where are the large format life magazine transparencies

8/7/2019 Where Are the Large Format Life Magazine Transparencies

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WHERE ARE THE LARGE FORMAT LIFE MAGAZINE TRANSPARENCIESOF THE ZAPRUDER FILM?

by Douglas P. Horne, author ofInside the ARRB

Inside the ARRB Sheds New Light on the

Kennedy Assassination

Douglas Horne served on the Assassination Records Review Board formed by the U.S. government in response tothe public outcry that occurred after Oliver Stones movieJFKshocked millions. It was clear that much importantevidence had been kept from the public or destroyed, and that Lee Harvey Oswald could be innocent.

Horne served as the Boards Chief Analyst for Military Records of the ARRB. His five-volume series,Inside theARRB, provides proof that President Kennedys autopsy was grossly mishandled and that evidence of a shot fromthe front exonerating Lee Harvey Oswald as having fired the bullet that killed the President--was deliberatelycovered up. Limited because it was only empowered to locate and release the records, the ARRB was not

authorized to publish any conclusions. But Hornes unique position made it possible for him to do so. He hasexamined virtually everything handled by the ARRB, and he has presented us with important conclusions based onwitness testimonies, suppressed evidence, and new evidence, for which we should all be forever grateful.

But even five full volumes could not cover everything of importance concerning suppressed or destroyed evidence.

In Where Are the Large FormatTransparencies of the Zapruder Film? Horne presents the story of hissearch for an important piece of historyand where it led him.

(The article below was published to SCRIBD by permission of the author, Douglas P. Horne, by Judyth Vary Baker.Copyright 2011 by Douglas P. Horne, all rights reserved.)


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Where Are the Large Format LIFE Magazine Transparencies

of the Zapruder Film?

By Douglas P. Horne

SUMMARY: In April of 1997 I personally located the large format LIFE

magazine transparencies of individual Zapruder film frames---the

transparencies that had featured so prominently in Josiah Thompson's

1967 book "Six Seconds in Dallas"---in the office of attorney Jamie

Silverberg, who at that time was representing the film's owners, the LMH

Company. At the time I was a Senior Analyst on the ARRB staff, and was

conducting an official ARRB examination of the LMH company's holdings.

On December 30, 1999 the LMH Company transferred both the copyright to

the Zapruder film, and reportedly, all of its film holdings, to theSixth Floor Museum in Dallas. (After obtaining a windfall profit of 16

million dollars, plus interest, from the U.S. government---in just

compensation for the taking of the film by the Review Board---the LMH

company had decided it was time to get rid of the troublesome political

albatross around its neck.) On January 26, 2000 the Dallas Morning News

published an article about the LMH Company's donation to the Museum,

which indicated all of the associated film items had been physically

transferred to the museum "nine days ago," and which further stated:

"Gary Mack, the Museum's Archivist, was all but whistling Tuesday as he

examined what may be the gem of the bunch---oversized transparencies of

each Zapruder film frame believed to have been made in 1963 or 1964."

It seems reasonable to conclude that this statement by the article's author

can only have referred to the same LIFE magazine transparencies which I

had discovered in the office of Jamie Silverberg on April 10, 1997. In

November of 2010, in response to a question about the whereabouts of the

LIFE magazine transparencies made by a visiting researcher, Megan

Bryant---the Sixth Floor Museum's Director of Collections andIntellectual Property---said that the Museum did NOT POSSESS the LIFE

magazine transparencies. When she was asked a follow-on question by the

same person about the January 2000 article in the Dallas Morning News,

she stated that the article had been in error. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? I

present the details of this mystery below.

DETAILS:

(1) I visited the Washington, D.C. offices of Jamie Silverberg, ESQ., on

April 10, 1997 to examine the LMH company's Zapruder film holdings at


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the request of my boss, Jeremy Gunn (who was General Counsel and head ofthe research staff for the Assassination Records Review Board).

