" PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S FINAL HOUR " DALLAS, TEXAS NOV. 22, 1963 HOME MOVIES OF JFK MOTORCADE JOHN F KENNEDY

" PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S FINAL HOUR " DALLAS, TEXAS NOV. 22, 1963 HOME MOVIES OF JFK MOTORCADE JOHN F KENNEDY
Abraham Zapruder wasn't the only person with an 8mm camera in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Many other citizens filmed the arrival of President John F. Kennedy and his wife at Love Field, up until the tragic events in Dealey Plaza. Created by an obscure producer named "Dallas Cinema Associates" (DCA), and sold as a somewhat macabre souvenir, this 8mm film "President Kennedy's Final Hour" combines footage shot by a number of different amateur cameramen and camerawomen. The film was the inspiration of a man named Wyman Parr, who himself had filmed footage that day. Parr managed to get in touch with many other people who shot footage that day and made an agreement with them to form DCA and split the profits from this film. The group eventually included almost twenty individuals including Rudy Brenk, Bryant Boren, Mrs. Frances Hayes (whose husband shot footage), George Shawver, Dick Allen, Hazel Gooch, Jule Spiegel, John Martin, Jr., George Kincaid, Allen Rhodes, Albert Bunell, Joe Brown, C.W. Gray, Earl Mester, Dr. Howard Siegler, Irving Gewertz, Larry Thomas and Charles Mentensana. It's not known if the venture was profitable, but it did attract the attention of the U.S. government as a memo has emerged indicating that these individuals were all to be interviewed by federal agents (except for John Martin, who apparently was interviewed prior to the film's release). The movie traces the presidential motorcade's path through Dallas, up until the point it enters Dealey Plaza. A brief title card at the end of the movie states that "This film...is a true pictorial account of November 22, 1963 and its aftermath. It's purposes is not to minimize nor enlarge upon the horrors of the tragedy, but to simply show the President's final hour as he experienced it." The film doesn't contain any footage of the assassination itself -- the Zapruder film wouldn't be shown in public until 1969 -- but it does show images from a day or two later starting at (9:16), with wreaths and flowers being placed, and citizens in mourning lining the streets. At (10:43) are images of the Dallas Municipal Court Bldg (old Dallas City Hall), apparently filmed moments after Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby.

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