Abraham Zapruder

Template:Use American English Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Abraham Zapruder (May 15, 1905 – August 30, 1970) was a Ukrainian-born American clothing manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, who became known for his film work during the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Of Russian-Jewish extraction, Zapruder resided in Dallas and founded a fashion company. On the day of the assassination, he unexpectedly captured the shooting in a home movie while filming Kennedy's presidential limousine as it traveled through Dealey Plaza. The Zapruder film is regarded as the most complete footage of the assassination. Zapruder died in 1970.

Early life

Abraham Zapruder was born into a Jewish family in the city of Kovel, the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), the son of Israel Zapruder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He received only four years of formal education in Ukraine. In 1909, his father left for North America. In 1918, Abraham Zapruder left Kovel for Warsaw with his family. His brother Morris was murdered by Polish police in 1918. In 1920, his family emigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York, where they were reunited with Israel Zapruder.<ref>Passenger list, S.S. Rotterdam, Port of New York, July 12, 1920, sheet 73, lines 4–7. Zapruder's father Israel had emigrated in advance of the rest of the family.</ref><ref name="Zapruder2016">Template:Cite book</ref>

Studying English at night, he found work as a clothing pattern maker in Manhattan's garment district. In 1933, he married Lillian Sapovnik (1913–1993); they went on to have two children.<ref>Richard B. Trask, National Nightmare on Six Feet of Film (Yeoman Press, 2005), p. 18. Template:ISBN.</ref> Zapruder was a Freemason and an Inspector-General (33rd degree) of the Scottish Rite.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1941, Zapruder moved to Dallas, Texas, to work for Nardis, a local sportswear company. In 1949, he co-founded Jennifer Juniors, Inc., producing the Chalet and Jennifer Juniors brands of dresses.<ref>Betty Temple Howell, Southwest Styles: CASUAL OR DRESSY Keep It Smart! The Christian Science Monitor, October 26, 1953, Women Today Pg. 10, (1148 words) Forecast for spring from the Dallas Fashion Market emphasizes the importance of fabric in achieving the soft, fluid look... and different age groups by Chalet. of Texas, a firm just four years old in the Dallas market.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, volume 9, p. 298, Testimony of Mrs. George S. de Mohrenschildt.</ref>Template:Efn His Jennifer Juniors offices were on the fourth floor of the Dal-Tex Building,<ref>Testimony of Abraham Zapruder, Clay Shaw Trial Transcripts, page 7 of 101, AARC the assassination archives and research center.</ref> across the street from the Texas School Book Depository.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Witness to Kennedy assassination

Filming of assassination

Abraham Zapruder's camera, in the collection of the US National Archives

Zapruder was an admirer of President Kennedy and considered himself a Democrat. Zapruder's aunt, Myrna, had gone to Dallas Love Field that morning to see President Kennedy and the First Lady upon their arrival. His uncle, Myron, was positioned on Main Street to watch the motorcade go by.<ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2023/11/12/abraham-zapruder-jfk-the-home-movie-that-changed-the-world/#:~:text=By%20mid%20morning%2C%20with%20the,at%20work%20in%20his%20office</ref> Zapruder had originally planned to film the motorcade carrying President Kennedy through downtown Dallas on November 22, but he decided not to because it had been raining that morning. When he arrived at work that morning without his camera, Zapruder's assistant Lillian Rogers insisted that he retrieve it from home before going to Dealey Plaza because the weather had cleared.<ref name=ruane>Template:Cite news</ref>

Zapruder's movie camera was an 8 mm Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Model 414 PD—top-of-the-line when it was purchased in 1962.<ref>Richard B. Trask, Photographic Memory: The Kennedy Assassination, November 22, 1963, Dallas: Sixth Floor Museum, 1996, p. 5.</ref> Making films was one of Zapruder's favorite hobbies for over 30 years.<ref name="Zapruder2016" /> Zapruder had planned to film the motorcade from his office window but opted for a better spot in Dealey Plaza where the motorcade would be passing.<ref name="vågnes">Template:Cite book</ref> He stood atop a Template:Convert concrete abutment extending from the John Neely Bryan concrete pergola on the grassy knoll north of Elm Street on the opposite side of the Texas School Book Depository to the north in Dealey Plaza.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Zapruder's secretary, Marilyn Sitzman, offered to assist Zapruder as he had vertigo and was apprehensive about standing even at a small height of a few feet alone.<ref name="vågnes"/>

While Sitzman stood behind Zapruder and held his coat to steady him, he began shooting the presidential motorcade as it turned from Houston Street onto Elm Street in front of the Book Depository. Zapruder's film captured 26.6 seconds of the traveling motorcade carrying President Kennedy on 486 frames of Kodak Kodachrome II safety film. It infamously captured the fatal headshot that struck President Kennedy as his limousine passed almost directly in front of Zapruder and Sitzman's position, Template:Convert from the center of Elm Street.<ref>Bugliosi 2008 p.453</ref>

