John Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby
This item appeared in TELECOM Digeston Sunday, November 27:
Just as a historical note, it was forty-two years ago this weekend(Thanksgiving weekend, 1963) that President Kennedy was gunned downin a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Dallas police almost immediatly thereafter(a matter of an hour or so) arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the crime. If you were alive, I am sure you may remember what youwere doing when you saw it happen on television or heard about it. I had been working as a volunteer for the Chicago Public Library and had prepared (with some helpers) a documentary and 'virtual tour' ofthe library's programs and facilities. (In those days they were located at Randolph Street and Michigan Blvd. downtown.) Our documentary film had been set to air on Sunday morning onChannel 9 WGN-TV at 11:00 AM the week before, but in those earlier days of commercial TV, things did not always work as they should and the stations would now and then go off the air for repairs, etc. That is what happened that week, and the fellow I worked with at WGN-TV said 'do not worry that they were off the air that day for some unscheduled maintainence; what we will do is move all the programs scheduled for today (including my documentary on the Library) up tonext Sunday, at the same time'. Well, we know what happened the next Sunday ...
Actually, Friday about 11:00 AM at the moment of his assassination, Iwas enjoying a brunch with some friends; the television was on andsome game show (I forget which one) was on the air; one of those games where you spin a wheel and get whatever prize is associated with theplace where the wheel stops. I do recall that Bob Barker was the host. It played idly in the background, while we chatted and ate. It had been on the air a few minutes and was interuppted by a news bulletin saying that 'shots had been fired in a motorcade in Dallas;they were not sure if anyone was hurt or not.' Back to the gameshow. Then within a minute or so, a second bulletin came across;indeed, 'someone' had been shot; they were trying to get all the details; it might have been the president. Back to the game show. A minute or two later, another news bulletin; shots _had_ been fired, apparently President Kennedy had been hit, the motorcade had been suspended and he was being taken to the Parkland Hospital inDallas. Back to the game show for all of thirty or forty seconds, then a final interupption in the day's events: it was true, Kennedy hadbeen shot, was rushed to the hospital, police were looking for the guy who did it, and the news department there at CBS would now takeover. By that point, we were all giving our attention to the TV set.
All television and radio stations began total coverage of the events in Dallas; all the talking heads were chattering non-stop all that dayand night, plus _all day_ on Saturday. People were in quite a state ofshock, to say the least. We saw the airplane coming back from Dallas with the president's body, and all the official mourning by his wife and his child, etc. By Saturday night, the talking heads had more or less run out of things to chatter about (after about 36 hoursnon-stop) and the television stations changed to the scene at the USCapitol where Kennedy's body was laying in state, and just focused on that for the rest of the Saturday overnight hours, playing somber music, and watching the crowds of people passing by to look at him and pay their respects.
I got a phone call from the program producer at WGN-TV saying their intention was to go back onto 'regular programming' early Sundaymorning. (In those days at least, television stations usually signedoff the air about midnight or 1:00 a.m. then returned to the air atwhatever time their morning shows went on, typically 6:00 or 7:00 AM,as did most radio stations; no laws about it; just not enough overnight listeners/viewers to make it worthwhile. I think WGN-TV wasthe first among them to go to 24/7 programs, maybe in late 1970's, andwhere it was customary for stations to sign on and sign off with their'official, FCC-mandated announcements' [and usually play the national anthem at opening and closing time each day] once WGN-TV went 24/7sometime in the late 1970's they began making their FCC-mandated announcements just once daily, along with the national anthem, at 5 AM most days; 8 AM on Sundays; 8 AM being the time on Sunday they started their 'broadcast day'.) So, said the producer, be sure to tell everyone to tune in tomorrow morning, your documentary program will be on as planned, although one week late.
