JFK 50: Parkland, Dallas 1963 and the City of Hate

On the evening of November 21^st 2013 I stood on the rooftop of a building in the Dallas West End and watched my city prepare for an event.  I have worked many events and watched the set up especially on this cold 30 Degree night with the wind chilling while I sip on my Starbucks and puff on my Excalibur cigar.

This event is not a joyous event, if anything it is an attempt at redemption. The event in question is the 50^th anniversary of the Assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Despite the fact that I briefly resided in Austin, the truth is Dallas will always be my home. It is the city that I love. Dallas however became to be known as the City of Hate after the events in 1963, Half a century ago.

The Kennedy Assassination is a subject that has always intrigued me since I was a child and my family moved to the area with all of our visiting relatives wanting to see two places one was Southfork Ranch and the other was Dealey Plaza where “Kennedy was Shot”.

I honestly at that age didn’t know who Kennedy was; all that I knew was that he was President. Then my father showed me the Zapruder film when I was 5 years old and I guess you can say that my interest was piqued.  

I was also here when JFK was filmed in Las Colinas while  was in Middle School and I even used the Oval Office set for a video in College when I was interning for Muller Entertainment.

Not to mention when I was in High School and my Freshman History teacher spoke of the events of that fateful day from a firsthand account of his whereabouts on that day watching the president’s motorcade so that he and his fellow High School friends could skip school to “Go See Jackie”.

I also began my own unofficial JFK Assassination tour in Dallas when I had my video clients coming to Dallas from out of town or having people coming to town for conventions they began to ask me to take them to Dealey Plaza where I would take them on the tour showing them the 6^th floor Museum as well as The Grassy Knoll, The JFK Memorial and in some cases taking them to the Texas Theatre where Oswald was arrested and ending up at Campisi’s where Jack Ruby dined before killing Oswald.  

A few months ago a my friends and I were watching an episode of the Twilight Zone titled "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" and in the end of the episode many places around the world are places that the sun won’t rise and these are all places of Hate and one of the first places mentioned was "a street in Dallas, Texas" and this script was in fact Searling’s personal reaction to the Assassination of Kennedy.  

Now the truth is that the reason that Dallas was called “The City of Hate” is because of the events leading up to the assassination of the President of the United States.

Now I am not here to talk about Conspiracies and Theories about who was behind it because that is not my place. If you want to talk about that particular subject I recommend Jesse Ventura because he is by far the most entertaining.

Now many of you remember Walter Cronkite being the man that broke the news to the nation however down her in Dallas the news was broken by none other than WFAA’s Jay Watson who also interviewed witnesses including Abraham Zapruder himself while they were trying to develop the infamous 8mm film that will bear his name.  

If you want to look at the facts I have some other recommendations This past year there was a great book published in 2013 titled Dallas 1963.

Written by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, Dallas 1963 is an interesting 50 year trip back in time to show the events leading up to the Assassination and telling the story of not just Dallas but many of it’s elected officials and city leaders and their conflicting views with the rest of the nation regarding Civil Rights and other conflicts in the country at the time.

The book also covers incidents such as Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird’s encounter with the “Mink Coat Mob” that accosted them at the Baker Hotel during a visit to Dallas as well as Adlai Stevenson being attacked by protesters while speaking at an event.

It is events like these that added to Dallas being branded “The City of Hate” which is also the title of a Documentary film released this past year by Quin Mathews also covering the events in the City of Dallas leading up to the Assassination as well as the events afterward and the toll that it gave the city.

While not being able to cover the events with as much detail as Dallas 1963 City of Hate focuses on the City’s leaders and explains the local politics at the time and how they were changed after the Assassination with the essential changing of the guard and the new direction of the city.

There were other films released during this time that I will recommend such as Capturing Oswald.

Produced by Kate Greindling, the granddaughter of Det. Jim Leavelle who was the Officer handcuffed to Oswald when he was killed tells the story of the Dallas police and the fact that they apprehended Oswald in less than an hour after the Assassination and would have had him instantly after however Oswald was cleared by the owner of the Texas School Book Depository as an employee. 

Narrated by George Clooney The PBS Documentary JFK: One PM Central Standard Time tells the story of the national broadcasting of the Assassination to the nation by Walter Cronkite and the effects of the Assassination and the media.

Now one of the bigger films to be released around this time to help mark the 50^th Anniversary is Parkland.

Produced by Tom Hanks Bill Paxton, and directed by Peter Landesman Parkland tells the story of the immediate Aftermath of the Assassination on the main players taking their place in history and time.

Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) , Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels (Billy Bob Thorton, and Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Jr (James Badge Dale) are the individuals that the film primarily follows.

Beginning with the minutes before and during the assassination and the chaos that followed with the primary narrative of the film taking place in real time following the various characters from the doctors trying to save the life of the leader of the free world and the conflict with the Dallas medical examiners and the Secret Secret Service due to where the body remains for the investigation.

The film shows the assassination with the camera remaining on Zapruder’s camera and his reaction and his quick confrontation with Agent Sorrels who must see the footage and the efforts to get the film developed along with the multiple screenings of the film for both the secret service and the other authorities and the many offers that Zapruder received for the film.

Lastly the film follows Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Jr the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald and the aftermath that he and his family suffered after the assassination all the way to Oswald’s funeral where his brother had to ask reporters to act as pallbearers and had to bury his brother alone.

There is a wide variety of great actors in the film in a support capacity Collin Hanks plays Dr. Malcolm O. Perry one of the Doctors at Parkland Hospital alongside Zac Efron as Dr. Charles James Carrico who has to be pulled away from Kennedy’s body so that the doctors can pronounce him dead,

 Jackie Earle Haley has the small role of Father Oscar Huber who is called in to perform the last rights on the president.

The film also features Ron Livingston in the role as James P. Hosty the FBI agent who realized after the fact that he had been investigating Oswald before the assassination and even had been threatened by him and chose not to act against him.

And finally the film features Superman himself Tom Welling as Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman who after the assassination remains with the president’s body.

This film may be as historically accurate as a film can get. I am sure that they did take a few creative liberties as many Hollywood productions do. Also I wasn’t there where all of these events happened All I know is what I read in the history books and seen on the films and this film is pretty close to the truth.

I like the fact that the film does not focus on Conspiracy theories as so many of the films do. It just shows the facts and the events.

I am now hoping that Dallas can finally move on from the events in 1963…and as I type these sentences I am sitting on that familiar street in the Plaza named after the founder of the Dallas Morning News watching people take pictures of the area and look for the X in the road that is no longer there.