Zapruder later recalled that he immediately knew that President Kennedy's wounds were fatal as he saw the president's head "...explode like a firecracker." and that he shouted repeatedly "They're killed him!"<ref name="ruane" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Walking back to his office amid the confusion following the shots, Zapruder encountered The Dallas Morning News reporter Harry McCormick, who had been standing near Zapruder and had noticed he was filming the motorcade. McCormick was acquainted with Agent Forrest Sorrels of the Secret Service's Dallas office, and offered to bring Sorrels to Zapruder's office.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="parade">Template:Cite news</ref> Zapruder agreed and returned to his office. McCormick later found 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 three then took the film to the television station WFAA intending to have it developed. After it was realized that WFAA was unable to do so, the film was taken to Eastman Kodak's Dallas processing plant later that afternoon, where it was developed around 6:30 p.m. As the Kodachrome process requires different equipment for duplication than development, the original print was taken to the Jamieson Film Company, where three additional copies were made; 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 the assassination of President Kennedy:

Sale of rights

Late that evening, Zapruder was contacted at home by Richard Stolley, an editor at Life magazine (and first editor of the future People magazine). They arranged to meet the following morning to view the film, after which Zapruder sold the print rights to Life for $50,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Stolley was representing Time/Life on behalf of publisher Charles Douglas Jackson.

The following day (November 24), Life purchased all rights to the film for a total of $150,000 (approximately $Template:Inflation today).<ref>The Inflation Calculator Template:Webarchive, using the United States Consumer Price Index.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The night after the assassination, Zapruder said that he had a nightmare in which he saw a booth in Times Square advertising "See the President's head explode!"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 from the public.<ref>The Warren Commission Report reproduced frame 313 in 1964, and Life magazine eventually did as well, in its issue of October 2, 1964, p. 45.</ref> Although he made a profit from selling the film, he asked that the amount he was paid not be publicly disclosed. He later donated $25,000 (about $Template:Inflation today) of the money he was paid to the widow of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit, who was shot dead less than an hour after President Kennedy was shot.<ref name=ruane/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Zapruder testified to the Warren Commission and was asked for his impression regarding the direction of the shots by assistant Commission counsel Wesley Liebeler:

Template:Quote box Zapruder added that while he did not recollect a belief on the directions of the shots, he had assumed an impression when "I saw motorcycle policemen running right behind me--I guess they thought it came from right behind me...I also thought it came from in back of me."<ref>Testimony of Abraham Zapruder, Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, vol. 7, p. 572.</ref>

Zapruder recalled the assassination, saying that when he saw the president react to his throat wound, he thought that the president was joking until he saw him shot in the head, whereupon he broke down and wept. At the end of his testimony, he stated, "I am ashamed of myself. I didn’t know I was going to break down and for a man to-but it was a tragic thing, and when you started asking me that, and I saw the thing all over again, and it was an awful thing-I know very few people who had seen it like that-it was an awful thing and I loved the President, and to see that happen before my eyes-his head just opened up and shot down like a dog-it leaves a very, very deep sentimental impression with you; it’s terrible."<ref>Testimony of Abraham Zapruder, Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, vol. 7, p. 571–576.</ref> He broke down again when he testified in 1969 for the trial of Clay Shaw.<ref>Testimony of Abraham Zapruder, State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw, February 13, 1969, p. 2.</ref>

Zapruder rejected conspiracy theorists' claims as "sensational literature" and supported the Warren Commission's conclusion (that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed Kennedy). He never filmed with a camera again following the assassination.<ref>https://www.jfk.org/collections-archive/audio-cassette-of-1966-interviews-conducted-by-marvin-scott-in-dallas/</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ALPGB0ey90</ref>

Death

Zapruder died of stomach cancer at the age of 65 in Dallas on August 30, 1970, at Parkland Memorial Hospital,<ref>"A. Zapruder Dies; Took JFK Films", The Dallas Morning News, August 31, 1970.</ref> the same hospital where Kennedy, Oswald and Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald, died; he was buried in the Emanu-El Cemetery in Dallas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Media and legacy

In 1975, Time, Inc. (which owned Life magazine) sold the film back to the Zapruder family for $1. In 1978, the Zapruders allowed the film to be stored at the National Archives and Records Administration where it remains. In 1999, the Zapruders donated the copyright of the film to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.<ref name=ruane/>

Media personality Andrew Denton founded a production company named after Zapruder called "Zapruder's Other Films".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Zapruder was the subject of a 1993 BBC special.<ref>The Zapruder Footage, 1993 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dv041</ref>

Zapruder has been portrayed by:

• Ray LePere (1991) – JFK;
• Andrew Dunn (2002) – Timequest (2002), a time-travel film;
• Paul Giamatti (2013) – Parkland;
• Ira Einsohn – 11.22.63 (2016)

His granddaughter Alexandra Zapruder wrote the 2016 book Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film, detailing Zapruder's life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

• Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board Chapter 6, Part 2: Clarifying the Federal Record on the Zapruder Film and the Medical and Ballistics Evidence (September 1998)
• The Zapruder Camera – Bell & Howell 414PD Director Series – Overview and User's Manual
• Template:IMDb name
• Template:NYTtopic