Sure enough, Sunday morning at 11 AM we got together for another brunch and had the television tuned in on Channel 9. And, we got onthe air just as announced. For all of about two minutes, until 11:02 or 11:03 AM, then we were cut off by another news bulletin: "As you know, a Mister Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the shooting ofPresident Kennedy" (by the tone of their voice we knew that the person making the announcement knew little or nothing about Oswald) "and Mister Oswald is going to be transferred from the Dallas City Jail to the county jail or perhaps into FBI custody. We are going to switch to our affiliate station in Dallas; our staff of reporters there want to know more about why he did this." Immediatly the picture changed to the lobby of the Dallas City Jail where a number of people were crowding around. The reporter, all excited, said "oh look, here hecomes now, they are leading him down the hallway to where the policecar is waiting to take him to jail; I sure hope we can ask him aboutthis." Crowds of people pushing around, reporter walks up to Oswald eagerly and starts asking him "oh, Mr. Oswald, what did you do this for?" or some words to that effect, as we see Oswald close up facingthe camera, possibly he is going to explain if he did it or not and ifso, why. But Oswald did not get a chance to answer; at that same instant, Jack Ruby appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, we see himangrily confront Oswald and everyone in the nation who was watching itas it happened on TV saw Ruby stick that gun in Oswald's side and say,"You rotten son of a bitch! You killed the president, now I am goingto kill you!" Bang ... Police officers grabbed Ruby, took away his gunand took him into custody. Ruby did not resist at all; he was proud ofwhat he had done; wanted everyone to see his work. Oswald fell over dead on the spot.
Ruby, a nightclub/restaurant owner in Dallas was there ostensibly with coffee and sandwiches for the police officers,which is why he was allowed to move freely about the jail. In those days, those times, things were _a lot_ different than today. Needless to say, our documentary show never did get back on the air,that day, or any other day. The entire day was taken over at that point by the talking heads of news, who for several hundred times, roughly every two or three minutes ("in case you missed it when it aired") kept showing over and over and over and over, that movie ofJack Ruby killing Oswald. But other than the original showing, laterviewers only got to see Jack Ruby's angry, contorted face and his lips moving angrily but _silently_ (out of respect I guess to FCCsensibilities at that time, they blitzed his voice out) and Oswaldfalling over dead. Smart lip readers probably figured it out. All the stations were still showing that Ruby/Oswald clip at midnight orwhenever they signed off for the day.There have been numerous theories about _why_ Kennedy was shot, and if indeed Oswald _was_ the shooter or not. Many people claim he was notguilty, and have various ideas about the rationale. Some contend thatRuby was used to silence Oswald. My documentary movie about theChicago Public Library never did get aired. PAT
A correction was submitted by a reader in the Monday issue of the Digest: The shooting was on the Friday before Thanksgiving ( a week, or six days earlier) and the time of day was at 12:30 PM central time zone. That's what I get in my old age, trying to remember events from more than 40 years earlier.
Just as a historical note, it was forty-two years ago this weekend(Thanksgiving weekend, 1963) that President Kennedy was gunned downin a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Dallas police almost immediatly thereafter(a matter of an hour or so) arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the crime. If you were alive, I am sure you may remember what youwere doing when you saw it happen on television or heard about it. I had been working as a volunteer for the Chicago Public Library and had prepared (with some helpers) a documentary and 'virtual tour' ofthe library's programs and facilities. (In those days they were located at Randolph Street and Michigan Blvd. downtown.) Our documentary film had been set to air on Sunday morning onChannel 9 WGN-TV at 11:00 AM the week before, but in those earlier days of commercial TV, things did not always work as they should and the stations would now and then go off the air for repairs, etc. That is what happened that week, and the fellow I worked with at WGN-TV said 'do not worry that they were off the air that day for some unscheduled maintainence; what we will do is move all the programs scheduled for today (including my documentary on the Library) up tonext Sunday, at the same time'. Well, we know what happened the next Sunday ...
Actually, Friday about 11:00 AM at the moment of his assassination, Iwas enjoying a brunch with some friends; the television was on andsome game show (I forget which one) was on the air; one of those games where you spin a wheel and get whatever prize is associated with theplace where the wheel stops. I do recall that Bob Barker was the host. It played idly in the background, while we chatted and ate. It had been on the air a few minutes and was interuppted by a news bulletin saying that 'shots had been fired in a motorcade in Dallas;they were not sure if anyone was hurt or not.' Back to the gameshow. Then within a minute or so, a second bulletin came across;indeed, 'someone' had been shot; they were trying to get all the details; it might have been the president. Back to the game show. A minute or two later, another news bulletin; shots _had_ been fired, apparently President Kennedy had been hit, the motorcade had been suspended and he was being taken to the Parkland Hospital inDallas. Back to the game show for all of thirty or forty seconds, then a final interupption in the day's events: it was true, Kennedy hadbeen shot, was rushed to the hospital, police were looking for the guy who did it, and the news department there at CBS would now takeover. By that point, we were all giving our attention to the TV set.
