Theatre, on the lower East Side. I have since visited that site and it fits with my recollections; so does the interior, from photos.
To my knowledge, '1000 Days' was a made-for-TV documentary. "Four Days in November" was shown in the theaters.
Again, I just have a hard time getting my head around these "other film" stories. If these stories are true, they are amazingly careless at letting just anyone see these films, or it's part of a psy-ops campaign to confuse people.
No, 1000 Days was made for the 1964 Democratic Convention.
I saw a copy of the Zapruder film. It may have been an unaltered copy. I don't know that for sure, as I don't currently have access to it, to compare it with what is at NARA. There were other showings of copies of the Zapruder film(s) in NYC in the 60's long before the general public viewed it via Giraldo Rivera in 1975. And his copy of the film was dreadful.
I went the first night. I don't know at this point if there were any subsequent showings, or if somebody clamped down on the Charles for showing it. I do know it is rumored that a handful of Time-Life executives supposedly had copies of the Z-film(s) in their safes in their homes in Greenwich CT. As this viewing occurred in NYC it is my thinking that one of them took the risk of having their copy shown to the public for at least one night. I will always be grateful for that, as it changed my life forever. I would not be presenting "Midnight Blue to Black: the Vanishing Act of the JFK Presidential Limousine In Broad Daylight" at JFKLancer on the 22nd had it not been for my watching JFK killed in that exquisite limousine in front of my eyes on that screen.