Silverberg was wary of my visit, for he no doubt suspected that the

Review Board might engage in a legal taking of any items we found worthy

of preservation. (Indeed, the ARRB effectuated a formal "taking" of the

so-called "original" Zapruder film---on storage in the National

Archives---on April 24, 1997, just 14 days after my visit. To my regret

at the time---now my profound regret---the Review Board's taking did not

include the LIFE magazine transparencies.) The first time I showed up at

his office a few days previous to this---by appointment---I had been

rebuffed by one of Silverberg's secretaries; I was told he was too busy

and that he would be unable to meet with me, in spite of the fact that I

was appearing at a specified time set up by an appointment engineered

with him by Jeremy Gunn. Jeremy registered his displeasure over thisrebuff, and Silverberg did indeed meet with me the second time I

appeared, on April 10, 1997. During the course of this long visit, I

made two significant discoveries. First, I discovered that the LMH

Company possessed the (at that time) missing first-generation copy ofthe Z film: the third of three first-generation copies known to exist.

Second, I discovered that Silverberg possessed the famous LIFE magazine

large format (4" x 5") color positive transparencies, which Josiah

Thompson had written about so extensively in his book,Six Seconds in

Dallas. Not only were these transparencies crucial for study of the

behavior and reactions of the occupants of the limousine during the

assassination, but they were of historical interest because they were

clearly the source material used to generate the beautifully clear colorpicture spreads of the Zapruder film in LIFE magazine in late 1963 (the

Memorial Issue), and in 1964 and 1966 editions, as well. Silverberg did

not readily produce the large format transparencies; as I now vividly

recall, they were not on his typed inventory list, and he produced them

as the very last item he removed from his safe, and did so only after

repeated and persistent inquiries on my part. I recall thinking that

this was odd behavior. On April 11, 1997 I wrote a memo detailing the

items I discovered during the inspection the day before in his office.

That memo is now on file at the National Archives, and was alsopublished by Rollie Zavada in the Appendices to his report on the

Zapruder film. By this time I was accustomed to looking at 4 x 5 inchtransparencies, because the color positive transparencies of the JFK

autopsy were also of this size. The transparencies of the Zapruder film

that I saw in Silverberg's office were of an identical size. I do not

recall whether they were Ektachrome or Kodachrome---I believe I failed

to make this determination at the time. But they were definitely 4 x 5

inch color positive transparencies of a very high quality, and they were

made from frames of the Zapruder film. I still vividly recall looking at


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the image content in many of the transparencies---and that image content

was consistent with the sketches in Josiah Thompson's book (i.e., Irecall frames of the limousine close to the Stemmons Freeway Sign). As I

now recall, there were scores of transparencies---too many for me tocount, at the end of a long day with an unfriendly attorney. (I now wish

I had counted them, and had recorded the type of film used.)

(2) On January 26, 2000 the Dallas Morning News published an article

written by Mark Wrolstad, titled: "Zapruders Donate JFK Film, Rights." I

have a copy of this article today. I attempted to access the article

online today by going to the link:http://dallasnews.com, but could

not do so because the article is over ten years old, and the online

archives appear to go back only ten years, to calendar year 2001.

I will therefore now quote verbatim from the passages in this article

which are germane to this journal entry:

The author explained that the Zapruder family had donated "...its last

original duplicate of the film and the copyright to its coveted images

to the Sixth Floor Museum."

Items donated, the article explained, included "...the copy of the

26-second film clip itself---as well as other film, frame-by-frame

slides and stills."

The article continued: "Mr. Zapruder ordered three so-called

first-generation copies of the film when it was processed the day of the

assassination. The two he gave to the Secret Service...now rest at the

[National] Archives. The third copy, the only one still privately owned,became the Sixth Floor's property when an agreement was signed December

30, capping four months of discussions."

"Mr. West [Sixth Floor Museum Executive Director] and an associate

carried the film in an archival box on a flight to Dallas nine days ago,

along with other materials."

"Part of the 1,900 item donation may be exhibited later this year, but

the material must first be cataloged."

"Gary Mack, the Museum's Archivist, was all but whistling Tuesday as he

examined what may be the gem of the bunch---oversized transparencies ofeach Zapruder film frame believed to have been made in 1963 or 1964."

The reader of this journal entry will note that the article's author

states as a FACT that Gary Mack had examined the oversized

transparencies made in 1963 or 1964. (Presumably, Mark Wrolstad

witnessed this examination himself.) Wrolstad then directly quoted Gary

Mack, in direct reference to this examination: "These may be in better
http://dallasnews.com/http://dallasnews.com/http://dallasnews.com/


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condition than the original film is today," he said. "We may havesomething that is better or sharper. Who knows?"