All television and radio stations began total coverage of the events in Dallas; all the talking heads were chattering non-stop all that dayand night, plus _all day_ on Saturday. People were in quite a state ofshock, to say the least. We saw the airplane coming back from Dallas with the president's body, and all the official mourning by his wife and his child, etc. By Saturday night, the talking heads had more or less run out of things to chatter about (after about 36 hoursnon-stop) and the television stations changed to the scene at the USCapitol where Kennedy's body was laying in state, and just focused on that for the rest of the Saturday overnight hours, playing somber music, and watching the crowds of people passing by to look at him and pay their respects.
I got a phone call from the program producer at WGN-TV saying their intention was to go back onto 'regular programming' early Sundaymorning. (In those days at least, television stations usually signedoff the air about midnight or 1:00 a.m. then returned to the air atwhatever time their morning shows went on, typically 6:00 or 7:00 AM,as did most radio stations; no laws about it; just not enough overnight listeners/viewers to make it worthwhile. I think WGN-TV wasthe first among them to go to 24/7 programs, maybe in late 1970's, andwhere it was customary for stations to sign on and sign off with their'official, FCC-mandated announcements' [and usually play the national anthem at opening and closing time each day] once WGN-TV went 24/7sometime in the late 1970's they began making their FCC-mandated announcements just once daily, along with the national anthem, at 5 AM most days; 8 AM on Sundays; 8 AM being the time on Sunday they started their 'broadcast day'.) So, said the producer, be sure to tell everyone to tune in tomorrow morning, your documentary program will be on as planned, although one week late.
Sure enough, Sunday morning at 11 AM we got together for another brunch and had the television tuned in on Channel 9. And, we got onthe air just as announced. For all of about two minutes, until 11:02 or 11:03 AM, then we were cut off by another news bulletin: "As you know, a Mister Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the shooting ofPresident Kennedy" (by the tone of their voice we knew that the person making the announcement knew little or nothing about Oswald) "and Mister Oswald is going to be transferred from the Dallas City Jail to the county jail or perhaps into FBI custody. We are going to switch to our affiliate station in Dallas; our staff of reporters there want to know more about why he did this." Immediatly the picture changed to the lobby of the Dallas City Jail where a number of people were crowding around. The reporter, all excited, said "oh look, here hecomes now, they are leading him down the hallway to where the policecar is waiting to take him to jail; I sure hope we can ask him aboutthis." Crowds of people pushing around, reporter walks up to Oswald eagerly and starts asking him "oh, Mr. Oswald, what did you do this for?" or some words to that effect, as we see Oswald close up facingthe camera, possibly he is going to explain if he did it or not and ifso, why. But Oswald did not get a chance to answer; at that same instant, Jack Ruby appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, we see himangrily confront Oswald and everyone in the nation who was watching itas it happened on TV saw Ruby stick that gun in Oswald's side and say,"You rotten son of a bitch! You killed the president, now I am goingto kill you!" Bang ... Police officers grabbed Ruby, took away his gunand took him into custody. Ruby did not resist at all; he was proud ofwhat he had done; wanted everyone to see his work. Oswald fell over dead on the spot.
Ruby, a nightclub/restaurant owner in Dallas was there ostensibly with coffee and sandwiches for the police officers,which is why he was allowed to move freely about the jail. In those days, those times, things were _a lot_ different than today. Needless to say, our documentary show never did get back on the air,that day, or any other day. The entire day was taken over at that point by the talking heads of news, who for several hundred times, roughly every two or three minutes ("in case you missed it when it aired") kept showing over and over and over and over, that movie ofJack Ruby killing Oswald. But other than the original showing, laterviewers only got to see Jack Ruby's angry, contorted face and his lips moving angrily but _silently_ (out of respect I guess to FCCsensibilities at that time, they blitzed his voice out) and Oswaldfalling over dead. Smart lip readers probably figured it out. All the stations were still showing that Ruby/Oswald clip at midnight orwhenever they signed off for the day.There have been numerous theories about _why_ Kennedy was shot, and if indeed Oswald _was_ the shooter or not. Many people claim he was notguilty, and have various ideas about the rationale. Some contend thatRuby was used to silence Oswald. My documentary movie about theChicago Public Library never did get aired. PAT
A correction was submitted by a reader in the Monday issue of the Digest: The shooting was on the Friday before Thanksgiving ( a week, or six days earlier) and the time of day was at 12:30 PM central time zone. That's what I get in my old age, trying to remember events from more than 40 years earlier.
posted by Patrick Townson at 1:07 PM
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