Abraham Zapruder - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Abraham Zapruder was an American manufacturer of women's clothing. He was filming with a home-movie camera as U.S. President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

's motorcade

Motorcade

A motorcade is a procession of vehicles. The term motorcade was coined by Lyle Abbot , and is formed after cavalcade on the false notion that "-cade" was a suffix meaning "procession"...

passed through Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza , in the historic West End district of downtown Dallas, Texas , is the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

, Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, and unexpectedly captured the President's assassination

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

on what came to be known as the Zapruder Film
Zapruder film
The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...

. In both the immediate aftermath of the assassination and the half century since, the Zapruder Film has become one of the most studied pieces of film in American history.

While most people think of Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

as being the man whose presence in American history comes entirely from the Kennedy assassination, Abraham Zapruder was also made into a household name by the assassination. Zapruder was an otherwise unknown clothing salesman when at the age of 57 - in the right place at the right time with a rolling camera - he shot what has become arguably the most analyzed 26 seconds of film in history.

Personal background

Zapruder was born into a Russian-Jewish family in the city of Kovel

Kovel

Kovel is a city located in the Volyn Oblast , in northwestern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Kovelskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population is around 65,777.Kovel gives its name to one of the...

in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

(at that time under the Russian Empire). He received only four years of formal education in Russia. In 1920 amid the turmoil of the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York. Studying English at night, he found work as a clothing pattern maker in Manhattan's garment district

Garment District, Manhattan

The Garment District, also known as the Garment Center, the Fashion District, or the Fashion Center, is a neighborhood located in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The dense concentration of fashion-related uses give the neighborhood, which is generally considered to span between Fifth Avenue...

. He and his wife Lillian married in 1933 and had two children.

In 1941 Zapruder moved to Dallas to work for Nardis, a local sportswear company. In 1954 he co-founded Jennifer Juniors, Inc., producing the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands. His offices were in the Dal-Tex Building

Dal-Tex Building

The Dal-Tex Building is a seven story office building located at 501 Elm Street in downtown Dallas, Texas . Its location, within Dealey Plaza and it being across the street, adjacent to the Texas School Book Depository, has made it famous and put it at the center of several conspiracy theories...

, directly across the street east of the Texas School Book Depository

Texas School Book Depository

The Texas School Book Depository is the former name of a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas . Located on the northwest corner of Elm and North Houston Streets, at the western end of downtown Dallas, its address is 411 Elm Street. The building is notable for its connection to...

.

Zapruder died of stomach cancer in 1970 in Dallas.
A 2007 film, Frame 313, tells the story of his life.

Inadvertent filming of assassination

Zapruder considered himself a Democrat and was an admirer of President Kennedy. Not originally intending to bring his camera to the motorcade, at the insistence of his assistant he retrieved it from home before going to Dealey Plaza.

The camera was an 8 mm Bell & Howell

Böwe Bell & Howell

Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc...

Zoomatic Director Series Model 414 PD—top of the line when it was purchased in 1962. Zapruder waited atop a concrete pedestal along Elm Street, his receptionist Marilyn Sitzman

Marilyn Sitzman

Marilyn Sitzman was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963...

prepared to steady him from behind, and began filming as the President's limousine turned onto Elm Street in front of the Book Depository. The next 26.6 seconds were captured on 486 frames of Kodak Kodachrome

Kodachrome

Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009.-Background:...

II safety film.

Walking back to his office amid the confusion following the shots, Zapruder encountered Dallas Morning News reporter Harry McCormack, who was acquainted with Agent Forrest Sorrels of the Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

's Dallas office. McCormack offered to bring Sorrels to Zapruder's office. Zapruder continued to his office where he sent his assistant Lillian Rogers to find a Secret Service agent, in case McCormack failed to find Sorrels. McCormack did find Sorrels, outside the Sheriff's office at Main and Houston, and together they went to Zapruder's office.

Zapruder agreed to give the film to Sorrels on the condition it would be used only for investigation of the assassination. The group took the film to the television station WFAA to be developed.

After it was realized that WFAA was unable to develop Zapruder's footage, in the late afternoon it was taken to Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

's Dallas processing plant where it was immediately developed. Because under the Kodachrome process, different equipment is required for duplication than for simple development, around 6:30 p.m. the developed original was taken to the Jamieson Film Company, where three additional copies were exposed; these were returned to Kodak around 8 p.m. for processing. Zapruder kept the original, plus one copy, and gave the other two copies to Sorrels, who sent them to Secret Service headquarters in Washington.

Television interview

While at WFAA, Zapruder described on live television what he had seen:

Sale of rights

Late that evening, Zapruder was contacted at home by Richard Stolley, an editor at Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

magazine (and first editor of the future People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

magazine). They arranged to meet the following morning to view the film, after which Zapruder sold the print rights to Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

magazine for $50,000.
The following day (November 24), Life purchased all rights to the film for a total of $150,000 (equivalent to $1 million in 2007). (Zapruder gave the first $25,000 to the widow of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit

J. D. Tippit

Tippit attended a Veterans Administration vocational training school at Bogata, Texas, from January 1950 until June 1952. He was then hired by the Dallas Police Department as a patrolman on July 28, 1952...

, who had been killed confronting Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

in the hours after the assassination.)

The night after the assassination, Zapruder is said to have had a nightmare in which he saw a booth in Times Square

Times Square

Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...

advertising "See the President's head explode!" He determined that, while he was willing to make money from the film, he did not want the public to see the full horror of what he had seen. Therefore, a condition of the sale to Life was that frame 313, showing the fatal shot, would be withheld.

Testimony

On November 22 United States PRS

United States Secret Service

Special Agent Maxwell D. Phillips sent a hand-written memo to Secret Service head James Rowley, stating that, "According to Mr Zapruder the position of the assassin was behind Mr Zapruder." But in his testimony to the Warren Commission

Warren Commission

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

Zapruder was less certain:
Zapruder added that he had assumed the shots came from behind him because the explosive wound on the side of the President's head was facing that direction, and because police officers ran to the area behind Zapruder.

He broke down and wept as he recalled the assassination, and did so again at the 1969 trial of Clay Shaw

Clay Shaw

Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...

External links

Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Abraham Zapruder, vol. 7, p. 569.
Zapruder's testimony during the Clay Shaw trial
The Zapruder Camera - Bell & Howell 414PD Director Series - Overview and User's Manual
Zapruder Film