And with this significant quote, the article ended. The article makes it

very clear that in January of 2000, the Sixth Floor Museum possessed the

large format Zapruder film transparencies made by LIFE, and that Gary

Mack had examined them. I find it difficult to believe, and extremely

unlikely, that the author, Mark Wrolstad, made up this story out of

whole cloth, or was mistaken about such an important fact.

(3) In November of 2010, over ten years later, in response to a question

posed by a Museum visitor, the Sixth Floor Museum's Director of

Collections and Intellectual Property, Megan Bryant, claimed that the

Sixth Floor Museum did not possess the transparencies, and that the

article in the Dallas Morning News had been in error.

Something is terribly wrong here. If you want to know why the question

posed by this journal entry is so important to me, keep reading.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The ad hoc Hollywood Research Group (a label given to that ongoing,

informal research effort by me alone, not by its participants) that is

studying a 35 mm dupe negative of the extant (so-called "original") Z

film (obtained from the National Archives) has discovered startling

visual anomalies---what I have described in my book as a "black patch"

seen in several frames on the back of JFK's head---that strongly implythat the images in the film have been severely (and crudely) altered.1

Since the publication of my book, some in the JFK research community

have stated that they see no such anomalies in other versions of the

Zapruder film, or in other still images of the Zapruder film. The

unseemly insinuations of many of these critics and skeptics are that

the Hollywood Research Group may have manipulated or altered

its own evidence, in an attempt to prove there was a government

coverup of the true facts involved in the assassination (namely, that

JFK had a large exit wound in the rear of his head caused by a shot fromthe front). Unfortunately, many of the critics of my book's reportage

fail to understand that the 6K digital scans of the dupe negative framesare "flat" or neutral scans, and have not been manipulated to make them

1See chapter 14 in Volume IV of "Inside the Assassination Records Review

Board," pages 1352-1363.


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more pleasing to the human eye---and that they therefore reveal much

more information than, for example, Z film images from a

multi-generational bootleg copy of the Z film that suffers from contrastbuildup, or than some manipulated video version of the Z film shown on

television, or presented on a DVD.

The best way for interested Americans to resolve this issue for

themselves is to ask to see the LIFE magazine large format

transparencies, and to compare what they show to the image of frame 317

(from the 35 mm dupe negative) published in volume I of my book. Frames

313, 321 and 323 of the dupe negative also show a large black patch

extraordinarily well. Once the LIFE magazine large format color positive

transparencies are located, the frames that should be studied most

closely are 313, 317, 321, and 323. The "black patch" should appear in

each of these first-generation transparencies, if LIFE did not undulymanipulate the contrast when they were created. (Remember, if these

transparencies are suddenly produced, to check their provenance: they

should exist on film stock made no later than 1963.)

Perhaps Megan Bryant made a mistake when she claimed that the Sixth

Floor Museum does not possess these materials. Who knows? I prefer to

place my trust, for the time being, in the unbiased Dallas Morning News

reporter who wrote his article in January of 2000.

I will never be traveling to Dallas again---it's too upsetting for me to

go there, and in any case, I can't afford the trip. But those of you who

wish to take on this issue could ask the Sixth Floor Museum, in writing(hint: use the Museum's website), whether it possesses large format

transparencies of the Zapruder film made in 1963 or 1964, approximately

4 x 5 inches in size (and unmounted when I saw them in 1997).

If the Museum still claims that it does not possess them, researcherswho visit the Museum might ask to review both the Deed of Gift signed

between the LMH Company and the Museum on December 30, 1999; and much

more importantly, the full inventory or catalog made in 2000 of the

items received. That inventory would have been made 11 years ago, before

there was any controversy associated with what those images might

reveal.

I will sum up this entry by simply repeating the question posed at the

beginning of this journal entry: "Where are the large format color

positive transparencies of the Zapruder film made by LIFE magazine in

1963 or 1964?" The LMH Company, presumably, had no motivation to hold

onto them when it transferred the film's copyright, and all of its film

elements, to the Sixth Floor Museum on December 30, 1999. The evidence

contained in the Dallas Morning News article---the best evidence I have


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at this writing---indicates that the Museum DID IN FACT receive these

transparencies from the LMH Company. All members of the JFK researchcommunity deserve an honest, and accurate answer to this question. END

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