Zapruder and Stolley: Witness to an Assassination

As we approach the anniversary of that tragic November day in Dallas, a new documentary remembers the man who was responsible for bringing the indelible images of the last moments of the motorcade, and President Kennedy’s short life, to the world.  Zapruder and Stolley: Witness to an Assassination chronicles Dick Stolley’s odyssey to acquire what would become one of the most famous films in American history from a man named Abraham Zapruder. 

Late in the afternoon on November 22^nd 1963, Dick Stolley received word that a businessman from Dallas had captured the dramatic events of the day on film.  After spending the evening trying in vain to reach him on the phone, Stolley finally was able to speak with a weary and distraught Abraham Zapruder who after a very brief conversation, pushed Stolley off until the following day.  Arriving an hour early and decked out in a suit in tie, Stolley sat down with two Secret Service men and watched the last few seconds of President Kennedy’s all too short life.   “Even though it was only six seconds of video, it unfolded in slow motion, frame by frame,” Dick Stolley recalled.  The hard part now began as Stolley had to now convince Mister Zapruder that he and Life magazine would be the proper home for his footage of tragedy. 

The documentary is kept simple with the bulk of the footage comes from a lecture Dick Stolley gave years ago that the director, Roger Thurman, was luckily enough to be on hand to record.  Additionally, with the cooperation of The Sixth Floor Museum, Thurman worked in the Zapruder film and the six seconds that changed America forever.  The video can still illicit horror from an audience as evident by the audible gasps that could be heard as the documentary wound down and the Zapruder film was shown in its entirety for the first and only time in the film. 

Gary Mack, the curator for the museum, sat with Dick Stolley after the screening to talk more about  November of 1963 and the whirlwind of events trying to secure the 8mm footage from Mister Z. “Years later,” Dick recounted, “I introduced myself to Zapruder’s business partner believing this was the first time we had met.”  Only later did Stolley realize they had spent the Saturday in Zapruder’s office together.  “I went back and pulled out the contract and sure enough, his signature was on the contract just the same as Mister Z’s and mine.”  Just another testament to how time in America stood still for those tragic days.

As one of the seminal achievements in journalism in the modern era, Stolley will forever be linked with the Zapruder film and how the first images of the President’s death were presented to not only the American people but around the world.  “the two things I’ll be remembered for,” Stolley tells as the event came to a close, “founder of People magazine and getting the Zapruder film.  Well,” he said with a smile, “that makes me happy.”